Just Some Thoughts...

You might make fun of my confession that I have watched the show "One Tree Hill" since the very first episode and now I think it's season 8. That means I have been watching since high school. It's a pretty cheesy show a lot of the time, but a devoted fan can't just quit watching. (Unless the show is LOST and that one I didn't mind phasing out...) Anyway, one thing I love about the show is that it always has great quotes from significant people or authors. Well, on the latest episode, one of the characters was having a baby. The quote I heard is this...

"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of us."
-Rabindranath Tagore

Maybe it's because I am due to have a baby at any time, but this quote instantly made me choke up. I wrote it down right away and pondered over it for quite some time. (Asa is asleep which makes pondering possible on occasion.) It is such a short, simple quote, but I can't think of any other phrase which has made me feel so hopeful and loved by God. I sat thinking about my short experience with motherhood so far and I admit that it has been the hardest, yet most joyful experience of my entire life. When I think of Asa growing older, I want to cry because I know how much I will miss his sweet little voice and broken speech and funny phrases and toddler antics. I know that joy will come with every phase of his life but I realized that I don't cherish every moment like I should. Now, with a sweet little girl coming into our family soon, I feel overwhelmed with the love that God has for me. The trust he must instill in us to bring forth his children and nurture them in the midst of this harsh world is unfathomable. It makes me realize that having children really is proof that God truly believes in us and our capabilities to care for his most precious spirits. I bet if he could keep them safely tucked away with him then he would, but he knows that we need to be provided with the opportunity to know Him through the innocence, love and joy that comes with every child of God. I am so grateful for the chance my Father in Heaven is giving me to experience this new role as a mother. My heart feels as though it might burst when I think of soon having two sweet spirits as my children. There is no love comparable except for the love that our Father in Heaven has for each of us.

A Real Quick "What's up?"

Yeah, I don't blog anymore. Not by choice. I have been too insanely busy to do anything other than shower, student teach, do homework, and spend very little precious time with Asa and Berkeley. Here's what's up:

3 more days of student teaching! "Hallelujah!!" does not appropriately convey my excitement about this matter. 7 weeks in the 3rd grade and 7 weeks in the 5th grade has shown me that TEACHING IS HARD is no matter what age the kids are. I might hit the next person who says anything about teachers being overpaid.

3 weeks until graduation! I am so glad I can almost finally say "I did it!" and "I'm DONE."

5 weeks until this baby girl graces us with her presence. I am feeling large and very uncomfortable (thought still sleeping like a brick, thank goodness) with lots of lower back pain. Oh, and that annoying ever-present exhaustion has once again set in. I am very excited to meet our daughter and get to know her, although I am nervous about transitioning to two kids.

Berkeley has won Asa's little heart over since he has been playing a lot of Mr. Mom the last three months. When Berkeley is around, I tend to be chopped liver, but that's okay. I love how close those two are. I'm sure once I am able to be around again, I will be promoted from the chopped liver status once more.

Asa is happy and healthy. He is like Jekyll and Hyde boy right now with his temperament. I guess it must be the age, but one minute he is as happy as ever and the next minute he is throwing himself to the floor in a major temper tantrum. His favorite word right now is "MYSELF!" He wants to do everything on his own and gets so mad when we try to help him. He loves Diego, Cars (the tractor tipping scene),and Bob the Builder. He loves the books Peter Pan and Mickey Mouse. He talks extremely well and I love being able to communicate with him. His favorite toys right now are his little tricycle and a spring horse that my mom has at her house.

Those are the major happenings in life right now. I will post more once I have more than 5 minutes of breathing time.

Imagination

I remember seeing a sign in the pediatrician's office about milestones babies reach and at what age they happen. I saw that "imaginative play" was listed between the ages of 18 months to 2 years. At the time I thought that was crazy because babies that age were too young to understand how to use their imagination. I was so wrong! Asa pretends all the time now. He turns his food into airplanes, he shares with his stuffed puppy, the list goes on and on. I managed to capture a couple of pictures of Asa in the tub the other morning while he was doing some of his "imaginative play". Here he is with his little people man and a squirty tub toy bird. He set them up to face eachother and pretended they were talking, playing, jumping, etc!

