Seeing double yet? It’s interesting to see the little differences between my girls, but overall I think they look similar enough you can tell they’re related.
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Spring look-agains
May 14, 2012 — MamaDoakClarity
May 13, 2012 — MamaDoakFor the first year of Beverly’s life my mantra-verse was “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Phillipians 4:13. I still pull that one out occasionally, but now that I’m handling two kids – especially the one in the “Tender Twos” – my mantra-verse is “Love is patient; love is kind” 1 Cor. 13:4. I have difficulty memorizing large chunks of Scripture in any meaningful kind of way, but what does help me is finding verses that are very small and very applicable.
I don’t like having New Years resolutions, but for 2011 my motto was “Just Do It”. I worked hard at combating my procrastination tendencies, making in-depth detailed To-Do lists for the months and then pushing myself to either get tasks done or let them go. By the time Naomi was born, I had done a really good job of clearing my To-Do list; seriously, I had every single thing done that needed to get done before the baby was born, and most of the things that I wanted to get done too! (My midwife teased that was why Naomi came over a week early; I finished getting ready too soon 
That had never happened in my life before. I’m a perfectionist, so even if I write down half a dozen things on the list for a day and cross them all off, I always have a mental list running with all the other things that I “really should” eventually do. But for once, I cleared the decks. And for the first few months after Naomi was born, I kept my just-had-a-baby expectations sooo low that I had so little to do I could actually get it all done! There was a wonderful clarity in that time because I didn’t put anything on my To-Do list unless it was really worth doing – and if it was worth doing, then I got it done. I think I need to pick a new deadline and start working towards it again, because I miss the clear view of my priorities that it inspired. “Becoming a Woman of Simplicity” by Cynthia Heald was very helpful in encouraging me in, well, doing exactly that. I’ve done that study twice now with two different groups and (since that book is primarily focused inward on the heart & soul) I am now on the lookout for a book to help me take that inward simplicity and radiate it outwards to the rest of my life.
Ok, so this quote isn’t exactly in the same theme of the rest of this blogpost. But I literally LOLed when I read it, so I wanted to share. Because there are some days, especially as a young mother of very young children, that this is soooo true.
“… I’ve started keeping a “to-do” list open on my desktop. I honestly can’t tell if it’s helping or driving me to the brink of sprinting naked through the streets with a song in my heart and chocolate in my hair.” from http://www.epbot.com/2011/09/sometimes-its-ok-to-not-be-ok.html
~ In His Peace ~
Time races by
May 12, 2012 — MamaDoakWow, it’s been almost two months since I’ve updated this blog. I kept meaning to, honest I did, but somehow I never quite got around to it. Maybe this week I’ll try to back-date some posts to bring it up to date. Naomi is crawling now and cut her first tooth May 8th. She’s also pulling to stand quite easily. If she gets upset while she’s down on the floor she’ll crawl through the house to find my feet, crying loudly the whole way. At her 7 month shot appointment she was 15 lbs 2 ounces 
It never fails to astonish me how much less stress there is when a baby is growing within the average guidelines. She’s loving solid food and is diligently working on her pincer grasp so she can feed herself more easily. Beverly is quite enthusiastic about helping baby eat and (if not prevented) will share anything from a spoonful of peanut butter to a stale chip fragment. Naomi’s favorite food, however, is still stickers off the floor. Beverly keeps getting better and better at talking and singing. Most of the time if I start singing too she’ll immediately stop, but on rare occasions we’ve pulled off some sweet mother-daughter duets. I’m not interested in doing a full homeschooling curriculum yet, but I’d like to start putting together some educational activities & games for us to enjoy. I’m planning to do a busy bag exchange with some friends, so that will be a fun way to kick-off the learning adventure!
Trolled!
March 16, 2012 — MamaDoakEarlier this evening I got up from using the toilet – and nearly had a heart attack when I saw there was a SPIDER on the toilet seat. Yurg! Ugh! Aaaaauuuggghhhh!
Then I realized it was just a sticker and started breathing again.
Note to self: carefully check all sticker books for spider stickers BEFORE letting Beverly play with them.
Ugh daylight savings
March 12, 2012 — MamaDoakI didn’t realize until Saturday night that this weekend was daylight savings time, so we didn’t have time to do any preparation for Beverly to smooth the transition. Thaaaat was a big mistake. Yesterday was rather tempestuous, and today has been even worse. I think the following pretty much sums up our morning:
Mama: Do you want to play with your dollies?
Beverly: No.
Mama: Do you want to play with your Duplo blocks?
Beverly: No.
Mama: Well do you want to just sit here and be cantankerous?
