God's Timing

Today we have managed to keep Ellie alive for a year. What a year it has been. When I think back on that week that Ellie was born sometimes it feels like a century ago, but really it feels like it was just yesterday. Has it really been a year already?

The year that Ellie grew in my belly and this first year of her life have been the hardest seasons of my life. Many of you know that the joy of this growing baby inside me was often overshadowed by the looming death of my mother-in-law. When we found out her cancer was back; we also found out I was pregnant. At times it was hard to be happy about this new life when there was so much pain in this death.

Near the end we were not sure Angie would ever meet Elliott. And it was here that I learned about God's timing. God's timing sometimes doesn't make sense, especially when you're waiting. We can plan all we want, but in the end it is in God's hands. In our situation, we didn't have the option of planning ahead. All we could do was pray Angie would hold on until Elliott was born. And in the end God's timing was perfect. The night Elliott was born, Nate finished his last day of police field training (which was very important for him to do before he went on leave), two hours after Elliott was discharged from the hospital we had our car packed and driving to Arkansas, and that night my mother-in-law, Angie Marie saw, held, kissed, hugged, and fed her granddaughter Elliott Marie. The next day Angie took a dramatic turn for the worse and exactly two weeks after Ellie was born, Angie died. It's still hard to accept God's timing when looking at the big picture. Why did he take Angie when he did? But when I think of the details in that day and the days following, God's timing is what got us through. God had it planned for us, and it was perfect.

Happy Birthday Elliott Marie. I love you. Thank you for coming when you did.

Growing, Growing, Growing

The other day Callie and I spent the morning watching all her baby videos. As I compared the Callie watching the videos to the Callie in the videos, I was a little blown away at how much she'd changed. She's still only a two year old, but she's not a baby anymore. And now when I hold our baby Elliott, I think I appreciate it more. Before I know it Elliott and I will be spending a morning on the couch watching all her baby videos, but for right now all she wants to do is pound on the keyboard (but don't worry, I appreciate it :0) ). CXZAQS XSW11QQQQQQQQR`--that was a message from the little monster herself.

This is Callie as a baby:

This is Callie my big girl:
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Anyone with little toddlers knows how much they like to "help" mommy or daddy with daily tasks. Callie LOVES the soapy water spray bottle and the vinegar water spray bottle. She's never been allowed to spray them, but she sure does take advantage of the moments when I leave the spray bottles in reach of her growing arms. It's usually when I come back downstairs from getting her sister up from nap that I find Callie spraying a bottle on the kitchen wall. Lately it's always the vinegar bottle she's nabbed, so my walls smell like vinegar...but, at least they are clean.

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Elliott's walking! She walks half the time and crawls the other half. I think she'd walk more if toys weren't decorating the carpet, but she'll learn to walk around them...but probably not learn to put them away.

C stands for Chaotic

My girls have been keeping me busy:

I keep forgetting that Callie can unscrew tops. So, as I was putting away the milk and such from a visit to the store, Callie gets into one of the bags and finds the acrylic green paint bottle I had bought to use on Ellie's Halloween costume. Thankfully, the damage was not as bad as it could have been. A hard scrub and long soak later of her jeans, sister's jeans, her socks, sister's socks, her shirt, sister's shirt....there is no evidence of green. Sister had green paint on her face all day and the entry way vinyl is still decorated with green dots, but all in time that will get cleaned up.

I've found that I need to rearrange the pantry, because in a given chance that the pantry door is left open, Callie's fingers find the spices and decides to spice up the floor. Half of the poppy seeds were sprinkled all over Caboose and his bed one quick few minutes while mommy was vacuuming. It's on my to do list to move spices higher up in pantry.

Today while I was hanging up the girls' clothes, Callie found the baby oil and squirted it on top of sister's head. Thankfully none got on the floor, but I didn't realize how much Elliott had on her until an hour later I gave her a kiss on the check; my lips are still uber soft.

I would talk about the incident in the bathroom one fateful afternoon, but I'm trying to block that from my memory.

But in the mist of all the chaos, Callie will end up helping me:

The other day I was getting the kitchen towels and wash clothes out of the dryer. Callie decided to help by pulling one by one out and handing them to me. It was nice. All I had to do was stand and fold.

Callie also helps me unload the dishwasher. She knows where everything goes. She puts the pots and pans up and then hands up all the high cabinet dishes. Once the bottom rack is cleared she'll step up and stand on the door to work on clearing the top rack where she'll twist her sippy cup parts together and hand them to me.

