It's Not Looking at All Like Christmas

We're finally into the Christmas season, and for the first time, Bethie is really aware of what's going on.  It is so exciting!  We have our tree up and a plethora of presents beneath, our stockings are hung over the mantle, and red and green accents are all over the condo.  We have talked endlessly about Santa Claus and Jesus, and while Bethie still sometimes gets confused between Christmas and Santa (she sometimes calls him "Christmas", as in, "Oh, look, Christmas has a red hat!") she seems to understand Jesus with no problem.  In the car the other day after I unwrapped half her candy cane and handed it to her, I could hear her struggling with the rest of the wrapper.  I couldn't help her, but it wasn't long til I heard her say, "Help me with my candy cane, Jesus!"  I love this kid.

There is no snow in the foreseeable future here, but Bethie loves to pick up pine cones.  This week, we're working on pine cone elf ornaments:

We finally have all the pieces created and cut out (salt dough heads, felt clothes, pipe cleaner appendages, and flannel scarves), and tomorrow we're going to start putting everything together.  I'm not sure who is more excited!

A friend of mine started a charitable organization that gives pajamas, books, and toiletries to orphans in Kenya.  It's called the Sweet Dreams Project and was created to give these kids a warm, comforting bedtime routine like we have for our kids.  Bethie chose two pairs of pajamas for kids her age, and she'll be sending her Giving Tree money there this year as well.

This is Bethie's Giving Tree.  I found it online and modified it to be more toddler friendly.  The original one would have had her giving about $40, but that's a little much for a two year old.  This way she will give about $6, and she gets to take the money out of her piggy bank each morning.  She was really excited to put her two nickles in this morning!

1. 5¢ for every hot water tap in your house
2. 10¢ for every vehicle your family owns
3. 10¢ for every pair of jeans you own
4. 25¢ if your family has email
5. 5¢ for every bed in your house
6. 1¢ for every /beauty makeup item Mommy owns
7. 1¢ for every pair of footwear 
8. 5¢ for every light switch in your house
9. 10¢ for every bathtub 10. 10¢ for every toilet
11. 5¢ for each bottle of soap
12. 15¢ if you have dishes to eat off of
13. 15¢ if you have cooking pots in your cupboards
14. 10¢ for every window in your house
15. 10¢ for every outside door
16. 20¢ for every television in your house
17. 10¢ for every magazine subscription
18. 25¢ if your family has more than 25 games
19. 25¢ if you had meat this past week
20. 5¢ for every juice you drank yesterday
21. 10¢ if you have a DVD player
22. 5¢ for every hair care product
23. 15¢ for every bedroom in your house
24. 1¢ for every blanket in your house
25. 1¢ for every gift you received this Christmas

I hope you all have a blessed, joyous Christmas!

Halloween Fun

When I used to dream of having children, I imagined doing crafts with them, baking, celebrating holidays, and things like that.  When I first brought Bethie home from the hospital, I remember looking at her and thinking how tiny she was, and how long it would be before we could do the things I had imagined when I was pregnant with her.

Time flies, as it always does when you have something precious, and here I am now doing all those fun things with the most wonderful 2-1/2 year old girl in the entire world.

I am not a morning person like Bethie, so our mornings are very low-key while she runs around here and I try to wake up.  Afternoons, though, that's when the fun starts.  We try to do a project each afternoon, whether we bake or create or go on an outing.  Some days, like today, we do something simple like coloring Halloween pictures.  Other days, we get a little messy.

The last two weeks have been very quiet around here as both Bethie and I were sick, but this week we've gotten our groove back.  On Monday, we made a ghostly garland out of our hand prints:

 



We made jack 'o lanterns to decorate the front door: 

And I made a countdown calendar that Bethie will get to use starting next week. 

Each window has a different fun acticity for us to do, just in case we can't come up with something ourselves!

Life is spooky good around here these days!

P.S.  I don't like the changes in formatting, so bear with me while I re-learn how to insert photos!

Jokes and Potty Training

Bethie has started telling jokes, courtesy of her father.  Jeff taught her this format:
"Animal A and Animal B walk into a bar.  Animal A says (animal sound) and animal B says (animal sound)".  Then everyone laughs.  It is pretty funny!  In the first joke she uses a dog and a sheep:



We've also started naked potty training, and she's doing remarkably well.  We started last Monday, and by that night, she had it down.  I think she only had 4 accidents all week.  Yesterday I started putting her in panties which poses more of a problem, but she's getting it.  I can't believe my little girl is such a big girl already!

