For the third year in a row we experienced the rush of birthdays during the last week of school for all the kids who had summer birthdays. It’s a sweet gesture…they don’t want any kid being left out of having a celebration with their class, but still I have to wonder how confusing that is for a kid. Even though Brittain was older and had more of an understanding of what was going on, pretty much from this point until her actual birthday she continued to say that she was already 5…and we had to remind her every time that she still had a couple of months until her actual 5th birthday.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m writing all of this quite a few months after the fact. When I pulled up the pictures from this day I began to remember the emotions I was having. I can remember the feeling I had when Brittain was handing out the plates and napkins and the thrill she got from that. I remembered that when we went to pick out her plates and napkins she insisted on getting the exact same ones as Ellie had gotten for her own birthday party at school. Being different didn’t interest her. She wanted to be just like Ellie. Somehow I talked her out of getting the exact same favors as her…
Her party took place during one of the last 2 weeks of school. As I watched her with all her friends that she had now spent 3 years with, at our church where she felt safe, I wondered how she was going to adjust to Kindergarten. I remember saying a prayer at that moment, knowing it would be a prayer I would say for my child each and every year she started a new and different school year.
I still remember my first mother’s day after Brittain was born. Going into church holding my baby girl, I finally realized that sense of pride that my mom told me about for so many years. It goes without saying that this year that feeling was even stronger.
While there was an added amount of LOTS OF FATIGUE that accompanied this mother’s day, I was able to wonder when I walked into the church if I had actually remembered to get dressed myself, but also hold my two beautiful children tightly as I beamed with pride. You can’t help but love it when someone stops you in the hall and says, “Let me look at him.” I always love watching the person’s face as they look at my child. For the most part, these people who are stopping me are people who watched ME grow up in the church and now here they are watching my children. It’s as if they have this look on their face that contains a certain amount of disbelief…or maybe it’s awe. And I always want to say, “I know, right?! My children are miracles.”
I want to document special moments. For some reason on this day there wasn’t much interest in photos. Brittain wanted her dress off, Coleman was wanting to eat…or nap…or perhaps needed a diaper change…you know, things that babies require. Somehow I talked everyone into it and asked someone to at least get a shot or two. Here is where I learned that 2 month olds are not very cooperative.
Couldn’t resist these 2 sweet faces either…
For any of you who have, for whatever reason, tried to continually check-in to Brittain’s blog to find out the latest with the Gill family and have found NO updates for several months, let me catch you up. We now have a 5 year old who is in Kindergarten and an almost 7 month old (on October 19th). Where has the time gone you ask? I am wondering the same thing.
It started about 4 months ago, that little voice in the back of my head that would consistently say to me, “the blog, the blaaaaaaag”. I would feel that tinge of guilt and make a promise to myself that I would start trying to catch up THAT night. Then, that night would hit, the kids would be in bed and I would find myself sitting on the couch staring into nothingness and wondering when my brain would reset so that I could actually think again. Writer’s block? Perhaps. But the problem with that theory is that I have so much inspiration in my own home every single day. The only thing I can figure is that it has to be Writer’s Overload. I have SO much I want to say, too much probably. It’s more than I feel like I’m able to type, and I’m sure it’s more than any of you want to hear.
At this point you may be wondering why I’m writing now? What was it about today that made me want to write? Well, to be honest it really just stems from that guilt thing. Coleman already has had only about a quarter of the number of pictures taken of him than we took of his big sister. ?And the videos? I just hope we have two or three of those (compared to the hundreds of Brittain)…and more importantly I hope we know where the hell they are and that they didn’t get deleted accidentally. And also it’s because I’m sick and tired of having the most insanely long mental list of things I need/want to do and nothing ever being crossed off of it…like couponing…and updating my photography website…and doing some more photography…and getting in touch with some long lost friends…and doing things that would qualify me for becoming mom and wife of the year…
I’ve missed all the important milestones in Coleman’s life so far. I’ve spent the last week or so wondering how I could possibly let these things slide without making a big announcement about them on the blog. But then it occurred to me. It’s as if with Coleman everything is going at warp speed. And I’m not just talking about the fact that now that I have 2 kids, things just move more quickly. I’m talking in a literal sense. If you have been a follower of Brittain’s blog for a while you know that Brittain wasn’t even crawling on her first birthday. We were able to sit Brittain in the middle of our bed, turn on a Baby Einstein video and go off and take a shower and get ready without her budging from the spot we put her in until she was well over a year old. Coleman, on the other hand, has already toppled off the bed onto the floor twice when we have taken our eyes off him for 2 seconds to tend to the other child. We are still adjusting to the difference in personality…and the fact that he’s a boy. At 6 months old he is crawling and starting to pull up. He grabs anything within his reach and is best known for his ability to spit up on anyone that holds him (or even just those standing near him). He’s happy all the time, except when he’s hungry. We decided to make our own baby food this time around and it’s a good thing we did. We would definitely be near broke from this expenditure alone. At 6 months and weighing in at 19 pounds, the kid likes to eat. Polar opposite from his sister we’ve now got a GOOD eater on our hands, as it looks so far. He actually likes vegetables…he will literally eat anything that you put in front of him…as long as it fills up his tummy.
So much is different now. Some things are frustrating, but within the walls in which I live, the beautiful children that we created put things in perspective for me, and at the end of any day I go to bed thanking God for what I have been blessed with.
Here we go…bear with me. There’s clearly several months of catching up to do here.
