Days On

When Tim is home, I usually enjoy just following him around like a love-sick puppy. We do everything together and are basically joined at the hip. But, when he is not at home, I usually try to get a lot done. Today was a full and productive day, but some things happened that really made it special.

#1: I used my calendar: Tim bought me a nice planner for 2010 (@Christmas) and I used my Marvy Uchida Le Pen markers to plan today. I usually do this, but since we've been on vacation on the coast, I got back into it today. It's amazing how just making a list of tasks helps keep me from procrastinating or side-tracking. I also took the time to pray over my day and ask God to bless it, or show me ways that He would have me change/augment it.

#2: I faxed paperwork in to save us money on our car insurance, mailed some returns, ordered a chin-up bar on Amazon, did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the floors, and boxed up MJ's out-grown clothes and did my CBS Bible study. Pretty productive!

#3 I finished my first week of P90X- I was tired today, and almost didn't do it, but I did- and I already have some muscle tone showing. It is HARD though.

#4 Some really sweet things have been happening with Madeleine. She has started SNUGGLING! When she nurses or when I pick her up from a nap, or when we're just sitting together, she nuzzles into my chest and neck and sucks her thumb. It is amazing. She will also wrap her hand around my neck and grasp my hair at the nape of my neck- it is so tender and sweet. Another fun thing happened when I pulled out the seal mobile. On our vaca on the coast, we saw thousands of elephant seals up on the beaches to birth their pups. She was very taken with the yelping and guttural sounds from the seals. At the ranger station in Big Sur, there were these amazing mobiles made by Flensted. Well, the ranger needed to clear out the seals, we really wanted the butterfly one- which sent Madeleine squealing- but we got the seals for only $3.00- usually they retail for ~$35.00. Well, I opened it up today to hang it, and she screamed in delight. It is expertly balanced, simple and modern and I actually like that we have seals because now it reminds us of the trip and the experience of seeing the seals during our wonderful family trip. The third joy with her was dancing to Simon and Garfunkle- we clapped our way through a feeding to Cecilia and then danced and chased the puppies around she was laughing and it is so cute to see those adorable teeth poking through the top and bottom gums. Oh, those teeth are just TOO much!!!! Finally, I'm really amazed at how much we are learning to communicate. Today, I was going to my parents house to do some laundry (our washer is out until Tues.) and she started to fuss when I put her in her carseat. I told her, "Hey, no fussy-fuss, we're going to Nani and Popi's house. Nani and Popi's house." She quieted down and looked at me like she understood where we were going. It was very interesting. The same kinda thing happened when I took her on a hike in our Kid Comfort Pack in the meadow by our house. We were hiking when we saw a song bird, it was in a tree and had a lovely little "tweeeeeeeeeee,twee twee twee twee" call. I tried to find out which bird it was on the internet, but I am no bird person. Anyway, I pointed out the bird in the tree, signing "tree" and she watched it. I sang to it and it sang back. She made a little grunting noise and I did it again. Then the bird flew away and she followed it. This doesn't sound advanced, but she was in the kid pack which makes it hard for her to move her head from side to side and when she followed the bird, I felt her weight shift in the pack. She's definitely making lots of connections using me as the bridge to noticing things. I might point something out, but once she connects to it, she analyzes it and sometimes "talks" to me about it through squeals, shrieks, laughs, grunts or just "aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". I found myself tearing up as we were dancing to music earlier realizing that one of my greatest joys in the world is being with her. I feel so sorry for the women who can't stay with their babies!! I would never want to be missing out on these sweet, sweet moments. She's growing up too, too fast. And March is fast approaching...*

It was a great day, and now I am going to read my daily reading in Leviticus...so happy I'm keeping up- skip a day and you're reading like 10 chapters =) I am also reading The Art of Racing in the Rain which Tim gave me for Christmas. I am really liking it. I haven't forgotten about my TTB posts, I just haven't made time to do any more. Maybe once things settle down at home, I've just got too much cleaning, decorating, playing to do.

Love, Lauren

*originally, I "planned" a very precise timeline for the next pregnancy. I have a wedding in April 2010 and one in January 2011, so the idea was to get pregnant in March, be able to fit into the dress for '10 wedding, deliver in December and work out hard for the '11 wedding. But then I remembered the reason God lead us to use Natural Family Planning (though we are not Catholic): it's HIS timing, not ours. So, when God leads our family and blesses us with a baby-it'll be the perfect time, and we'll be ready.