And Callie is starting to recognize when I'm tired and sad. Just last night I flopped down on the couch and put my chin in my hands and stared off into space. A few minutes later, Callie noticed me and ran over with open arms to give me a big hug and cuddle. And just like kissing a boo boo, it made my night all better.

Trying to make a go of it.

So I've officially started selling bows..I haven't sold any yet, but i set up my esty account. It's at the beginning stages, so I'm still trying to figure out how everything works. Anyway, I want you all to look at it and let me know what you think. I want you to be critical, because I want to do the best I can. here's the link:

MelodyBowtique

thanks, and remember..BE CRITICAL.

Slow down there Callie

This week I have been amazed at the cleverness of my toddler Callie. First, she learned how to open the frig door. No messes yet, and she actually things it is more important to keep the frig not only closed but locked. About a year ago we had a child lock put on it because the door would open whenever we slammed shut the freezer, and lately, Callie will see it unlocked and drag her chair in the kitchen so she can reach and lock it. I did find a empty milk jug in the frig once. She had taken it from the recycling and put it back in the frig.

Second, she managed to take apart the shelving of our book shelf where most of her toys are stored. I wonder when I'll find that missing hardware piece.

Third, she can now unscrew her sippy cups. She usually won't do this until she's done drinking it, but she can also unscrew water bottle caps, which usually ends in a spill.

Fourth, she can turn round knobs! Callie smelled like Mint extract for a whole day. I promptly put a child proof door knob cover on the pantry door.

Fifth, she can snap open shampoo bottles. This newly learned skill was discovered by us this weekend at the hotel when we found her laying in the bath tub inches full of shampoo. She was fully clothed and extremely clean after we finally got all the suds washed away. It was a whole bottle of shampoo. I threw away the empty bottle at the hotel. And of course this all happened minutes before we were to leave for a family birthday party. We were late.

She's so clever. I wonder what she'll scare me with next. And I keep forgetting that her little sister will very soon be a side kick in her clever adventures.

Random Funniness

Yesterday Callie was trying to tell me that she wanted some milk. At first, I wasn't sure what she wanted because she can't talk very clearly, but i knew she wanted something because she kept running in and out of the kitchen hollering at me. I stood up and walked to the entrance of the kitchen and asked her what she wanted. She then walked behind me and placed her hands on my bottom and directed (pushed) me forward until I was in the kitchen. She then pointed to the cabinet where her sippy cups rest. I guess we are entering the "pushing and pulling mommy to where I want her to be" stage.

Yesterday, we got off making lunch late, so Callie was pretty restless and impatient for her food to come. While I was in the process of making her lunch I ask, "do you think you can pick up some of your toys before we eat?" Immediately, Callie steps into action and picks up most of her toys. I was in awe (Her usual picking up means me giving her a toy and asking where it goes). Note to Self: Callie obeys when bribed by food.

Last night Callie was being rather quiet. So I went looking to see what she was doing. I found her curled up in Ellie's carseat, Ellie's pacifier in her mouth, and rocking herself. I guess we all need to be the baby sometimes.

It made me smile today when after emptying the remains of a gallon of milk into Callie's sippy cup that she walked into the pantry and opened up the recycling bin and in Callie words told me to put the milk jug in there. Way to be green.

Today Callie helped me feed Elliott. It was funny because Callie was holding and drinking her sippy cup in one hand and in the other hand holding up Ellie's bottle. She's already mulitasking; she'll be a great mom.

What was she thinking?

For lunch today Callie had peas, strawberries, mac n cheese, and ground hamburger. She ate the peas, inhaled the strawberries, savored the mac n cheese, and stuck the ground hamburger in her ears. What was she thinking?

This morning I left Callie alone for literally one minute to get Elliott up from bed. Came downstairs to find Callie diaper-less and poop smeared in various places around the house. What was she thinking?

Today I was surprised by my 21 month old's behavior...what was I thinking?

Mommy is always telling me things I can't do--Callie

5-19-09
“No, you don’t need to rake Ellie”- mommy

5-22-09
“Callie stop putting the Yahtzee dice in my milk.” –mommy

5-24-09
“Callie, Caboose can’t talk on the phone” –mommy

“NO, you can not put your foot in my cup” --mommy

5-26-09
"Sister is not a chew toy"--mommy

"Callie you can’t take your blankies with you in the bath" –mommy

5-31-09
“Sister’s too little to eat Cheerios.”—mommy

5-31-09
“Callie you can’t put your farm house on top of sister.”—mommy

7-13-09
“Callie stop vacuuming sister. She doesn’t like it.” --mommy

Our little busy body.

