Pushing Down Walls

Welcome to the Hood! The Parent hood. This lovely Sun-Up Saturday I wanted to share some of my random yet somewhat deeper thinkings on this lovely phase of life that most of us if not all of us will embark into.

Now, more officially being a parent (for almost a whole whoppin 8 months now!!) and have entered this "hood" it all has had me thinking in a whole new light, mostly because I am with this lovely little girl for pretty close to 24-7 and there has been so much I have been able to learn from her. For today's little sharing I wanted to write a little on one area in particular that has me thinking all the time. To begin, I will share a little story about my girl.

My little girl, my little steam roller, is in the rolling phase now (thus the steam roller term). She isn't quit crawling yet, so her main mot of transportation is rolling, all over the place! It is fun to watch her figure things out and how she gets her way around, yet she still runs into road blocks that she hasn't quit got over yet. One area in particular that keeps her in a rut are walls and couches. She can roll and roll but once she hits a wall or the couch she gets totally stumped. Sometimes it will click for her to just start rolling back the opposite way, but other times she is just so stubborn. She will turn and smash up against that wall forever, and no matter how hard she persists that wall doesn't move out of her way and she just gets mad and upset, yet she will still persist. I don't understand what makes the difference in her realizing that she can just go the other way sometimes yet other times she still persists into the wall, but she does it and she does over and over.

Being a parent now I think a lot more about God and what he thinks of us, his little kiddos. Especially situations like I shared above. I am way far away from being all knowing like Him, but I know a lot and understand a lot more than my little girl does at this stage in her life. Like the story I shared above, I know that if she would just turn the other way she could find her toys and play and be happy again, or if she would push a little harder with her arms and legs she could go forward in a crawling motion and have even more access to things she wants. But even though this sets so logically with me, I think I do the same thing as my little girl but in bigger scales when it comes to persisting into walls. I am pretty sure there are things that I do that are like rolling into a wall, over and over again expecting that firm set standard or rule to change for me instead of me changing my stubborn ways. It reminds me of the scripture in Isaiah that reads:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:8-9

God is a really smart cookie, if not the smartest cookie and He KNOWS what he is doing when he makes certain commandments or will establish certain things, yet there are times we still push against it, thinking we can change it. I have seen this more and more in our society today especially as it seems more and more are pulling away from God and everything that He is about. But the crazy truth is that it is only making us unhappy and frustrated when we decide to be like this. I am sure it is hard for God to watch us be like this, but in the end we really are just hurting ourselves, over and over again as long as we persist.

We can make the choice to stop going against it and go another way and "find our toys" or do what we are supposed to and we can be happy again. Do you ever let your stubbornness get in the way of your happiness? I do all the time!

Overall it reminds me of another scripture in Proverbs that reads:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6

Even though it seems like we can push down that wall or that couch, or that we want our way and want to get passed it, God knows better, he knows what is best. If we trust Him, he can help us figure it out, he can help us find those best "toys" to play way, those best paths to take that will be the best for us and our individual needs and circumstances. He loves us so much and wants the best for us, but we have to do it in his terms just like our little ones have to do things in our terms. That's just how things are and the easier and quicker we let ourselves understand this, the happy we can be with our lives. But that's the key is letting ourselves trust God, every day, one day at a time and be willing to turn the other way even if we feel stubborn and don't want to.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoying my random parenting/life thoughts. Hope you have a lovely Saturday!

Until next time. . . .

DIY Baby Book and Bella Band

(I started typing this yesterday, on Wednesday, and then my hubby got off work early, a very rare occasion, so I paused and am finishing this now on this lovely Thursday, sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy!)

In this reflection for this "We-flecting Wednesday" I thought I would share a little of baby and pregnancy fun. I am recently discovering more and more of my friends are pregnant so I thought I would share this for them and anyone else that would like to read about some of this fun goodness.

For this post I am going to share the baby book I made for my little girl. I started this when I was pregnant because I wanted it to include my thoughts and feelings even from the very beginning of this little girl's life as a microscope little thing. I designed it in a way that I can continue sharing my thoughts and feelings about her clear up till she is 18 years old and I will give it to her as a birthday present for her 18th.

