Let Go

It was an emotionally taxing day Sunday as we anticipated Lasa's visit with her momma.  It was a frustrating visit from start to finish, but it ended on an encouraging note, so that's good I guess?  After all that up and down, I found myself wet in the eyes in the car Monday listening to this song.  Thinking about Lasa, her momma, upcoming trial, having NO control, and accepting that because we DO know who does.  It was cathartic anyway to hear words I can relate to so presently.  Good song!  (I have another tear jerker from this same guy that I will post soon, too, that relates to our Lasa season as well.)

Let Go by Matt Hammitt 

I wanna hold on 'cause I'm afraid
And I didn't ask for it to be this way
Somehow I found myself caught in the gray
Reaching out for fear, running out of faith

You know what I don't so help me to let go
You're in control so help me to let go
I wanna let go

I wanna let go of what I can't change
'Cause I can't wrap my mind around Your ways
I've got more questions than I have answers these days
Please don't let my suffering go to waste

You know what I don't so help me to let go
You're in control so help me to let go
I wanna let go, I wanna let go

These are the moments it's hard to believe
So please help me, please help me
These are the moments of surrendering
So please help me, please help me, please help me

'Cause You know what I don't so help me to let go
You're in control so help me to let go
You're in control so help me to let go
I wanna let go

Easter Pics

I was gonna skip Easter morning people pics because .... ugh, it's a lot of work to get everyone just right and I am over it.  The Easter basket shot I got last night is fun enough, I say!

 

But then everyone on the Jonah's Journey page was posting Easter greetings of their JJ kiddos and Lasa just couldn't miss the party!  We plopped her down in the front yard in the outfit the Easter Bunny left for her and were lucky enough to snap a few keepers.   It's a shame she didn't enjoy herself. :}

Bless these two sweethearts who VOLUNTEERED to be in some pics as well. I told ya - they can't get enough of that Lasa girl.

Happy Easter, all!

Cambridge Farms Egg Hunt

Community Easter Egg Hunts are a hard thing.  They {sound} fun but the experience is usually chaotic and disappointing.  The last time we went to our neighborhood's annual egg hunt was four years ago and our boy was in tears after not finding any eggs at all.  He froze in the rush of all the big kids taking off around him.  That year the age group was far too big; 5/6 year olds should not be competing with 8/9 year olds, and poor Noah was the size of a four year old that year anyway.  Come on, now. The year before that was a close call with the same outcome.  So we stopped going, opting to just participate in our family hunts or smaller hunts with friends.  This year, Josh was tempted to go again for some reason, probably the gorgeous weather. I warned him not to. 

I predicted that this year Anna would likely be the one in tears.  I was right.  She cried at her mostly empty basket with only 13 eggs when she saw Noah's full basket of 35. 

But she held it together well enough with some parental reminders about the fun being the important part and about being happy for her brother.  Noah, lucky thing, won in his age group for finding the most eggs.  What an overcomer from the tears of the last time we attended.  Ha!

This funny bunny was just along for the ride and fresh air.

And the chew toys.

And the photo ops.

It was a gorgeous day!  Thankful to share it with my people and to be able to {mostly} chill the heck out about the silly eggs. 

Thinking about letting the kiddos watch some of the Passion of the Christ with us tonight, fast- forwarding through super-intense violent scenes.  We shall see...

Finally

I swear it's been at least two years since I last cut my hair.  It's been getting on my nerves and in my way for months now, not to mention that I usually just wear it up in a knot anyway to keep Lasa from pulling it all day long.  Today, I finally, finally skipped out of the house to get it whacked the heck back off.  

I am afraid the shorter length makes me look hunched over from behind now.  Oh well. Life.

Lasa at EIGHT Months

Our Baby Love turns eight months old today.  Can it really already be EIGHT months since she stormed our lives and stole our hearts?  And, in the same token, can it really only be eight months?

Here's Lasa girl's latest as she rounds 2/3 of a year...

• She has her foster brother and sister's hearts.  They still simply cannot get enough of her every day.  Such a blessing!

• She naps twice a day and sleeps 12-13 hours every night, usually waking close to 6:15 for a bottle and then goes back to sleep.
• She is eating Stage 2 and 3 foods.  She is also eating those baby puffs like a pro, though she still can't quite feed them to herself.
• She has graduated from sink/baby bathtub to an actual bathtub and she loves the splashing this allows her without me squawking about how she's soaking the entire kitchen.
• She has tried restaurant high chairs for the first time now as well as store buggies and she loves that upgrade in life as much as she loves the bathtub.

• She has cut two more teeth on the bottom and it proved to be another painful couple weeks for us all as she suffered through the tearing of her poor little gums.  
• She gets up on all fours now, but has not quite achieved an actual crawl.  She moves small distances with a sort of unsteady wormy wiggle reach and fall manueaver. :} So, not crawling yet, but she is technically mobile and that counts for something!