A New Page

This week our family drove to Arkansas to attend Joe (Nate's dad) and Eva's wedding. It was nice to see Joe happy. It's been over 7 months since Angie died and it has been over a year that we've seen Joe stressed, sad, tired, depressed, unhappy... Normal feelings when your wife is dying. But, he's happy now. Eva lost her husband two years ago from cancer too. Her and Joe actually grew up together and dated in high school. It has been a quick romance since Angie's death, but we all have a peace about it. It takes a lot of worry from us. Joe won't be alone anymore.

It's a new page for us all. The Bishop farm house will get repainted and have new furniture. New plates and dishes will be used. New pictures will be hanging on the walls. New foods will be eaten. I think one of the weird changes will be seeing Eva cooking in the kitchen and not Angie. I want it to be Angie, but we all know life isn't always as we want. I like Eva. I can see her loving my kids like they are her "blood" grand children. She certainly loves Joe and treats his sons and us daughter-in-laws with a lot of respect and consideration. She's a good woman.

We will never forget Angie and the "Angie love" she poured out to us. I miss her dearly. We will see her again.

A New Page. Life will still be hard, and we will still grieve, but this new page in life brings the girls a grandma again and most importantly it brings Joe companionship and love again.

Here is photo of Joe and Eva and their grandkiddos.

6 Month Celebration

Today is Ellie's six "month-aversary". For Callie's six month celebration we went to The Fort Worth Stockyards. It was quite fun!

Callie our cowgirl

Callie and Daddy

To celebrate Ellie's 6 months we decided to go to the Forest Park Miniature Trains in Fort Worth. This is our attempt at a family photo.

Everything seemed to be going well. This is Ellie waiting for the train to start.

We start moving......

WOOT WOOT!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!
And the fun is OVER.

But Callie had fun!

Us trying to get a photo in front of the engine. Callie wanted Daddy.

Callie and Daddy in front of the Engine.

Poor Ellie didn't enjoy her 6 month celebration, but we'll have funny pictures to show her later. Maybe we'll try again when she gets older.

WAKE UP!

Callie really hates it that Ellie has to take naps and does everything in her power to wake sister up. Usually Ellie naps upstairs in her crib, but today I had her napping in the pack n play downstairs. When Callie got up from her nap I tried to distract her away from the pack n play so she wouldn't notice Ellie. It worked for awhile. Callie eventually notice sleeping sister as she ran past the pack n play. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. She chuckled and said "SISSTA", and then proceeded to shake the entire playpen and bang it against the wall. Thankfully this didn't wake Ellie. But then Callie decided sleeping Ellie needed toys and started dropping toys in the playpen, which did wake up Ellie. And now that sister's awake, Callie isn't paying any attention to her.

Where's Caboose's nose?

Callie made me laugh today, well she makes me laugh everyday, but this morning she was extra funny and cute. When we ask Callie where her nose, mouth, ears, elbow....are she's quick to point to the correct body spots. Awhile back we'd ask her where her sister's nose, mouth, belly...were and she would impress us with pointing to her sister's body spots. Well, this morning, she ran over to Caboose and starting poking his nose. I asked her where Caboose's nose was and she pointed to his big black nose. I asked her where his ears were and she pointed to his floppy ears, and I then asked her where his feet were and she pointed to his big paw. I wanted to keep going, but Caboose got confused with me saying his name so much and moved away from Callie. Everyone knows I hate our dogs, but I guess "boose" as Callie calls him, brought me a little joy today too.

"self discipline?"

Does it mean your discipline stradegy isn't working when your daughter runs up to you after disobeying you and spanks her bottom herself?

"Play time"

Lately, Callie has been dumping all her toys right in front of Ellie and playing with them in front of her. Ellie doesn't seem to mind; she enjoys grabbing whatever toy she can get a hold of. Well, this evening Ellie particularly wanted whatever Callie was playing with. Callie had her toy bowls, spoons, and cups. She was transporting her puzzle pieces from one bowl to another and such. Ellie was on her tummy and she kept reaching for a bowl and would succeed in grabbing one, but Callie would immediately take it from her. This happened several times and it eventually ended up in Ellie whining. Callie thinking like anyone who hears a crying baby runs to get Ellie's pacifier and proceeds the attempt to stuff it in Ellie's mouth. Ellie doesn't care about the pacifier and ends up crying even more. Callie not being successful in placing the pacifier in Ellie's mouth gets mad and starts whining. Oh goodness. I try and move Ellie away from Callie and give her her own toys, but Callie gathers her dishes up and moves right next to Ellie again. Also, when Callie sits next to sister she tries to sit as close as possible, which usually means Callie ends up sitting on or stepping on, or kicking Ellie. So much crying going on here. Ellie proceeds to grab Callie's toys again and it ends up in them both squealing at each other. Callie eventually understands when I ask her to give Ellie a spoon or a bowl, and so that soothes Ellie for awhile, but Callie eventually decides she needs that spoon or bowl back and Ellie's sad again. I move Ellie again, Callie moves closer. To keep this long story not getting any longer, we ended this "play time" by having to remove Ellie from the room because she just got too mad and started crying the hardest cry I've ever heard. She even had a tear.

