Justin and Amber

Giving up Facebook for Lent was a blessing.  I felt like I spent more time with God, myself, and my family.  I was more present, and noticed the details.  Going forward, my goal is to continue to restrict my time on my smart phone in general.  I want to see my children, and devote my time with them, with them.

While I was away from Facebook, life happened.

Eloise Grey:

Ellie has grown up so much!  She has two teeth and lots of lighter hair.  She is an expert crawler – much different than Link was.  He finally crawled after weeks of army crawling, and then jumped to walking.  Ellie is climbing not only stairs, but chairs!  (So just a small, cushy chair, but still).  She loves to stand and can pull herself up on anything.  She loves to play with tiny fuzzies on the floor, Link’s hair, and any small toy she can find of her brother’s to choke on.  Ellie is a big fan of eating and BLW is going great!

Lincoln Xavier:

I have fewer photos of Link, because he doesn’t sit still.  He still loves dinosaurs and really any animal.  As I mentioned before, he had his first true injury, and is healing very nicely.  He loves to be outside, once he gets out there.  He often would choose to stay inside, especially if it is windy, but I push him a bit.  He loves his sister, and is learning to be gentler with her (and everyone else).  He is still talking like crazy, and the words he knows continually astounds me.  His imagination has really taken off, and he is now telling us stories he has made up.

Etcetera:

Justin and I went to California for my work conference.  I did much better than I thought, being away from the kids.  It was great to spend time with just him!

Easter was lovely also, and we were able to spend time with some great friends and family – and welcomed baby Ethan to our “family” on Good Friday!

We are so blessed, and I am grateful for the past 40 days that I had to reflect on the importance of how I use my time, and who I use it for.

Waiting so patiently.

Friday morning I received a phone call from Link’s school.  He was hurt – he had a bad cut on his thumb and needed to go to the doctor or hospital.  Link’s school is 30ish minutes away from my work, plus Ellie pick up time, and they said he couldn’t wait that long.  I called Justin, who could have responded faster, but he didn’t answer.  So I called his parents, who are 5ish minutes away from Link’s school.

Calmly as I could, I communicated that “Link is bleeding, needs to go to the doctor, can you go get him?!?!?”  I’m sure I freaked them out.  Then I packed up all of my things at work (except my wallet – oops!), called Ellie’s daycare and said I was on my way, called my mom, called the dr., and called Justin.  Picked up Ellie, and sped as reasonably fast as I could to the doc’s office.

Listening to mom tell a story instead of watching the NP.

We arrived, everyone close to the same time.  Link’s hand was wrapped in a bandage and he was wearing a glove over it.  He was fine, but wanted his mommy.  We got in the room, and the doctor thought it was best to head to Children’s Hospital.  So my mom went with Link and I to the hospital, and Pat and Ron took Eloise home with them.  When Link heard we were going to the hospital he said, “but mom! I don’t want to go back in your tummy!”  Where he got that idea, I’m not sure, but the only time he’s heard about a hospital or been to one is me having babies.  I assured him they were just going to make his hand better.

The staff at Children’s were wonderful, and they took such great care of him.  Link was great, until he saw his cut, and then he cried a bit.  If it was covered, he was fine.  Especially once they have him apple juice and cheese crackers, neither of which he gets at home.  He was also able to watch cartoons.  They put numbing ointment over the area, and when the Nurse Practitioner came in, she evaluated the cut.  She described it as a very deep papercut, and it was fortunate to be on his thumb, and not in the webbing.  She said she rarely recommends glue, but in this case gluing the cut shut would be enough, and would save Link the trauma of stitches.  One popsicle and a few minutes later, Link was all bandaged up and ready to go home.

All glued and wrapped.

This was hard on mommy, of course, but I was thankful to Jesus for so many things during that experience.

First, I was so thankful for my village.  Link’s wonderful school took great care of him and reacted quickly to clean his injury well, keep him feeling loved, and were truly sad that he was hurt.  Three grandparents were able to respond so quickly so Link got right to the doctor and Eloise didn’t have to come along to the hospital.

Second, I was thankful that we were the family that could wait.  We waited in the hospital room for awhile, and there could have been many reasons for that.  But what I know is that Link was not injured so badly that he couldn’t wait. On that note, while washing his bloody clothes, I was thankful that it wasn’t worse – I never want to have to wash blood out of my child’s clothes for anything more than a bad cut.

Last, I was thankful for my sweet boy.  He was so strong.  He only cried a little when he could see his cut.  He was so kind to the staff at the hospital.  He didn’t pull off his bandages. He isn’t upset when talking about it.  Our neighbor asked him what happened to his hand, and he said “At school, I was working with a tape [measure], and suddenly it cut me! I have a bad owwie, but the bandage is making it all better”.  (The metal tape measure retracted and sliced his finger).

Not interested in sitting still anymore!

I truly believe that raising children and cultivating a family takes a village.  You can do it without one, and do it well.  But I’m so blessed and glad that I have the support of my village walking alongside my parenting journey.