Toddler Summary-16.5 months

I realize it would be better to have a 16 month summary or a 17 month summary, but it's September the 3rd and I feel like doing it now.  So there.  :)


Eating
She is still a fruit head and a carb head.  I have started giving her smoothies sometimes for breakfast and she loooooves them.  She still doesn't eat much meat.  She won't eat my awesome, handbreaded chicken nuggets but she will eat Chick-fil-A's!  Hmph.  She also won't eat my sweet potato fries.  Hmph.  Toddlers are picky! 


Sleeping
She was sleeping 8-8 until about 3 days ago when she started waking up from more teeth coming in (I think)!  She finally dropped a nap so she's down to one a day.  I thought that would be a drag, but it's made my life easier not having to get all my errands and playdates over and done with in an hour or two.  So now she naps from noon-ish to two-ish and all is well :)


Teething
Her 1st molars finally came in and she was sleeping really well again until 3 days ago as I previously wrote.  No new teeth have broken the surface yet but I assume it is her canine's since they are supposed to come next and she's been pretty textbook so far.  I also must admit that at first I wrote K-9's, but at least I knew something looked wrong!


Playtime/Reading
She is really getting into her chunky puzzles.  I don't know when babies are supposed to learn colors, but she so does not get the concept!  She tries to put the red triangle into any of the holes, etc.  She loves to color with markers.  Crayons are ok, but markers are her favorite.  She is also starting to listen and sit still to an entire (short) book which is so fun for me!  We read A LOT.  The chick is a reader.  I don't know how many books we read a day-I should keep track just to see sometime.  She also likes going outside (but what kid doesn't, really?) and loves to play in the water.  I have started showing her bugs and butterflies and she thinks they are pretty cool.  She loves that game where you say "I'm going to get you" and chase her around the house! It is so fun!


Other

She is learning how to climb down stairs.  She climbs up really well.  She is starting to "talk" a lot and she knows a lot of words.  She is also starting to say 2-syllable words and phrases (apple, all gone, color).  Her hair is super super curly and stays out of control! So I have started putting it in pigtails which makes it much more manageable for mommy :) 

Cutie pie in her pigtails :)

Mmmmm, can't think of anything else to say! Have a great Sunday tomorrow!

But it doesn't look like a Meg life!

It's funny where you find yourself sometimes in life.  Not funny so much as confusing.  Well, I don't know the word exactly.  I'm sure everyone feels this way sometimes.  Like..."What on earth am I doing in this life"?  "Is this really my  life"?  "Why is this my life"?  "God, I don't understand".  I look at my life from the outside and it doesn't look like a Meg life (as I thought it would or should).  It doesn't look or feel like a life that I wanted or requested or sought after or desired.  I don't mean for it to sound like I'm complaining.  My life hasn't been easy lately, but it's not been awful or anything either.  I don't mean to complain as much as I mean to wonder, "How in the world did I end up here and why"?  It's kind of like I just don't get it.  How did I, who moved out after high-school and never came back, become a 30-year-old living with my parents?  How did I, someone who loved loved loved to work, become a full-time stay at home mom (who is considering home-schooling to boot!)?  How did I, someone who never thought about taking pride in my country, become a US soldier's wife?  I thought I would end up single living in a remote village somewhere working with children or women.  That's what I wanted.  I mean, that's what I thought I wanted.  I never really wanted or prayed for a husband until I met mine!  I never thought I wanted a lot of children and now I want to have my own and adopt.  And now I'm here in Tennessee away from my husband getting ready to have my second baby living in my parents suburban home.  I look back over the last 4 years and wonder how on earth did I get here??  I wonder, "God, when you gave me this life, did you realize You were giving it to me, Meg"?  "Are you sure I can do this and be happy and content and a solid Believer to boot"?  My thoughts are all jumbled now and I'm a bit confused, but I want to again reiterate I am not complaining.  I love my husband and my babies more than I have ever loved anything or anyone and wouldn't trade them for anything.  I am so happy and grateful and blessed that God saw fit to change my plan and give me the love of my life and 2 wonderful babies that I have the priviledge to stay at home and raise full-time.  I don't actually have doubts that God made a mistake.  I firmly believe that His hand has been in every step of my life and I am exactly where He wants me for now.  And I also know that we don't always understand God's ways, but I do trust Him and I will (hopefully) always choose his choices for my life over my own.  Because like I am always so ready to proclaim, He knows better than us what we need and if left to my own devices, I would royally screw up my life.  I'll just say I am looking forward to the day (even if that day doesn't come until Heaven) when it all clicks and I see the big picture and why there is this "odd" season in my life.  Or at least why things turned out so differently than I once thought they would.  Which I'm happy about, I just think it's weird how I had such different ideas about what God wanted out of me.  Ok, I'm going to stop because like I said, my thoughts are all jumbled and I am probably confusing you :)

Baby Journey-Week 23

Soooo....I started these with my second pregnancy.  And then I miscarried.   And when I got pregnant again, we didn't tell anyone for a long time and then I time just slipped away.  But, hey, better late than never, right?


