Baby!

We are expecting our fourth heir! As with all my pregnancies, I have been miserably sick but it has been magnified by the fact that for the first time I have been unable to sleep at night in my first trimester. I am 12 and a half weeks along and yesterday I had my first visit to the doctor. He did an ultrasound and could see our beautiful baby almost perfectly. It was a relief to know there was only one baby. I don’t know why I always think there are at least two, probably because that’s how sick I feel. Ethan and Heidi were very excited to see the baby on the screen and hear its heartbeat. We are delighted and waiting with great anticipation the arrival of this little one on August 9th, but if its anything like prior births, I will be giving birth at the end of July instead.

Quack attack

I enjoy taking my kids to the pond and feed the ducks. A few days ago, I was not feeling sick so I quickly put them in the car and drove there. It was hard to find a parking spot but after a few rounds around the block I parked right across from the pond. The pond was full of ducks and we were so excited to feed them. As soon as I threw the first bits of bread all the ducks from the pond came to us and eagerly waited for more bread as they loudly quacked. Gavin was a little startled by the loud noises so he just stood still, as I threw the bread and dropped some crumbs around us the ducks started closing in and pretty soon they were pecking on my boots and too close for my kids comfort so Ethan and Heidi started screaming and running away and the ducks just started to chase them. Some geese were there and were almost as tall as Gavin; I was amazed by his reaction. He did not cry, he just stood there immovable. I had a good loud laugh at the sight of ducks chasing my kids, I had to pick them up and stand them on top of a bench. Suddenly, I noticed a police car next to our van, so I ran towards it with the kids. To my great horror, I had gotten a parking ticket. Apparently I was supposed to park at least 20 feet away from the end of the road. I was steaming mad. A perfect fun afternoon ruined by the parking Nazi that gave me the ticket. At that point I decided to end our spoiled afternoon on a sweeter note so I bought some doughnuts and chocolate milk. It was sure fun while it lasted.

A happy, joyful, hopeful year

I can’t believe 2009 is here and that most of January is already gone. 2008 was a good year. I faced challenges, grew tremendously and learned a great deal about myself.
Two important lessons I learned last year were taught to me by my 5 year old son Ethan and my 2 year old daughter Heidi. I would often ask Ethan to put his socks and shoes on so that we could go out; after what seemed a long time, he would not be ready. This would really frustrate me and I would say something like, why are you not ready yet? you don’t have your shoes on. He would then look at me and say, I did put my socks on. I would then look at his feet and realize he had already put his socks on but I had not acknowledged this accomplishment. Sometimes I tend to focus on what is not done yet, not ready, not finished, or not there and not acknowledge what has been done and what is already there. Now I try harder to look at what is and not at what is not.
On a few occasions I would come into Heidi’s room and she will have made and absolute mess, I would then ask, why did you make a mess? To which she would say, because I wanted to! On other occasions I would ask her to do something and she would not do it, and when I asked why, she would matter of fact say, because I don’t want to. These two simple, short and very straight forward answers encapsulate a great truth of life. I realized then that most people do things because they want to and don’t do things because they simply don’t want to.
I think this will be a great year, I feel optimistic and hopeful. I know hard days may lay ahead but also brighter days lay ahead all of us. Although, I am facing some difficult challenges right now I feel that God has great things in store for me. Have a happy, joyful year despite the challenges and difficulties that may come your way.