There are a lot of things to freak out about when you’re pregnant. I personally understand the uncertainty of the first trimester, and enough Googling can send anyone into a panic attack for the entire 40 weeks. But I had to laugh a bit when I recently read a first-time-mom write, “I can’t wait until the baby is born – I can finally stop worrying!”

I know there are a couple expecting first-time-moms who read this blog, so I wanted to do some myth-busting:

The worry doesn’t actually stop when the baby is born.

At my own parenting stage, I am regularly jolted with the unpredictability of a two-year-old. Lately, she has run in the street (in front of a car), stuck a screwdriver into an electrical outlet, licked a trashcan at Costco, laid down on a public restroom floor, and attempted to eat raw chicken off the counter. Worry done? Yeah, right.

Worrying comes from the fear of lack of control. But it doesn’t make sense because we’re not in control to begin with. We can certainly attempt to create a safe environment for our children and teach them appropriate behavior. But control is really an illusion, therefore the fear of lack of control is worthless.

In short, this sucks.

The pregnancy worries may end, but the mommy worries are just beginning. The countdown til your due date is not the countdown to peace and tranquility. It’s only a countdown to the time your mind is opened to all the truly dreadful things that could happen to your child now that they’re exposed to the big scary world full of germs, sex offenders and non-organic produce.

The solution to worry? Unfortunately, I don’t have that. I just trust God and give myself regular reality checks. All you other mommas out there – please leave a comment with your best worry-busting tips!

For a spontaneous early Mother’s Day gift, I got to go to a “pregnancy spa” and get an early gender identification ultrasound. So we can happily announce that it’s a…

GIRL!!!

Hannah has been praying for a baby sister even before we got pregnant, though we’ve confirmed she is still a little confused about what a sister is. Anyway, we’re excited she gets to have one! She came to the ultrasound with us and liked seeing the baby on the TV.

So we drew a name, and the winner of the contest is – Lydia! You win the privilege of naming the baby. Just kidding, but if you have any ideas, feel free to pass them along. I’ll be sending the real prize your way. Thanks to everyone who guessed!

Children are a gift from the Lord.

Psalm 127:3a

Last year, I found some great, tough, water-resistent sandals at Old Navy for Hannah to wear all summer. As the weather is getting warmer, I’ve been on the hunt lately for something similar for this year. My criteria: does not require socks, breathable, water-resistant, has toe protection, and of course cute. I decided to look into the Keen kids’ sandals, and – happy day! – the REI 20% off Member’s Coupon arrived in my inbox this morning.

These things are tough! We ended up getting size 10 to give plenty of growing room. With Texas weather (and if her feet don’t grow too much), she’ll be wearing these through October.

Shoe shopping with Hannah is challenging. She LOVES to try on shoes, but the waiting and focusing can be difficult. Since REI is only a few blocks from Brett’s office, I enlisted his help for this particular mission. He was able to keep her contained while I waited on sizes from the shoe guy. Hannah loved the fake boulder they have in the shoe department for “testing.”

So after a successful shoe stop, it was lunch time, and I decided to swing by Chick-fil-A on the way home. As we waited in the drive-thru line to order, Hannah asked me to roll her window down. I obliged. She leaned her head toward the open window and said, “I’d like some nuggets aaaaand some lemonade aaaaand some chicken, please.”

In the afternoon, we got some surprise excitement – a box in the mail! I said to Hannah, “We’ll have to open it. I don’t know what it is.” She answered, “It’s a box!” Oh yeah, thanks, Hannah.

It was a half-birthday present from Aunt Kristen, and it turned into a little project. The box was full of filled balloons with the instructions to pop the balloons for a surprise. Hannah could shake the balloons and hear something inside.

So we popped the balloons and found stickers! And there were more balloons to blow up and play with. What a fun Friday!

Many of us grew up with “the classics” – whether they were read to us out loud or we tackled them on our own, there are those timeless children’s books we remember fondly. Maybe too fondly.

I read a blog post recently on Rage Against the Minivan called “Things That Are Better in Retrospect.” She writes about her children’s reactions when they listened to Little House on the Prairie and The Secret Garden. Apparently, a chapter on pig slaughter and killing off everyone with cholera didn’t go over well.

These are children’s books! What are slaughter and plagues doing in there?

I forwarded the article to my mom, and she had a good answer for the reaction to these “timeless” novels: “I read an article on this topic a long time ago when we were homeschooling and wish I’d saved it. It had to do with the concept that people of days gone by had to deal much more directly with death, illness, injury, food preparation, etc. Ugly things were a part of daily life, and children were not exempt from these realities. Now, our lives and literature are much more sanitized. Those episodes in books were not meant to be shocking or overly dramatic, but simply reflect daily life. Nowadays gory stuff is inserted into a story, but back then, death & disease were all part of a day’s work.”

Yeah, kids have a much more sanitized life these days. My child’s most traumatic moment so far has been watching cookies get smashed. But in most ways, I’m okay with that. We’ll tackle those other life issues down the road. Or in a couple years when I read her Little House on the Prairie…

photo credit

Hannah has been talking in sentences since around October, and lately we’ve been getting more like paragraphs. Recently we saw a bike parked outside HEB. She said, “I see a bicycle. It looks dirty. Somebody needs to clean it.”

Some sentences stretch up to seven words. And they just keep coming. This girl talks a lot. We were at the pediatrician’s office (double ear infections, woohoo) and both the nurse and doctor commented at her clear speech and sheer quantity of dialogue. They also commented on how observant she is – which leads to a lot of her constant narration. I’m used to it, so it’s interesting to hear remarks from outside sources.

One of the most common phrases we hear is, “I do it my by-self!” She will also respond to herself with the common answers we give. For example, she’ll say, “I want a baby sister … Maybe, we’ll see.” Some of the memorized sayings get filed somewhere and pop back up at weird times. We were just randomly sitting on the couch when she announced, “Sushi is a special treat.” Yes, yes, it is.

Pretty much the only time Hannah is not talking is when she’s eating.