I looked at different styles of baby books, but none of them really stuck out to me as something that I really wanted, so I decided to make one and I love it. It is really simple, but it is and will be very personable for my little girl. So first off I will share you what I got together for her so far, and then I will share the basic format of what I used so that if you want to steal what I got going for your little one coming (or even want to make one for a friend), by all means steal away (and if you want to share on how yours turns out, that would be fun too!).

 Here is the front cover. The entire book is one of those composition books you can get at like walmart or any sort of  office supply store. I could have covered the black and white, but I liked the look it gave, and just covered up the "composition" title with the pictures.

 The first inside page I covered the writing they have in there with a family tree drawing I put together for a 4 generation. I wrote her name ( and will put in other children's names on it too) on one of the branches with a permanent marker. Oh and covered the outside and inside part with contact paper to give a little extra durable touch.

 Then the first two pages were sections "All about Daddy" and "All about Mommy", so that she could have a little fun looking back to where she came from

 (sadly this is the youngest baby picture I could find at the time, since my house fire back in grade school I am very limited on my little self pictures :(

 Then I had a section down to the very beginning of the pregnancy, the pictures on the bottom aren't very good, but I even share pictures of the pregnancy tests I took :-)

 Then I had pages about the 1st Trimester.. . .

 About the 2nd Trimester. . . .

 And the 3rd Trimester, this section I also including things from my baby shower. . . .

 I also included lots of belly shot pictures

 Then had a bunch of sections about her birth

 More and more about her birth (it was a very special day!)

 Details about her from the very beginning

 Included hospital stuff and hand and foot shapes (I was going to ink her hand and foot, but it was really tricky, so I just tried tracing her instead)

 Then I had a section where I tried to get family to write a little message just for her

 Things that happened on the day she was born

 Our trip home

 All her "firsts"

 And of course had to make lots of room for "her firsts"

 Then the final sections of the book is still yet to be filled. I have designed it so that about 4-6 pages or so I will write thoughts and feelings I have about her as she grows each year. The First "Growing Years" section is from birth to age 1, then goes from 1 to 2 and so on till she is 18 years old. . . .

 As you can kind of see here

 Then the very last two pages I have designated to be Final Notes from her Momma and Daddy, I know this wont be final, FINAL things she will hear from her lovely parents, but it will be kind of a fun note on how she's grown and how much we've absolutely grown to love and adore her and are so proud of her, you know, all that fun mushy parent stuff. . . . .

 Then the last last page that is cardboard sort of page we tapped the envelopes for her two ultrasound Cd's they gave us, so she will always have those and can look at them if she wants

 Then the back has some ultra sound pictures.

I don't know if we will do the exact design for all of our children, but I still like the idea of the writing inside. It has been a great fun time filler in putting this together and was a great pregnancy boredom project.

OK, now as promised, this is the basic format I did.

