The story of Adam and Eve told by Lori.

I think one of my favorite things about being a mom is seeing the world through fresh and pure eyes. In the 3 plus years I've been learned so much about God, and how he must view us. My faith has grown as well. When you have to simplify the Bible enough to explain it to a inquisitive three year old, you realize just how simple God has made it for us, and how COMPLICATED we as humans choose to make it.
I am blessed to have two kids that LOVE going to church and learning about Jesus. This morning while I was reading my Bible, Lori asked me to read her a Bible story. So I told her to go get her Bible and then SHE read to ME. I asked her to do it again so that Jorge could see it, but figured it was just too precious to keep to ourselves.

Sweet Lori

Today Lori sang me "Happy Birthday", followed by "cause your Birthday's comin' up." I told her, that my birthday had already happened and that it was in July. She responded with "But that's coming up, right?" I said "No, but you know who's Birthday IS coming up? Jesus."
Her answer to my saying that was classic,
"JESUS?! Can we go to Heaven and help Him decorate? Cause He can't decorate His party all by Himself!!"

I LOVE my children. They bring me joy everyday. I hope and pray that God will continue to grant me these types of moments, so that in those crazy days where I'm pulling my hair out, I can be reminded of what a blessing and gift from God they truly are!

my girl

This is my girl.

She is beautiful and funny and I love her.

She is growing up too fast.

From the moment she was born, Lori has owned her daddy’s heart. Everyone talks about men wanting sons and how great that is, but there is something about the relationship between a father and daughter that is unlike anything else. (for the record, I love my daddy too, although I don’t call him that anymore)
Today, something happened that I hope I will never forget. My mom told me to write it down so I wouldn’t and since blogging is where I do that, I figure I’d just blog it.

This afternoon, Lori went to her dress up box and got a princess dress and dress up shoes on. She went up to Jorge and asked “Daddy? Can I go to the ball?” slightly confused by her request, seeing as Lori’s imagination is just now coming to life, Jorge said yes.

“But I don’t have a Prince.” She paused. “Davey…” after a slight struggle Jorge stepped in, telling Lori that he didn’t think David wanted to be her prince. Lori looked at Jorge and said “with YOU be my Prince daddy?” Then she proceeded to lead him by the hand to her room, where she did her very best to dance with him. (He’s not a big dancer that husband of mine)

It was without a doubt one of the most touching, and heart-melting moments I’ve seen them have yet. I want to stop the clock and make her stay just the way she is, but I am also finding such joy in watching her grow into this little lady.

Away in a Manger!

I was pretty excited for this Christmas because Lori is at the age where she is just now getting the whole concept. "Be a good girl or Santa won't bring you any Band-aids" has become a real threat that actually yelds results. (Band-aids and batteries are the only things she's asking Santa for) I've been enjoying watching all the Christmas movies through new eyes. The lights, the tree, the cookies and decorations all have a new magic about them. With all this new found excitement though, comes a responsibility. It is my responsibility, as well as Jorge's to teach Lori what the TRUE meaning of Christmas is. Most of the Christmas books are about Jesus and not Santa, so we've been reading those. However... I'm fairly confidant that our church's FABULOUS childrens program is to thank for the bulk of her knowledge.

A few weeks ago Lori was asking me if I wanted to go to a party with her. I had NO idea what she was talking about, church had been over for hours and we had just been running errands so I wasn't really thinking along those lines. (I actually first thought she was inviting me to go POTTY with her, but that's a different story, anyway...) Upon further questioning I figured out that she was inviting me to a party for Jesus' birthday being thrown by our childrens ministries at our church. Last Sunday was the party, which Lori informed me was complete with cupcakes. They were able to capture this picture for me... which I will forever be thankful for!

When Lori saw this picture she said "Hey, that's me!" and then the following conversation took place.
Me: What were you doing?
Lori: I was looking at the Angel baby
Me: The Angel baby? What was his name?
Jorge: Jesus?
Lori: Yes, Jesus.
Me: What was He doing?
Lori: He was sleeping. In the manger. Cause He doesn't have a crib anymore.
Me: Why doesn't He have a crib?
Lori: Umm... I don't know.

