i know every mom thinks their baby is the smartest, most beautiful, most talented, and most advance baby around...but I MEAN REALLY, sitting up (for short periods of time) and up on hands and knees, rocking back and forth at 5 months!!! I mean seriously!!....GENIUS!!!! ;).JPG)
Christmas with Grandma....JPG)
Christmas with Nan-nan and Pa....JPG)
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Christmas with Papa Shu....JPG)
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"BABIES" comming in early 2010
PS....LOTS of Christmas posts to come!!
Baby It's Cold Outside
Christine | MySpace Video
Merry White Christmas Eve!!!!
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to Papa Shuuuuuuuuuuuuu....
Happy Birthday to you!!!
Love you dad!!!!!
i dont even know where to start....5 years spent with my best friend....in 5 years we have gotten married....taken trips to disney, jackson hole, destin, gulf shores, hawaii, dallas, kansas city....we have gone through 5 jobs between the 2 of us(ok mostly me...i was a college student!)...we have bought a home....adopted a dog....been thorough family deaths and divorces...college graduation...gain probably 30lb between the 2 of us....gotten out of debt...grown up, a lot!...short hair....long hair(and im not just talking about me :)....a miscarriage...a pregnancy...and of course the birth of our first born Piper Ann. We have done so much life together in 5 years...and although not all easy or happy times...i am just blessed to have gone though it all with my love and can not wait to see what the next 65 years will bring!!!
Happy Anniversary Jacob....I LOVE YOU!!
Last night was the Crossings staff Christmas Party...an evening that we look forward too all year. Its always been a fun night of getting all gussied up, eat yummy fancy food, and great fellowship! And last night was no different :)
Piper got to go to Nan-nan and Pa's house! It was the first time they have gotten to watch her and they were beaming with joy! We got to their house and the entire living room was full of blankets so that Piper could roll till her hearts content...it was very sweet. Piper has a hard time away from her momma or daddy...so i knew they had their work cut out for them. But we left them a bottle of pumped milk...so i figured they would at least have that to fall back on if she was having a hard time...but...she would not take the bottle!!! they told me that she would push it away in anger. I have heard that this sometimes happens with breastfed babies...but she has had bottles before with no problem, so im not sure what the issue was? Anyway as soon as jake and i got back there she was so happy! I was holding her...but she could not take her eyes off of her daddy with the biggest smile! So even though I know she cryed and missed me and jake...i knew she was in the loving arms of her grandparents...and i have confidence that it will get easier on all of us in time :)
*this is an article taken from www.attachmentparenting.org that I wanted to share :)
Is being an attachment parent worth it? Let’s face it, it can be tough.
I co-slept – with kicking kids who woke up repeatedly during the night, all night long. One night my youngest kicked me in the breast so hard that I developed a massive lump and had to get an emergency mammogram to make sure it wasn’t going to explode or fall off.
… Our friends who Ferberized their kids boasted about what great sleepers their kids were. “Little Johnny sleeps through the night and doesn’t wake until 8:00. Sometimes I have to wake him up for breakfast!”
I nursed – when my breasts were so sore. Breastfeeding hurt so bad with my middle child that I would start crying as soon as she woke up hungry, even before she latched on…
… My friends would pull out a little bottle, shake some sticky powder into it, and pop a plastic nipple into Little Suzy’s mouth, who happily gulped it down. I even had a friend who had one of those bottles with the long tube attached to the nipple, since she couldn’t even be bothered with holding her baby to eat.
I carried them — my newborns, my toddlers, and my preschoolers for a thousand miles, sometimes more than one kid at a time (thank goodness they were small!). Sometimes one would be in a backpack, one would be in a sling, and one would be on my hip or holding my hand….
… My friends would be (choose one) dragging their kids along by the hand because they didn’t want to cooperate, lugging immensely heavy carseats, or pushing them apathetically along in a stroller.
I responded with sensitivity — well, that is, pretended to be patient, endlessly giving words of reassurance or encouraging mediation, while my inner voice was screaming behind my ears, “Just stop it, already!”…
… My friends would pull their kids behind a fence and give them a swat or two, or maybe put them in time out. Problem solved.
My friends — wonderful, loving, committed, but decidedly "non-attachment parenting" friends — would look at me with a sorry mixture of pity, confusion, and something bordering embarrassment as I stuck to my guns, refusing to spank my kids, "punish" them or demean them.
Clearly, some of my friends thought that I was coddling my children, perhaps even dooming them to a life of feeling entitled and being unfulfilled.
But I tried my best to treat my kids with the same respect that I would want. They had just as much value and deserved just as much respect as I did. Why would I want to teach them that the world doesn’t respond to their needs (that is, cry-it-out)? What would be the point of saving myself some discomfort now by bottle-feeding when I was perfectly capable of breastfeeding. How could I tell them to stand up for themselves and not let the world take advantage of them if I treated them like “less than” or if I demeaned or humiliated them? And did I really want my kids to think that I was the absolute authority on everything, so much so that they needed to jump to my every command, lest they be punished?
Nope. I wanted my kids to think for themselves; to know that their parents always had their best interests at heart, even when it wasn’t convenient; to be able to count on their parents to be there when they needed us; and to know without a doubt that their thoughts and opinions were just as valid as mine or their dad’s – or any adult’s.
Was it easy? No, not always, especially at the beginning, especially when what I was doing was so different from my "mainstream parenting" friends(and family) strategies.
Now, though, I must say that it’s the easiest and most natural thing imaginable. Today my children know that they’re valued and worthwhile and that they’re the equal of every person on the planet, no matter their age. They’re secure, they enjoy spending time with my husband and me, they enjoy each other, and they’re just plain fun to be around.
And what about my friends’ children? Are they easy? Well adjusted? Self-confident? Still connected to their parents? Some certainly seem to be. But, well … not all of them are. I see many of them turn to their peers for validation. Some put up a good front at being cooperative and “good” while investing a lot of effort in “getting away” with things behind their parents’ backs. And others bow to authority simply because of the authority’s age or position.
That’s not what I want for my kids. I like to think that the “work” I put into being an attachment parent in the early years is paying off now. After the thousands of hours and hours of effort I spent cosleeping, nursing,carrying, playing, talking, listening, comforting,and just being, I’m seeing the rewards.
And those rewards will last a lifetime.
yesterday morning, jake, piper and i went to Eugene Fields Elementary....it is an inner city school here in Oklahoma city...99% of the students are on the free lunch program and 88% of the students are Hispanic. Crossings is involved in a ministry where you can pick up a backpack at the church for a specific child and fill the backpack with Christmas gifts! Then a group of volunteers goes and reads the real Christmas story to the children, tell them about Jesus Christ then hand them their backpack full of gifts...I have never been involved in something like this, and it was one of my favorite days ever! These children were so grateful!! they would run around the room so excited to show their friends what they had got (didn't matter if it was a Hannah Montana movie or a box of crayons...they were equally excited!). Just amazing! There were many Crossings parents that took their kids out of school to go help deliver backpacks....i feel that it was an amazing lesson in humanity and will always take our children!
Jake reading the story of Christmas
sweet girls receiving her backpack full of gifts!
While his entire class was tearing into their gifts this little boy was sitting quietly at his desk with his backpack untouched...i went to ask him why he was not opening his gifts and he told me he wanted to wait, so that he would have gifts to open on Christmas. I was told that this happens every year,and even learned later that the little girl behind him in the photo was doing the same thing...but that was just so hard for me to hear...so as i fought back the tears i ask him if i could take and photo of him with his backpack...he held it so proud.... :) 
happiness...
