Birthdays Matter. Celebrate.

It's a big day at our house.  BIG.  Our Lilliana turns 1 today.  The big O-N-E.  Unbelievable.

One year ago at this time I was chilling (between contractions) in my hospital room.  I didn't know it at the time, but at 10:48pm I would first behold my baby girl.  And when I did, I remember being thrilled, amazed, overwhelmed, exhausted.  (Blog post introducing Lily a year ago here.)  Today I am thrilled, amazed, overwhelmed, and blessedly not exhausted.  Today is a day to celebrate!

Maybe you don't celebrate birthdays "big."  Maybe you think it's silly to have a big party, spend lots of money on decorations, cake, party hats, and presents.  Maybe you like to keep things low-key.  That's ok. You don't have to spend a lot of money to celebrate.  But here's one small bit of unsolicited advice: celebrate.  Whatever your style, whatever your budget, whatever your traditions, celebrate.  

Here's why:

I did a post over a year ago, introducing my older brother to my (at that time) unborn daughter.  (You can read the post here.)  And today, on her first birthday and what would be his 31st birthday, we went back to say hi.  And this, my friends, is why I believe it is SO IMPORTANT to celebrate each and every year that we get to share on this earth.

My older brother died just over 13 years ago.  My parents got to celebrate 17 birthdays with him.  And there was no warning when his last day came.  Suddenly, without a chance to say goodbye, without one last hug, without any forewarning, he was gone, and never again on earth do we get to celebrate with him.  

Now, 31 years to the day after my big brother was born (and 13 years and 10 days after he died), we celebrate 1 year with my daughter.  The loss my family endured 13 years ago helps put today's celebration into perspective - we get to celebrate now but are not assured of anything other than today.  So today we're going to party, in our own style, with our limited budget, and our own traditions.

Perhaps more than anything, the celebration is in this mommy's heart.  There aren't balloons or decorations or cake - these will come next week when we celebrate with family.  There are 3 brightly-wrapped, bowed presents waiting for nap time to end and daddy to come home from work.  A modest celebration with parents and child.  Right now the celebration is vibrant in this mommy's heart - grateful for each moment, amazed by the gift of parenting my child, and in awe of the wonder of God's handiwork in her, in her daddy, and in me over the past year.

Liliana Jo Francl, happy birthday.  Mommy and Daddy love you very much, and we are thrilled for today.  Let's celebrate!  

Fall

It's fall.  And I LOVE it.  I love it like I never have loved it before!  I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because it was such a very long, very, very hot summer.  Maybe it's because I'm experiencing fall for the first time through the eyes of my almost-one-year-old daughter.  Maybe it's because we lived so far away from home for almost a decade, and last fall we moved back and had a baby, and in the madness of learning to be a parent, I missed the season.  I'm not sure why, but this year in particular I am loving fall!

September is a very full month for my family - lots of birthdays to celebrate.  We kicked things off on the 11th with Mom's birthday.  We snuck out to her work over her break with friends, cake, balloons, bears and her granddaughter.

One thing that I am very proud to report this fall is that my daughter is a bookworm.  I sit in the rocking chair in her room to cuddle her, and she reaches toward the bookcase and says "bookkk, bookkk."  Seriously!  Other than the classic "mama" and "dada" and animal sounds of all kinds, "book" is her first word.  And she really emphasizes the "k" on the end.  I guess all those hours of reading to our newborn paid off.  I just wish we would have widened her repertoire a bit more than the 10 books she lets us read her.  (If she doesn't like one, she forces it closed and reaches for another one.)   Here we are in the midst of her toys in the living room, reading.

We've really enjoyed the Huskers so far this year, especially the last game - where we outscored our opponents by something like 70 points.  Lily learned a new trick.  "Touchdown!"  And notice that she was reading her football book during the game.  Her daddy was so proud!

Lily loves dolls, and I'm so glad!  When I was growing up, I had a favorite doll and I still have her: Jolene.  She's a Cabbage Patch doll, and she was my very favorite.  Lily loves Cabbage Patch dolls too - Mom got her one for Easter, and Chase and I got her one for her birthday and she loves them!  (Yes, I am that pathetic sucker who tries the toy out with her kid the week before her birthday to be sure she'll love it when she opens it on that special day!)  Lily plays with Jolene sometimes too.  She fell alseep on the floor while playing the other night...

My dear friend Kathy Chase took pictures for us to document Lily's first year.  And here are some of my favorites.  I love this one for obvious reasons...

And what's not to love about this dear little face:

Evidently, she's not very excited to turn 1...  (and yes, that is her birthday doll, Janessa, that she played with a week before her birthday and, I am relieved to report, loved!)

And the day would not have been complete without a book to read.  This one, I feel like, is particularly pertinent as Lily's favorite animal is kitties, and this book happens to be one of the few she likes to read, The Three Little Kittens.

Friday is Lily's big day, the big O-N-E.  What a year it's been.  Cheers!