• She also just this week started pulling up to one foot and a knee ... so a kneel?  But then she screams in terror because she is now stuck at that point and does not know how to get back to her butt.  It's pretty hilarious!  She also tries this straight leg pop up move every once and awhile ...

• With all this mobility and growing curiosity, we have retired her floor mat activity gym and her bouncy seat.  She just won't sit still in or on them.  Her patience grows thin now with the Exersaucer and door jumper, but we have a few more weeks of life left in them ... I hope.
• She likes to play standing up, but this still must be with much support and supervision.  Still, she likes stretching those leg wings of hers. 

• Her hair is so long and frizzy now, and I have so little hope of her returning to her mom anytime soon, that we bit the bullet and bought her some quality hair product.  Her Shea Moisture shampoo and conditioner costs more than mine and it smells like heaven.  Also, it tames her curls.  Kind of.  She probably needs more hair product, like a pomade or something. I am dragging my feet about it.
• Baby girl is quite attached to me now and will cry every time I leave the room.  It's exhausting. That could also be a function of all the teething this month ... maybe she is just clingy because she hurts?
• This month has been the worst as far as visits with her mom.  She screams through them entirely. :(  This shot I got after calming her for two seconds... it's pitiful.  I don't know how to help her bond with someone she doesn't see but once a month!

• Lasa has begun showing signs of seasonal allergies, so we started her on some Zyrtec this week.  Fingers crossed it curbs the runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezy fits.
• We have sworn off putting her in the nursery at church now because it is just not worth the pain and suffering we all go through when she gets sick after being there.  This means we have to hold her in church and now this means that one of us is holding her outside of the service because she is a noisy thing.  Here's a fun clip of some of her noises, including her newest scream/squawk.

• Lasa has some funny daily habits ... she poops right after waking up in the morning, but not until after I have just put a fresh diaper on her.  She also wakes with realllllllllly puffy eyes every morning.  She also has gotten good at allowing herself to drift back off to sleep after waking during naps.  We have finally weaned off the swing, which we have still been using for one nap a day.  We can't believe it's finally time to put that thing away ... it served us welllllll.  Remember, it was her bed for all sleeping for over 6 months as we worked through her scary GERD symptoms!
• Our favorite new thing she does now is this combo - squeezing her eyes shut, scrunching nose up, jutting out her chin, showing her teeth, snorting and grinning as hard as she can.  
• Her favorite daily quirk remains her blowing raspberries and her body jerks inviting anyone and everyone to join her game and respond in kind.

 

• She delights in having a blanket spread high in the air above her.  She giggles every naptime when I cover her with one. 
• She adores the new swing we got her for the playground out back. She adores the chains on it that she can gnaw on.  And she loudly protests when it is time to get out of the swing. 

• I think it is obvious how much she loves her Josh.  He is a great diversion for her after a day full of me and the kids.

• She is, as ever, a happy-hearted baby.  Take a listen to some giggles.

• Lasa weighs in at 19 lbs now.  She is busting out of her 9 mos clothes, so we are stocking up on 12 mos stuff.  Among those items is this PRECIOUS bathing suit; don't even try telling me this isn't the cutest thing ever.  She is gonna love splashing in a baby pool ... which Josh has already gotten her. :}

Looking forward to enjoying warmer spring days with you, LasaLove!  We didn't know we'd get these back when we started this journey with you and we will take them with smiles all around.

We love you, baby girl! Happy Eight Months!

Words

Not that I have gotten much reading done lately (only two books in as many months), but some new words I have collected since... I went ahead and listed alllll the definitions just because i can and because no one is home right now to rush or interrupt me. :) Faves in bold.

rugose - wrinkled; corrugated
mugwump - person who remains aloof or independent, especially from party politics
limn - to describe in painting or words
coruscate - (of light) flash or sparkle
jeremiad - long, mournful complaint or lamentation; list of woes
whilom - formerly; in the past
gruntle - to put in good humor
deasil - clockwise
widdershins - counter-clockwise
somnolent - sleepy, drowsy
zaftig - (of a woman) having a full-rounded figure; plump
golem -  a clay figure brought to life by magic
obnubilate - darken, dim; obscure
fusillade - a series of shots fired in quick succession
hoik - to lift something up wildly

Random

Added this to my obsession with the sky and its cloud formations.

Added this to my other obsession - trees.

We welcomed the start of another ball season for Noah this week with his first practice.  He is so glad that he is juuuuuuust barely young enough to eek out another year in coach pitch play.  The thought of the highly competitive Kid Pitch league does not appeal to him at all. He is on a 9/10 year olds team for now, which is just right since he still has a month of 9 left in him.  In other good baseball news, though, I was glad to discover that he is not alone in wanting to stick with coach pitch longer than not ... they have apparently added a Coach Pitch Bigs division for 10/11 year olds!

