August

Doughnut girl

I feel like this whole summer has been a blur. It went by at what seems like twice the speed of a normal month, which made me want to scream at time to stop as I watched Zooey grow into an almost-four-year-old and I felt Tennyson grow to full-term. How does it go so fast!? I'm sure a big part of it is our schedules getting full for the school year: swim lessons ended, but speech changed to two different places in the week, BSF kicked off with some leaders' training, and - OH.MY. GOODNESS - Zooey started preschool! Add to that the remodel on our home and prepping things for a baby, and I feel like I wake up, blink and then it's time for bed. Seriously, it's crazy. So, let's see...what's been going on?

Zooey is doing fabulous at her speech therapy! She talks all the time. She makes up stories, tells us about her day, asks us more questions than she was a month ago and is still saying funny things to make us laugh. Her SLP she had for the summer (and we're continuing to see because she's wonderful) is really proud of how far she's come in the three months she's seen her.

Zooey has really begun to take off with a love for learning. She knows most of her letters by sight and the sound they make, she can count up to 20 (most of the time without assistance) - which I actually found out the first time tonight when she was looking at the calendar.  She loves books and being read to and enjoys reading to herself and her dolls or animals. She likes puzzles and can most often figure out a new one all on her own. She has a new love for tea parties. She loves to wear dresses and picks one out almost daily to wear; she always wants to wear her "pretty shoes" (dress shoes) with them. Zooey also got a haircut this month. She wanted short hair like "Mommy and RaRa's." It is adorable, and she loves her hair!

This little girl is FULL of energy, life, happiness and joy. She is compassionate and sensitive, and she forgives very easily. She has a growing love for Jesus that is shown by her love for her Bibles, singing praise songs to Him and praying. Zooey is super sweet and is very loving with babies and other children. She continues to be a daddy's girl, loving to spend every moment she can with him when he is home at night or on the weekends.

As I mentioned, she started preschool late this month. She loves it! She is always very excited to go. Her favorite thing so far has been the class library; she gets to pick out a book every school day. She also talks a lot about snack and what she played outside. The first day of school was a child's birthday, and the class got cupcakes. When I have asked her since then what she's had for snack, she always prefaces it by saying she did not eat cupcakes. :)

Playing at Open House

So excited for her first day!

Ready to go in

She remembered just what to do

Some funny things she's said:
- "Me open you tummy, see baby Tennyson"
- Her expressions are adorable! "Ah man!" "Oh well!" "Oopsie" "Oh silly me."
- I'm trying to get my comments when driving (which are not terrible!) under control, because little ears are listening... "Come on car - go!" "Scoot car scoot scoot!"
- My leg fell asleep the other day, and she said, "Me kiss you leg, Mommy. Good night leg!"

One thing I've really been praying for enabling to impress God's Word on my children's hearts and to talk about it during our days (Deut. 6:6-9). I am reading an excellent book right now called Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus. God has been working on some sin-habits in my own life big time lately, and one of the things my pastor keeps saying is that we must preach the Gospel to ourselves regularly. That really hit me. I think all too often I find myself in a place where I compromise with sin and take advantage of God's grace, or I fail to think of the greatness of grace and the ugliness of my sin and my deep need for Him. I really want Zooey to be in the habit of preaching the Gospel to herself on a regular basis. I don't want her to be addicted to human compliments and adoration; I want her to know the freedom that she is good because God's Son's sacrifice made her good - and she doesn't have to earn it. And I want her to know that no one can be good or obedient without it. Social obedience is not godliness; walking in obedience to Him can only come from falling deeply in love with Him and the outpouring of obedience that naturally comes from that love and from the help of the Holy Spirit. It's actually very cool to see how God is giving me wisdom and discernment (which I pray for all.the.time as a mom) to help shape her character and at the same time, through many avenues, He's taking me (sometimes painfully) down a road to deeper sanctification.

Hm - a future triathlete?

Making a "campfire" from rocks and sticks in the driveway

First Pedicure

a day at the zoo

after her hair cut

looking through her binoculars for Daddy who was hard at work at home

July

July has come and gone, and we have but a month and a half until little Tennyson joins our family. I'm savoring the time I have with Zooey as an only child, but looking forward to seeing her with her baby brother. She is a very loving little girl, always curling up for snuggles and giving me and Ryan hugs and kisses. She also loves her cousin so much; I have a feeling she's going to be just as loving and affectionate with Tennyson.