It was so cute to watch and I am amazed at how fast he is growing up.

Fitting for the Season.

I'm sure most, if not all of you, have heard this story about the painting of Christ which was salvaged from the remains of the Provo Tabernacle. The loss of the historic Provo Tabernacle was such a sad thing. It was a place built and dedicated for the purpose of worshiping Christ. I went to many meetings in that building and sang in choirs there too and I always loved the feeling that historic building held. This article tells the story perfectly:

http://www.heraldextra.com/tabernacle/article_db328b06-0b0f-11e0-a131-001cc4c03286.html

At this time of year, it is always nice to hear stories like this one that make us think about the reality of Christ, his purpose, his mission and his love for us.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Asa-Isms.

This age is awesome! Asa keeps me laughing all day long. he is really starting to talk up a storm now and there are so many things he's said that I have been meaning to write down. My favorite phrase right now is "big meow". Big Meow is what he calls the King Fu Panda movie. The kid is totally obsessed with this show and Big Meow is the name he came up with because of Tai Lung (the bad tiger). We watch "Big Meow" twice a day if not more.
Asa has learned what the word watch means. He is constantly telling us to WATCH before he does something. Usually it precedes a bout of jumping up and down or holding up his body with his arms between the couch and the footrest.
Anytime Asa sees a toilet, whether it's ours, his, one of TV or one at the store, he will say quite loudly "I poo-poo". He has used his own little potty a few times and definitely knows what toilets are for.
Asa's favorite foods are chicken nuggets, blueberries, macaroni and cheese, waffles. He calls chicken nuggets "bawk-bawk", blueberries are "bee-bees" and macaroni and cheese is "moni cheese". Waffles are "faffles".
He has become very physically able. He runs everywhere, sits and jumps on everything, climbs on anything he can. He has also become a big fan of drawing, playing with play dough, painting (when I'm brave) and building with blocks.
Asa knows and loves the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and thanks to that song, spiders are now called simply "bitsy". He sees a bug that even looks like a spider and he runs around screaming "bitsy" until someone comes to see it and/or dispose of it.
Asa now understands that when Berkeley or I say "no" to him, he is being reprimanded. Now when one of us says no, he will get this really sad face and say "daddy, no, no" or "mommy, no, no". We then have to say "yes, we said no but we still love you."
Asa now sings. He sings random mumbles all the time, but now he actually sings a real song! He sings "la la la Elmo's world la la la elmo's world" all the time. Yup, he loves his Elmo's World DVD. He loves Sesame Street too. He watches old clips on youtube where the sesame street puppets talk to the little boy, John-John. He walks around talking about "john-john" all day.
Here is a little video of Asa showing off some of his Asa-isms. I pretty much think he is the sweetest little guy in the world, but I'm biased...very.

Thanksgiving 2010

As always, Thanksgiving was tons of fun. It was super nice this year because we had our Thanksgiving dinner at the church, so there was tons of room to run around and the kids could go crazy. We pulled out toys from the nursery, set up a paint station to decorate Christmas ornaments, had a projector screen with couches for movies and the wii set up too. Dinner was great and spending time with family was even better. Here's a look at our Thanksgiving through a ton of pictures!

First Snow!

Asa has been an "outside boy" his whole life! Seriously, we don't go 30 minutes inside before he is begging to go back outside. We spent most of every summer day outside. Needless to say, this transition to winter has been rough. Berkeley and I decided it would be a very good idea (for our sanity and Asa's) to invest in some good snow clothes for the little man. We had our first snowfall and Asa absolutely loved being able to go tromp around in it. We even played at the park. The only problem is that snow clothes take forever to put on, especially when your child is completely impatient and would out into the freezing cold naked if I let him. Oh well, it's worth it if I'm able to let the caged animal out from time to time.