Busy, Busy

Dear Jonah and Audrina,
I'm so sorry that I haven't kept up this journal for a couple of weeks but school and tests are keeping me busier then I've ever been. It's exhausting really to have so much to do and so little time to do it in. It seems that before I can blink ya'll are bigger and doing so much more. Jonah, you have learned all your vowels now and all the sounds that they make. They teach you songs to go with each vowel and you sing them proudly. You are doing so well in school that it makes me so proud. This week we will take you to church for the first time and hopefully you will really like that. Your father got baptized last Sunday and he is trying so hard to not only be a good Christian but a better person and for that I am so very proud of him.

Audrina you have such a sense of humor. You love to laugh and play and your most favorite person is your brother. You talk more each day and right now your two words that you love to say are "BALL" and "MOOOre". You walk around and point to anything round and say "ball" I can tell your going to be just like your brother. Into sports and anything physical. We will have to sign you up for soccer as soon as we can. I know you will love it. Even now you like to kick the ball around. You copy and mimic your brother and what ever he does you try to do. He jumps, you jump, he laughs, you laugh...back and forth, it's too funny to watch.

Till next time my loves,

Love Always and forever,
Mommy

Under the weather

Dear Audrina,

As a mother the worst thing in the world is to see your child hurting or sick and feeling so helpless. This whole week I have seen it coming. I have noticed your watery eyes and sniffles. As the week has progressed each day you have gotten a little bit worse. How do you stop a moving train? You can't I suppose. Today you woke up with a full blown sickness. A cold I suppose. Maybe it's allergies (with the hurricanes these past couple of weeks it has thrown allergies completely out of whack with all the stuff blowing in the air.), maybe it's your teeth (you have a couple of new molars coming in), or maybe it's just a cold. What ever it is it's causing you to run a fever and your little nose a watering. Your spirits are up though. You're such a good baby. You love to smile and laugh and you love your brother so much. You are seldom in a bad mood. You wake up happy and you go to bed happy and with a snack in your hand your content. It breaks my heart to watch you toddle around with your eyes watery and puffy and your nose running. I can hear you breathing from across the room. The congestion has caused a cough now and you don't want to eat much. If I could only take away your sickness I would. I often pray to God to let me have the sickness instead of you. Not a second goes by when I look at you that I don't wish I had it instead. When I laid you to sleep today I refused to put you down until the last possible moment before I had to get ready for work. I just held you in my arms, and watched as you struggled to breathe. I held you up so it would be easier for you to breath and I prayed over and over "God, please, give it to me, give it to me!" Maybe he'll answer my prayers tonight. I lay you in your crib and kiss you good-night. Rest sweet baby, rest.

Love always and forever,
Mommy

Hurricane Ike

Dear Jonah,

Today was your very first Irving soccer association game. You are now with the big boys and of course Hurricane Ike decided to hit. We didn't think you would have a game today because of the rain but sure enough they said ya'll would still play as long as it wasn't lightning. When you heard this you were so excited. "Alright mom, I'm gonna get to play in the rain, that will be fun! :)" You loved it! The soccer fields are twice as big as the Y and the grass is so much neater. With the rain pouring down all the parents stood outside and cheered on their kids. It was so much fun to watch you play in the rain. We got soaked yes but you were a star. You scored three goals today and I love to watch you as you dribble the ball down the field. You are so intent on what you are doing. You are concentrating so hard and you run with your mouth open and your hair flying! You want me to take tons of pictures and with out me prodding you tell me cheese and pose. It's so amazing to watch you play. I never liked soccer and I don't enjoy watching it on TV like your father does but when you are playing I can't take my eyes off of you! You like to run the wrong way on the field too. Your other team runs in one direction and you take the ball away and run the opposite way. I ask you about why you do this and you say "because I like too." Secretly I think it's because you don't want anyone to take the ball away from you. It's easier to kick it in the opposite direction where no one is running for it then the way you are supposed to go and everyone is going for it. But, we will work on this...

Half time came and you had to sit out for a quarter. The coach likes to rotate the players and you are so sad. You come to me and you say mom I have to tell you something. ??? You pull me down and whisper in my ear. "Why can't I keep playing? Why do I have to sit out?" Poor baby. You'll turn will come again.

Love always and forever,

Mommy

P.S. Ya'll won the game 6-5! :)

School days

Dear Jonah and Audrina,
Hello sweet babies. Sorry it has been such a long time but I have been so busy with school. I don't know if ya'll fully comprehend your dad and I going to school but it has been so hard on us. We spend ALL day in school and then go pick ya'll up in the the early evening and it's so hard to actually spend fun time together. It's so hard to tell you "sorry, mommy can't play right now because I have to study." It hurts my heart to see your little face fall. I just want ya'll to know that your dad and I study so hard to give ya'll a better life. We want the best for ya'll and unfortunately that means that we have to sacrifice some things NOW so that we can have a better future. I promise that in another year I won't ever have to say "I have to study". Instead I'll play with ya'll till ya'll tell me that's enough. I won't ever have to lay my notes out while you practice soccer or lay down to sleep. All you want is my precious attention and I feel like I'm being stretched both ways. It'll get better babies I promise. Hopefully ya'll are young enough right now so that all this won't even be a memory. But then again I have to wonder? I know everything I do now reflects on who you become in the future. Will you resent me for not wanting to play with you? Will you see this as neglect when you become an adult. Some would say in Freudian terms that you will carry this burden for the rest of your life...I hope not.

Love always and forever,
Mommy

Kisses

Dear Jonah and Audrina,

Well Jonah, you have been in school now for two full weeks and I have to say that you love your school and I couldn't be more thrilled! Never before have you talked about your days at school like you do about this one. You actually tell us what you do that day. Today you said you learned about the letter 'U' and you trace the air with your finger as you say it making the letter u. You sing the song "U says uh, uh, uh, as in umbrella, u says uh, uh, uh, as in up". And talk of your teacher and how she pretended to be an ice cream today and that "it was so funny mom" and best of all you tell me bible stories and verses. Each week you learn a different bible verse. Your first week was "In the beginning God created heaven and Earth, Genesis 1:1". This week was John 1:3. You told me the story of Noah today. "Noah made an ark and put all the animals on it and God drowned all the bad people. The waves were crashing and the water slowly went down down until they were on land and they got out." So cute. You love the stories so much. It makes my heart melt. I love you so much.

Everyday before school starts we drop you Audrina, off first. You get so excited as I take you out of your car seat and you immediately start waving and smiling and telling your brother and daddy bye. You say 'bye' now on a consistent basis and you get so proud of yourself. You blow kisses and wave your chubby little hand and EVERYDAY you and your brother must give each other a kiss goodbye. Your father and I learned the hard way about breaking this routine. For some reason Jonah wanted to actually start giving you a kiss good bye since ya'll started separate schools, but one day your dad and I were running late so I just let ya'll blow kisses to each other and ran Audrina inside. Well this threw Jonah into a fit! I didn't realize until I had already dropped her off but Jonah was screaming with tears streaming down his face because he "wanted Audrina! I want to give her a kiss!" Oh poor baby, I'm so sorry. I had no idea how much those kisses meant to you. My heart broke for you and your eyes were puffy when you went to school that day. The next morning you made sure to remind me that you MUST give your sister a kiss before leaving for the day. Don't worry babies mommy will never forget again!

Love always and forever,

Mommy