different girl, same onesie

Perhaps it's the frugalness of my nature, but I just love being able to reuse the clothes that Miriam had now for Abbie. I also enjoy remembering what Miriam was like in the same outfit and thinking back to when she was that little. Of course, the girls were born at completely different seasons (Miriam in late summer and Abbie in late winter), but I've been able to make many of the same clothes work. Plus, I figure that it'll all even out eventually as Abbie grows older and it will be even easier to have them share clothes. Being a second-born myself, I know all about hand-me-downs. But I think hand-me-downs always have such a negative connotation attached with them. I'm sure I wore plenty of my sister's clothes when I was young (and then eventually raided her closet when we were older), but I don't think it bothered me one bit. And this little girl will certainly be wearing her share of hand-me-downs, too. Especially since her big sister was showered with so many adorable outfits when she was born (being the only grandchild and great-grandchild on almost all sides helped that a bit). So, here's the first of I'm sure many pictures to come of the girls in the same outfits. Bonus points: can you tell who is who? I know they certainly don't look all that alike, but I can sure see the similarities when they're put together in the same outfit!

hypothetically speaking, what would happen if you left your 7-month-old unattended for a matter of moments with a pen?

{hypothetically speaking, of course}

look ma, no hands! (or one hand, rather)

This little girl has been loving practicing how to stand. Often times, if she starts getting crabby just sitting somewhere, we pick her up and let her stand along the couch or the ottoman and she's happy again. She's even stood on her own for about five seconds at a time on more than one occasion. Miriam was an early walker at just over ten months... we'll see if Abbie will have her beat!

an "after church" photoshoot

We had fun taking some pictures of the girls after church today. I think the pictures alone tell a story of how it all went, so enjoy!

and i melt

Last night, Miriam and I headed to Cubbies after a few week break because of sickness plaguing our house. We knew she would be receiving her Cubbie vest (which she was pretty excited about), but I didn't know she would be getting her "Hopper" badge. Seeing as I am pretty unfamiliar with AWANA, I'm learning things along the way. Anyway, apparently they have a little "badge ceremony" when the kiddos receive various badges throughout the year. So, just a few minutes before the badge ceremony started, I went into the sanctuary so that I could watch Miriam get her badge.

And then I heard her name called from the front. Miriam stood up, walked to the front, picked up her badge, and everyone clapped. And I melted. I must admit, there were a few tears in my eyes as I watched my firstborn receive her first award. If I'm teary at Cubbies, I can't even imagine what I'll be like at her high school graduation. *sigh. Thankfully, we have quite a few years to go.

we love the orchards

...so we made another trip there last weekend. And hopefully another trip again soon! Here are pictures of Miriam, Abbie and me last year at the orchard and then this year!

Fall 2009 (Miriam 2-years-old and I'm pregnant with Abbie)

Fall 2010 (Miriam 3-years-old and Abbie 7 months)

yet another "sisters" moment

In browsing through a few pictures I uploaded recently, I found the following two taken on the same day:

I'm not sure what it means, but it sure is cute.

wilbur

Because of this extremely unseasonably warm weather, I decided I must take the girls out for a walk after lunch. After we were walking along for awhile, we noticed a lady mowing her lawn. As we walked closer to her, Miriam said, "Mom, I think her name is Wilbur."

"I don't think it's Wilbur, honey, but I suppose you can call her that."

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We continued to walk and a few minutes later, Miriam heard a dog barking. "Mom, I'd like to have a dog someday."

"Really? Me too. What do you think you'd name it?"

"Wilbur."

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After our walk, we played outside in the backyard for awhile. Abbie sat on a blanket while Miriam "planted a garden" in her sandbox and I raked up some leaves. When I stopped for a minute to go sit next to Abbie, I noticed some sort of little bug crawling on the blanket. I told Miriam to come over and look at it. She ran over and managed to pick it up and it started crawling up her arm. Guess what she named it? Yes, that was her new pet Wilbur. I decided to go continue raking when I heard Miriam start calling out, "Wilbur! Wilbur! Where are you?" I guess Wilbur had had enough and decided to find another place to crawl around.

