About the Day She Walked... and Peed in the Potty

For those of you who haven't seen the video posted all over Facebook...

Yes, my baby is WALKING. And yes, I am unable to remember that I have to hold the phone a certain way to record so that the videos show right side up on the blog. Sorry. I may catch on one day... but probably not.

So anyway, it happened like this: We've been practicing with her for a couple of weeks now in hopes that she would take her first steps before we left for Africa. Truth is, she was chicken. She has no problem getting herself off of the couch. But you could see it in her face that she did not trust her legs to support her stout little body. FINALLY, this past Wednesday morning (Feb. 23) she ventured out. I was holding one of her favorite, interactive books, Chandler got her feet set toward me, and she just took off. It goes without saying that we had quite a celebration and all of that attention bolstered her confidence so that she passed the book back to Chandler and took off again. Back and forth she went.

Hands down, the best part of this whole walking experience is her facial expression. It's a clear mix of excitement, pride, and just basking in the attention.

In other news, she peed in the potty before bed this evening. It caught me completely off guard and I totally overreacted, calling out in high-pitched excitement, but it was pretty awesome. Here's to hoping all the excitement will inspire her to use the "poppy" (in her words) more often.

Love This Little Girl!

A little blurry because she was turning her head, but I just love this photo.

Little Friends

Waverly is a little social butterfly, thus making me a social butterfly. Being a stay-at-home mom definitely has its benefits; however, the major drawback is the lack of social interaction outside of family and close friends. Before Waverly was born, my mom told me about Gymboree Play & Music, a little baby gym of sorts, off of Harrodsburg Road. About six months ago, Waverly and I visited a gym class and music class and we were hooked.

Over the past six months, we have developed great relationships with other moms and babies. Our kids are growing up together and we're learning a lot from each other. Now that the babies are all turning one, we've been busy bees with birthday parties. The most recent party was Ella's at Gymboree and it was my first opportunity to snap some quick photos of Waverly and her friends...

CUTIE PIE!

Sam and Waverly sporting their Mickey ears party hats! These lasted a few seconds.

Tyler

Carter

Log roll - This activity is hit or miss with the kids

Carter, Ella (the birthday girl!), and Waverly

Sidney

Waverly, Richard, Hunter, Sam, and Carter

It is TOUGH getting five kids to sit and smile (ha ha)

Tyler wearing the mouse ears like a team player

Waverly wasn't a fan of Sam taking all of Ms. Michelle's attention. 

Ms. Michelle is so patient.

Speaking of the aforementioned close friends, our closest couple friend, Morgan and Wes, had their little girl, Emersen, just seven months after Waverly was born. Do you know how thrilled we were to have two girls close in age?? Well, so far they haven't spent a whole lot of time together. Seven months is a big age gap for babies; Waverly is walking and Emersen is just starting to sit up on her own. I realized this more when we watched Emersen yesterday and today. She's not a huge fan of Waverly right now which is ironic considering Morgan and I did not like each other at first.

Look at that cute face!

Rolling over is her new thing

Here kid, calm down.

Rock, rock - Waverly LOVED rocking Emersen. She would've rocked her full speed, but I had my eye on that little stinker.

Waverly getting ready to share "toys". I was so proud of Waverly's kindness toward Em. She always wanted to give her a toy or a bib to wipe her face (Waverly's new obsession is wiping her face or the table or her play house). So sweet.

I took this photo at a weird angle, but Em is sitting in Chandler's lap and we were watching Ellen. She sat a whole lot longer than Waverly ever would.

On the subject of caring for two babies, I was exhausted after two days of it. Both girls were awesome, but it is a lot of work on my part even though their schedules were completely opposite so one would be up while the other slept. Am I ready for number two? My timetable wants to wait a little longer. :)

My Love

A couple of days ago, the door bell rang and Chandler basically forced me to answer it. I'm glad I did. He had a beautiful bouquet of hot pink roses and pink and red chrysanthemums delivered to the house. For me.

He's amazing.

The last time he bought me flowers was when Waverly was born. Again, a beautiful bouquet of hot pink roses, my favorite.

I'm not a huge flower fan, but I love getting them from Chandler. They always mark a memorable time in our lives, not necessarily a holiday. The first bouquet of flowers I ever remember getting from him came the day of my junior prom. We weren't officially dating, but had been spending time together over the past couple of months. It just seemed natural that I would go to prom with him; it was his senior prom. But I didn't. I went with someone from my school instead. Jerk move? Yes. But Chandler brought me a colorful bouquet of gerbera daisies that afternoon. We started "officially" dating a month later. What a keeper.

There have also been those random times when he bought me a single pink rose, just because.