To Work or Not to Work

As many of you know, I have been looking for a teaching job since I earned my degree at the end of 2009.  As much as I'd love to just be a stay-at-home-mom, I worked really hard for that degree!  Extra money is always nice, too, especially now that we are looking at houses.
In late July Jeff called me from work, all excited.  A job had opened up in his company for a receptionist, and they wanted to hire me on as a temp!  I was hesitant because that meant full-time daycare for Bethie as well as quitting my tutoring job, which I loved.  Jeff was adamant that we needed this, though, so I started the next day.

The work was easy and the people were very friendly, and I have to admit that it was nice being around adults all day.  I thought I was really going to enjoy the job, despite the rather difficult adjustment to being away from Bethie.  Almost immediately, though, I started having physical problems.  My legs were swollen from the knee down for over a week straight, and so I was having to come home and put my feet up every night while Jeff managed dinner and Bethie.  I finally adjusted to the walking and the swelling went away, but then I was beset with hip pain.  That scared me, because I've dealt with bursitis twice now, and it is terribly painful. 

I started using my crutches, but that only started my other hip hurting.  I get what are called "overuse injuries", so when I stopped bearing weight on the one side, the other side got injured that much faster.  I talked to my supervisor who was very understanding, and I was able to stop walking around so much during the day.  Still, it was very difficult for me, and we were starting to see that working full-time may not be an option for me anymore.

Finally, after nearly a month of work, I reached my limit.  The pain in my hips was not getting any better even with a cortisone shot.  I was taking prescription painkillers every night, and I was miserable.  Besides that, Bethie was tired and cranky every night, and instead of being the happy, loving little girl we knew, she was whining and crying every night.  When I woke up this past Sunday and could hardly walk, we knew it was time to call it quits. 

I've been home again this past week with Bethie, and I'm doing much better.  I am still in pain, but it's a little less every day.  I'm also able to sit and rest a lot more, and Bethie is now old enough to understand that Mommy needs to sit down sometimes.  Bethie has reverted to her old self now that she is back in her normal routine, and Jeff is happier all around.  He has his happy girls back, and there's always clean laundry and dinner waiting for him!

I will resume tutoring in September, and I am applying for disability.  I hate to do that, but I also know that for me, working full time is no longer a reality.  I will still pursue teaching jobs in the hopes that I could arrange my classroom in such a way as to be able to sit more, and I am hoping to take on more tutoring hours. 

So, after a brief foray into the life of a working mom, I am very glad to be back where I started.  Watching Mickey Mouse and playing dress up may not be for everyone, but it works for us!

New Videos

Here are two videos of Bethie.  She's become quite the little chatterbox, and we love it!

New Look for the Blog

Now that Bethie is well into her third year and is not changing as quickly as before, I have not been posting as much.  It seems like it's time to change this blog a third time.  It began as a fertility journey then morphed into the raising of a baby, and now I think it is appropriate to let it change again to encompass our entire family. 

2010 was difficult and very stressful, marked by money and health worries.  This year, however, has been much better.  I secured a job as an online tutor in the last week of December, and that really eased up the stress.  I spent the last several months tutoring kids in grades 1 - 11 in math and reading, and as I was able to do it at night from home, Bethie did not have to go to daycare.  We are on a break for the summer right now, but I anticipate going back to work in the fall when the school year begins.  It is nice to be using my teaching degree, even if it is only for an hour or two a day.

Jeff is working at Martin Sprocket and Gear in the Fort Worth office, and he enjoys it.  He has been there for several years now, and that has been what has gotten us through this rough patch.  Can you believe I have not worked outside the home in nearly two years?  For someone that usually had more than one job, this has been a real change.  I love being home with Bethie, though, and I wouldn't trade that for the world.

Other than this last bout of bronchitis, we have been much healthier this year, too.  I have started seeing a chiropractor and a pain management doctor for my cerebral palsy and related pain, and I do feel much healthier.  Once I get my energy back, I hope to start walking with Bethie.