I wrote in the following on the pages and then filled them as they happened, and will continue to fill them in as they happen, so starting from the beginning (and even though I have a short line after each item, in the actual book I left lots of room and made lots of lines to fill in the blanks, especially for the more lengthy sort of things, I also made lots of room for pictures):
Page 1: Family Tree
Page 2: About Daddy (include square for baby photo)
Daddy's full name:___________________
He was born on: _____________________
He was born in: ______________________
Places he lived:______________________
His brothers and sisters:_____________________
Schools he attended:__________________
After school he:__________________________
His current job is:________________________
His special talents and interests are:___________________
A Description of him:___________________________
Page 3: About Mommy (same as the Daddy section, except change the "he" to "she or her")
Page 4-5: Pregnancy: The Beginning:
When and where we were when we found out we were having you:
Mommy's view______________ . . . . .
Daddy's view________________ . . . . . . .
Daddy and mommy celebrated by: ___________________________
Expected due date:___________________________
(Then I left room to put pictures of the pregnancy test or any other pictures)
How we felt it was time:___________________________ (we made lots of room for this response)
Page 6-7: The 1st Trimester:
Our reaction to the first ultra sound:
Mommy's view: ___________________________
Daddy's view: ___________________________
How Mommy felt this trimester: ___________________________
Foods and smells mommy hated: ___________________________
Foods and smells mommy loved:
(again, save room for pictures)
Any other thoughts/feelings/comments:___________________________
Page 8-10: The 2nd Trimester:
When we heard your heart beat:___________________________
Our reaction to hearing your heart beat for the first time: ___________________________
 Mommy's reaction:___________________________
 Daddy's reaction: ___________________________
When mommy began to change (as in size):___________________________
When we found out your gender:___________________________
 Mommy's reaction___________________________
 Daddy's reaction:___________________________
(again, more picture room)
Foods mommy craved:___________________________
Foods mommy avoided:___________________________
When mommy first felt you move inside her tummy: ___________________________
 Mommy's reaction:___________________________
When daddy first felt you move:___________________________
 Daddy's reaction: ___________________________
Gifts and presents and preparations we got for you: ___________________________
Books we read/are reading to get ready for you:___________________________
Things going on in our lives during this trimester: ___________________________
Any other thoughts/feelings/comments for this trimester: ___________________________
(again room for pictures)
Page 11-16: The 3rd Trimester:
When I had a Baby Shower:___________________________
Where I had it: ___________________________
Who hosted it: ___________________________
Who came to it: ___________________________
Things I got: ___________________________
Games we played: ___________________________
Advice I got: ___________________________
Names:___________________________ (we left several rows for this section, and put a "Why we liked them" next to each name)
Mommy's changes in sleeping patterns:___________________________
Funny and Memorable pregnancy stories:
Mommy's view:___________________________
Daddy's view:___________________________
Mommy gained a total of _______lbs
Feelings mommy has about you being born:___________________________
Feelings daddy has about you being born:___________________________
Things we did during this 3rd trimester:
Any other thoughts/comments/feelings:___________________________
(I had lots of pictures in this section, mostly because I FINALLY started looking pregnant :-)
Page 17-23 : Welcome to the World!
Day you were born:___________________________
Time you were born: ___________________________
Place you were born:___________________________
Town you were born:___________________________
Mommy's view of labor and delivery:___________________________
Daddy's view of labor and delivery:___________________________
Doctor's/Midwife's name:___________________________
Memories of our first moments together:___________________________
Mommy's memories:___________________________
Daddy's memories:___________________________
Memories of our first night together: ___________________________
Any other thoughts/comments/feelings:___________________________
Page 24-29: All About You!
Your full name: ___________________________
Birth weight: ___________________________
Birth height:___________________________
Hair color:___________________________
Eye color:___________________________
Skin color:___________________________
Who you most looked like when you were born:___________________________
Attributes:
You hair is like:___________________________
Your skin is like:___________________________
Your nose is like:___________________________
Your eyes are like:___________________________
Your mouth is like:___________________________
Your chin is like:___________________________
Your checks are like:___________________________
Other attributes:___________________________
Your Name:
Why your name was chosen:___________________________
Your name means:___________________________
Your Ancestor(s) we name you after:___________________________
Things we know about your ancestor:___________________________
Hospital stories:
Cards and gifts from: ___________________________
Visitors that visited you:___________________________
People who sent us flowers:___________________________
(I made room to put a hand and foot print or tracing, and I also taped our hospital arm bands in here)
Messages For You!:
We have asked different people to write a message for YOU! Here are some thoughts they have about you, how you look, hopes and dreams they have for you and anything else they wanted you to know:
From Mommy:___________________________
From Daddy:___________________________
From. . . . .___________________________
From. . . . .___________________________ etc. . . (whoever wanted to write a note here could)
On the Day of your Birth!
News Headlines/News clippings:___________________________
Weather report and temperature:___________________________
Famous people born this day:___________________________
World leaders at this time:___________________________
Fashion trends at this time:___________________________
Famous events in history which happened this day:___________________________
The Price of a :
   Gallon of milk:___________________________
   Loaf of bread:___________________________
   Gallon of gas:___________________________
   Candy bar:___________________________
   Carton of Ice cream:___________________________
   Movie ticket:___________________________
   Postage stamp:___________________________
   Car:___________________________
   House:___________________________
   Heating bill:___________________________
   Electric bill:___________________________
   Rent for our apartment/monthly mortgage payment:___________________________
Page 30: Welcome Home!
You came home on :___________________________
The weather was like:___________________________
Your new address is:___________________________
Who welcomed us home:___________________________
What you were wearing:___________________________
How we got home:___________________________
How you reacted to your trip:___________________________
On the first night home you fell asleep at:___________________________
You woke up the next day at:___________________________
Any other thoughts/comments:___________________________
Page 31-32: Your Blessing Day!
When you were blessed:___________________________
Where you were blessed:___________________________
Who blessed you:___________________________
What you wore for your blessing:___________________________
Who came for your blessing:___________________________
Things you were blessed with:___________________________
(and of course still room for lots of pictures!)
Page 33-41:Your Firsts!
First smile:___________________________
First laugh:___________________________
First rolled over:___________________________
First sat up by yourself:___________________________
First crawled:___________________________
First stood by yourself:___________________________
First took steps:___________________________
First danced:___________________________
First slept through the night:___________________________
Nap times:___________________________
Bed time stories/songs:___________________________
First bath:___________________________
First ate solids:___________________________
First favorite foods:___________________________
First tooth:___________________________
First waved "Bye-bye":___________________________
First said a recognizable word:___________________________
The word was:___________________________
First vacation:___________________________
Age and date:___________________________
Where we went:___________________________
How long was the traveling:___________________________
How long we stayed there:___________________________
How you reacted to it:___________________________
Favorite activity on our trip___________________________
Favorite outings:___________________________
First Christmas:___________________________
Age:___________________________
A description of Christmas day:___________________________
Where we spent it:___________________________
Who was there:___________________________
Presents you got:___________________________
Your reactions were:___________________________
First Independence day:___________________________
First Halloween:___________________________
First Thanksgiving:___________________________
First Easter:___________________________
First Mother's day (for mommy):___________________________
First Father's day (for daddy):___________________________
First Valentines day:___________________________
First hair cut:___________________________
Who cut it:___________________________
Your reaction:___________________________
(leave room for some hair clippings)
Your first birthday!
How we celebrated:___________________________
Where we spent your birthday:___________________________
Who was there:___________________________
What you wore:___________________________
Gifts you got:___________________________
What you enjoyed the most:___________________________
Page 42- End of the Book: Growing Years!
The remainder of the book is left for thoughts on the growing years from birth to age 18. I broke each year down so every few pages will be a year of her life all the way to 18.
End of the Book: Final Note from Mommy/ Final Note from Daddy!


