I need Mommy!

Last night I was getting Channing ready for bed and Matt is in charge of getting the big 4 ready. I heard a loud thud followed by crying. I knew Matt had it under control and the crying stopped. I was putting Channing in bed and Matt came in carrying Harper with an ice pack on his eye. He laid him in my bed and said he needed me. I came back in the room, hopped in bed with him, and cuddled. Then Matt told me he fell into the night stand. Matt consoled him and got him an ice pack and when he was done crying he told Matt, "I want Mommy!" Oh, yank at my heart strings! Harper is very tough and usually doesn't need me at all. He will get hurt, may come to me for a kiss, but never a true need for me. So yes, I stayed in that bed, cuddled him, kissed his eye, put a blanket on his cheek so that it wouldn't be cold from the ice pack, read him a story, and prayed for his wound. I will hold onto that memory, because it was so special to hear that he needed me and what I can give him.

Then I sit and think how bad does it have to get for us to cry out "I need my Jesus!" How many times do we fall down, brush ourselves off, and keep going - taking care of our own wounds. How many times when we are so stuffy and can't breathe, do we just run to CVS and get something to just soothe our aches and pains. I am reading an amazing book right now, Kisses From Katie, and she makes things so real. After completing high school she went to go teach Kindergarten in Uganda for a year. She documents what real pain is. She documents what true need is. She documents what true faith is. Within a year she set up a ministry (Amazima) and adopted 14 kids! Yes, she is just out of high school. I am amazed at her obedience to God. I am amazed at how we think we know what pain and heart ache is when the images of innocent children who are starving and long for love are so vivid when reading this book. My mind can't even rest. I keep finding myself trying to hide away in my bedroom to read more. I think I could continue typing for a while, but I must stop and feed my children - remember that Jesus loves you and you can always call out "I need my Jesus!" and He will be there for you!

Busy Week for my Baby

On January 5th, I sat my 9 month old on the potty for the first time. She was successful!! Here we go again! This sweet baby just grows so fast I can't keep up!

Then she was doing this for the past several weeks. And on January 6th, my 9 month old took her first step! Yes, you read that right......Channing took a step! We are in trouble. She is crazy! Carly and Chloe didn't crawl until 12 months and then walked at 14 months and then her is my sweet little baby ready at 9 months. She was ever so proud taking that first step to me. My heart can't take all this growing up. And then the next day, she crawled up 2 flights of stairs with a pencil (it wasn't sharp) but she did it with such grace (the pencil was on its way to the school room - the girls got it from church - no we don't leave pencils laying around usually). I am in serious trouble with this rascal. She gets everywhere! I couldn't believe she did that and I was telling the girls about it and they said, "Yeah, we know - we taught her to do that!" Thanks girls! Things are going to be getting really interesting around here!

Childhood Ripped Away

The dreaded event finally happened! The day I have been dreading for quite some time now. The day one of my babies lost one of their baby teeth!!!!!!!!!! It's not fair! Why do they have to grow up? At first its a tooth, then they are out spending the night at friends houses, then its a car, then college and then they are GONE!!! I can't take this!! Their innocence is ripped away from them and can't be replaced - well it will be replaced with a big old ugly chicklet sized tooth (insert picture of Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace)!! It is so sad to me to see a hole in my child's sweet little smile. I am not happy about this can you tell?! Here is the culprit:

Yup, the 4 year old looses the first tooth in this house!! January 3, 2012 - Harper Banks is down a tooth. Carly and Chloe were glad he took the first hit with loosing a tooth - they needed to see how this whole process took place before they could loose one :) The above picture is with the tooth still in tact - yes, graphic I know. It was just sitting in his mouth by the last day, so when Matt took it out, it didn't even bleed!

And here is the awful hole left in the cutest smile! I hate it!! For some reason I think this tooth got knocked by Finley's head a long time ago, so I am wondering if that is why he lost it so soon, but, I really hope this is not a trend this year!! I did check the girls' mouths and they each barely have one loose - and of course it is the opposite ones in the center, so that will be really weird if they loose opposite teeth (I am sure everyone else will be glad so they can tell them apart!) He put his tooth in his tooth box (I knew it was coming so I bought little wood boxes from Hobby Lobby that they each painted so they could set it out for the tooth fairy). He put it on his window so she could get it. He wanted me to write a note: "Dear Tooth Fairy, Can you please leave my tooth and my box. Today is Tuesday. Love, Harper"

The next morning we waited to hear him opening his box. He didn't. I finally asked him if he looked and he said the note was still on the box so he didn't think she came. I told him to look anyways (she wrote a response to him) and he found his gold dollar! He was excited. Before he went to bed, he went running out of my room, and then quickly came back and said, "Wait, how is she going to get in the house if the garage door isn't open?" I told him she was magical and would come through the window but couldn't come until he was asleep. He quickly said, "Oh, I think she is in the neighborhood!!" And he ran into bed and snuggled right in! It was a rough day - Oh wait.......Forgot to add something......When Matt pulled the tooth and Harper looked at me, yes I got teary eyed and quickly hugged my baby boy - bad idea. His proud, brave expression turned to tears too as he was sad that it upset me!! Ooopsie. I had to turn off my sadness and let him know how cool he was. We decided to snuggle and watch a little Blue's Clues together to get our minds off it. That sweet baby had his little arm around me the whole time - I know he didn't want to upset me and I guess he can still be my baby :)