Zooey loves:
- Swimming! Although her swim lessons this summer started out kind of rough, she has really adapted and loves to be in the water. She also loves to show off for her teachers and is constantly touting the things she did "all by myself!"
- Singing - from BSF songs to songs from her favorite TV shows, she is constantly singing little songs. What's really cool is that her language is improving so much every day that we can often understand what she's trying to sing - and many times she's right on-key. :)
- Babies - she continues to love babies, especially her cousin Gideon. She also loves to give my belly kisses and "zerberts" and talk to baby Tennyson. She also pretends that there's a baby Tennyson in her tummy.
- Puzzles, which she's becoming really great at, often doing them independently
- Books on CD in the car
- VBS was this month, and she had a blast!
- She continues to love Peter Pan and enjoys making up imaginary games and stories involving him.

Cute things she said:
- Singing "Good Morning God" she sings "Morning time I am child Show me way"
- "Mommy, you so pretty. Me love you so much!"

Zooey's making HUGE improvements at speech therapy! Her therapist has been amazed at the amount of language explosion she's had over the last two months. I definitely think that private therapy twice a week this summer has been very beneficial, and if we can afford it, I'd like to keep sending her to private once a week when school/Child Find starts back up. She's also begun to play with noise levels and do a lot of self-talk when playing, all of which are good signs with her language improvement. Her SLP noticed that Zooey seems to have some sensory issues. I talked with her former BSF teacher who happens to be an OT, and she said she thinks Zooey would be a great candidate for OT. She was SUPER kind to meet with me and give me a basic sensory diet to work with until we can get Zooey in for a full evaluation and begin therapy. So far the things I've been trying have been improving her focus and attention, as well as giving her input where she really seems to be seeking it.

I have to be honest, all the speech and sensory things have been hard for me. It's hard as a parent to have a kiddo who society kind of deems "not average." It's been hard to see her struggle with her language, and it's hard to know now that some of the "quirks" I thought she had are something more (like how she trips or runs into people/things, getting so wound up when she's tired or overstimulated). I've spent a lot of time "on my knees" (more so in my heart, because being pregnant and on my literal knees is a bit too much right now :) ) about all this, and God continually shows me that He's in control. He gave me and Ryan sweet Zooey the way she is, and He has big plans for her. He has been in every.single.detail and has consistently given us Christian therapists to work with Zooey and who pray for Zooey and even give me encouragement. Even though I've been surprised, defensive, confused and overwhelmed, I am so thankful that my Lord is none of those things. He is in control, not surprised but Sovereign, and He sees Zooey's future. These little bumps in the road are not things that define her, despite any label society may try to put on her to define her. I need to remember that. She is my amazing, independent, special, jubilant, compassionate, sensitive little girl whom I treasure so much! I can't wait to see what God's going to do with her.

singing at the last day of VBS

nursing her baby :)

my snuggly girl

She HAD to have goggles!

first dentist appointment - she did awesome!

38 weeks

How far along: 38 weeks - I can't believe this will be my last pregnancy update!!

Size of Baby: watermelon

Total weight gain: +35 lbs.

Stretch marks? Nope.

Sleep: Last night I had a surprising night of great sleep and was able to go immediately back to sleep when I woke up to pee. Yay! Other than that, it's hit or miss. I'm convinced it's preparation for sleepless nights with a baby.

Best moments this week: I picked up my maternity photos! They are super adorable (I put some below). My friend Steph and I also got together to sew my car seat cover, of which she did most of the work, and it's really cute. I didn't have one with Zooey, and I'm excited for it. It was fun to get together and make that. Tennyson's room is also almost done, except for three pictures. Ryan has made HUGE progress on my grandma's bathroom, which is so nice! It's almost done. The house progress has been a big relief to me. Even if it's not 100% done when Tennyson comes, I know it'll happen relatively quickly now, as everything is more than half way done.

Movement:Yes, still strong and on a little routine. He's a lot lower this week, so the movement's pretty painful at times. I'm still just so thankful I get to feel him moving about.

Food cravings: Not really...I haven't been really hungry for anything, and I feel sick a lot. I have had an ice tea and ice craving, which also happened with Zooey near the end.

What I miss: I have really been missing holding Zooey on my lap! I also miss running, but I know I have awhile for that, still.

What I am looking forward to: In 6 days we get to meet our little guy!!! Woohoo!

Weekly Wisdom: I'm thankful for Sarah's medical wisdom and how much more she's walked me through what's going to happen next week with my surgery even more than my doctor has. I like to know details about things like this, so it's nice to know what's going to go down when I get there. She's also given me some reassurance about some of those nagging little worries.

Milestones: I had my final prenatal checkup today. Tennyson is pretty close to birth weight and may not put on much weight this week. He is pretty much done shedding his lanugo and vernix and is basically ready to come out whenever God says it's time (which may be when it's "scheduled" or could be earlier). :)

Labor signs: Much more intense and frequent BH contractions, he's lower.

 

 

 

38 weeks

Here are some of the maternity pictures, which were taken when I was 35 weeks. I love what she did! If you are local and are looking for a photographer, Kelsey at Smitten By A Promise does a great job.