Keeping up with....

.... Amanda G!

How to tell you are falling behind on your blog: the girl who just gave birth to twins, is breastfeeding them round the clock, and has three other kids, has blogged more recently than you. Amanda, you inspire me. [For many more reasons than just this one :) ]

Let's see - since I last blogged, we've had Thanksgiving in
New Orleans .....

Taking the ferry to the French Quarter

Thanksgiving left-overs!

Enjoying Mackeys and beignets at Cafe du Monde!

..... and we've had Christmas and New Years .....

My favourite present :)

Christmas morning ... before it got covered in torn-up wrapping paper and toys!

Reading the Christmas story with Papa on Christmas morning

Stockings!

Anna's favourite present - her new "truck" from Dada! She is so hilarious on it - scooting around in the house and crashing into walls :)

.... and we've had the first snowfall of the year!

Just enough to make a snowman!

I was journalling in between Christmas and New Years, and reflecting on the last year - adjusting to our new house and neighbourhood and watching it start to feel like home; Mark's trip to Haiti; Anna's first flight to England; spinning out on the highway and totalling my poor car; taking on leadership of our lifegroup at church; watching our godson when his mom started back at work; one of Mark's best friends; diagnosis of thyroid cancer; Anna's first birthday! - how did that come around so soon?! ... Mark finishing his internship and becoming a second year resident; losing our sweet baby in the summer; flying to England again for Steph's wedding; the crazy pace of the holidays mixed with some awesome time with friends and family .... all in all, it's been a year of serious ups and downs!

But as I looked back at the last year and forward at the next, two things really stood out to me. God's strong and gentle arms carrying us through everything we've been through in the last year, and for the next year - hope. The kind of hope that allows us to say "it is well with my soul", the kind of hope that is a bright window denying the night of its darkness. The kind of hope that lives because Jesus does.

Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow!

Bring it, 2011. I'm ready.

A favour

When you have finished reading this post, please say a little prayer for some friends of ours from medical school. They have a two year old daughter and several weeks ago gave birth to twins - a boy and a girl. They were born prematurely, and today, after battling medical complications since his birth, their baby boy died. Our friends know Jesus, and know that they will see their son again one day. But right now they are devastated. Please pray for them - now, and if God brings them to your mind again later. Thanks so much.

Shamelessly braggin' on my bebe

On Saturday my baby girl turned 18 months old. Nothing accelerates life like having a child grow up in front of you. There is definitely a part of me that, like every other mother I know, wishes life would slow down a little so they could keep their babies babies for longer. But I am also so excited to continue seeing Anna grow up. Every new stage she reaches becomes my favourite one yet. Of course, as she grows and becomes more independent our wills clash from time to time; I have definitely had my fair share of frustrating days! But overall Anna is a very settled, laid-back and obedient child and I can't think of a better life than getting to stay home and take care of her.

I am totally floored by how smart and awesome she is. (Here comes the brag.) I know every mom is amazed at what their child achieves, but I am really amazed! I made a list of her words over the weekend - and there are over 50 words that she uses consistently and correctly, plus five or six signs. Yup, fifty. She can name blue, green and red, and she holds her crayons exactly the way we hold pens to write (rather than the fist-grab). She can point to her eyes, ears, nose, hair, head, cheeks, hands, belly, belly-button, bum-bum, pee-pee, knees, hands, feet and toes, and can say all of those except belly and belly-button. She knows when something is hot or cold (warm is still kind of tricky!), she tells me when her hands are sticky, and when I forget to pray when we finish reading our bed-time Bible story she picks up my hands and holds them to remind me. She tells me when she pees in her diaper (which I don't honestly think is a sign of early potty-training because she's terrified of sitting on the potty the couple times I've let her try it!). She has overcome her crippling fear of the dog next door and now waves 'hi' to him when she hears him barking. She enjoys 'helping' me clean and do housework (a baby-wipe will keep her busy cleaning for a good 15 minutes!), and loves getting to feed her fish and water our plant every day. She loves Clover and Riah, and asks to see "Baby Cro-Cro" at least half a dozen times a day. She gets so excited about going to the library and picking out her own books, and her new favourite game is playing 'Ring-a-ring-a-rosie'. She has recently started playing pretend with her toys; bringing me her Ted and asking me to put a pair of her socks on him, giving her sippy cup to Elmo, helping Cheetah blow his nose when she has a cold herself... I love it!

I am so very thankful for my daughter, and so proud of what she has achieved in the first 18 months of her life. I love getting to share and experience her view of the world, and I'm grateful for her little reminders to me that acorns are fun to pick up and that airplanes in the sky are amazing. Few things make me happier than feeling her little arms squeeze my neck or hearing her running down the hallway saying "Mama!"

She is first God's child, but I'm so glad she's ours too!