Out of the mouths of babes, as they say. I truly just LOVE the simplicity of her logic and thinking.

Jesus Love me!

Lori has been "singing" for a while now, but hasn't really gotten the whole "lyrics" thing. She would sing "Jesus Loves Me" by saying "Bible, Bible" over and over again. It was cute and I enjoyed the sweetness of it. But just the other day she surprized me by singing the actual words! I was THRILLED! So thrilled that I have started trying to teach her Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" which is comin' along quite nicely. So far we have "Why? Why?" and "Looking out... across the night-time" and then "No I don wanna!" (not the lyrics... just her protest)

Here is a couple of videos I took on my phone (probably should invest in one of those flip cams huh?) of Lori singing her version of "Jesus Loves Me" with the promise of her rendition of "Human Nature" to come soon.

worth while moments... (working title - anyone got anything better?)

The other day I had to run errands and naturally Lori and Davey came with. I took the kids to Hobby Lobby and after about 2.5 seconds Lori was done with the cart! "Running Lori?" (yes she does mean run and yes, everything she says is with a "?" at the end) Needless to say, I wasn't about to let her run around the store, so I had to do my best to entertain her. Eventually she grew tired of me and desided to lay down. This girl is a kook and a half and makes me laugh! (ok that rhymes but it was unintentional... I promise.)

worth while moments... (working title)

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to start making note of the things that my kids do that remind me why I do what I do.

After Lori's birthday party we opened gifts and she got to play with some of her new toys. Jorge had to run some errands so it was just me and the bubbas. (My sister's and my nickname for babies...) She got tons of dress up stuff, so naturally we had to open it all and try it on right away! :)


I also gave her a toy which she was given LAST year but it was kinda over her head so I put it away until this year. :) I love watching Lori play with her toys. I think it's so neat that she actually PLAYS. It's fun to see her actually DO things with her toys, like playing with her babies and copy what she sees me do with David.

After she had been playing dress up for a bit I noticed this...

and it made me smile.

worth every minute

The cheese factor of this post promises to be extremely high, so be forewarned.

Parenting is tough. It's easily the hardest thing I've ever done. (oxymoron?) But everyday I am reminded why it's worth it. Starting today I will to start making a note of those moments, and blogging them when at all possible.

Lori has been acting up for the last few months, probably the "terrible two's" even though she just turned two last week. (We always said she was advanced. :) ) She's been getting on my last nerve A LOT and has decided that bedtime should take over an HOUR! BUT like I said there are times when she says or does something that just melts my heart! This time it really didn't involve me so much, but made me feel so appreciative that God has placed her in my care (sometimes I wonder what He was thinking! Ok, most of the time I wonder what He was thinking) and that He has allowed me to get to witness the sweet moments of her growing up.Several weeks ago Lori and I were headed to Bible Study and as we were passing the play ground we heard a little voice say "Lori!". We stopped to see who had said it and saw our friends little girl Rachel standing at the top of the play structure. She immediately headed for the slide, slid down and raced over to the rod-iron fence that contains the playground. Lori said "ACHEL!",(yes Achel... it's not a typo) ran to meet her and the girls embarrassed through the fence. I took a picture on my phone! (which I actually thought didn't get saved on my phone and was super sad but then mysteriously showed up on my phone yesterday!)

(I don't know how or why it happened but I'm so glad that this picture showed up. I know I'll never forget it, but I'm just so happy I have a copy of this moment to share with everyone.)

Why is this such a sweet moment for me? I think it's because it reminded me that I, we, are so blessed by our community here in Houston. My child/children are loved so much by the people around them. Moving here was a big step for us BUT it has proven time and again to have been the right decision. And it also made me realize that Lori is growing up so fast, and that she's made her first REAL friend.

"We did it!"