So there you have it! I know it is alot, but I never really got something like this and I would have loved something like this about my childhood (I think my mom might have made something like this, but with our house fire I think she gave up on trying to keep it up). So I put alot of this together so my little girl, and also other children down the road will have something special from their childhood. And again you are welcome to use any or all or none of the ideas if you want! What sort of baby book(s) do you have for your kids?


To end this little pregnancy sort of post I wanted to also share a little goodness that saved me tons of money and was just great all around!

Here is a Bella band, I got this thing for about $20 at a local maternity store, but I am sure you could get one online or something. The idea of it is to let you still wear your normal clothes without having to buy extra maternity clothes. Because of this beauty, I only bought 1 maternity shirt, and only 1 maternity pants. When your pants are getting to tight to button, you simply leave it unbuttoned and us the band to cover it, and then for shirts that seem to be getting shorter, it serves as a undershirt sort of thing. This was probably one of the best pregnancy support $20 I spent, plus it is still in good condition that I can use it for other children. (but as a small disclaimer, I know this doesn't always work for everyone based on how your body grows as you get bigger, for some reason my hips didn't get wider at all, so I still fit all my clothes this way, so just take into consideration that everyone carries their babies differently)

This is also great to wear after the baby if you struggle to get back into your regular clothes and want to hide some of that baby fat too!

To give you a better look at how it works, here is me wearing it toward the beginnings of my pregnancy (almost a year ago), my pants are unbuttoned, but you can't really tell, and it just looks like an undershirt!

