The Ducks

Last week we made our first trip of the spring to see the ducks.  Hunter jumped in his stroller so fast!  He couldn't wait for our first visit of the season...

...and I was so excited for him that I forgot the bread:(  Hunter handled it well though, and just followed his little friends around the creek.

Maybe next time H will ride his bike over...except apparently the bicycle isn't his preferred mode of transportation these days.  He sure does love that helmet though;) 

Cute

I couldn't resist sharing some of Charlotte's latest cuteness...

Clearly we put her in that position.  As you can see, she's slightly annoyed about it.

She really is such a happy baby...and even more important, she already loves the camera.  All you have to do is tell her how pretty she is and she'll smile this big, bright smile for you!  My sweet friend, Emily, took our pictures this weekend, and I can't wait to see the ones of the kids.  Charlotte was so smiley, and Hunter actually did pretty good, too...at least at the beginning of the photo shoot:)

Hunter's Creations

I have to confess that I am a little OCD....who isn't to at least some extent?  No compulsive handwashing or locking and unlocking the door 50 times a night, but I do like things in a certain order.  I organize our DVDs and CDs alphabetically.  I rotate through the clothes in my closet, choosing to wear what's in the front of that type of clothing and hanging the clean clothes in the back.  I always put folded laundry on the bottom of the stack.  I frequently walk around the house straightening and re-straightening wall hangings and picture frames.

James is the same way but with different things.  He doesn't like shoes thrown around (which of course is a habit of mine), so he'll line them up neatly against the wall.  He also likes things to be straight or in neat piles.  His family teases him about this and will sometimes move something so it's crooked just to see how long he can stand it without fixing it, which is usually about 2 seconds after he notices it.

So it's not surprising that Hunter's favorite thing to do while playing is line his toys up in neat rows.  He often brings his toy food from his play kitchen into our bedroom in the morning while I'm getting ready.  He walks quickly back and forth between the room carrying one piece - or sometimes two - at a time and neatly adding it to the row on the floor.  He also loves to take the letters off of his alphabet puzzle and make "words" by lining them up in a row.  I love this quirkiness about him, so we got some pictures so I could always remember...

He neatly layed all of those pieces out and then sat to enjoy it.  I had to get a close up of the magneats...

Everytime he plays with this set of blocks, he stacks them so that the lid of the box is completely covered.  He calls it his cake and likes to pretend that we're at a birthday party...

Here he is one afternoon with one of his "cakes"...

I love that sweet boy.  It's such a miraculous thing to get to witness him becoming...him.  Definitely on my top 10 favorites of parenting.

If there's one thing the girl can do...

It's eat! 

Being a feeding therapist, I am consistently thankful that my children eat well.  I can see what a blessing it is to not have to deal with that kind of stress multiple times a day. 

But there is one area that my kids don't seem to be motivated in. 

Y'all know I was extremely anxious about H's lack of desire to move for the first 11 months of his life.  With Charlotte, I've been much less stressed about this.  She's turned out to be pretty similar to him in this area, but I kept thinking, Hunter's gross motor skills are completely normal now, so she'll be fine.  Then I was reading my friend Courtney's blog several weeks ago and saw that her daughter is doing TONS of things that Char isn't even close too (and Teagan is a little over a month behind Char in age). 

I started thinking, and realized pretty quickly that Charlotte doesn't really do any gross motor activity without assistance.  She'll sit if you put her in sitting...and will sit there all day long without getting out of it.  The house could burn down and the girl wouldn't move.  She'll roll with assistance and coaxing, but not often. She'll stand holding a table for a little while, but won't try to pull up to it.  And don't even dream of crawling...even army crawling. 

So I started asking questions at work and 2 of my sweet friends (one OT and one PT) did a quick eval at work yesterday.  It's always bothered me that Charlotte doesn't like to bring her arms to midline.  When you hold her she holds them out like she's flying, which is apparently because her trunk is weak and she's trying to stabilize herself.  My friends showed me several trunk strengthening exercises to do, and recommended that I ask her doctor for a therapy script if she's not better before her 9 month appointment in a couple of weeks.  Of course she worked perfectly for Mercy and Melissa during the eval, but when James and I tried to do the exercises tonight, she fought us.  Hard.  We'll see how it goes.

So OT/PT might be in her future, but at least she'll never have feeding therapy... 

How cute is she?!

"I wanna go on a trip."

The last time our family went on any sort of vacation together was all the way back in 2008.  TWO THOUSAND EIGHT y'all!  2008!  I didn't even realize it had been that long until we were actually on the road this weekend.  Our sweet friends gave us their cabin in the woods in east Texas the middle of nowhere for the weekend, and it was one of the best trips I've ever had.  We told Hunter we were going on a trip early in the week, and he was just as excited as we were.  For the majority of the ride out there, he kept saying, "I wanna go on a trip." 

Clearly the concept was beyond him. 

But once we got there, he loved it.  And so did we.

Here's the front of the cabin right after we pulled up.  Hunter is giddy to be free of the car seat...

(Everyone who knows me well, okay anyone who knows me at all, knows I'm not much of a campy-outdoorsy gal.  When packing for any occasion, I mostly consider cuteness over comfort.  I get to be comfortable in my scrubs 5 days a week, so I feel almost ashamed if I don't choose some sort of stylish option for at least a portion of the day when I'm away from the hospital. 