This time, the bouquet marked memorable words...

He told me that over the past couple of weeks he had been thinking about love and how Waverly would understand love. She would know love for us and her family and her dog and friends through life experience, but she would only understand the ideal of "being in love" by witnessing how Chandler loves me. He wants to set an example for her of how her future husband should love her.

He said it a lot better than I just did, but you get the gist.

This is one of the many, many reasons why I love him with all of my heart and know that I am one blessed girl to have him as my husband and the father of my children.

QT

It has to be immediately recorded that I just received twenty-ish minutes of uninterrupted quality time (QT) with my girl. In the middle of her nap, she started crying, like serious crying, so I went to her to calm her down. When she wouldn't, I picked her up out of her crib and sat with her in the rocking chair and for twenty-ish solid minutes, she laid on my chest and we rocked and just relaxed.

For those who know Waverly, this is highly unusual for her. HIGHLY unusual.

She's not much of a cuddle bug and when I've tried to rock her to sleep in the past, she gets distracted by my hair or the blanket or she wants to open the window shade or grab at my face. Really, it doesn't take much.

She didn't fall asleep over the course of the twenty minutes, she just laid there. It was awesome. When I laid her back in her crib, she conked out.

This is huge.

Read 'em and weep, BB, GDaddy, Grandma, Papa, Grandad and Nana... oh, and Daddy (ha!).

Mark the Date

Write it down: Friday, February 4. The start of our official potty training campaign. I know I'm totally being judged right now by moms who have "been there, done that" and say that I'm just wasting my time right now. But I don't care because my strategy is this: Just get her used to sitting on a potty. Can you imagine for 11 months doing all your business in a diaper, then all of a sudden you're sitting diaper-less on a hole? I'll admit, I snickered the first time I sat her on the potty and her arms flew up and her face tensed as she fought the "falling" feeling. You know what I'm talking about. So, I'm content with just letting her sit on it a couple times a day and talking... a lot... about using the potty.

Waverly doesn't care about the potty or its purpose. She's not interested in even playing with the little potty we bought for her. If she goes in the bathroom, her sole purpose is to unroll the toilet paper or dumpster dive in the trash can, maybe play it like a drum. But that's fine. She'll use the potty one day... hopefully sooner rather than later, but we'll see. 

"Hey, folks, we need to make some monayyy!"

"Give me a quarter, five dollars, anything!"

"We need to build a new clubh..." Oh wait, I got a little carried away. Name that movie... anyone? Little Rascals. Love it.

But seriously, we do need to raise more money for our trip. Praise the Lord, we have already raised about $1300; however, we still need about $1700.

Pray about contributing. All the money we raise will go towards travel, accommodations, and materials.

Make checks out to Porter Memorial Baptist Church - Missions
Put our names in the memo: Chandler and Kelli - Malawi
Send the check to:
Porter Memorial Baptist Church - Missions
4300 Nicholasville Road
Lexington, KY 40515

Bear With Me

Allow me to be Debbie Downer for a minute.

Currently, I'm having a mini-meltdown. This is when my heart gains about twenty pounds in my chest, it gets a little harder to breathe, and I have to quickly redirect my thoughts to avoid a major meltdown.

With our Malawi trip just seven weeks away, I think more and more about having to leave Waverly behind. I don't want to sound ungrateful for this opportunity or resentful in my obedience to what the Lord has called us to do. I am ecstatic about the trip itself, but I AM NOT ecstatic about being thousands of miles away from my little girl for 11 days.

I try not to talk about it a whole lot. Mainly because I don't want to be sad, but also because I don't want to give the wrong perception. It is an every day, conscious effort to allow God's peace to settle on my heart about leaving Waverly, but I truly am excited to see what He is going to do. I absolutely love to travel and cannot wait to spend time in Africa. The Lord is bringing everything together in His perfect timing and we are blessed to have faithful friends and family who want to support missions.

All that being said, I just want to spill it all right now. I am not worried for a second that Waverly will not be taken care of; she will be spending the week and half with her grandparents who have all said that you don't know love until you have a grandchild. What's there to worry about? What really gets me is not being there for her when she's upset and not seeing her every single day and putting her to bed every night. It sounds silly when I write it down, but other mom's will understand.

I ask that you pray for me, personally. I don't want to lose my focus with this trip. I'm going to miss her more than she will miss me, most likely, and I need to have peace in that. Weird, huh, that I would find peace in the fact that she won't miss me? That's good for me though.. to know that she's having fun and being loved on by our parents who love her more than anything.

This is going to be good. I feel a little better... for now. I will admit that I cried a little while writing this, but I'm encouraged by the above paragraph.

God is good.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7