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As it was getting closer to nap time, we packed up everything from outside and came and played in the girls' room for a few minutes. Miriam found a book and started paging through it while Abbie played with her toys on the floor. In the book, she stopped at a page of a little girl playing with blocks. "Her name is Wilbur," Miriam told me.

Well, okay. Whatever you say. I love that girl.

anyone cloth diaper?

...or have a young child? I have been cloth diapering for about a year now --toward the end of Miriam's time in diapers and all but the very early weeks for Abbie. I love it. Again, I never thought I'd say that, but it has been a great decision for us. I know it's not for everyone, but I also know a lot of people can be skeptical at first. I sure was. But then, my friend Amber introduced me to it since she had a cloth diapering store right out of her house. I have learned everything from her and purchased everything cloth-diapering through her.

But, back to my original question: anyone cloth diaper or have a young child? Well, through circumstances out of her control, Amber has to close her business and is offering 20% off all of her products in her store. You can read about all of that here. Even if you don't cloth diaper, check out the other things she has --there's a ton of great stuff there! Anyway, I just wanted to pass this along in case anyone has been needing a few diapering supplies or other "baby items" as of late. I think she has free shipping on orders over $100, too. Check it out!

music to my ears

Miriam loves her sister. I know she does --she just often shows it by ignoring her. She was fascinated by her when she was first born, but since then, she usually doesn't care too much about her. We both encourage her to play with Abbie (or at least show her toys or do something) but she does that for about a minute and then moves on to whatever else she was doing. I guess I was expecting her to be a little more excited about a sister than she seems to be acting. I know it takes time (just like we're still adjusting to being a family of four, Miriam is learning what it means to be a sister and also share everything!). Thankfully, this is about all we've had to deal with with the adjustment of a new sister. She's been great otherwise! But anyway, fast forward to today. I was delighted when this took place:

Miriam and I had to run into the bathroom to wash off her sticky hands (from a lollipop) and we left Abbie in their room with a bunch of toys by her (this is a normal event). And, like usual, Abbie started squaking a bit after a few minutes indicating that she was tired of being alone. And then, very unlike usual, Miriam shouted, "hold on Abbie! I'll be right there!" It was music to my ears! This may not be a big deal to anyone else, but I'm just so thrilled that she even acknowledged her sister! And wanted to take care of her! I'm sure this is the first of many wonderful "sister moments" to come.

oh, dear

We don't watch tv at our house all too often, and try to limit it to when the girls are in bed. I am, however, not saying I haven't used the tv occasionally for Miriam when I just need to get something done for a few minutes (like shower) (sorry for the double negative). But with that being said, we try and at least limit Abbie's viewing of the tv. We did wait with Miriam until she was close to 2, and plan on doing the same with Abbie. Now, with that lovely introduction, observe what I observed the other evening after I stepped out of the room for just a minute.

{note to self: don't leave the tv on when you leave the room and aren't there to distract her. Or just leave it off period.}

Hi, mom! I like all those pretty colors on that big screen over there!

oops.

what Miriam taught her Mama about whining

A few days ago, all of us were out and about running errands. As we were leaving a store, Miriam noticed a gumball machine and decided right then and there that she had to have one. And she let us know it.

"Mama, can I have a gumball?"

"No, honey, not this time."

"But I want one!"

"No, Miriam. I already said 'no.' "

"But Mama!" {cue whining}

Little did Miriam know that her Papa was planning on taking us all to get a little ice cream after we got in the car. Ice cream is something Miriam loves. And she loves it far more than gumballs. And ice cream is definitely a treat for her as we don't have it all that often. Meanwhile, Miriam proceeded to whine and whine and whine. So by the time we got her calmed down and into the car, we told her we had a surprise for her. Yes, perhaps we should have skipped the whole ice cream idea after all of her whining, but we decided we still wanted to go and enjoy family ice cream night.

This whole event sparked a thought in both Matt's and my head. Oddly, we said the same thing right after we were packing up in the car. We related the incident with Miriam to how we sometimes (or often in my case) whine to God. We always seem to have something in mind that we want and we want it right now. So, we beg and plead with God to give it to us. Meanwhile, He has something bigger and better in mind if we would just stop whining and let Him bless us with His better idea. I love that the Lord puts word pictures like that right in front of my face so that I don't miss what He's trying to say. I pray I can continue to remember that as I think about whining to him yet again.