So I brought 2 pairs of shoes to the woods.  My black beaded flip flops and my black flats.  No socks.  Why would I bring socks?  Obviously they don't go with those shoes. The minute I got out of the car at the cabin, I realized what an idiot I was for not bringing tennis shoes.  So my sweet husband let me wear his socks (luckily he brought more than enough!) and tennis shoes most of the weekend.  Because I was wearing his tennis shoes the majority of the time, he had to wear his hiking boots....with shorts.  I've been forbidden to post pictures of him in this boot-short combo, but I can't resist.  The story isn't complete without all of the pictures.  So when you see his fashion faux pas, think of what a loving husband he is...my feet always come before his need to be un-embarrassed.)

Right after we unloaded we headed out for a hike, and took turns on this fun swing...

If you're guessing that H was too scared to take a turn, you're guessing correctly.  He was a champ at hiking though...

And Char was a champ at riding...those wraps can sometimes make for a bumpy ride!

That evening we walked down to the lake...

We met a man out there who was actually a pastor at one of the churches in Lake Highlands.  He was fishing and was so sweet to Hunter.  H loved watching him put the worms on the hook...but definitely did not want to touch them.  He'd say, "Ewwww!" and laugh really hard.  Here he's watching the pastor set up his pole and throw it in...

Hunter loved watching the fishing so much that we stayed for a while, and on the way back to the cabin, Charlotte started her night-time humming.  I knew she was falling asleep, so I took some pictures to see what she looked like...

It didn't take long for her to look like this...

and then this...

The  next morning we cuddled in bed for a while...

and then headed back out to the lake (that's the cabin in the background)...

This trip to the lake was much shorter, and the rest of Saturday was a pretty lazy day.  We just lounged around...

That night we met some of our friends in Mineola for dinner.  There was some live music around the corner from where we ate, so we went down for a while, and Hunter LOVED it.  He was a dancing fool!...

I did get him to stop and pose for a picture with McKellee (Ashlee - I'm about 110% sure that's not the right spelling!  Sorry!  Maybe you should correct me in the comments;)).  Isn't McKellee's hair gorgeous!  I can't get over how long it is...

Cutest. picture. ever.  That'll for sure be in the rehearsal dinner slideshow.

Even after H sat for a picture, he continued to clap along with the music...

I couldn't resist getting Char in one of the pics.  You know me...safety first!

and one with the mamas...

(at least I'm holding my baby in this one and not leaving her alone on the concrete.)

Believe it or not, Sunday was picture-free.  We had so, so much fun, and can't wait for our next family trip!  (Which we've already decided will be in August to the beach!)

He Is Risen Indeed!

Since Hunter only had 1 egg hunt this year, James and I hid eggs last night so he could have a hunt around the house before church.  I took several pictures and when I was looking back at them, I was shocked at how big he looks...

Every time he picked up an egg, he'd shake it and then ask to open it.  We finally gave in, and he carefully opened the wrapper, set the pieces on the table, and then took all of his trash to the trash can.  He's such a clean freak...at least we know some lessons are sticking with him:)

He looks especially tall to me in this one...

I really wanted a family picture of everyone in our Easter clothes, but Charlotte was having a rough day from teething, and we had to sneak out of church early because my family was coming over to the house, so I only got these of Char after the rest of us had changed...

Throughout this weekend, we've been talking through the sacrifice Jesus made for us with Hunter.  Obviously he can't yet grasp what Jesus did for him, but Hunter's said some of the cutest things during our talks.  Friday morning before I left for work, James, H and I went out front to put our cross in the yard and say a prayer.  I explained to Hunter that it was Good Friday and that this was the day that Jesus died on the cross for our sin.  James and I each said a simple prayer, and then Hunter said, "Dear God, Thank you for this day.  Thank you for Jesus and the cross."  I was giddy.

Then that night, I was putting H to bed and I read the story of the Lord's last day in Hunter's bible.  During his prayer that night, Hunter said, "Dear God, Thank you for this day.  Thank you for mommy and daddy and Hunter and baby Charlotte..." and then he paused, which is not typical, so I asked if there was anything else he wanted to thank God for - cousin Zack was over and was sitting with us on the bed during all of this, so I thought he would say "Zack", but instead he said, "Jesus dying on the cross."  I couldn't believe it.  It was an indescribable feeling. 

This morning we went out front and turned our cross around to the "He is Risen!" side and said another little prayer after I explained that Jesus rose from the grave.  Obviously, Hunter had zero grasp of this concept.  He just looked at me with his sweet, innocent eyes and we went inside.  When I picked him up from church, Mrs. Kay said, "Hunter,  is Jesus alive or dead?"  and he said, "dead."  So we both quickly corrected him.  When James came up, we repeated the same conversation with the same answer from Hunter.  But when Nana came over, I asked him again, and he said, "Jesus is alive!"  So maybe it's sinking in a little:)

I know that it'll be a really long time before Hunter will understand what Jesus did for him.  There are times when I still don't understand it.  I don't think any of us can ever completely grasp the fullness of God's love for us.  But here's what I do know...my sin held Jesus on that cross 2000 years ago.  For my sin was upon his shoulders as he made himself a sacrifice for us, and now I can live with God and stand in his presence because of that sacrifice.  So we can and should all be thankful, as Hunter's words state, that Jesus died on the cross, but there's so much more to it than that.  Yes, he died on the cross...but then he rose.  That's the most important part of the story.  He is risen.  He is alive.

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:  'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" Luke 24:5b-7