Memorial Box- Ladyraffe

I love my little girl so much....I could cry sometimes! Just as I wondered how to start this blog, my heart got all full of love for her, I did get a little teary. She's had a busy day today. She woke up at 8:30 (after having slept from 10p-7a without nursing...she woke up at 4, and was able to "work it out" on her own without us getting her, and she fell back asleep. I hate the term "cry it out"; once I decided she was "working it out", I felt soooo much better at exploring this option!) and I whisked her away to her 9:00 doctor's appointment for her "15 month checkup". As soon as the assistant put the tape measure around her head, she started the meltdown. Then getting her length was torture, and getting her naked for her weight was deathrow! It was all done in about 2 minutes, but you'd think she had been in hysterics for an hour. (This was actually a great lesson for me; I had taken her to the nursery this week at church, and when I picked her up she was crying hard and took her more than 10 min to calm down. I was mad at the nursery people for not paging me, since she must have been crying that entire time to be that hysterical. But this little blip in the doctor's office made me see that maybe she wasn't crying very long, and I had to retract my judgement!) Anyway, as she sat there in her diaper waiting for the doctor, she sat happily on my lap, eating goldfish crackers (her breakfast?! gasp!) with one hand, and holding a ball (the "dryer ball" to be honest....those pokey plastic balls that you can use instead of softener sheets to reduce static cling and stuff?) with the other hand. Then doctor Kristen came in, and everything was fine until the dreaded stethoscope. She started her wails, and didn't stop (certainly not even for her immunizations!!) until we were in the car!!! It was almost comical, because I knew minus the shots, nothing was worth getting that worked up over. Doctor K had reminded me "I told you the 15 month was bad....18 months will be even worse, but then the 2 year will be a night and day difference". We made it home just long enough to have a cereal bar and play with some oatmeal, then turn right around and met our friends Chrisse and Rachel at the zoo. The highlight was petting a goat (after several minutes of clinging to me) for the first time! We planned to go to our favorite pizza place for lunch but the line was way too long, so we ended up at a nearby cafe. Lucy nearly fell asleep at 1230, but I aroused her for lunch. So of course we missed her nap "window". By the time we got home it was 2:00, and it took her till 3:00 to fall asleep. (Poopy diaper, more dramatic tears, etc). "Overtired" has never been so applicable. What a brave and resilient girl you've been today!

So her numbers were amazing this appointment: Weight is up a little to 24 pounds, 7 ounces (75th percentile), height 32 1/2 inches...wow, a 3 inch growth from 12 month check up, putting her at the 95%ile, and head was a whopping 48.25cm, which was also over 95%.) I look at her and I'm so thankful for the beautiful mix she is of Tim and I!! So thankful she got the best of each of us, and not the worst! It IS interesting, that anyone who sees her (or her photo in my work badge for instance) assumes she is adopted. Even when Tim is standing next to me, I've been asked what adoption agency we used. I realize that on the surface she looks very little like me, but I love that there is so much of me "in her" too. One of my favorites is her "nosyness" in restaurants. She makes it no secret that she is watching and listening to other people's conversations, seeing what they are eating, and in general observing their time together. If she's positioned so that she doesn't have to strain to watch them, then she can actually eat AND watch at the same time. If we attempt to have her "mind her own business" she just squirms till she can have a good view of the nearest table!! She rarely talks to them, but she will smile and get all shy if they try to talk to her! No, she prefers to observe. My sister was with us having lunch on Wednesday, and she pointed out that soon Lucy will be advising other customers on what they should order! So true!! Tim is very private and doesn't like attention drawn to him, so having a nosy, messy toddler at restaurants has been a challenging aspect of parenthood that I'm sure is teaching him many things about God's love for us!!

So before I make this blog way too long (too late?), I will get down to the point. Tim bought these pencils on his last work trip to China, which was a few months before I got pregnant. We had been discussing whether we were ready to start trying, and I KNEW when he brought these pencils home that it was time! You already know I am a ladybug fanatic. You might also know (if you've been reading this long enough) that Tim's favorite animal is the giraffe ("on account of their long necks"). So when he found these pencils and showed them to me I didn't get it at first. He told me to look closer:




One is a giraffe (that's him), one is a ladybug (that's me), and one is a combination (shall we say a "ladyraffe"??)....which was of course the baby we had yet to conceive. The fact that Tim was even thinking of us as a "family to be", on such a sentimental level, I was thrilled! God had softened his heart, and had given us the ok to try and become parents. I do not take these lightly: Tim's sweet gesture and ability to see how cute our "baby" would be; the fact that we got pregnant in just a few months of trying; the fact that I had a healthy pregnancy (not including the all day sickness and exhaustion for the first 18 weeks!!); the fact that our daughter is so beautiful and delightful to us. Truly God is good.

They are going in the memorial box before Lucy breaks their heads off or something!