These Days...

How Pinteresting: The Wonder of Water Beads.

As you may have noticed, it is hot outside.  

SO.

HOT.

Leave it to Pinterest to point me in the direction of some more indoor fun!

Next up: water beads!  I've seen these mentioned on a few Mommy blogs before, and then I saw a few more fun ideas for them on Pinterest.  So, I jumped on the bandwagon, and they are a hit over here!

I found our water beads from Hobby Lobby, and they come in all different colors and shapes.  They start out as tiny, solid balls, and then you add 4-6 cups of water to them, depending on how many packages you use.

(before)

(before)

Let the water beads soak in the tub of water for about four hours, and they double in size!  They soak up all of the water and "grow" as Emery likes to exclaim.  :)  They become squishy and are still a little wet making for lots of tactile fun!  

(after)

(after)

We use measuring cups and all sorts of bowls and tubes to play with the water beads, and they are strangely addictive and soothing to play with...even for me.  Ha!  After about a week, the water beads start to get slimy, and you'll need to dump them out.  But at $2.00 a bag, they are cheap, week-long fun!  When it gets cold outside, we plan to clean out the sand/water table, bring it inside, and fill it up with water beads for indoor entertainment (idea from Sassytimes).  We love water beads!

See?! 

:)

(Disclaimer: Duh, but...be extra careful that your little ones don't ingest any water beads...they are pretty tempting...as my 10 month old could attest.)

;)

10 Months: A Letter.

Sweet Delia Jane,

You are TEN months old today--WOW!  That seems so very old to me...must be the double digit thing.  This month more than ever, you are interacting with us so much more, and your sweet personality shines through more and more each day.  We have had such a fun month together!

Growth:
-You weigh 23 pounds, and you are 30 inches long.  Growing big and strong!
-You are in 12-18 month clothing, and a lot of times we have to fish something out of the 18-24 month pile so that it will fit you.

-Poor baby, you developed thrush this month.  :(  The insides of your mouth and lips slowly turned white, and you started showing signs of pain when you would nurse or eat.  After a round of medication (for you...and Mommy), you were back to your normal self once more.

-You've started really cruising around on the furniture this month, and you'll even push stools or your music table around the house while you cruise.  Pretty funny!

-Clapping!  You started 'clapping' this month...you'll slap an open palm against the other forearm, and you just go to town clapping for everyone!  You are SO proud of yourself for learning this skill, and you put it on display often.  :)

-You've started saying 'Baba' when we ask you to say 'Mama'...almost there!  Mostly, we hear "Dada" all day long.  And...you can sort of say say "Don't touch."  Wonder what you are starting to hear all of the time?  ;)
-Words and phrases that you understand: Delia, Doodles, don't touch, get down, clap clap, jump jump, Mum Mum, cracker, Dada, Mama, come here, dance-y, paci.

-You've been a bit of a Mama's girl this month, too, and I don't really mind.  :)  You aren't as clingy this month as you have been in the past, but whenever you are swooped up by friends or family, you sometimes want to be passed back over to your Mommy.  It's okay.  I'll take the snuggle.  ;)

-You've learned to point and gesture to what you want, and you'll sort of grunt as you point.
-You are learning "Don't touch" slowly but surely, and you are starting to remember which things are off limits around the house.  Once you've been told not to touch, you'll think about it for a bit and then plop down on your bottom and crawl away.  Not every time...but lots of times.  :)

Eating:
-These days, you nurse four times a day: when you wake up, around lunch time, an afternoon snack, and then before bed.  You eat quick and are ready to get up and play!

-Chick-Fil-A was your first taste of chicken.  I'm assuming you are forever spoiled.  ;)
-You are loving table food right now, and you'll eat pretty much anything we give you from our plates. You've had chicken, graham crackers, avocado, cheese, halved blueberries, bananas, and many other items from our plates.  You like to eat!

-In order to teach you to take a cup, we've started offering a bit of very watered down juice in straw cups or sippy cups to see which type of cup you prefer.  So far, it looks like you're going to go for the straw cups.  You don't drink very much at one time, and you mostly just chew on the straw...but you're figuring it out.

-If you see me open up the cabinet that contains your snacks and crackers, you start grunting with gusto, raise your eyebrows, and gesture wildly just in case I didn't know you wanted a snack.  Funny kid.

-You ate a clump of our dog Milly's poop.  And you smiled while doing it before I could get to you.  GROSS!!!!

