Sophie Kate’s Journal

Hey everyone.  The kids are officially out of school here which officially kicks off the next three weeks of “stop that,” “give that back to your brother,” “is this really how you want to spend your Christmas break, getting in trouble?” and of course my all time favorite “Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, not how much stuff you get.”  Seriously, ya’ll that last one is so tough to get them to understand.  They know it, I am just trying to get them to understand more of how important the birth of our Savior is to their lives. 

My little Sophie has shown me how not important all that “stuff” is.  She just wants someone to love on her and talk to her and just be with her and what child wouldn’t love that?  She likes to lay near the Christmas tree and watch all the lights.  She likes to take all her naps in my arms.  She likes to be where everyone is.  She’s a quiet presence but a presence indeed!

This past Sunday at church we talked about being children of light in our small group.  There is a passage in Ephesians that says “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).  The Light of the world was born on Christmas and as His children we are to live as children of light.  Praise God that we no longer have to live in the darkness that is this world.  We can only find peace, light, and true happiness in Him.  I pray that you will know Him and experience His love as you never have before this Christmas season.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

This Christmas may we not be so concerned with the presents that are under our tree as we are with the people who surround it.  Thank you Father for those who surround my tree, family and friends and most importantly the love of our Savior who was born to die so that we all may live.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you. 

I had always thought it was pretty funny how prior to Sophie Kate being born and being the mother to only boys that I was always a regular recipient of the American Girl catalog.  I certainly know how it happened, it was b/c I had bought some things for my niece for Christmas one year and might I add that it was years ago.  Nevertheless, every so often in mail, with my name on it, as if my house was full of girls came the American Girl catalog.  I would look through every page thinking how much fun it would be if I had a daughter.  Now the dang thing goes straight to the trash, especially after the cry fest I had over the Christmas catalog that came in oh yeah that was October.

These days I am inundated with the break my heart Christmas commercials of little girls and their mamas laughing, enjoying and playing (insert majorly girly thing here).  You know, you’ve seen them, how about the "Wanna play Barbies" one?  Why yes…yes I do wanna play Barbies… and babies and grocery store and tea party real bad.  I’m tired of "playing" therapy and buying her Christmas presents that are for 0-6 month old babies.  I know that this is too much pressure to put on such a tiny person, it’s not fair for me to put all this on her.  It’s really not something you would ever think about until you don’t have it.  I know I never thought about these things with my boys, there was never a question that I would be able to play trucks and trains with them and even ultimately one day have light saber battles with them.  I never even thought about it.  So here I am now and I’m thinking about it way too much.  Just a transparent day here, one where I’m not acting like I’m really ok with all this, b/c I’m NOT!!

Hey everyone.  It’s been a busy week here as I am sure it has been for all of you too.  Christmas shopping along with the regular everyday life things we all have to deal with makes it seem at times as if we will never get it all done before the kids get out of school.  I think I have finally got a handle on all the Christmas shopping and have now got it down to a manageable list, the end is attainable and in sight. 

I want to share some pictures with ya’ll of SK and a new toy that she got for her birthday from her grandparents.  She absolutely loves it, we play on it everyday and what I love about it is that it doesn’t seem like work to her.  When she’s on it it’s purely fun for her, but I know that it’s helping her with all kinds of strengthening and balance.

She holds her head up really well and has good control while she is rocking back and forth.

We also had a fun day where we went and saw Santa and played hooky from school.  As you can see SK was mesmerized by the man in red, she never took her eyes off him.

Jacob getting his new Bible at church.

In all of the things that bombard us and our children this time of year, we have to be deliberate about teaching our children the real reason we celebrate Christmas, if we don’t do it no one else will.  Our Savior was born now that is a real reason to celebrate.  Hope everyone has a fun weekend. 

