Big Changes

Hopefully.

We are at a point where we are just sick of Dave's job. He works retail, and he is on mostly nights and weekends. Unless he schedules it at least 6 weeks ahead of time, he works every Saturday and Sunday. And his schedule constantly changes at the last minute, and there's little he can do. It's so frustrating. I know others work difficult schedules like this, but I bet they're getting paid more. Not to mention he doesn't exactly get treated well by customers or his superiors.

So our dream would be for him to work another year. At that point, he would leave his job and I would hopefully find a way to earn money from home. I've already applied for a couple jobs. One is for data entry and another is for online scoring. I would also continue teaching in the mornings. Of course this means we would have to get our own health/life insurance, retirement plans, etc. It's a lot to think about. But with Dave so miserable, I really think we could do it. We would just need to plan well.

Know what I long for?

More opportunities for play dates. Has anyone else noticed that all the classes and play dates are on weekday mornings? I wish there were more opportunities for things in the early evening. Since the ones that go until 8:30 pm are just too late. It's things like this that make me wish I was a full time SAHM. I would love to have more chances to get Hannah to socialize and it would be so nice to not have to work on Dave's days off! But I love my job and the extra income it provides. Dave and I are trying to make more of an effort to spend time together and get her socializing with other kiddos. The spending time together is getting much better.

We are making a stronger effort to get to church every week as well. The current series is on having a Gospel-centered family, and it has been very interesting. I'm constantly hearing about how punishment doesn't work and that even time-outs are bad. So it was encouraging to hear that children have to learn there are consequences for their actions. The pastor even talked a bit about spanking. I'm still not a fan, but I respect that it can be done appropriately. I hope to eventually implement time-outs, but I think Hannah is still a bit young.

This desire for more children has GOT to be from God because He knows my logical mind would never want to repeat the newborn stage. Take last night. We saw our friends with the 1 month old. Just by looking at them, I remember their pain. They are tired. They are frustrated with having a baby that cries much of the day. I remember that! I did not enjoy motherhood at all at that point! Yet I look at their little baby asleep on his mom's chest, and I think "I want one!" Good thing we are TTC and at least this time we have a bit more perspective when it comes to the rough early days.

Newborns

A couple friends of mine each just had a baby, and it's made me remember life when Hannah was that young. Honestly, I don't look back on that time fondly. Hannah needed to be held all day and the constant neediness drained me physically and mentally. It took a couple months before I really started to enjoy motherhood. That doesn't stop me from being excited about trying for number 2; now I know that the newborn stage is just something to get through.

Anyways, it made me think of the one thing that used to drive me crazy back then. I couldn't stand it when people said "she's such a good baby". Because my automatic thought was, "then why am I finding motherhood so hard?" I know they mean well, but my sensitive postpartum self took it as an insult. It's why I now try to empathize with new mothers.

Life is much easier with a toddler, that's for sure! All the same, here's a vintage picture of her:

The infirmary

I think my family is finally somewhat healthy. We found out last week that my nephew (who we had been staying with in WA) was diagnosed with pink eye. Cue Hannah's gross eye discharge and pink eyelids. Then a couple days later, Dave has the same symptoms. They both have completed their antibiotics and are doing much better.

Have I said before that I love this age? I love the walking, the receptive language improvements, the independent play. She's not really into temper tantrums yet and we are several months (if not more than a year) away from the dreaded potty training. It's just easy-going. Which is probably why we want to ttc soon!

I recently watched a sermon online from our church. The pastor talked about the nuclear family and what that ideally would look like. The part that stuck out to me? Teaching your kids how to submit to authority. I grew up with the idea that my mom was my biggest advocate. A noble idea, but I think it went too far. Anytime I was remotely upset about something or the slightest inconsistency presented itself, my mom would swoop in. As a result, I will do what the person in authority says, but I often bitterly complain about how unfair it is. My heart is no where near as submissive as my actions would suggest. The pastor talked about how his kids are in baseball and that if the coach tells them to do something a different way, do it the different way. I would argue with the coach. It's something for me to be aware of and work on.

We're home!

Washington was such a nice trip. Hannah did okay on the first flight. She cried a bit more and slept a bit less than I was hoping for. She did really well on the flight home though! While in WA, we got to visit the local park, go to an indoor bounce house, take a tour of the army base they live on, and go to the Seattle Zoo. It was so nice spending time with my nephew and sister in law. Her husband got back from training the day before we left and it was great to see him too. Especially since it will be 2011 before we see him again!
Here are a couple pictures from our day at the park:




And now for a secret I will only admit on my blog-we have decided to TTC next month! I am so excited! Dave and I knew for a while that we want children close together. I think that often creates a closeness between the siblings. Dave knows this from personal experience of having a brother only 2 years younger than him. We wanted to wait until Hannah turned 1 to give my body a full year to recover. And we're not trying this month since, um, I don't really want a February/March baby. Silly reason-I know! Prayers though for an April (or maybe March since my cycles are crazy) baby!

I am almost done reading the book Green by Ted Dekker. It is part of the Circle series, and it's the first one I've read. I can hardly put it down! It is such an awesome picture of good v. evil and God's love for His children. And sadly, how likely we are to doubt His promises when He is not visible to us.

So Big!

I forgot to write about Hannah's doctor appointment. At her 12 month well visit, she weighed 21 lbs 4 oz and was 30.75 in. That's the 90th percentile for weight and 94th for height! She's definitely growing well! The thing is, there was another 12 month old girl in the waiting room who was way bigger than Hannah. So I wasn't expecting such high percentiles. Anyways, the doctor was happy with her growth and development so all is well. She absolutely freaked out during the exam though. She kept clinging to me and crying. Poor baby! And poor doctor too...I can't imagine what it would be like to have kids scream at me all day.

Her party today went great! She enjoyed opening presents:




And eating cake:



Her cake was originally on a plate, and she nearly picked up the plate, cake and all, and threw it on the floor. Before she could, everyone went" oooooo" and her little lip just quivered. We had to sing "Happy Birthday" again just to calm her down! Then all was well until she got very frustrated and tired and just needed a nap.

My internet is not supposed to be working

I'm not complaining though! We are changing providers and as far as I knew, my internet was supposed to be out the next few days. Guess not.

Hannah is 1! We spent her birthday at Jumpin' Jax-an indoor bounce house for toddlers-middle school age. It was our first time there, and we had a great time!






Her party is on Saturday so I'm sure there will be more pictures to come!

We leave for WA in 4 days! I'm very excited, but it seems like there is so much to do!