Wipe away Baby, In a Tree Top...

I'm in love with this picture and with this sweet moment I had today.  Skylar was so tired after eating lunch that she fell asleep as I cleaned her face softly with a wipe.  I kept doing it for a few minutes just because I thought it was so sweet.  Look at that little face!  My sweet girl.

A couple other funny and cute things that happened today:

After Blakeley went pee this morning, she waved at the toiled & said, "Bye bye pee pee!"  Then she blew kisses at the toilet. 

She did this with her poop the other day too.  She waved at the toilet and said, "Bye bye poo poo!" while jumping up and down.  Where do kids get this stuff? So funny.

This afternoon I told Blakeley that it was her Daddy's birthday tomorrow and she got all wide eyed with a surprised look on her face and said, "Oh my goodness!" and then started running around the room all excited.  The way she said "Oh my goodness!" was soooo cute.  I don't even know where she learned that saying because I don't say that very often. 

P.S. I can't believe Skylar starts nursery at church in two months!

More Funny Blakeley Shenanigans...(They Never Stop)

Here are some of the funny things Blakeley did this week...

Today Blakeley's breakfast prayer consisted of the following: "Dear Heavenly Father...Pizza...bless Dada, bless Mama, bless Sky, bless Phoebe, bless Pizza...something, something...Pizza...something something," and so on...

Then at lunch today Blakeley said, "Mom, look! It's a bib!"

With her tortilla

Yesterday Blakeley was in time out while I was changing Skylar's diaper & when I came back, she was eating a FROZEN corn dog! Gross! She had gotten it out of the box on the counter. Kids, I tell ya! I guess now I know what to feed her next time I'm feeling REALLY lazy.

On Wednesday, I found this.

I had been wondering where all of Blakeley's socks went!

On a sad note, she also got stung by a wasp that afternoon.  She handled it like a champ though and at least now I know she isn't allergic!

Earlier in the week Blakeley was so sweet. I was cleaning the table with a hand towel & on her own, she got a couple of clean hand towels out of the cupboard & hung them up on the oven handle. Such a good helper!  She seriously loves helping me.

Another funny thing about this picture is that everyday at some point, Blakeley will put on Skylar's clothes so this is actually the outfit I had on Skylar that day - size 6 months & it kinda fits!

WARNING!  This next one is a bit graphic but I pretty much take pictures whenever I can to document Blakeley's happenings. 

On July 27th, I posted this to Facebook:

Oh, to appreciate special moments in life. Like watching a sunset, seeing your baby smile for the first time, Blakeley taking off Skylar's poopy diaper while she's crawling around on the floor. Oh wait...

Luckily, it didn't create as big of a mess as it could have but Skylar was crawling around for a few minutes before I realized what happened because I was eating lunch at the table.  At least this rug I could just throw in the washing machine.  There were only two other spots I had to clean...one on tile and one on carpet.  So I'd say I lucked out on the mess potential.

With Blakeley around, the fun never stops!

Potty training update:  B has been doing great.  She's been wearing undies for two weeks now & doesn't really have accidents very often.  And she's been pooping in the toilet for a week now which is great!  For the longest time she wouldn't poop in the toilet & I even bribed her with Chuck E Cheese & ice cream.  So when she finally did, I had to pay up.  Here she is at Chuck E Cheese!

Breathing a Sigh of Relief...FINALLY!

Today is a monumental day for me.   After hours and hours on the phone, multiple letters written, and many tears of frustration shed, I FINALLY received the notice that I've been waiting for...the insurance company finally PAID the three claims that have been outstanding for months.  They approved my appeal back in January, these three claims slipped through the cracks and were never paid like they should have been, and after much craziness and stress endured on my part, they are PAID!   This is related to Skylar's hospitalization & surgery last July in Utah that unknowingly ended up being out of network.

I cannot express how happy I am to finally put this to rest.   This has probably been the most frustrating experience of my life...dealing with all of this aftermath with an insurance company who dropped the ball & really didn't care that I had to call twenty times since January trying to resolve this.   All of this stress has actually felt worse in a way than the hospital experiences themselves.  That might sound weird but it's hard to express unless you have been through this craziness with the insurance company & hospital providers. 

But overall, I am extremely grateful that instead of paying $16,000 out of pocket, we only had to pay about $550 since my appeal was approved based on the fact that it was an emergency situation. I really have needed some good news so I'm glad I got some today!  I have been waiting & waiting for this!

To Live a Life You're Proud of...

I absolutely LOVE this!

Epiphany

Epiphany of the day: These hard things we go through in life are to bring us to a frame of mind where we think more about others & less about ourselves.

