Rest In Peace

The summer of 2002 I moved from Puyallup, Washington to Chandler, Arizona.

I told all my friends "If you're ever in Arizona, look me up." I had one person take me up on it. He called my cell shortly after I got there and said "Hey, I'm going to be in Arizona in two weeks, can I come visit."

My grandmother was gracious enough to let him sleep on her couch. 

Being new to the area, I didn't have a lot of short sleeved shirts, and I didn't own a pair of flip flops. 

This nice, and eager, young man accompanied me to Wal-Mart, where I purchased 2 pairs of $5 flip flops. (I believe it was the week of 4th of July if my memory serves me correctly) 

This pair was my favorite. Today, they died.

David watched it happen. He said to me "Can we finally throw them away now?!"

David has been around for my entire relationship with these blue foot coverings. He has even glued them back together a time or two. However, after 12 years, they cannot be repaired.

Sad day for me.

"Mommy"

FINALLY we have made a breakthrough in language. Beckett mainly says “Daddy Ho?” or “Daddy Ho!” or “Daddy He.” Any time I ask him to say “Mommy”, he responds with an affirmative “Daddy”. It is funny, but weird that he won’t even babble with the MMM sound.

Well, today as I am talking with David, Beckett toddles over, looks right at me, and says "Mommy". It took me a second to realize what he said. He repeated it multiple times and got lots of positive reinforcement. 

Happy he is furthering his language skills, but not excited to hear him cry it when he is sad or hurt.

Donations

This little guy helped to train 6 different Search and Rescue dogs who responded to the Oso Mudslide. 

I wanted to share so you and your baby can help in crisis like this too.

When I was pregnant, I read all about cord blood banking and how it could save your child's life some day. It was not something that we could easily pay for. However, I learned that you could donate the cord blood to your local blood bank.

Donate? What else could I donate?

With a little research, I learned about placenta donation. On the east coast, there are a couple different research facilities that use the placenta for restoration of vision.

I contacted them, but they could not take mine because we were too far away.

Then, my Google skills touched on someone who donated theirs to their local Search and Rescue group. I contacted my county's Search and Rescue team, and they were happy to take it. They use the scent to train dogs to find people in times of disaster.

When the mudslide in Oso happened, it seemed like everyone was doing something. I am a stay at home mom with 2 kids, and was very pregnant at the time. There wasn't much I felt I could do. I experienced great sorrow for the families and the victims, and pain that I could not help.

My heart has healed a little today when I got an email from the dog trainer updating me on how my donation had an impact on their effort.

Please consider donating your cord blood and/or your placenta when you have a baby. It really does go to a good cause.

VBS

This year I decided to try out Vacation Bible School with Carter. Last year, there would have been NO WAY he would have done it, but he has really opened up in the last 6 months. He went at it with open arms. 

He loved the opportunity to interact with other kids. He participated in all the games, and sung all the songs. I thought I needed to prep him for it, so I started early. I told him it was like summer camp, then I explained what summer camp was. He has been asking EVERY DAY since then.  

He is the boy in the second row - blue shirt - mouth wide open in song.

Note, I did not stay to watch. I really wanted to, mostly to see what they did so I could reinforce it at home. However, I realized that all I had to do was do an internet search for the theme. With that I got all the activities, crafts, and songs. 

This picture was taken on the last day, where parents were invited to come and hear them sing. It was pretty neat. He really got into it.

And She Has A Name

Roslyn Kate Lewis

We have finally named her, it took us 26 days. We bounced around a lot of names. None of the names we chose when we first married worked any more. None of the names I liked in childhood worked - apparently a lot of other ladies had the same idea and used them already. 

Hopefully she likes it.

8 months ago

8 months ago this week, I was sitting in a conference listening to a young woman tell the story of losing her mother. She talked about how close they were, and the cancer that took her. She wrote a song as a gift for the woman that was her rock and her best friend shortly before her death. Then, she sang it for us.

There was not a dry eye in the room.

As I heard her sing this song, a strong impression came to me that I was pregnant. With that revelation, came an assurance that this baby would be a girl. I had no reason to suspect I was pregnant, and certainly no reason to get my hopes up about a little girl.

The next day I went and bought a pregnancy test, which confirmed that it wasn't just crazy talk in my head.

As I look through my photos, I realize that I have not taken any with me yet. Part of that is because David went back to work before the week was up, and has been back ever since. There is nobody here to hold the camera. When I get some sleep, I tell myself. When I don't look so exhausted any more, then I'll force David to grab the camera.

I have always been really good about taking pictures of the boys, but I have very few pictures that include me. I am working on being better. I am working on taking more pictures with them, not just of them.