In the words of Dora the Explorer, "WE DID IT! We did it, we did it -YA!" For the last month or so Lori has been sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be sleeping, but for the first few weeks she would refuse to nap, and at bedtime she would either come out of her room every 5 min, OR even worse, NOT come out of her room and get in to HEAPS of trouble... and I mean HEAPS! (one night she went through 35 of my homemade diaper wipes, just cause!! THIRTY FIVE!!) So I decided that the best way to remedy this situation was to use bribery, and for the bribe... the ultimate prize in the eyes of a child! THE STICKER! I'm not sure why but stickers are like crack cocaine to children.

I made her a sticker chart, Dora themed of course, and every time she took a nap in her "big girl bed" or didn't get up too many times to play around her room at bed time she got a sticker. (The last box IS filled... Lori just put the sticker a little outside of the box... ;) )

Once she filled up the chart we were gonna go out and get her a REAL big girl bed!! Well last week, she filled up the chart, and as promised, we went out and got her a bed! It required moving around some furniture but here it is, THE big girl bed!

Lori was SO excited when we got it set up that she started crying for milk and a binky even though it was still a little early for bedtime. She did get up a few times (which is normal for Lori) but now she is fast asleep in her new bed!! I'm waiting to peak in on her, which I'm sure Jorge will frown upon, but I really want to see how cute she looks sleepin' in that big bed.

The other side of the room... where David will be sleeping... eventually. (We will have to get a new Uppercase Living sticker for the wall above the crib... I'm already workin' on it. :) )

Siblings!

So far, Lori and David seem to be getting along famously. Obviously David is a little oblivious to his surroundings, but Lori is still LOVING having him around. The older he gets the "easier" it is to get pictures of the two of them together. Here are just a few of the shots I got this weekend... just looking at them makes me happy.

On Sunday morning as we were getting ready for church, I put David in/on our bed so that I could have my hands free to pack up the diaper bags etc., well Lori saw him on our bed and climbed up to be next to him. Then she said, "snugga?" (meaning snuggle) Asking to snuggle is a new thing for Lori, but it's been happening at least once a day. In fact usually Jorge's day starts at around 6:30 to "snugga Dada? snugga?" This was the first time she'd asked to "snugga" with David and it was so flippin' cute we had to get the camera.

Later on Sunday I had to give David a bath, but Lori didn't want to be left out. I was forced to put them both in the bath... at the same time. This proved to be equally cute (at least to their overly proud mother) and therefore needed to be photographed.

Silly with Celine

A few months back there was a Celine Dion concert on T.V and (don't judge me) I watched it... again. (Yes again... don't judge, she's awesome!) Anyway, chalk it up to being loopy from lack of sleep from having a new baby, but I got a little silly when she sang "My Heart Will Go On" Lori thought is was hilarious... her squeals were just too funny, so I had to ham it up a little more so we could get it on film. It seems to work.

enjoy!

*sorry for the poor quality of video, it was filmed on a cell phone. :(

Big girl bed!

About a week ago, Lori discovered that she has the ability to climb out of her crib. We figured this out when I woke up to the sounds of Lori from her dresser opening and closing her drawers trying to get pick out an outfit. That was certainly a shock. So since then we've been making the transition to a "big girl bed", which is really just a crib mattress on the floor of her room. At first it was REALLY difficult. We'd put her in bed, say prayers, sing a song and then close the door. She would either come to the door and try to get out, or walk around the room and find something to play with. We'd hear her singing and playing or fiddling with the door, or we'd hear nothing. For some reason, maybe it's just that I know my daughter WAY too well, but hearing nothing made me feel terribly uneasy. Jorge and I will go back and forth about if we should check on her or not. Usually I'm right and those times that she's quiet are the worst.

Take last night for example, Jorge was gone leading a Bible study at church, so I put Lori to bed myself. She went down really well, she didn't try to come out of her room and when I did hear her I called to her to get in bed and then didn't hear anything for about 30-40 min. It all was really easy... too easy. So I decided to check on her before I hopped in the shower, and I'm glad I did. I found her COMPLETELY nakey, sitting on her bed, with the box of homemade wipes. She had gotten out of her jammies, some how managed to shimmy out of her diaper (that was DUCT TAPED on mind you) and was wiping herself, her bed, and her stuff animals, that's probably why she needed 34 WIPES!! 34 WIPES people! I was furious to say the least! She was nice enough to put the diaper (which was clean by the way) and roughly 28 or so of the wipes in the diaper pail, but even so, I was still so mad.