I guess I need to prepare myself for more of these "play times".

Pool Fun

The other day we had a pool day. And I discovered the time of getting us all ready to the time actually spent in the pool does not equal up. Regardless, it was still fun.


I haven't yet wanted to invest in a pool seat for Elliott, so I had the great idea of using her Bumbo seat as a tool to keep her stationary and safe. It turned out to not be stationary, but rather floaty, but it was still safe.


Callie had fun pushing Ellie around in her "floaty".


Ellie wasn't really fond of the pool time. She was a little tired.


So we took her out and Callie decided to wear Ellie's hat, sit in her floaty, and soon after this picture was taken she put Ellie's pacifier in her mouth. I think she wanted to be like sister for a little while.

Smiles

Elliott likes to smile. She smiles when Daddy is anywhere in her sight, she smiles when I smile at her, she smiles after she sneezes, she smiles when she's looking at herself in the mirror, she smiles at Trixie, and she smiles when Callie dances. And recently she smiles when Callie has a tear producing cry. I want to laugh when I see this, but I also don't want Callie thinking I enjoy her cries, so I laugh inside. I'm sure when Elliott gets older she will still smile when Callie cries, but it will probably be because Elliott got her way and Callie did not. For now, I just think Elliott is being entertained by her sister.

Ellie + Ribbons= no no

I'm not surprised that Callie our 19 month old can destroy a clean house in less than 5 minutes, but I am surprised when Ellie our 5 month old does. Okay, she didn't destroy the whole house in 5 minutes, but she did make a big mess this evening while I was making some hair bows. I was sitting on the floor working on a bow, Ellie was laying in front of me on a blanket. I had my bag full of ribbon next to her blanket and my sewing box next to me. In a matter of a few seconds Ellie rolls over to the bag, grabs it and some how manages to retrieve all the ribbon out of the bag. And then proceeds to unravel all my ribbon from their card board spool things (I don't know what you call them). I look up at her and she's flinging her arms around with ribbon in her hands, and ribbon is flying everywhere. It looked like a big tornado of ribbon had engulfed her. It was quite funny and it appeared that she was having fun, but mommy shut that party down. Babies and long ribbon don't do well together. The loose ribbon ends are now taped down.

"Sissta"

Callie LOVES her "Sissta". Every morning when Nate gets home, Ellie and I are usually still in bed. Around this time Callie hears the dogs outside or Nate walking up the stairs and decides to wake up too. Nate will usually get in bed with us, and I'll go get Callie and bring her in the room with us. We are always excited to see Callie because it's been close to 12 hours since we've seen her, but SHE is most excited to see sister. Before Ellie was born, Callie would come and lay on us and snuggle and giggle, but now, she searches for "sissta". Once she finds her she gasps and ahhs and says "sissta, sissta, sissta" and proceeds to give her many kisses and head hugs. Callie LOVES her "Sissta".

Not Cool Callie

Mel: Nate, will you go get Callie, I hear that she's up from her nap and I'm feeding Elliott.
Nate: Already doing it.
Mel: Thanks
Nate: Hi Cal---oh no, Oh no OH no OH No OH NO OH NO OH NO..CALLIE!!!! MELLLLLLLLL MELLLL I NEED YOU TO COME UP.

{Mel walks up the stairs to find Nate awkwardly holding a Callie who has unsnapped her onesie and is diaper less and decorated in poop}

Mel: Oh my gosh

{As Nate gives Callie a bath, Mel picks up the huge amount of poop off the floor that Callie has somehow produced, strips the bed sheet with poop rubbed all in it, and carpet cleans the poop areas as well as pee puddles on the carpet.}

Nate: You are disgusting Callie.
Mel: This is gross. Yuck.

{Mel carries the poop covered materials downstairs and starts a load of laundry and walks back upstairs to Nate and Callie}.

Nate: Where's the carpet cleaner?
Mel: It's in Callie's room. Why?
Nate: While I was getting a new diaper for Callie she went in our bedroom and peed on the carpet. I found her dancing on the pee spot.

{Mel proceeds to clean up yet another pee spot on the carpet}.

Callie: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!!!!!!!!!