Please make the time to read this article. It has changed my perspective on taking pictures:

Don't Disappear From the Pictures

If you have time, this one also:

A Mom Stays in the Picture

This song has more meaning to me since I read this article. This woman has so many pictures to remember her mom with. She treasures those. Don't cheat your kids by leaving them with no physical reminder of yourself.

Baby Girl

After a relapse in night time sleeping, going from every 2 to 3 hours between feedings down to an hour to an hour and a half, we are now sleeping longer!! This little girl only woke us up once last night (considering we didn't get to bed until midnight - Beckett had a fever and was up from 9:30 until 11. David got home from work abut 10:30. Baby needed to be fed at 11:30.).

I guess if we were normal people and able to get to bed at a decent time, it would have been twice. However, that is a HUGE step. Beckett woke up every 2 hours until he was about 6 months old, then sleeping 3 to 4 hours. He still woke up at least once a night until he was a year. 

I am super excited to have a good sleeper again!!

And yes, still without a name. 

18 months

Last Sunday Beckett turned 18 months. He is now old enough to attend Sunday School. In our church we don't have a child care area for babies. However when the little ones turn 18 months, they can begin attending the "Nursery Class". They have a lesson, a craft, a snack, music time, and some playtime. It is an awful lot like our preschool schedule. We were worried that he'd have a rough transition. There are some REALLY active kids in that class. He just started walking consistently, and it is now beginning to be his main mode of transportation. He walked later than Carter, but he has a considerably larger upper body mass to support than Carter did. Plus, with a new baby in the house - you never know how they're going to react.

However, he did great. He didn't cry at all. He walked right in and joined the fun. It helps that we have great teachers in that class right now.

This Sunday, for Father's Day, the class made their dad's ties. Beckett decorated his tie (as you can see from his shirt). It didn't show up real well on a white shirt, so David is wearing a black shirt to show the contrast. They had a little ribbon taped to the back of the "tie" so it would stay around dad's neck.

Beckett wants to do everything his brother does. That includes balls. He is not as into balls as Carter, but if Carter is doing it, so is Beckett.

He has a new "cheese" face. I pull out the camera, and he does this:

 You know that sound when a toddler is getting into something they shouldn't? Yeah, silence.

I found him hunched over my tablet yesterday. He was acting like he was sleeping on the blanket when I came in and checked on him, but really he was hiding my tablet. 

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

We did indeed have a little girl! She was born at 9:41 on Sunday, June 1st. 

7 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long.

She looks very different from the boys. I honestly was expecting a child that looked exactly like the boys, but somewhere in the middle as far as size. Most notably SHE HAS HAIR!

I was leading the music last Sunday at church, and then I took Beckett to his Sunday School class. When the little ones turn 18 months old, they can start to attend class. Until the end of their 3rd year, it is pretty simple - snacks, toys, lesson, singing, more toys. He is not yet 18 months, but they encourage you to bring them in a little early and stay with them so they are familiar with it.

I stepped out to get Beckett his gluten-free snacks, and my water broke. I had a change in the car, and I was headed that way anyway. I grabbed the snack, my little bag, and David. I sent him to class with the snack and I changed. I went to my class, and finished out church. 

At home, we had lunch and I waited for contractions to start.I had a couple other big gushes, but no contractions. I called the hospital to let them know I would be coming, but not for a while. They urged me to come in right away. I was afraid if I came in too soon, they would try to induce me. However, they said that the third and subsequent babies tend to come quicker. My labor with Carter lasted 6 hours and Beckett's only lasted 4. So, if traffic was bad, I might not have much time. David had already loaded the car and was waiting for me to agree to leave.

We loaded up the boys, took them to a friend's house, and headed to the hospital. When I got there, I still hadn't had any painful contractions. The doctor came in and told me that if I hadn't started labor by 6:30 the next morning, they would start giving me antibiotics to lessen the risk of infection. I was so relieved that she didn't mention induction. I was there for about an hour before contractions began on their own, and then 2 hours later she was born. The doctor didn't make it in time, and the nurse delivered her. She was born naturally, just like the boys. The healing process has been so much easier with a smaller baby. Beckett had/has such a large head that I was in sore shape for a LOT LONGER. 

I did hemorrhage after she was born. I lost a lot of blood. As opposed to the quiet room at her birth, there was quite a panic afterwards. There were 3 nurses and a doctor trying to stop the bleeding. They hooked me up to an IV (4 times, as the previous 3 didn't work), gave me pills, a shot, and other painful things. They acted as if I was going to die. Heck, maybe I was - but I was coherent enough to talk through it.

They kept me for 48 hours instead of 24 because I lost so much blood.

Glad to be home, but not at the same time. 

We'll keep you updated on a name.