Here is me towards the end of my pregnancy (sorry I wearing black and it blends, it makes it a little tricky to see), but I am wearing one of my regular shirts and one of my regular pants still thanks to the band!

Here is a little more close up shot, can you see the band at the bottom of my shirt? Overall, this thing helped me tons!!!

OK, long story short, here is a little pregnancy help and fun for you all you expectant mommas out there, or you just think it would be fun to read! I hope you have a great rest of the day, and good luck with the little ones growing in the oven :-)

Until next time! . . . .

Parents as Teachers

For this Money Saving Monday I thought I would give a little shout out to a wonderful program I just recently got myself involved in. I have never heard of the program until I came to Idaho, but from what I understand they are all across the country. The program is called "Parents as Teachers" and they have a whole website full of information about them and what they are all about and where you can find a program close to you and they even have great opportunities to work with them as well in a career sense (who knows, maybe this is something I will do when my kiddos get older).

I was very close to doing my internship with them at the end of my schooling, and there are many times I wish I still would have because I know it would have been a great experience, but with being pregnant and desperate with my situation-I just jumped for the first internship I could get without having to totally exhaust myself being huge and preggo. Long story short- I think this is a great program and I think anyone and everyone could greatly benefit from it.

The basic idea behind it is the most important teachers, the most influential teachers any and all children will have are their own parents, so this program has been created and designed to help parents feel that much more capable in fulfilling this roll and helping their child(ren) in all the best possible ways. If you sign up for the program then they will send you a Parent as Teachers (PAT) educator to come to your home once a month to see how your child is progressing, help keep a lookout if it seems like there could be any developmental delays, give you some current up to date info about where your child should be at and different activities that you could do with your child to help them progress and develop the best at their current level. They also will do some kind of activity with you and/or the child to also give you some ideas about how to help your child. And to top it all off, it is also really nice to just have another person to talk to about your concerns and questions about your child in helping ease any concerns or get suggestions to feel more confident as a parent.

They are there to help the children and the parents up until they are 5 years old- once a month for 5 years- that's alot of great personal support in the role as a parent! I signed up shortly after my little girl was born, but didn't actually get my first PAT educator visit until she was bout 3 months old, and we are getting another visit tomorrow (yeah!). So far it has been going great. Our educator is very friendly and sweet, and it hasn't been weird or awkward at all so far and it really has been such a nice comfort in being able to mention random things that I might be worried about. Ya, i know I could just as easy look online or look through books about my different concerns, which I do plenty of as well- but it is such a nice different feel to be able to mention and discuss things with someone on a personal basis. It is also nice that the different things they share are current and up to date about what is best for children at their different levels. They also do developmental screening test every couple of months to help you see if there are any delays, because the early you can catch them, the better they can be helped.

Anyway, long story short, if you have any children under the age of 5, you should check them out HERE, or you can click on the "Parents and Teachers link on the right hand side of my blog. The first three years of a child's life are so crucial because by ,3 80% of their brains are developed- that's a lot of brain to be almost done, I don't know about you but I want to help make sure my kiddos brains are well done! (not that you still can't be good parents without a program like this, but every little bit of extra help, really can help!).
And going back to the idea of this being a lovely money saving Monday, is this program is totally free- now can it get any better than that? Prob not by much!

On a completely different side note I also wanted to make a mention out for my lovely home state. There is currently a huge fire going on like crazy right now, the Wallow fire- heard of it? Well in case you haven't, there is more details HERE, or you can "like" Apache County Emergency Management on facebook, and they have current updates about the fire and everything going on. It hasn't been burning for very many days it has already jumped to over 230,000 acres of forest that has caught fire. Even though my hometown is still a while away from the fire, if they aren't able to get any kind of containment soon they could be in danger as well. Several towns have already been evacuated for their safety (including the beautiful resort area that we went to for our honeymoon), these poor people down there could be loosing their homes and are losing the beautiful forests. I know there really isn't a lot we can do to help- but you can never underestimate the power of prayer- and they all need yours and my prayers that this thing can be contained and put out and even better that they can get some lovely rain! And prayers are always free :)

Anyway, hope you have a lovely Monday, until next time!...