Napping in her bed was completely out of the question, up until a few days ago. But every day gets better. The other day, after much struggle I finally won, and she napped in her bed. When I went in to check on her (like I said, when it's quiet I worry, so I check on her.) this is what I found.

I guess this counts as sleeping IN her big girl bed...

And on another day...

So we don't bother with the crib anymore. Our baby is growing up! As soon as she masters the crib mattress with out getting up and getting in to trouble we're going to get her a twin bed. (Probably with some Dora sheets.) We are going to put Davey in her old crib EXCEPT for the fact that Lori can now climb IN to the crib too... so no one is safe. :)

First day with two

Monday was my first day by myself as a mother of two. It was a little daunting but we made it through, with out too many tears shed. Although I did cry when Jorge came home from work, mostly out of sheer exhaustion.

People keep asking how Lori is handling the transition. I'm not sure if she loves being a big sister as much as she loves having baby things around the house. I walked in to the hallway to find this...
One baby on the changing pad and one in the car seat. I think she's handling the transition rather well... don't you?

Lori has been acting up lately. It started a little before Davey was born and it's not horrible, but it is annoying. She has taken to running away from us when we ask her for the thing she's holding, or if she needs to come inside from our walk. I'm not TOO worried since this was bound to happen sooner or later seeing as she's almost two anyway.

She also has become very concerned with giving David anything that is his, be it his blanket, binky or anything else that she thinks he may want or need.

She'll even share her toys with him.

So, that being said, so far so good. I mean we're still in the hormonal/emotional up and down part but I think that's to be expected.

She did it!!

I just wanted to say that today... Lori actually used the potty. Just once, but still... there was much rejoicing!! (and the giving of a "nm&nm" or M&M)

Way to go baby girl!!

It's no secret that we think that Lori is with out a doubt the cutest and smartest kid ever!!

Her latest thing is trying to learn to use the potty. She had the potty chair that would sit on the ground, but lately she wanted to sit on the actual toilet. This required me to sit on the floor and hold her over the toilet for 10 or some minutes at a time. I obviously grew tired of this much faster than Lori did, and so we went to Babies R Us and got this fancy potty seat that sits INSIDE the toilet. Lori is extremely excited about the new seat and will now sit on it for 10-15 min at a time, several times a day. She's not too good at actually GOING in the potty, but it's a step in the right direction in my opinion.

She's also just recently just gotten in to dolls. She used to carry them around and give them hugs, but now she's actually started playing with them. It is not uncommon for us to walk in to a room and see a doll or two laying on the floor either on or under a blanket. Yesterday I caught her walking to her room carrying her Barbie. I figured she was up to something (she is my daughter after all... she always seems to have something up her sleeve) so I followed her.

I walked in to find this...

From the looks of things "Numero Dos" is going to be in good hands.

Our daughter the artist

Today I learned a few things. One, Lori actually DOES like to color. And two, she doesn't need paper. I was in the my sewing room on the phone with my mom this morning when I heard a banging/hitting sound. I said to my mom, "Hang on, I think Lori's coloring on the floor." I was wrong, but not too wrong. She had taken the heart shaped crayons that I had made her and started coloring on the wainscoting of our eating area. All I could do was laugh, until my mom told me that I shouldn't laugh otherwise I would only encourage her drawing on the walls. But it was so dang cute. I could tell she had NO idea she had done anything wrong what so ever. (I love this girl so much!)





I explained to her that she can only color on paper, not the walls and then I took her crayons away. She cried and cried. I felt bad, but I figured it was the only punishment I could really do. I do plan to have her clean it off... but I wanted Jorge to see it when he got home. (I even told the women who cleaned my house today not to clean it off... is that wrong?) Sadly, Jorge is kinda proud of her work and wants to keep it up a little longer.

Later I was in kitchen and saw this...