Loneliness

I think the feelings of loneliness serve a greater purpose than we realize.  Obviously, no one wants to feel lonely but at different times in our lives, everyone experiences the sadness and emotions that loneliness brings.  I am discovering that even feelings of loneliness are meant to be experienced, to bring us closer to Heavenly Father and to teach us a valuable lesson.  When we feel like there is nobody else around (which may be the case or it may just be our perception of reality at the time), we know that Heavenly Father & Jesus are always there.  If we feel distant to them, it is from our own doing, since we know they never leave us. 

I think those feelings of loneliness make us take a look inward and sometimes make us think about other people.  I think that is one of the main purposes of feeling lonely.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we can pick ourselves up and ask ourselves, "What can I do for someone else?"  Serving others always makes me feel better...instantly!  It's the ultimate "pick me up" to get out of a slump and to start feeling good again. 

I have not been having feelings of loneliness recently, but I was just thinking about this the other day.  The truth is, I feel lonely off and on and I think it stems from not living by family.  We haven't lived by any family for about 7 1/2 years now and that's a really long time!  I do want to live by family again soon because I could use the support.  It would be so nice in those times when I do feel lonely because I know I could just go spend time with my sister or mother in law or any of my family & that would make me feel better.

But I think in those times when we feel lonely, that's when the Lord has put us in a frame of mind where we are able to help someone else.  He has an errand for us that He needs us to do.  Because in those times when we reach out to someone else, it could very well be that they needed someone...that maybe they were worse off than we and we were just what they needed at that time.  The Lord prepared us for that opportunity and had a specific person in mind that we were supposed to help.  And the beauty of it is that not only is the other person blessed but we are also uplifted and strengthened!

So the next time you feel lonely...let yourself feel it for a minute & then ask yourself, "What can I do for someone else?" because there is an opportunity waiting for you!

Mother & Child Are Linked At The Cellular Level

Fetal cells remain to heal a mother throughout her life. shortgreenpigg.deviantart.com

I saw this article & LOVED it and had to share.  It reminds me of the poem "I Carry Your Heart with Me" By E.E. Cummings which is my favorite poem ever.  I'll post the poem below.

Mother & Child Are Linked At The Cellular Level
By Laura Grace Weldon

Today is my youngest child’s birthday. As my mother used to tell me, we always carry our children in our hearts. I know this is true emotionally. Apparently it’s also true on the physical level.
Sometimes science is filled with transcendent meaning more beautiful than any poem. To me, this new research shows the poetry packed in the people all around us.

It’s now known that cells from a developing fetus cross the placenta, allowing the baby’s DNA to become part of the mother’s body. These fetal cells persist in a woman’s body into her old age. (If she has been pregnant with a male child it’s likely she’ll have some Y-chromosomes drifting around for a few decades too). This is true even if the baby she carried didn’t live to be born. The cells of that child stay with her, resonating in ways that mothers have known intuitively throughout time.

Fetal cells you contributed to your own mother may be found in her blood, bone marrow, skin, kidney, and liver. These fetal cells appear to “treat” her when she is ill or injured. Researchers have noticed the presence of these cells in women diagnosed with illnesses such as thyroid disease and hepatitis C. In one case, a woman stopped treatment against medical advice. A liver biopsy showed “thousands of male cells” determined to be from a pregnancy terminated nearly 20 years earlier. These cells helped her body recover just as fetal cells you gave your mother rush to help repair her from within when she’s unwell.

Fetal cells may influence a woman’s autoimmunity, although it’s not yet known if they are always beneficial. According to fascinating accounts in Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?: The Surprising Science of Pregnancy, the more fetal cells there are in a woman’s body, the less likely she is to have conditions such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. That’s not always the case. It’s thought that a mother’s body may battle those cells, thus promoting her own autoimmune disorders. (Apparently family dynamics are complicated even at the cellular level.)

There’s evidence that fetal cells provide some protection against certain cancers. For example, they’re much more prevalent in the breast tissue of healthy women than in those with breast cancer. And fetal cells can contribute stem cells, generate new neurons in the mother’s brain, even help to heal her heart. Her heart!

Look around at your family. Any woman who has ever been pregnant, even if she miscarried so early she never knew she was with child, is likely to be a microchimera (a person who carries the cells of another person). Fetal cells have the imprint of her child’s father and his ancestry. Fetal cells can be shared from one pregnancy to another, meaning the cells of older siblings may float within younger siblings. These cells are another reminder of the ways we are connected in a holographic universe.

I’d like to think that my fetal cells helped my mother battle the congestive heart failure that eventually took her life. I like to imagine that I carry within me my older sister’s fierce intelligence and that my talented younger brother benefits in some way from the cells of both his sisters. Knowing that I carry the cells of my four living children as well as babies I lost makes my heart ever more full on this special day.

We heal our mothers and our children heal us. Again poetry takes a back seat to nature’s awesome secrets.

This article can be found here.

One day I will own this.
Click here to see the listing on etsy for this awesome poem on canvas.