Jessie-Lynn

We've been blessed with Jessie-Lynn for 3 months - what a joy and priviledge she is!

The best part of waking up

Batting Butterflies

Laura's got a great idea. Let's go to the butterfly garden! Read books about butterflies with the girls. Talk about them. Get the girls dressed up for a great photoshoot. Good ideas. Bad ideas: dress the girls in bright colours, go when they are supposed to be napping and forget to tell them that butterflies actually fly. Oops.

Yes, sure enough, the bright colours attracted the butterflies. Unfortunately, this freaked the girls out, and they wanted to smash the butterflies. Also unfortunate is the fact that 80 year old volunteers almost have coronaries when their beloved butterflies get swatted at. So much for my photoshoot. So, here's what we were left with!

Francis demonstrating butterflies flying.



The favorite part of the show? The turtles in the aquarium downstairs :)

Raindrops and coffee cups

Sammi playing with the popular 'Weebles' (because of their shape, they weeble-wobble).

Emma uses her apron to carry around Bunny-Bear (imitating Jessie in her pouch)

Rain, rain, rain. So, I stayed inside and enjoyed some coffee and my girls.

Soup for the chickens

In the tub this morning, the girls kept making soup for the chickens. Now this has happened the last three baths, and I was curious. I racked my brains... was it in a book? Something they picked up at Auntie Jo's? Where did this come from? Oh yeah, Francis and I had talked about how the laying birds were slowing down and it was time to make chicken soup. Chicken soup -soup for chickens. Oh, the innocence of youth! Who's going to tell them that the chickens aren't coming for dinner, but they are dinner?

Crib talk

Sammi: happy birthday to you, Emma! Now Sammi's turn!
Emma: Happy birthday to you, Sammi! Emma's turn...
etc. etc. etc.
This is during nap time, back and forth, back and forth.

45 minutes later, I open the door "okay, guys... enough! It's time to lay down and rest. No more singing"
Emma: "no birthdays? No birthdays! Waaa...."

Yes, they call me the wrecker of joy around here. But they were sleeping 7 minutes later.

10

10 fingers. 10 toes. 10 lbs. Exactly. Jessie-Lynn had a doctor's appointment yesterday and has grown an inch and gained a pound in the last 6 weeks. We praise God that despite having a germ-filled house, Jessie has escaped unscathed through the first two months of her life. Besides having the sniffles twice, she has endured having over 150 people through the house, weekly BSF meetings and church in a flu-filled season without getting sick.

This is the good news. The bad news is her weight has dropped in her percentiles. Our chunky monkey, while growing, is less chunky than desirable... at least according to the growth charts. My heart fell. After fighting the weight battle with the girls for the first 16 months of their lives, I was expecting that Jessie would be our easy one. As a singleton, and one who is sleeping through the night, I never anticipated this. Once again, the old temptations raised their ugly heads. Good mothers have tons of rich, creamy milk. Good mothers have plump babies. Are you feeding your child enough? Umm. Hogwash! Even though I know this is ridiculous, it still feels like a failure. Satan attacks. Now it's mine to resist. Running to Jesus, knowing that these are temptations for me to take on what is not mine.

Whose standards am I living up to? What has the bible called me to do? Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Prov 22:6. Is that my primary concern, what God thinks of how I am parenting? Or what other people think? And what about Jessie? Am I blaming her for reflecting poorly on my ability to parent? If only she'd drink more. If only she would take a bottle. Or am I praising God for her, and how he's made her?

This temptation will come up again and again. And yet they will be exactly as they were created. Smart or slower. Tall. Thin. Plump. Short. Blond or brunette. Quiet. Loud. Exactly as they were created. And I will teach them For you created me in my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13. And while we're bumping up feedings, and reinstating our 2am bonding time, I will praise God for her. As she is.

A perfect 10.