How Do We Prevent Falls & Bruises? Please Advise!!

I am in the midst of some serious baby proofing and spring cleaning today. Hope is high speed and all over the place, it seems as though I could start cleaning and never stop. The laundry is never done and the floors are rarely spotless. But that doesn't stop our little piece of HVN.
We were with family lste last night so she is on her second nap of the day. Her naps allow me to run around like a crazy woman with vaccuum and mop in hand, moving beds and furniture to make sure the wood floors are free of allergins and dust!
If there was only a way in the midst of baby proofing to protect her from falls and bruises I would do it. She's pretty confident in pulling up and moving place to place. Her favorite spot is to pull up on the window sill where she saw Daddy doing yard work last week, each time although he's not there she call for him...Da Da, Da Da! Or maybe she realizes his truck is gone cause there are times when I ask her, Hope, where's Da Da?" She'll then wave bye bye as she knows he left for work of some other errand I have him on.
My point in this, was to rest for a moment, but also to share the hurt I feel when Hope falls. My heart breaks when I see croccodile tears and that lip turn and she's mummbling something very fast that I can't understand. I'm sure its something not so nice about the floor that hurt her. The mommy in me wants to rescue, protect and not put her down until she's smiling again...so thats what I do. I cuddle her, we go to the freezer and get her frozen Tigger thats for ouies and he seems to help quite a bit. For some reason she stops crying althoug she doesn't put him on her boo-boo, she eats him.
Never the less, she's pretty tough after a fall, some tears but not always. She finds comfort in being in our arms, nawing on Tigger and cuddling her favorite blanky that we can't leave home without. Today I read what a good thing it is for children to have those comforting things like blanky's and teddy bears....thats another blog to come!!!!

HVN Loves 2 Smile, Play, Climb, Eat Everything, Look Under Things & Esp Her Books

Coo- Giggle-Giggle- Coo

Now this is a smile worth getting up to. Since Hope was about three months old she would wake up talking and cooing. She was a only a screamer when she was ity bity and woke up hungry. Now, through the monitor we hear her talking and sometimes laughing at herself!!!
She has a bunny in her bed (thanks Momma LF) that plays music and often she'll play the music and talk to her bunny!! Those sounds are some of the sweetest. Notice her long piano fingers in this picture...or maybe their long fingers to grip a basketball...hopefully they'll do both!!!!

She's Happy & She Know's It

If You're Happy and You Know It

Hope learned to clap today!!!! So we've been singing and singing..."If your Happy and You know it...Clap your hands"...all day!!!!! How sweet it is when they learn something new!!! Her response time is so quick too!!

HVN's 10 Month Photo Shoot

My Best Yard Sale Find So Far

An outdoors girl is what she is, I'm afraid her daddy really prayed for that! She loves to go outside. I found this pink bug at a yard sale and she absolutely loves it. We take a few trips around the driveway at least morning and afternoon of each day, with Riley tagging along behind us!
Yes, I see her tongue! She hasn't stopped rubbing it across her teeth since the 4th one on top came through!

He's a Great Puppy For HVN

Look What HVN's Doing at 10 Months Old

Wow! What milestone's we have passed this week! Let's see, Her Happy 10 Month Birthday was yesterday.
Hope's 6th tooth broke threw so she now has 2 on the bottom and four up top. She handles them pretty well, just like her falls. She mostly likes her bed when her teeth hurt and the all natural teething tabs work well for her.
We got the call this week that she's now too mobile for the baby nursery and has been promoted to the crawler room. I was scheduled to help in her class today so it was a great treat for me to see her interact with the other crawlers. She kept smiling like, "their all moving just like me". She was continually grinning at me like she was excited to be in there and meet new friends or see those who moved up before her. When I brought her home today, after being in the big girl nursery, I found her standing in her crib O So proud of herself!!! She actually called me in to see her, I heard her in the monitor saying "Mum Mum Mum".
A visit to the doctor this week revealed that she's at 22lbs 14 oz and 30 1/4 inches long, no wonder she's in 18 month pants and capri's!!
That leads me to say that the child likes to eat! She loves fruit and will do the "MMMmmmm" when it hits her tongue; especially pears, bananas, apples, peaches and cantelope. She seems to enjoy her veggies like string beans, carrots, peas (sometimes), broccoli and sweet potatos. She also enjoys mac-n-cheese, toast with butter and the infamous Cheerios!!!
Her favorite toys have become those things that aren't really toys ie., tupperware filled with rice or beans, the ice cream scooper she uses as a drum stick, furniture she pulls up on, pillows she likes to climb over, shoes she tries to eat (so we keep them out of reach) but allow her to play in her show drawer, she likes to push buttons on the TV but knows the remote is "DaDa's" toy and her favorite things to do right now are riding in her pink bug bigwheel and swinging in her swing outside.
Her words are Mum Mum and DaDa and thats about it...woof woof is sound not really a word but she has that down good!
One thing is for sure, no matter how big she gets she still loves to cuddle and be rocked. My favorite times are reading to her right before bedtime as she is all ears. Those are the times that I can ask for a kiss and she leans into me with her mouth wide open...to us wet kisses are perfect to!
God is so good to give us blessing after blessing with Hope Victoria. She is one happy, smiley baby that brings joy to many people. Thank you Jesus for her sweet spirit, may she have a heart to know you at a very young age!!

