Monday, August 23, 2010

A Blessed Night

Dad dedicating Mikayla
Last weekend we had a service to dedicate Mikayla to God and also to commission Christina and Clinton as they headed off to Ecuador. What a blessing the service was! With family and friends there to support us, a mom who put everything together and a talented father who did the music, this night will always hold a special place in my heart.


 At my own dedication my dad sang a song he had written and Saturday night he sang the same song for our sweet Mikayla. It was such a special moment.

The night before I was listening to a tape recording of my baby dedication and hearing all the pastor had said brought tears to my eyes… he prayed I would know God and I do! What an amazing thing. 

I pray that Mikayla will come to know and love God as we do. I pray that Dhrumil and I can uphold the vows we took and give our child completely to God.

Pslams 139:

For you created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, 
I know that full well.


My frame was not hidden from you 
when I was made in the secret place. 
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,


your eyes saw my unformed body. 
All the days ordained for me 
were written in your book 
before one of them came to be.  



Monday, August 16, 2010

Missing a Sister

Today marks a new chapter in my sister’s life… she now lives in Ecuador! Christina and her husband Clinton are going to be teaching at an international high school in Ecuador ’s capital of Quito. Although I am excited for them and the many amazing experiences they are going to have I am already missing my sister (and of course Clinton) so much.

I have been extremely blessed with an amazing sister who is also my best friend. She is a gentle spirit who listens when I have to vent, who says just the right thing when I’m feeling down and who I know always has my back… no matter what. Though she is my little sister I look up to her in many ways and am always astounded by the confidence she has as she faces new challenges in life. Though College put distance between us for 6 years we were finally again in the same place. I have loved having both her and Clinton living just a train ride away in the city and will miss visiting them every few weekends. I am also going to miss having them here to watch Mikayla grow. I have promised to put a picture of Christina in Mikayla’s room and speak her name daily! 

I will miss you my sister, but know you are off to do amazing things!

If you want to follow their adventures in Ecuador check out Ten Confianza!

Look Who

Two big developments that I must note with my sweet pea…

        She is sitting by herself!
        She turns when you call her name!

In conclusion? Mikayla is BRILLIANT! I am such a proud mother telling anyone who will listen (or pretends to listen) about her accomplishments!

I leave this highly intelligent post with my new favorite quote that I heard over the weekend… “Having a child is like getting a tattoo on your face… you have to be fully committed” HA! Isn't that the truth!? 

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Grass

This afternoon I took Mikayla outside to do a 5 month photo shoot. First off her mood was...


And while all I was asking of her was to smile...

                                     

She was more interested in touching the green stuff...

                                      

And after numerous attempts to show her the camera was more fun to look at instead of grass...

                                      

I gave up...

                                     

And let her enjoy her first true experience of running her fingers through the grass...

                                   

5 Months



Mikayla at 5 months... there is so much more but these are the first that come to mind:
-          VERY vocal
-          Knows what she wants
-          If you take something away from her (for example the dog’s leash) she cries
-          She really wants to sit and gets frustrated when she can’t
-          She likes to give me “kisses” by smashing her whole face into mine
-          She just started rice cereal a few days ago and seems to like it though it’s super messy and 
        she wants to hold the spoon
-          She loves to blow spit bubbles and has to concentrate to do so
-          She is still loving her baths
-          She LOVES plastic cups and will lay there and crunch them for long periods of time (my 
        mom discovered this and now you can find cups all over the house)
-          She giggles when we run around like fools
-          She enjoys walks and will smile and talk while we push her around
-          If she’s not in the mood to smile she will just stare at you with an indifferent look
-          She does a cute little shy thing at random times with new people and puts her head down and 
        smiles from the side of her face with her eyes looking up…I think she is flirting
-          She holds onto EVERYTHING… earrings, hair
-       She is starting make it known that she wants me around :) good and bad...
-          She enjoys sucking her toes
-          She is sleeping through the night most nights


                                             

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Birthday With a Baby

Dhrumil’s birthday was on Sunday and celebrating it with a baby is something new. We have already had a birthday with Mikayla around, but that was when she was 15 days old. Needless to say we were both pretty wiped and though we tried to make the best of it I didn’t feel like the queen for the day because my exhaustion of caring for a newborn took over the need to feel pampered all day (which is what I think should happen on your birthday!)