We have a mango! What a cute analogy.  Well, not really an analogy, but what a cute something.

The Babe: He can hear noises which is great because he will know the sounds of my voice and definitely Baby Girl's voice too!  She talks waaaay more than me and is waaaay louder :)  Also, last night, I could physically see him moving inside of me!  Totally weird.  But nice too.

Here is what I pretty much look like now. (Picture taken a week ago & that's me on the left)

Just so you don't think we're weird, we are both pregnant and purposely holding our preggo bellies together :) I was 22 weeks and she was 18 weeks.  I think.

Symptoms:  Ummm, not much.  I'm physically getting uncomfortable when sleeping or sitting on the ground.  I get out of breathe easily.  It is also getting hard for me to lower Baby Girl into her crib.  Not sure what I'm going to do about that.

Weight:  No idea.  Sorry.  I have an appointment tomorrow and maybe I'll see then how much I've gained.  I think 3 weeks ago I had gained 12 pounds, but that seems like a lot! I'm probably wrong. 

Name: We had a name and we told everyone, but now we're not sure again.  Sheesh.  Back to square one!

What I Miss:  My husband.  Ok, ok, for real, what I miss from pre-preggo days is my not huge belly and my extensive lung capacity and being able to get off the floor in 1 second flat. 

Best Pregnancy Moment this week: Hmmm...I don't know.  Someone at the Farmer's Market said when my husband came back things would be different and she was referencing my belly and she was the first person to notice I was pregnant (and say something) that didn't already know so that was cool.  

Questions/Concerns: I watched this documentary called "The Business of Being Born" and it really freaked me out.  So I can't wait to meet my MD (no, I still haven't met her yet!) and ask about C-sections, pitocin, and epidurals.  I've also been having some sharp pains (not cramps) that I want to make sure are normal. 

Ok, that's all I got! 

Time For A Change

A spiritual change that is.  I don't know how many times I have thought "Something needs to change".  I think it often because it is true.  I am living my life with minimal contact with my Heavenly Father and minimal thought about it.  No, that's not true.  I think "something needs to change" all the time, but what?  I don't know.  Being in Germany was very, very hard for me.  It zapped me spiritually.  I got to a point where I didn't even think about God most of the time.  I was depressed, lonely, and miserable.  Not an excuse, of course, just the way things were.  I firmly believe your relationship with God should never be defined by your circumstances, but believing that and living that belief out are vastly different.  At least for me.

So, here I am.  Back in America, which is wonderful.  Call me crazy, but I am already feeling closer to God.  Part of that is because he took away my rock (and sometimes if I'm being honest my "idol").  Of course I mean my husband.  Looking back over this past month without him, I can see how I definitely depended on him too much.  Depended on him way more than God.  I relied on my husband to cheer me up, to motivate me to clean, to hold me accountable, to make me feel confident, to make me feel pretty, and to fix all my problems.  So, by taking him away, God has forced me to turn to Him in my hard moments...a thing I wouldn't have done if my husband was still around.

Part of me feeling closer to God is that I went to church last week and worshipped God.  Worshipping through music in a communal setting is like breathing air to me.  And I went without that for 7 months.  We did go to church sometimes in Germany, but the music wasn't what spoke to my soul.  No judgment here, just the way things were.  People meet God through all kinds of avenues, and the biggest one for me is the worship I cut my Christian teeth on which as far as I can tell, Germany doesn't offer.  I know it sounds funny to say "Germany" like I mean the entire country, but what I really mean is the American churches we visited.  I'll of course have to deal with that again when we go back, but I'll deal with that a year from now.  Let's not borrow problems meant for tomorrow, ok? :)

Sorry to jump around a bit, but to go back to the topic at hand.  It's time for a change.  I want to get right with God.  No, I don't know how exactly to do that.  I am committing to pray every day for my husband and I think that will help me connect with God since the only time I pray now is when someone specifically asks me to.  So getting in the habit to pray daily will help, right?  I am hoping that although I am praying for my husband, my prayer life will expand from that and it will be more intimate with God like it used to be.

Another thing I am hopefully committing to is to join a Christian Women's Bible Study.  I say hopefully because I hope I can find one!  I had a wonderful women's bible study before we moved across the ocean and it held me accountable for a lot.  But, you know, 7 months without one kind of drug me down.  So if I can find one, I will be joining it!

I also want to have some kind of regular time spent with God.  I'm not foolish enough to think it will be daily, but I am hoping several times a week.  This is going to take self-discipline and I'm quite fearful I can't do it, but I want to give it my best shot.  It is hard for me even to admit that because back in college and after that for a couple of years I used to spend a minimum of an hour with God evey day reading and praying and even singing.  How did I get so far away from that?  Life is harder than it looks! :)

So feel free to ask me how I'm doing because as you can see, I'm quite the open book :)

I'll Tell You a Secret

I love the Disney Channel.  Definitely my favorite cable station.  As a matter of fact, I am watching it right now because Baby Girl is sleeping and mom and dad are at church.  Actually, I pretty much watch it whenever I am alone and don't feel like reading.

 Don't tell anyone-it's kinda embarassing :)