In other news, we are finally ready to put our tiny condo on the market.  It will take awhile to sell, I'm sure, but we are looking forward to having more than one bedroom!  It will be so nice for Bethie to have her own room, and even nicer to have room to offer our families and friends if they come to visit.  Stay tuned for the house hunt!

Wow!

My breathing treatments leave me wired and jittery for couple of hours after they're done, so it is once again nearly 2 am, and I am here at the computer.  I spent a lot of time tonight reading over this blog from the very first post, and I am just amazed at all we've experienced.  I had honestly forgotten many things, like the fact that Jeff had to give me hormone injections.  It is so humbling to see all in one place the amazing blessings we have been given in our lives.  We never thought we'd have babies, and here we are now, the proud parents of the most incredible two-year-old girl. 

I am so glad that I have documented this journey because there are so many things I don't want to forget.  This is a good place for me to come when I start feeling like life is just handing us one bad turn after another.  I got a good laugh over the fact that I really believed that I would get a job and start teaching immediately after completing my degree.  It hasn't happened yet, and I graduated nearly two years ago.  You know what, though?  Even though the money has been tight and there has been a lot of stress, it has been worth every moment.  I have gotten to stay home and raise my child, to watch her develop and learn and grow.  I wouldn't trade this for the world, and I truly cannot wait to see what wonders God has in store for us next.

Time Flies

I can't believe it's June already!  Seems like it was just Easter, and now we're already headed for the Fourth of July.

Bethie is such a joyful girl.  She loves to tell everyone her name, which is, of course, Bethie Boo.  She used to say "Bey Boo", but already she is saying "Beppie Boo."  Her words come in more clearly every day, and there are more and more of them.  She had to go to the sitter's all last week as I'm battling a nasty bout of bronchitis, and she doesn't like that I'm sending her away.  When I went to put her jammies on her on Thursday, she said, "Go away, Mommy!  Daddy do jams."  Her first full sentence, and it was telling me off! 

She is quite the Daddy's Girl, though.  Every morning and after every nap, the first word out of her mouth is "Daddy?"  It is nice to see them together, too.  Jeff is an incredible daddy, and Bethie and I are very blessed to have him.

We've discovered a computer program called Zoodles that is a conglomerate of games and video bits for little ones.  Bethie loves to play on there more than anything these days.  After she asks for Daddy, then it's "Zoodles game?"  There are games that work on colors, numbers, shapes, letters, sorting, and pretty much anything you can imagine.  The first time she told me about a triangle I almost fell out of my chair!  She loves to sing, too.  Here she is, doing her imitation of Cookie Monster's "C is For Cookie":

She is starting to move away from the Toy Story toys in favor of the Disney Princesses and Mickey Mouse.  She likes to brush her dolls' hair and put their shoes on.  She hasn't yet discovered that their dresses come off and that their clothes can be changed, but I think that will be next.  She is chatty and happy and helpful, and she does really well with her manners.  We are just so proud of our girl! 

Easter 2011

For the first time, we are really celebrating Easter this year.  Before this Bethie has been too small and didn't really understand, but this is the year we celebrate!

We saw the Easter Bunny last weekend, and although Bethie went up to him, she was not about to sit on his lap.  She was very adamant about that!  She would stand by him if Jeff and/or I were there, but that was it. 

We've been reading our Bible stories about Jesus this week, and she likes to blow kisses to the picture of Jesus we have in the bedroom.  We've also been telling her about how the Easter Bunny will come and hide eggs and bring her a present.  I asked her what she'd like, and she said, "Two presents."  She now understands presents, and is very excited!

Our friends Theresa and Victoria bought Bethie the cutest Easter dress and accessories, and we got her all dressed up for the Easter Bunny last week.  We also got a "Toy Story" egg coloring kit that we'll use this weekend, so stay tuned for more pictures!

Sharing with the Easter Bunny

Bethie has always loved books, whether she is being read to or reading to us.  Now that she is recognizing letters, numbers, and objects, books have become even more fun!  She got this book as one of her birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, and we have to read it every day:

Terrible Twos

Boy, have we hit them with a vengeance!  Gone is our sweet little angel, and in her place is a little imp with a beautiful face whose favorite word is, "No!" 

"Bethie, do you want grilled cheese for lunch?"
"NO!"
"Do you want some ice cream?"
"NO!"
"Do you want to go outside?"
"NO!"

*Sigh*