Well today (Friday Dec. 5) SK and I went out with some friends to an arts and crafts kinda thing here in town called Christmas Village.  I felt very normal being out with my baby and my stroller today along with the other gazillion people who were also out with their babies and their strollers.  In fact someone said to me that they thought a stroller was a prerequisite to get in and I really can’t argue with them, but it was fun anyway.  Ya’ll I don’t think I have been in the presence of so much and so cute baby girl stuff ever.  Of course there were clothes of all types: winter, summer, dresses, tops and bottoms.  Then there were burp cloths, I already have way too many of those so I had to pass.  There were bibs, darlin’ bloomers, which I passed up but didn’t want to.  There were bags, bows, personalized room decorations and precious little ornaments.  I know your burning question, “What did I end up with for SK?”  Well, I did the best I could so that I could keep peace at home (and by at home I mean with Chad) and still satisfy my desire for all things cutsy girly….I bought the cutest summer outfit I have ever seen, besides all the ones she wore last summer of course, b/c they were the cutest too.  So see, she doesn’t have any summer outfits right and she NEEDS summer outfits right, so there money well spent.  It didn’t hurt that my friend bought her an outfit for her birthday while we were there too, pink and chocolate SK’s signature colors.  That’s not all we got but those were the most fun.

We also had a good week of therapy.  SK’s occupational therapist that we see every Wednesday and just love got Sophie’s left leg and hip into full external rotation and got her right leg and hip very close to full external rotation.  What does that mean for SK?  It means she got her left foot to her mouth and her right foot almost to her mouth.  Big deal, right, all babies can put their own feet in their mouths.  No, Sophie Kate has never been able to do that, her muscles are just too tight and too stiff.  It’s going to take a lot of work to keep her that flexible and even the next day when I was working with her I noticed that she had already lost some of it, but at least we know that she is capable of getting there and we will continue to work on that for her.  It will be very helpful in her learning to sit unassisted.  Speaking of that SK is now up to between 20 seconds and 1 minute of being able to sit by herself, so she is making progress it just continues to be slow.  God give me patience, I want it now for her. 

Also, this week the Early Intervention program that we are in that provides home services for Sophie, brought us a stander for her.  She’s not quite tall enough for it yet so we have to make one small adjustment to it, but we have put her in it once.  It allows her to put weight on and stand on her feet, something she loves to do anyway.  It’s a little hard to describe in a post so I will try to get pictures soon.  It involves various straps, but as soon as we customize it for her I know she is going to like it.  Ask anyone who has spent anytime with her and they will tell you how much that girl loves to stand, it’s just getting her to do it the right way and this stander will help her do that.  Yeah, I’m so excited for Sophie.

I am slowly getting Christmas shopping taken care of thanks to some friends volunteering to come over and keep SK, that has been a huge help, thanks to everyone who is involved with that.  Actually, the best part of it is that I get a few hours to myself, that is priceless to me as it is to any mama.

It has been a good week here, hope it has been for ya’ll too.    

Hey everyone, hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving week, reflecting on our abundant blessings and all the things we have to be truly thankful for in this life.  We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year in Hernando, MS and I just couldn’t help but think all weekend long how thankful I was that it wasn’t last year.  I know I said that in the previous post too but for me it bears repeating. 

We spent Thanksgiving Day last year back and forth to the NICU, once in the morning when we took all the boys to visit their sister and then, once we had dropped the boys off with Chad’s parents, we went back up there to spend a little alone time with our baby girl.  Thankfully we were given that time with Sophie Kate by Chad’s family and shared a wonderful dinner with them that evening, it was just a very difficult day last year.

Since I’m in the remembering zone right now, I certainly can’t let the 28th of November go by without a word or two.  Not only is it Chad’s birthday, but it is also the day that we got to bring Sophie home from the NICU.  I swear I will never forget that day, we were ecstatic to bring our baby girl home, what a great birthday present that was for Chad last year. 

Anyway, my plan had not been to go down that road, but there I went.  So back to the present, SK has been doing pretty good with her ear tubes.  Today (Mon. Dec. 1) was the first full day that she has not had to have any Motrin.  Over the past week, I can tell her ears have been bothering her but it hasn’t been terrible for her, she has handled everything pretty well, especially since we had to travel the day after she had them put in. 

Speaking of traveling and Sophie Kate, they really are not words that should be mentioned in the same sentence.  I’m at a total and complete loss b/c SK and I can travel around town for 45 minutes and I will not hear a peep from her, but get everyone packed and in the car for a trip and she is crying and fussing before we even get out of Birmingham, what is the deal?  She needs some serious laying of hands on her and I don’t mean my hands b/c I am out of my mind irritated when she starts that stuff and we haven’t even passed the airport yet, what’s up with that girlfriend?   

Well this week it’s back to as much normalcy as we can stand.  The boys are back in school and SK and I have a full week of therapy ahead of us.  So I will let ya’ll know how everything progresses this week.  Thanks for all the love.