God Must Notta Thought Much of Me as a Parent

Gabe, since the moment of conception, has been the EASIEST baby on the planet!! Easy pregnancy, easy labor and delivery, and most importantly, he was an easy baby when he came out...no problems whatsoever with him. I am not exaggerating. He was and is my little angel baby. He's always been very compliant, mellow, easy going, sweet...the list goes on! Even now, a few months short of the age of 2, he is still just so darn easy!! So far, the terrible two's for Gabe consists of him whining and pouting for a minute. Heck, he even takes two hour naps during the day and sleeps for a good 10-11 hours through the night. Seriously, what baby does that?! I feel like the luckiest mother on earth!


It is so easy for me to think that because Gabe is such a good little boy that I must be a wonderful, amazing mother (believe me, I am not!). But this little read points out that it is not my doing that has made Gabe such an easy child, but that his sweet disposition has carried over from the preexistence. It also suggests I couldn't handle a difficult child. Which is probably true. God has given me an easy child because it's all I can handle. But I'm not complaining!! No-I am SO grateful that Gabe is easy as pie and that I can find time to work on things I enjoy and also that we can go on trips and not have to worry about Gabe freaking out. Of course, that was baby #1...we'll see how baby #2 goes! So far, so good!!

Here's the article:

Getting rid of pride and guilt

Author: Linda and Richard Eyre : Mormon Parenting
Source: For Mormon Times
04 February 2011 6:30am

We were visiting a little ward in rural Idaho, and the Sunday School lesson happened to be on parenting. We sat quietly and anonymously and listened.
There was another visitor there, kind of a sophisticated city slicker who seemed to have all the answers. He also seemed to have perfect kids because he prefaced each comment he made with something like, "Well, the way I communicate with my son, the student body president ..." or "The way I handled that with my daughter, the valedictorian ..."
If it had just been a couple of times, it would have been fine, but about the sixth time he gave his perfect, pat answer about his perfect kids, you could almost hear the groans about this self-righteous guy who seemed to have no problems.
Then, just after the first bell, a small, quiet-voiced farmer raised his hand, got called on, stood up and turned to face the big bragger. "Excuse me," he said with a high-pitched country twang, "but God must notta thought much of you as a parent, sendin' ya all them easy kids."
There were some soft giggles from every direction and an almost audible murmur of agreement among the class members. We gave each other's hand a little squeeze and both mumbled, "Amen!" No offense was taken, but we all knew exactly what that good man was saying.
Knowing what we know about our children's pre-existence, about the eternity they have already spent becoming who they are, we had better not take too much credit for who they are. As LDS parents, most of us recognize that we have much less to do with who our kids are than their own growth and development over their past parts of eternity. So we had better not feel too much pride for their gifts and goodness.
And for the same reason, we had better not feel too much guilt for their imperfections and problems.
Because that courageous little farmer could have also said, in another situation to another parent, "God musta thought quite a bit of you as a parent, sendin' ya that difficult kid."
When we see other parents struggling with serious behavioral problems, instead of judging them as poor parents, perhaps we should respect them for how hard they are trying and for the fact that they were selected by some divine process to be worthy of very difficult parenting challenges.
Part of eternal perspective parenting — and a big part of looking for spiritual solutions — is remembering and understanding that we didn't create our children; that they come as who they are from a Father who entrusts us with stewardship for them. We do our best to help our children grow and develop in ways that are uniquely right for them, and we seek God's help.
Thus, we try not to judge other parents or ourselves. We replace pride with gratitude when a child does something well or shows promise in some way, and we replace guilt with perspective and added love when a child falls short or makes a mistake.

Lost...No Quite Found (Yet!)

Once upon a time (as in, my entire life before collage), I used to like art.  And I was pretty good at it.  But life has a way of making a fool out of you, and I so instead of working with what I was good at, I thought it was a clever idea to be a pre-nursing major when I entered college.  Apparently one needs to have some math skills to do well in some of the prerequisite classes (like chemistry).  And if you don't know already, I seriously lack math skills.  That's a nice way of putting it.  To be blunt, I SUCK at math. And I hate it.  I don't know if I hate math because I suck at it or I suck at math because I hate it.  To be brief, my lack of math skills made it impossible for me to even bother applying for the nursing program.  So my freshman year was basically a waste of time.  I don't know why I even thought I would like to be a nurse--I worked as a CNA for a few years and hated every minute of it!  I of course then switched to a much better major: Music!  Something I enjoy and am good at.  Go figure.
But I digress, I was talking about art. I am obviously very happy with my choice to major in music, but I can't help thinking I shouldn't have let that talent slip--maybe I should have at least minored in art. I got so busy with everything in college that I completely (and I mean completely) stopped any drawing, painting, etc.  After I graduated I did one colored pencil drawing for my sister, and when I had Gabe, I did a pencil drawing for my mom for Christmas 2009:

As of late, I have been trying to regain art skills that have been lost.  I have been working mainly with watercolors, because the cleanup is easy and I think they are safer.  I would love to work with oil paints again but I'm very sure they are all dried out plus I fear for my babies health with the all the chemicals.  And they're very time consuming and make a huge mess.  My progress is slow.  Any skills that I have had have definitely declined.  Not completely ceased, but declined.  I still have a ways to go; my technique is just awful! See for yourself:

 

Gabe is just so adorable-who wouldn't want to paint that cute face?!

 

 I just can't get the paintings to have that neat, finished look.  Sloppy, sloppy! And I'm obviously struggling with painting hair.