Sleeping:
-You go to bed for the night around 6:30, and you sleep soundly until about 6:30 or 7 the next morning.  You take a morning nap from 9-10:30ish, and you take an afternoon nap from 1-3ish.

-When you are ready to get up from your nap or in the morning, you've started standing in the closest corner of your crib to the door and throwing your pacis toward the door.  Perhaps you are sending us a subtle hint??

-When you are too tired to hold up your head while we are rocking before bed, I'll blow soft raspberries on the soft folds of your neck, and you let out the sweetest, lowest chuckle.  So soft, so sleepy, and so precious.

-You like to have two pacis in your crib: one to suck, one to hold.  Cute.




Play:
-A new development in your raspberry-blowing skill set: blowing raspberries into cups which sounds like a broken muffler.  You are SO proud of this hilarious new skill, Baby!

-My very favorite thing that you do:  when you are very happy and smiley, you will wrinkle your nose, beam up at us, and breath in and out through your nose very quickly.  It is so funny and cute and precious and please don't grow up.

-As far as toys go, you love to play with the music table and Zany Zoo wooden play thing, and there is one baby doll in particular that you prefer.  She makes goo-goo noises, and the two of you can carry on quite the conversation.  :)
-You put EVERYTHING in your mouth.  Everything.  I've fished crickets, poop, fuzz, trash, you name it out of your puffy cheeks, and you don't seem to learn.  Gross!!!

-Playing Peek-A-Boo: you'll slap your palms agains your forehead and look mischeviously at us until we say, "Where's Doodles?"...then you'll flop your arms down by your side and beam with pride at your little game.  So funny!

-LOVE the teddy bear on Starfall.com!
-Dancing!  When the rest of us are dancing around to the music, you will raise your arms above your head and wave them around keeping your elbow straight.  It is so cute!  You look at us to get us to dance like you, and we all wave our straight arms around in the air doing the Doodle Dance.  ;)  Also, if you are standing, you'll bend your knees and bop up and down along with the music.  Love to watch you dance, sweet girl.

-You and your sister have started playing your very first game together: you'll both race around the house crawling and chasing eachother!  Emery gets on her hands and knees to crawl with you, and you can almost catch up with her as you two scoot about, giggling like crazy.  We LOVE to see you starting to play with your sister!

-Your personality is so observant, calm, playful, snuggly, go-with-the-flow, and just generally wonderful.  You like to be with people (especially your big sister), and you smile and chatter constantly.  You make yourself giggle all of the time, and you are quite funny, too.  :)

Events:
-Your first Independence Day!  You were not a fan of the fireworks, but you slept through most of the commotion just fine.  We spent the day with Daddy's family, and you were snuggled to pieces...like usual.  :)

Doodle Bug, you are so precious to me, and each month with you is a gift from our God.  What a blessing and a huge responsibility to be given the task of raising you in the image of Christ...I hope I can live up to this task.  You are the light of my life.

I'll love you forever,

Mommy

Magical Red Shoes.

My sister came to visit this week.  We talked, laughed, lazed about, shopped each other's clothes, cooked, ate, watched senseless reality TV, and planned for the future.  

Then, she left.

Then, I cried.

A lot.

Don't get me wrong.  I really do love our town and life that we've made here.  We have amazing friendships cultivated over the past eight years, and we feel very much that we are right smack dab where God wants us.  He shows us this fact in so many ways.  

However, every so often, I find myself painfully missing my other home.  My first home.  My home that includes my sweet Mom and spunky sister.  My home that smells like banana bread and apple candles and glycerin soap and lemon Pledge.  My home that sounds like puppies barking, show tunes playing, bare feet slapping down the tiled hall, three blow dryers going at the same time.  My home that looks cozy and lamp-lit and filled with raggedy afghan throws and peach tile and beautiful...

...familiarity.

(Church camp square dance, circa 2002)

(Pedi from my sis, circa 2001)

Days like today, I look around this place where I have no family member to call my own, and I wonder why in the world we don't just pack up and run back home.  Click my magical red shoes and fly back to the familiar.

And then I think of the new home we are creating, day by day, friendship by friendship.  I think of our trembling bravery and blind trust in the Lord's guidance when we shakily chose to plant roots in completely unfamiliar territory and with complete reliance on Him to help us find our place.  I remember watching every single reality TV competition in existence with our first friends every night of the week before we all had kids.  I remember taking trips, big and small: cruising, Branson-ing, Dallas-ing.  I think of praying with friends as they discovered pregnancies, lost precious loved ones, and welcomed new life into the world.  I think of trekking through the slippery slopes of parenthood with my best friend, coffee in hand, encouragement and grace on our lips.  So many parties and sweet notes and cups of java.  Zumba classes, pedicures, date nights, Bible studies.  Exchanging helping hands as we all moved homes, experienced heartache, and were overwhelmed with joy.  Praying together, crying together, rejoicing together, laughing and laughing and laughing together.