Callie the Clown

Today Callie just kept making me laugh, but I had to hide it every time because along with these funny acts she performed, correction needed using. First, today was a the perfect weather day. It was a sunny with a little breeze and zero humidity, so we decided to go play outside for a little while until lunch time. I had just fed the dogs, so their dog dishes placed in their 1.5 foot feeding stands were full of food. Side note: Callie LOVES dog food. Whenever we go out to the garage she moves those little legs as fast as she can out the garage door and searches the garage floor for fallen dog food. Another side note: She knows she's not supposed to eat it. So, Ellie and I were swinging on the swing, the dogs were eating their food, and Callie was in the middle of the dogs and their food. I look over at her and she is bending her head down face first into the dog bowls and eating the dog food "hands free". I guess if the dogs do it...that's how it's supposed to be done. And when she sees me looking at her (her body still bent down over the bowls, but her head looking up at me with the eyes of a guilty girl), she proceeds to spit the food out of her mouth. It was all quite funny and how harmless can dog food be, but it eventually ended in a spanking because she did not obey mommy. Nate and I laughed about it later.

Second silly thing she did today was done while Nate and I were playing Yahtzee. Callie likes to "play" with us too. This means she steals our dice and then our writing tools and proceeds to scribble all over the score pad. This doesn't really bother us, we just take it all back when we need it. Well, today I had a glass of water with me while we played at the coffee table. Callie was sitting on top of the coffee table playing with my dice. And all of a sudden she gets this idea! She drops a die in my water glass. But she's going to be helpful, so she sticks her whole hand in my water glass and grabs the die and pulls it out. I wanted to laugh, but thought better not too, and I wanted to scold, but I immediately rolled a Yahtzee with my wet dice. Thanks Callie. I won the game.

Kissing

Callie's into kissing things. It all started a week ago when I washed one of her blankets. She hadn't seen this particular blanket for about 4 days because she left it in our room one afternoon. Anyway, while she napped one day I washed, dried, and folded up her clothes and blankets. While I was folding up her long lost blanket I commented to Nate that Callie was going to be very excited to she her blanket. She usually wads the blankets up and buries her face in them laughing. Nate decided he would hide the blanket in a "not so good" hiding spot, so when she spotted it, she'd be extra happy. When she came down from nap, it didn't take her long to spot her blanket. She ran over to it, waded it up, and proceeded to give it kisses. This of course made us burst out in laughter, so ever since then, Callie's been kissing everything. She especially likes to kiss Ellie and especially sleeping Ellie, which ends up in crying Ellie. It's hard to get mad though, because it still makes me laugh out loud.

The Boss

Today Callie has taken on the role of deciding what Elliott should and should not play with. Currently Callie is laying papers and pens on Elliott's Bumbo tray. She can't talk, but I'm sure she would say, "okay Sister, you can color. Coloring is fun." Before this she had laid a book on her tray. And before that she had laid a fun musical ring stacking toy, which Elliott really liked, but Callie's now firm on Elliott writing. And yes, Elliott has grabbed a pen and some paper and is flailing it all around her. I better go take some pointy objects away. Oh now Callie is laying her blankets on top of Elliott. She loves her "sissTah".

Life is Precious

Last week I had a horrible dream. I dreamt that Elliott had died. Just died. It was the oddest thing. I remember holding her little body and praying to God; thinking that God would do a miracle and save her. I can't remember if I woke up crying, but either way I was very upset. I leaned over to peek at Elliott as she slept in her bassinet next to our bed. I laid my hand on her to feel her breathing and said a prayer for her. I prayed the prayer I try and pray every day for my girls,
"May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." Num. 6:24

I eventually fell back to sleep but not before I thought about this "wake up call". My days are filled with feeding, cleaning, feeding, and cleaning. I spend my time trying to keep the house clean when I could be playing with my daughters. Who really cares if the house is clean? Who really cares if the laundry gets folded? Should my daughters always just entertain themselves? I don't want to waste these years. Do I soak it in when I give my girls hugs? Do I hold them a little bit longer and a little bit tighter before laying them down to bed? I do now. Dishes can get done during nap time or night time. I'm going to take advantage of my days. Even when tired and at my wits end, I'm going to try and take advantage of the day, because you never know when it will be taken from you or someone will be taken from you. And they will grow up so fast.

Inspiration

Stef, my sister-in-law, has inspired me to use our blog (that was for the purpose of letting non facebook relatives see pictures of Callie) again. I don't know how much I'll write, and my posts will definitely not be writen as well as Stefs, but like her I don't want to forget the cute, little, big, and daily accomplishments that my children do.