 

This character created this character in her Maker Space.

"Robbot" comes complete with a remote control and operating "manuwol".  The manual even includes age recommendations for play!  That girl thinks of everything. 

Do not ask me why she wrote THREEEEEEE numbers backwards.  Sometimes her brain shorts out?

Josh is off for four days this Easter weekend.  Being the go-getter kind of guy that he is, he loaded up all the kiddos and took them to Opryland Hotel to wander around and to Opry Mills Mall ... to wander the LegoStore of course. I wasn't up for wandering in a hotel I have been a million times now, so I opted to stay home and enjoy the silence, but I did request a decent pic of them while out. I also indicated I didn't want him to send back a pic from the Lego Store for once, pleaseandthankyou.

This pic he sent back to me is my new favorite pic ever. ❤️ That Josh is the best. 

Anna Learns to Sew

Anna, bless her heart, has wished and hoped and begged to learn to sew for some time now.  Alas, I don't even know how to sew buttons on shirts ... not well, at least.  So I signed my sweetie up with a popular sewing teacher in our area that I spotted on one of our homeschool pages.  Mrs. Robbie had Anna over for an hour private beginner lesson and in two weeks Anna will go back for a group Beginner's class where the girls will sew tote bags. 

Josh ended up being the one to take Anna to this first class as I had other business to attend to.  He did a great job clicking pics for me.  He also enjoyed getting to overhear the lesson.  See here this text that came halfway through the hour:

If it sticks, I see our girl getting a machine of her own later this year ... likely on her birthday.  And especially if she starts taking regular classes in the fall.  We shall see!  

Video footage. :)

How cute is she, all intense and focused?!

More video footage. :)

At the end of class, she had a pocket with an A, a pin cushion, and that red piece of cloth with different stitches of her choosing that she made happen.  Color me impressed!

It is fun to watch her learning something she is excited about.  It is bizarre to watch it happen when it is something that has always intimidated me.  Ha!

Cousins, Eggs, Sinners

Emily and crew came to town this weekend for a homeschool conference.  One of the highlights of the visit was doing a private backyard egg hunt for the kids ... that we grownups made markedly more challenging than your typical egg hunt.  It was a real hit!  We let Jack have a head start, which is why you see Anna and Natalie are preoccupied with being released into the yard as well in this shot.  Funny!

Everyone was allowed to hunt 12 to ensure everyone got some.  I was worried 12 was not enough, but it took them a long time to find 12 each.  We are THAT good of egg hiders, bwahahahahaha!

Before the weekend was over, we also enjoyed a live performance with all the heart two little girls could pour into it.  Anna and Natalie wrote a song, made tickets, made us pay for said tickets with a quarter each, set up a stage in the backyard playground, made a sign, gathered seats and blankets (it was cold that day), and performed their music with drums and words and toy microphone.  Adorable!

At first, we chuckled when we found signs like this taped around the house to advertise.  We thought they were calling all sinners to attend.  It turned out the song was entitled "Sinners." And it was Easter themed, obviously.  It went like so... (typed exactly as the words and marks were on the page - so precious)

Run! Run! Run! away from sin!

For today and forever we live in the presents of the one true God!!

Yeh! Yeh! Yeh! ~~~~~~~

God's love for us is strong enough

that he sent his one and only son to die

on the cro-o-o-o-o-ss for our sins! ~~~~~~~

for our sins.

The Savior ~~~~~

the Savior ~~~~~

the Savior died for us.

What fun it has already turned out to be to have family so close within reach.  Normally, we'd only see these guys 3 or so times a year?  We've now seen them twice in a month and are only 6 weeks away from our next visit.  The kids think this rocks!! Who am I kidding, we big kids think so, too!

Out and About

I feel like Superwoman getting out and about with all three kiddos so much lately.  I have to make myself do it, because I do try to weasel out of the outings in my mind the night before every time, but I am always glad to have gone.  This week we hit Nashville again for a field trip tour of Schermerhorn Symphony Center and The County Music Hall of Fame.  The talk was entitled, "Is it a Fiddle or a Violin?"  And as it turns out, it is both. :)

Yesterday we hurried through schoolwork to get to an Easter egg hunt with our homeschool group at one of the members' homes that is on SEVEN lovely acres in the middle of a nearby neighborhood.

It was perfect for letting a bunch of homeschooled hooligans romp around and the weather was TO DIE for.  Lasa skipped her morning nap, she was so invigorated by all the light, and breeze, and noise, and room to play. 

This is my fave shot of her there, but the kid crying in the background was a killjoy.  Ha!!

Party Animal did zonk out right when it was time to go.  We tried to keep her awake for the 5 minute ride home, but there was no bringing her back.  She was OUT!

I heart her.  I apologize now to my Noah and Anna for letting her monopolize my picture taking at the hunt. I have no good excuse.  She is just killingly cute!  And it was her first!