"Mom, Where Are My Camo Boots?"

HVN's First Bruise

See it on the left side of her forehead? She slid in the bath tub, no crying, she got right back up and kept playing! She might be a little tough, but she's all girl right now!!!!

A Happy Mother's Day It Was!!!!!

Happy Tears

Sweet Hope was taking her morning nap before church on Sunday; which is my time to get ready. Today I couldn't get ready. My happy tears were pouring as I gave thanks for this great gift of Mothering. More specifically, for Hope Victoria herself. We prayed so hard for a child to lavish our love on and God gave us an extra special child. One who loves back, is sweet spirited, beautiful and smart for her own pants. Many qualities we didn't pray for but God gave them anyway.
Therefore, the spirit drew me to my knees as he reminded me of all my petitions, I want there to be that many thanksgivings if not more. I want people to know, " How Marvelous, How Wonderful is my Savior's love for me". I want them to know that God is a gracious God who wants to pour out His blessings.

My first Mother's Day was a very special day, daddy made sure of it. He got up early to serve me breakfast, he delivered the most beautiful card to me from Hope and one from Him and he adorned my neck with a gorgeous necklace of Hope's birth stone that matches the ring he gave me at Christmas.
More importatnly I woke up with the best gift in my arms and a voice calling "Mum Mum Mum" (it always comes in 3's just like that) and that was the start of my "Happy Tears"!

A Tribute to Hope's Birth Mother on Mother's Day

We honor you as you chose life for our precious little princess. Not a day goes by that we do not give thanks for her and the life you have allowed us to experience with Hope Victoria.
Thank you for giving of yourself to her and creating a healthy womb for her to grow. She is healthy and strong because of the choices you made.
Thank you for prayerfully considering us as a family and entrusting her to us. God used you to show His favor on us; we are grateful to you and for you.
Throughout the last ten months we never lost faith that God desired for Hope to be in our family for a lifetime. Thank you for your prayers, involvement and support through out that difficult time.
In our hearts Adoption is beautiful, it’s sacred, its God ordained, it’s a sweet Miracle that we all have been privileged to be a part of. Our prayer is that you are blessed and full knowing that you followed the decision God placed on your heart.
We love you and will continually give praise for the story you have given us with “HVN”, our little piece of heaven.

Mark Shultz, "Everything To Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqqj35r8aUc

Hope will be 10 months old next week, so in honor of her birth mother we have donated 10 Bible’s to the Gideon Ministry in hopes that another birth mother may find Jesus and choose life for her unborn child.

A Day of Discovery, "I Can Really Crawl"

Lap #1

Today Hope discovered that she could take the lap around our living room, into the dining room and then the kitchen. She would crawl and stop every so many feet, throw her hands in the air and cackle with excitement. Her face looked as if, "I've been here but you don't need to carry me here any longer". She made her way passed the steps looking up, waving (not sure why) then laughing as if I know that leads to my bedroom. She passed by the dining room and into the kitchen where she quickly discovered my oven drawer with pans. That got old quickly and she discovered the island doors with all kinds of pots that she could lift, remove and lay around her. It was a whole new world of discovery today! As she left the kitchen I thought she would follow me to her toys, but no she had to stop under the end table to go through my basket of books and pull at the baby monitor cord and whatever else was in her reach. All the while cackling in excitement over all her new discoveries!! I did record her and as soon as Rick teaches me how to upload a video on here, I'll post it. As a parent I love these milestone's but don't want to blink or turn my head because they are passing way too quickly.

In My Rocking Chair

My childhood rocking chair sits in Hope's room. As we were playing the other day I allowed her to climb in it, I handed her her baby and she began to rock and then sing. I could only imagine that she was thinking about our nap and bedtimes when we sing and rock her to sleep. She reminds us of a tape recorder taking in everything we say and holding onto our expressions. My favorite song to sing to her is Jesus Loves Me, but the other calming song for her is "God is So Good". It goes on to say "He loves us so, He cares for me, He knows my needs and He's all I need". Isn't that so!!!!!!

"Woof Woof"

Hope loves books, especially the kind she can rub and feel furry, fuz and other textures. Grandpa and Mammy gave her three Peek-A-Boo books for Christmas and we read them a few times a day. Hope likes to turn pages and moves faster through the ones that do not have texture on them. Well, her favorite one has a puppy in it and he has fur on him. On Wednesday night when we were reading she turned the page and without me asking says, "woof woof" and I got sooo excited, she's been listening!!!!!! I called Rick at church (he was done preaching by this time) and told him to hurry home. I had to put Hope to bed but she wasn't quite asleep when daddy arrived home so he went in to kiss, pray with her and quickly ask "what's the puppy say?" She smiled big and said "woof woof"! It was darling!!! A few minutes later, our lab Riley is outside barking and we hear Hope in her monitor going "woof woof", it was priceless! Even things like this make me stand in awe of God's creation and her little but magnificent mind. He is good!(The picture above is Hope at three and a half months old).