My Little Copycat

It has been a fun day.  A day so fun that I want it memorialized forever on my blog.  It wasn't anything special.  In fact, I worked for about 5 hours today, so Lily was at one of her sitter's playing with one of her little boyfriends, Zade.  So what made today so fun, you wonder?  I'm so glad you asked!  It's that I have an independent little copycat on my hands, and she's learning to do everything Mommy does but all by her big-girl-self!

(Spoiler Alert:  this post is largely just going to brag on my little girl - it's a shameless "mommy post.")

The fun really started in the last few days. When Lily stayed with my mom for a day last week, Mom bragged when I picked her up that Lily picked up the remote (with her back to the TV), started pushing buttons, then turned around to see if anything changed on the TV.  Clearly she's a genius!  Did I also mention that she can "read" one of Mom's books?!?  She fills in the words like "Oh!" and "Bye-Bye" as the book is read.

Then yesterday I was holding Lily while standing in front of the mirror.  I had her little hairbrush and was brushing her hair.  She reached for the brush (she likes the texture of the bristles), so I gave it to her.  Then guess what she did?!?  She started brushing my hair!!!  (Ok, ok, so it was more like my cheek and ear, but still!)

So what could Lily, the copycat genius, have done today that made it so fun???  Well, I'll tell you...

After cleaning up the garage a little bit, we came in this evening, and the dirty baby needed a bath.  She played in the bathtub and practiced splashing and saying what a duck says ("gg-wu-cka" - we're still working on the annunciation).  After her bath I got her jammies on her and sat her up to finish up the post-bath routine.  I always use baby q-tips to clean out her ears.  She reached for the q-tip and...

Oh, that wasn't all.  Check this out...

Yep.  Got BOTH ears!  Genius.

After that, I brushed her hair, and she reached for the brush.  So I gave it to her expecting her to brush my face.  Instead, this is what she did...

Brushed her own hair!

And she's so smart she knows she has no hair, so she used the non-bristley side!  (Just kidding.  She does have the brush backwards, but the action is there!  ... Just need a bit more hair to really be able to brush it.)

That's pretty much all I have to write tonight.  I didn't expect the copycatting to start so soon - only 11 1/2 months old.  But SO fun to see her learn and develop every day.  And I'm sure that very soon I'll be learning, from a little copycat I know, some bad habits I have that I'll have to work on...

Use your heel

We have a problem at our house.  Snakes.

Oh!  Believe me, I HATE it.  I HATE snakes.  That verse in Genesis when God curses the snake,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; [s]he will crush your head and you will bruise [her] heel.

Yeah, I fulfill that "[s]he will crush your head" portion of the verse every chance I get.  (It's Genesis 3:15, by the way.)  And for all of you out there thinking I wouldn't come near enough to them to crush their head!, let me respond that if I don't crush their heads at the first glimpse, I'm bound to see them again, and get startled/freaked out/grossed out/scared/and otherwise terrified.  (I will clarify here that the snake problem is relegated to the yard - not the house.  Those of you who have lived in houses where snakes have joined you, I'm SO sorry!!!!)

Last summer we killed 26 snakes between July 17 when we moved in and the end of the year. This year we're somewhere around 35.  I quit keeping close count because it was too depressing.

Because we have such a snake problem, we've been trying to figure out where they're coming from.  We've had all kinds of theories - maybe they're coming up from our yard well; maybe they're coming from the empty lot on the far side of the block; maybe this part of town is just cursed with lots of snakes.

Well, the other day when I was talking to our neighbor, I had a breakthrough in our investigation.  I asked if they saw a lot of snakes at their place.  From his position on the other side of the fence, he was nonchalant, "Nah, not really."  Then I continue, "Really?  We killed 26 last summer, and we're around 30 this year already."  He raised his eyebrows, "You kill them?  Oh.  Well, they may be coming from over here.  I don't kill them.  I think I've seen them breeding on the other side of the house there."

REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

*Sigh*

It got me thinking about not just snakes but about life.  You can only control so much - your yard, your lawn, your time, your attitude, your heart.  Your "neighbors" (i.e. family, friends, coworkers, neighbors) may have crap (snakes) going on in their lives.  That crap can slither over and try to take up residence in your life.  You can do what I've only dreamed of doing - giving your neighbor a good piece of your mind, and not necessarily in a respectful, quiet, patient tone of voice...  But that won't solve the problem.

All you can really do is exert control over what you can rightly control:  your yard, your life.  When the snakes sneak across that property line, give them a piece of truth straight from the Bible - a heel to crush their heads!!!

The analogy extends further to the crap/snakes we inherit from our families or the crap that's snuck in and is lying in wait, hiding, lurking, waiting for that opportune moment when our arms are full of groceries and we're wearing flip-flops, and the shovel is on the far side of the house.  When we don't have time to deal with crap, that's when it rears it's ugly head.  And that, my friends, is when we must (after screaming hysterically) figure out a way to juggle the groceries, run for the shovel, pull up our big girl pants, and crush that fang-wielding skull.

And when I get the opportunity to do that, I relish the fact that it's a God-ordained activity dating back to the very beginning of time.  Use your heels, my friends.  It's God's will.