Videos of Gabe

Here are some videos that I haven't uploaded yet.  I've been a slacker on that as well as taking videos of Gabe.  I need to start taking more videos because he is growing up so fast and is oh so cute!

 

At the Arizona State Fair.  I think it was November 5th.  Gabe loves trains...maybe that should be his 2nd birthday theme...?

 

Gabe and his friend Eva.  They are good buddies.  Taken sometime in November or December

 

 This video is just too funny! Gabe is quite talented at walking high heels.  The fact that his legs are bare and that he has a pacifier in his mouth makes it that much more funny!  Sometime in December.

Gabe loves to dance! Here are some new dance moves he learned with Grandma around Christmastime.

Gabie and Mommy's Day Out

Although we are definitely looking forward to the arrival of our little girl, in a lot of ways I'm going to miss having Gabe as my only child, and I know he enjoys the one-on-one time we get to spend together.  Last week (Monday the 6th, to be precise) I had some coupons for a free oatmeal and McDonald's and a 99 cent kid's cone at Coldstone Creamery.  I thought it would be fun if just Gabe and I went out, spent time together, and had fun--just the two of us. 


The first place we went to was the park right by our house.  We go there a lot.  Here are the pics, I know he looks grumpy but he had tons of fun, seriously! He tends to pull that face whenever I take out the camera!
 

 On the swings

What a silly face!

Then we went to McDonald's.  Although my meal was free, Gabe's certainly wasn't, but I guess $3 isn't too bad. 

He loves chicken nuggets! I think they are disgusting...I should encourage him to eat something else!

At the play place

Then we went to Coldstone Creamery.  We got two flavors (not mixed of course!): cotton candy (Gabe picked it out) and Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll ice cream.  Yum!

 

I spent just over $4 for the entire day! Not to bad--plus Gabe had so much fun!

Gabe/Baby Girl Comparison

Here are the ultrasound pictures of baby girl @19 weeks (on the left) and Gabe @ 17 weeks (on the right).  Don't they look almost identical?! So cute. I guess she will be a girl version of Gabe! 

(P.S. Out of all of his ultrasound pics, this profile pic of Gabe most closely resembles the way he looked when he was born!)

Expanding...!!

 I'm so embarrassed to be posting this so late! I promise I haven't been keeping it all a big secret, especially since almost everyone knows already.

That's right...we're expanding our little family!!  We are expecting another little one, due May 6th. Consequently, my belly is expanding at an alarming rate: 

Currently, I am currently 24 weeks along.  Pregnancy has been going very well, just as easy as Gabe's was. It has been going fast and slow at the same time!   I tell Gabe that there is a baby in my tummy but I'm not sure he gets it yet.  He get's jealous when I hold other babies but other then that he LOVES little babies!!  I think he'll make a great big brother.  He has a very sweet and loving personality so I'm sure he'll love the baby as much as we do.

  December 7th was my ultrasound appointment.  I was so much more excited to find out what it was this time around.  With Gabe, I had an appointment around 16 weeks, which originally was just to find out what my due date was.  The ultrasound technician asked us if we wanted to know the sex, and Erik was like, "I can already tell what it is!".  I didn't think the sex could be determined that early, so I had no anticipation or excitement to find out what it was when we went in for the appointment.  But like I said, this time around was so much more exciting! I was convinced it would be a boy, since the pregnancy felt the same and the Nelson side tends to have mostly boys.  But I was proved wrong!

Yep, Gabe is going to get a little sister!! We are so excited.  We have a list of names, but no single name picked out yet.
Here are her other ultrasound pictures.  They are grainy; the ultrasound tech said it was because the placenta is in the front.

 

The very first ultrasound pic.  She looks like a lizard!

Her face.  Kind of creepy...

Feet!

Side profile

4-D Ultrasound of her hand in front of her face

Her cute little face

Speaking of cute little faces...here is a general idea of what she may look like....!

Victorian Salt Clay

Here's a fun FHE activity for you (if you are the crafty type and enjoy crafty things):  Victorian Salt Clay!!
Here is the full recipe (copied and pasted from the Internet):

Mix 2 cups salt and 2/3 cup water in a pan. Stirring constantly, heat over a low flame for about 4 minutes (Do not boil). Remove from heat. Quickly mix 1 cup cornstarch and 1/2 cup cold water together and add this combination in one go to heated mixture. Stir and mix quickly. If resulting mixture is not a thick paste, place back on low heat and stir for about a minute until mixture is doughlike.

Treat like bread dough-- knead on flat surface until dough is a smooth and pliable mass. Can be stored in plastic or foil and kept in an airtight container.

Color can be added when dough is being cooked or when being kneaded, or modelled objects can be painted when dry.

It takes 2 days for a modelled object to dry at room temperature. For quicker results, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and then turn the oven off. Place the model in the oven, preferably on a wire rack, and leave inside until the oven has cooled off.

For a finishing touch, smooth dry models by rubbing gently with sandpaper or an emery board.

I halved the recipe and it made plenty.  We made Christmas ornaments as an FHE activity last month.  You can make really whatever you want! I simply rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters to make the shapes.  Erik made the stethoscope. Gabie enjoyed poking the dough.  I was worried about him eating it but it's disgustingly salty so he didn't hardly bother.

                                     
 The dough...it's mainly salt so it makes your hands really soft when you're working with it (and hopefully you don't have any cuts!) Also, maybe I'm just weird, but I think it smells really good, too, kind of like the sea.

 Drying the ornaments--it took a few days.

After they were dry, I used an emery board and filed the rough edges (they looked so much better!).  We then painted them with acrylic paints, let them dry, and sprayed them with a sealant that made them look all shiny and pretty.