That last night was the last time I would go in and check on Becca in her crib.

That tonight she could look so small curled up in such a big bed.

That she would be so excited to get into bed.

That watching her would be like looking in a mirror.

That it would go by so fast.

That it would make me so sad.  

This week has been a hard one for parenting.  Becca has been going through the “terrible twos” and we’ve all had a touch of this cold/flu that is going around.   But Becca was just really trying me and I didn’t think I was handling it very well.  There where a few days last week that I think I cried with relief as I walked out the door at the babysitters on my way to work.   7 hours without being tested!   Heaven on earth for this frazzled mom.

The Lord knew my struggles of doubt and the discouragement that I felt as a mom last week.   He brought me encouragement in three different ways to let me know that we are making the right choices in parenting.   The first was on Thursday morning when Becca and I went to get our haircut.   While my hair was cut she sat in a chair, didn’t make a lot of noise, just kind of jabbering, but not screaming or being loud.   She did come up to the side of my chair and talk to me, but didn’t get into things, she was just wonderful!   It made me so glad that she has such good manners out in public, especially since the day before there was a tax appointment at work, they brought their young daughters and they ran around the conference table screaming and yelling the whole time – and I wasn’t in there, but my office is in the room next to the conference room and these girls were driving me crazy.  I kept thinking to myself, why are they allowed to act that way in public, because we try to stress to Ben and Becca what is expected of them in public.

The next encouragement came Thursday evening when we where at a meeting at church.  A lady who works at the cable company told me how good my kids where when Walter had them in their getting information that day.   She said that she loves that we are “doing things right”.   That did my heart so much good, because not only did I recognize how well my kids behave, yet someone else did too. 

And lastly today at church someone came up to us and said that they really enjoy seeing us bring Benjamin into church service with us.   After much prayer and consideration we decided to have Ben go to church with us, instead of going to “children’s church.”   We feel like he needs to know how to sit through church and that it is good to hear the songs and to hear God’s word being taught (I’m not saying that God’s word is not being taught in children’s church).  Walter and I just don’t want him to think that everything is about him being entertained.   It just felt good to have someone that we respect encourage us in the decisions that we are making.

My little girl is sick.   She’s had a cough since yesterday and didn’t sleep well last night or this afternoon.   She got so worked up tonight when her dad left to go teach and Jr High Youth Group (he was the guest teacher tonight) that she ended up getting sick.   She wouldn’t take a bath and actually I think she was relieved to go to bed tonight.  After laying her down, I haven’t heard a peep out of her.

I know that I need to stay home with her tomorrow, she had a fever when I put her to bed, yet I have stuff that I need to get done at work.   I’m sure that they will be understanding when I call in, or maybe I can split the day in half with Walter, he goes in to work for the morning and I’ll go in during the afternoon.   It just makes me upset that I feel like I have to choose.  

I’m so glad that the times where these decisions have to be made are few and far between.   I’m so very thankful that we don’t depend on my paycheck to house, feed or clothe us.   But from now on my kids can’t get sick the first two weeks of the month – Billing needs to be done 

There is no tom-boyishness in our little girl.   She loves dresses, says they make her a princess, she loves “pretties” in her hair, loves to carry a purse around and most importantly she loves shoes.  She knows not to wear her pink shoes with her red dress and that her pink snowboots only go with her long pink and purple dresses.   She has standards!  

Now she’s entering the realm of doing hair, specifically mine, because lets face it, her father has none and I don’t think Ben would really let her brush her hair, so there I sit while she pulls and brushes away.    I’m trying to teach her that a person doesn’t have to yell and scream when someone else brushes their hair.   Yet when I ask if I can brush hers she starts screaming “ouch, ouch” before the bristles have even touched her head.  

Maybe hair brushing is like introducing a new food, it has to be introduced 11 times before a child will touch it (or something like that).  Let’s see…..she’s 2 and a half….I think we’ve passed that by now.  

 ***edited to add that we just took a shower and I was shaving my legs, she totally was imitating me with one of the toys for the tub.   It’s amazing how she watches and what she comes up with to be just like mom.   I better step up my girly-ness factor LOL.

I was so excited tonight to know that not only was the second episode of the season of Lost was on, but Survivor was starting again!  The only Survivor season that I’ve missed is the very first one.   I usually end up watching them by myself because Walter “pretends” to not care, yet while I was watching tonight I caught him checking out the CBS website looking at who’s playing.   I bet when I head to bed next he’ll ask me who was kicked off.   To that I will have to reply that I was completely blindsided about Jonny Fairplay actually asking to be kicked off and that he actually meant it.   I really thought that Eliza was going to go.   Oh well.   We’ll see what happens as the season continues.