This is home, too.

Two places to call home.

I'm a lucky girl.

I'll put away the ruby slippers for another day.

:)

Farewell, Lady-stache.

Well, folks.  It's the end of an era.  My lady-stache and I began the process of parting ways this week when I ventured into the world of laser hair removal.  Eek!  I took the plunge and purchased a steal-of-a-deal Groupon to a local medical spa, and I felt a tad out of place when I went in recently for my pre-appointment consultation.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  The ladies were all friendly and welcoming, not to mention that the consultant helping me looked like she was in her 40's and later told me she was 62.  Wow.  Sign me up.  ;)  It's just that I'd always held very strongly preconceived notions about places and procedures such as this, and, yet, there I was.  I bought the Groupon, because I'm sick of spending money on threading and creams and wax and bleach...but to be a client in a medical spa just seemed a bit surreal.

And that got me thinking...where is the line?  (Ha.  Get it?  The line?  Wrinkles?  Botox?  The line?!?  Get it?  I'll stop now.  You're welcome.)  In all seriousness, if you'd asked me about wrinkle removing injections and laser hair removal and breast lifts and tummy tucks back in my teens and early twenties, I would have vociferously pronounced these procedures to be unnecessary and reserved for the ultra-vain.

Ahem.  Now that I've born, birthed, and breastfed two kids in two years, I can tell you that my views, along with my ol' body, may have morphed...at least a bit.

During my pregnancies, my lady-stache seemed to greatly multiply in thickness, I developed crazy-big skin pigmentations beneath my eyes making me look exhausted 24/7, and, obviously, my breasts and stomach will never snap back to exactly the way they were.  I'm doing everything I can to be healthy and strong, but, let's face it.   The ol' bod has taken a beating over the past three years, and, since we are hoping for more children in the future, the beating will continue.  I'm totally up for the alterations my body will endure, because that's how God intended for it to be used, and I count it as an undeserved blessing to bear children.  No argument there.

My conundrum comes when I try to decipher the proverbial line in the proverbial sands of appearance alteration.

What I mean is, how much is too much vanity?  For example, I apply make-up on a regular basis, therefore altering my appearance to look better, younger and more, well, awake.  I wear bras with a little bit of lift in them in an attempt to put things back where they used to be.  I pluck and bleach and use creams to remove unwanted hair growth.  I spend money to dye and change my natural hair color, and I enjoy a spray tan every now and then.  My toe nails are usually painted, I use anti-wrinkle creams nightly, and I own a tummy slimmer for those times when you just need a little extra squeeze in the midsection.

My point is, where is the line?

Is undergoing laser hair removal crossing the line, or is it just a step beyond the depilatory creams?  Should injectible wrinkle treatments be frowned upon when our society already shells out gobs of money to lotion away those very wrinkles?  Can you really fault a hard-working Mom for wanting her stretched out and saggy post-baby body to look at least a little bit feminine and desirous (for her hubby, of course) after sacrificing it for the sake of her little children?  If wearing a boosting bra or body slimmer alters your figure to help defy gravity a bit, isn't that already crossing the line into Vanity Territory?  Would the extreme version of that body altering (i.e. breast lift/tummy tuck) be going way past the line?

A few verses stick out to me as I ponder:

Proverbs 31:31 --"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."

1 Peter 3: 3-4 -- "And let not your adornment be merely external-- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God." [Emphasis mine.]

I guess what I'm pondering is this: if we are going to be completely black and white about the issue of any procedure that alters our natural, God-given appearance (ie. "braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses," etc.), then shouldn't we also stop wearing make-up and plucking our uni-brows and painting our toenails?

Shouldn't the ultimate goal be, as these verses instruct, to not "merely" focus on external adornment and beauty, but to also cultivate a "gentle and quiet spirit" and maintain a healthy "fear" of the Lord...?

Can there be a mix of both external and spiritual beauty...?

Hm.

Makes you think, eh?

Like I said, I used to be one-gabillion percent against cosmetic procedures.

Then, I had babies.

Now...the line is a little fuzzier than before.  ;)

What do you think?  Where is that line, I ask you?

And I'm not referring to the one burrowing it's way between my brows.

;)

These Days...