Dhrumil and I have a running joke that something always life changing happens around his birthday and we never celebrate it the way we would like. This year I was determined to make Dhrumil’s day special and though my intentions were honorable the day ended up being exhausting. Fortunately we laughed about it instead of getting frustrated.

Zebra Shirt and Zebra behind us
Instead of breakfast in bed and letting Dhrumil sleep in, a crabby Mikayla spent time with daddy while I tried to whip up breakfast. After breakfast and hoping Mikayla’s morning nap would turn her around we headed to the Bronx zoo excited by the “cool” weather (15 degrees cooler than it had been most of the summer) and excited to see Mikayla’s reaction to the animals. Well the first 10 minutes at the zoo were enjoyable. After that we were introduced to life with a stroller. Most exhibits you had to leave the stroller outside. So it went like this… navigate through the HUNDREDS of strollers, park ours, take baby out, take out both cameras we smartly brought, diaper bag, and anything else in stroller and drape it over us, go into JAM PACKED exhibit stare at a few monkeys, wonder if Mikayla even noticed them, leave and find stroller, put all the stuff back under it, put baby back in, navigate our way out of the stroller parking lot and while baby screams search map for Zebras since baby has Zebra shirt on and we MUST get a picture BY THE ZEBRA! Our sweet daughter did NOT want to be in the stroller (normally her favorite place to be) and so I carried her, while Dhrumil pushed the stroller with the cameras in the seat instead of the baby.

After seeing 3 or 4 different animals (including the ZEBRAs!) we decided to grab a bite to eat before Mikayla was hungry. Dripping with sweat we maneuvered through the HUNDREDS of people where we found a table and while Dhrumil went to grab unhealthy snacks I sat with a fussy baby and batted away about 20 pigeons who were all trying to grab the lone French fry left under our table. After shoving the food in our mouths because the baby was close to screaming we made our way as fast as we could to try to find a quiet place for me to nurse Mikayla.

 **DISCLAIMER I have not nursed in public because the situation hasn’t come up or I haven’t let it and needless to say I wish I had started earlier because this next part of the story might have been different** 

Every bench we saw I thought was too exposed and after walking half the Zoo again we ended up ironically by the Zebras where I felt I could relax enough to fed my screaming child. Well… all went well for about 2 minuets then Mikayla started screaming for some unknown reason trying to pull the cover off and at the same moment about 20 people walked by and all stared at me. Needless to say I told Dhrumil this would NOT work I NEEDED to go into the car and so we basically ran out of the Zoo and decided that we had enough after 2 hours. So what if we weren’t able to stick Mikayla’s head in the bug cut out… another time perhaps.

The rest of the day went better with lunch on Arthur Ave (a mix of Mafia and Puerto Rico ) a surprise birthday party (where my wonderful friends brought the cake and ice cream) and then a baby who fell asleep with a little sigh and her sour face turned sweet.  Happy Birthday Husband! Maybe next year it will be a little less chaotic.
End of a LONG day

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Stop and Hear the Locusts

When is that last time you stopped and heard the Locusts? This past weekend I had two instances where I noticed little examples of needing to slow down. 


The first was with the flowers I have by the back door. I usually just rush past them, but for some reason I took notice and realized they were in desperate need of water. After watering them they left my mind until the next day… while rushing by again I was stopped dead in my tracks by their beauty and how alive they looked. Wow… never realized how much water does for plants.... yes DUH I knew this, but it took me that second to stop and look to really see what a little watering can do. 


The other instance was while walking Mikayla and Willoughby … not until the very end of our walk did I realize the LOUD buzzing of the locusts which to me signifies the heart of Summer… wow I thought… I had no clue they were around now. I had to again STOP (I stopped because the dog was sniffing) and take time to look around my surroundings. 


Guess plants and locusts gave me my life lesson for the weekend. Today I am going to make sure I take a few moments to stop, observe, and thank God for all He has given me.