Two

Dear Olivia,

Today is your birthday, and you are finally two years old. This is a little anti-climactic for me, though. To me, you've been two for AT LEAST six months and are now very close to three. You are so clever and articulate and, well, tall. EVERYONE thinks you are three (or older). So Mommy would appreciate it very much if we could skip all things that make two "terrible" and just pretend that you are past all of that nonsense. Please?

You are our sweet, active, smart little girl, and we can't imagine life without you. Even at your most frustrating, you are the greatest blessing we've ever received.



Happy Birthday, sweetheart! We love you so much!

What to say...?

I've been asked to address a Catholic Mom's group next week on the topic of adoption. That's pretty general, I know, but I think they just want to hear about our experience with it and how God fits into it all, etc.

That should be a pretty easy thing to do, but I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start or where to go with it. Suddenly, it seems like such a BROAD topic. How will I ever fit everything into a short morning talk?

In thinking about this, I have become more and more grateful for the type of waiting experience that we had with Olivia. We knew about Olivia a couple of months early, talked to her birthmom weekly, and had a due date to shoot for. Now, waiting for #2, I realize that it would have been MUCH harder to be in this position waiting for our first child. Waiting with no real idea of when you might expect a child to come into your family or not even knowing if you'll have any preparation time...that would be hard. As in, Hello, this baby was just born, congratulations, you're parents! Which would have been hard with a first child. Not so hard now, since our home is full of toys and cribs and pack-n-plays and a full-time at-home parent. Adding a baby would be a pretty smooth transition at this point.

Just my random thoughts...you can see that I'm having a little trouble organizing them.

Every day is a chance to do better

The babysitting thing has been a challenge lately. Heck, parenting one child has been a challenge this week. Every day is different, but they do know how to press my buttons. I'm afraid I don't always deal with it so well.

Some days are better than others, and I know that they are hearing what I say to them. I know this because they keep repeating it back to me. I was changing all of the toddler diapers the other day in preparation for nap, and Luke just had to scream it out in his bouncer. He had decided that he would not be happy unless he was held, but I needed both hands (and some other limbs...sheesh, toddlers) to manage the diaper changes, so he was out of luck. Addie, my screamer (Olivia and Addie are almost always neck-and-neck in this competition, but Addie manages to claim the title EVERY TIME), kept saying, "No screaming, Luke! No screaming, Luke!"

So, yeah, they hear me.

At the end of every day I'm always disappointed with myself to some degree or another. The baby ends up crying by himself more often than he'd like. I always lose my cool with the toddlers at least once a day and start yelling or yanking (one kid off of another, usually) or generally upsetting someone. But there's only so much time-out that kids can get before it loses all of it's effectiveness. So what else can I do? What else will work? (This is an actual question. I'll take any suggestions you have. Seriously.)

One thing about this gig, though...it really makes me reflect on sin and repentance. Sometimes in our daily lives it's easy to ignore those "everyday sins" that just happen over and over. But dealing with my daily failures in keeping a calm environment with the kids...well, kids just sort of magnify your mistakes by reflecting them back to you. "No screaming, Mommy." And I have to realize that the screaming is wrong. Even when I do it. Especially when I do it. Because how are the kids going to learn that it's not OK to scream if all they hear from me is frustrated screaming?

Luckily, I get to do it over again tomorrow. Yippee. I think maybe God is trying to teach me something about patience and control. I'm not sure what, yet, but I'm relatively certain that these kids will drive the lesson home by the end of the school year.

Lovely weekend

The anniversary weekend was fabulous. We had perfect weather nearing the 70s and spent lots of time outside. We visited the Parthenon on Saturday and the Opryland Hotel on Sunday, and both provided gorgeous settings for walking and enjoying the beautiful weather. We visited the Opry Mills Mall, which reminded me how much I hate retail shopping. I think it may be an all-internet-Christmas this year.

A couple of interesting things happened that weren't on the agenda. We were killing some time on Saturday afternoon and went to see the capitol building, and we stumbled upon a rally for this organization. I was delighted. It was actually pretty funny, because Joe had made a comment earlier in the day (while we were talking politics) about how I shouldn't be surprised to run into a bunch of people who wouldn't share our views because we were in a bigger city. I thought that was a weird comment, because I'm not in the habit of starting political discussions with random strangers, so I didn't know why it would be an issue at all. But then we stumble upon a whole rally full of like-minded people, and the irony of that just made me laugh.

On Sunday, we went to an early Mass at a large parish in a Nashville suburb, and after Mass we were invited by an older (80s) couple to join them in the parish school for coffee and donuts. We spent an hour and a half listening to them tell stories. At one point, the woman told us that she had written a Christian rap song in the 70s or 80s when she was working with some youth, and then she RAPPED IT FOR US. Yeah, it was both funny and really weird. But, strangely, the lyrics were actually pretty good.

Now back to reality.

Oh, what a busy week ahead...

We are on our way home from our anniversary weekend get-away, undoubtedly missing Olivia and eager to see her. Also, planning for a busy week, which includes:

A business meeting for my NFP center
An NFP presentation at the local seminary
Olivia's birthday dinner with family on Wednesday
Olivia's actual birthday on Thursday
More birthday fun with other family on Saturday

I'm already exhausted. Can I have some more weekend, please?

Fun, fun day ahead

We are enjoying our Anniversary weekend away. On the agenda for today: Breakfast at a famous pancake house, an art exhibit, lunch, an afternoon at the Beer, Bourbon, BBQ festival, and then dinner theater! And my sweet husband planned the whole day. Isn't he great!

Gotta go start having fun!

Happy Anniversary

Dearest Joe,

Five years ago this morning, you picked me up from the hairdresser and took me out to breakfast before we headed to the church for pre-wedding pictures. We drew some looks from other diners...me all tiara-ed up and such. Another couple at the restaurant asked, "Are you going to a wedding today?" And we replied, "Yes...ours!"

Over the past five years, you have become very good at anticipating my needs. You are an attentive father to a daughter who adores you. You work hard and take such great care of us and make family time a priority. I don't know if I tell you often enough how much I appreciate you, but I do. I am blessed to be married to such a thoughtful and prayerful man.

Five years. Wow. They have flown by. And you've made them the five happiest years of my life.

Happy Anniversary, my Love!