Apparently, she had hit the kitchen before getting to the walls of the eating area. This also made me laugh. And what makes me laugh even more now as I type this is imagining Lori changing colors and adding a little blue here, and a little green there. (granted I can't be sure of this since the crayons she was using were made from melting down different colored crayons, so she could have just been using the same heart shaped crayon but the idea in and of itself makes me laugh.)

Needless to say, she will most likely be getting an easel for Christmas.

Picasso eat your heart out!

A couple weeks back we had a few days of bad weather, which caused a friend of mine to ask "What do you do with a 18 month old when you can't go outside?" Someone gave her the idea to have her kid paint. That seemed like a fun idea to me and it just so happened that one of my high schoolers came over later that week wanting to paint some of Lori's hand prints so we decided to give Lori a brush and a canvas while we were at it and see how it went. From the looks of it she enjoyed it immensely.

Just getting started...

and loving it!!

getting the hang of it...



(Notice that she's using the "wrong" side of the paintbrush...)

And the finished product!Morgan, Lori and Katie
Three pretty ladies very proud of their work!

I really enjoy watching these girls laugh and play with Lori. I'm so glad that they are so willing to come hang out with a pregnant stay at home mom and her crazy kid.

Even more belly...

Here is the latest picture of the belly.

I actually look a little smaller than last week, but I'm thinking that it's because of his position. We now only have 9 weeks left at most. The Dr said that he's not sure about the due date anymore, and I'm thinking that it's going to be on the earlier side. So he could be here in 2 months. That seems so soon!



31 weeks!

Lori sitting on her brother... happy as can be! She's really not sure what to think but I think she' going to enjoy having a little brother around. We've been given a few baby dolls and Lori really loves carrying them around giving them "Squeezy hugs" (more on that later) and putting them in things, be it a stroller, or a bucket, the later has happened on at least one occasion.

I can't believe we're actually in the homestretch now. We've dropped to the single digits in how many weeks we have left. So crazy... but not as crazy as our lives are about to be I suppose. :)

What does a cow say?

Lori is getting smarter by the minute. It seems like everyday she's learning something new and we are just adding those to her bag of tricks. You know she can say "wow" (in a whisper) and that she can dance and spin on command, say "Da Dtoo" (thank you) among other thing.

Here are 3 of her more recent "tricks", one of which isn't so new but it's fitting that it be in this video... you'll know what I mean when you watch it.

enjoy!

(for those of you who don't know... according to Lori, a cat/kitty says "tsss tsss" cause that's what our cat says to her daily.)

Poor, sick baby!

Tuesday night around 11:30 pm Lori started fussin'. Nothing out o the ordinary but Jorge went to check on her anyway. I was up for one of my many midnight bathroom runs, so Jorge called for me that Lori had thrown up. I came running, just in time to see her throw up again, and let me tell you... watching your child throw up is possibly one of the saddest things a mom can watch. Jorge striped her bed while I gave her a bath. Luckily it was only 11:30, which meant it was only 9:30 in CA, so I called my mom RIGHT AWAY! Lori had never been sicker than the sniffles before so Jorge and I were a little thrown off. (not to be confused with Lori who had, of course, thrown UP - poor baby) We were able to get her back to bed and everything but Jorge and my mom agreed that since I am pregnant, I really should stay away from Lori as much as possible, to avoid getting sick and harming myself and the baby. So Jorge was on Lori duty, but luckily he didn't have to do much.

She slept the rest of the night and well in to the morning. The next day we took a trip to target to get her some bland foods, but Lori stayed in her Jammies. She didn't eat hardly anything, but had regurgitated some water twice. (Dr. said that was ok) She slept well but this morning was harder on her. Her eating and drinking habits were off and she was so tired that she actually sat and watched Playhouse Disney.

We had to run to the store, but when we came home it was right back to the couch, this time with a cup of animal crackers (and a new appetite) and a sippy cup. As you can see in the following pictures, got pretty comfy!

A little more comfy... and feeling good enough for a smile!

Gotta keep hydrated! Doctor's orders!

Watchin' a little Playhouse Disney...

aaaaannndd... we're out! Rest up baby girl, and feel better!!

It's sad not having her as her usual crazy, happy self! Please pray for a speedy recovery for our little bubba.