Beverly: *nods yes*
Nobody told me
March 8, 2012 — MamaDoakMy mom occasionally quotes an old song that goes something like, “Nobody told me I mustn’t drink the perfume/ they said I mustn’t break the pretty bottle/ but nobody told me I mustn’t drink the perfume/ so I did!” Yesterday this song was frequently running through my head, because after all:
I never told Beverly that after she used her little potty she shouldn’t use the entire roll of toilet paper to wipe her booty, cramming it carefully handful by handful into the little potty…
I never told Beverly that she shouldn’t dump her paint water on the table…
I never told Beverly that she shouldn’t scatter shredded paper evenly all over the living room floor to, quote, “make a Daddy garden,” unquote…
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… so she did!
Baby dolly
February 18, 2012 — MamaDoakIt’s crazy how fast Naomi is growing. Recently we opened the box of 6-to-9 month baby clothes, since she had outgrown her 3-to-6 month outfits – only to find that if she keeps growing at her current rate she’ll be out of it in just a few weeks! Here’s some more doppelganger pictures. I think Naomi (right) is looking a bit more similar to Beverly’s (left) baby pictures.
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And here’s a picture of the girls now. Yes they’re not smiling, but at least you can A) see both faces and B) neither is crying. It’s amazing how fiendishly hard it is to get a decent picture of them together.
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New clothes
February 8, 2012 — MamaDoakNaomi did her first solo sitting yesterday… leaning so far forward she was almost resting on her own feet, but at least her side-to-side balance was steady. Today she rolled from her back to her tummy. She’s starting to wiggle around more too. I’ll put her down to play and 15 minutes later she’s rotated 45 degrees to face a different direction. Unfortunately for me, she’s not terribly interested in napping for long stretches during the day. She has grown into the 6-9 month sized clothing now! <3 Which is awesome since there’s some adorable pink outfits perfect for Valentine’s day. I tried unsnapping her BumGenius diapers from the medium to the large setting, but a few blow-outs* later I reluctantly snapped them back. They wrinkle up on the medium setting and are a bit snug around the legs, but it’s just not worth doing the extra laundry for the large setting. I’ll try again in a few weeks.
Beverly is rapidly assimilating the language of commands: statements like “Gimme a cookie” “I need juice” and “No touch me” (to Naomi) are frequently heard around here. But “please” “thank you” and “I love my Naomi sooo much” are also heard too, so I think there’s hope for us yet. One of her current favorite phrases is the suffix “in my arms”. I want my Naomi in my arms, I have my sippy cup in my arms, etc. It’s so cute! Our little monkey has figured out how to use scissors but so far she’s only destroyed some scrap paper, nothing valuable(yet).
Nathan conspired with our parents to get me a sewing machine for my birthday! I’m having lots of fun working on my stacked-up sewing projects, though lately I’ve had to set it aside again so I can go on a decluttering kick. I dislike how decluttering makes the apartment look worse at first, but in the long run it should be much better.
*(If you’re not a parent you might not know what a blow-out is. It’s quite simple really: imagine a wet poopy diaper. Now imagine all that mess NOT in the diaper. Cleaning up is even more interesting since there’s usually a flailing screaming morsel of humanity in the middle of the mess.)
Laugh, baby, laugh
February 6, 2012 — MamaDoakNaomi’s started laughing now! She laughed a little bit on Friday at her big sister, but today she’s been doing some adorable belly laughs for all of us.
Oh, on the list of things that I never expected to have to say – I never expected to have to tell Beverly not to use bubble wrap as toilet paper :S
Hey Presto!
February 2, 2012 — MamaDoakOur car was found on Tuesday! Thank You Lord!!! And local law enforcement A police officer was checking license-plates in a less than savory neighborhood near a highschool on the north side of town when he spotted our car left parked on the street. It had obviously been rifled through, but the ONLY thing missing is the stereo. In the process of yanking it out a bit of the hazard-light wiring in that same console was damaged so now our turn signals don’t work, but it seemed more careless than malicious. Our car is at the mechanics getting fixed back up and hopefully we can get our car back by this weekend.
Apparently we’re not the only ones this has happened to; there’s been a bit of a spree of stolen stereos lately. The interesting thing is that they didn’t hotwire our car; it turns out older Honda cars tend to have their locks worn down to the point where they’ll accept any filed-down old Honda key. (So we don’t need to feel guilty over whether or not we had remembered to lock the doors, because we were going to be screwed either way). Once the electrical system has been repaired we’re going to see about re-keying the doors/ignition on our car to reduce the chances of this happening again. We’re very relieved and grateful to have our car back in one driveable piece – and even all our stuff too!