March 25, 2009, at 9:52 pm | In addition to our beloved (but now neglected) cat Tommy, Jim and I have apparently acquired two new animals in the house:
A panting puppy…
…and a roaring lion.
Rebecca now pants furiously like a overactive puppy whenever she’s excited. If she’s in her jumperoo, she leaps up and down while panting, further looking like an eager young pup. If she had a tail, I know it would be wagging!
And Susanna has this new hilarious noise she loves to make. It’s a cross between a guttural growl and a raspy roar, as if she’s pretending to be a lion who’s about to devour you. It’s especially cute because her eyes are twinkling while she does it, and you know she knows she’s adorable.
I’ve never posted a video on the blog before, but let’s see if I’m successful. This is a short video clip of our girls showing off their animal noises. If you listen very closely, you can hear Rebecca panting. Susanna’s roaring will be more audible. Here goes!
March 24, 2009, at 10:36 pm | 
Susanna (on right): “Isn’t reading fun?â€
Rebecca: “Let me show you how to keep your nose in a book.â€
Rebecca: “Look at me! I learned how to sit up all by myself!â€
Susanna (on left): “Psst…hey sis…do you think you could give me some sitting-up pointers? That looks like fun!â€
March 23, 2009, at 10:37 pm | When I got out the camera tonight and asked everyone to smile, I guess it wasn’t self-evident that I was hoping they would smile at me, since Susanna decided to grin at her sister instead of the camera!
March 22, 2009, at 9:27 pm | Rebecca: “What’s the big deal? I know I look good.â€
Susanna: “If I smile really big, can I get an extra portion of those yummy bananas…pretty please?â€
March 21, 2009, at 8:53 pm | She flies through the air with the greatest of ease…
…that daring young Becky on the Daddy trapeze!
March 19, 2009, at 10:16 pm | I don’t think it will be long before the girls are crawling. They’re starting to rock back and forth on their hands and knees, as if they’re revving their engines. I’m hoping they take their time gearing up!
March 18, 2009, at 9:44 pm | I’m pleased to report that Susanna has already mastered an important life skill: sharing.
I’m not pleased, however, to report what she shared: the stomach bug.
Jim and I were both afflicted, but Rebecca has emerged unscathed. So far. I’m hopeful that Rebecca will remain healthy, because she may have received my antibodies to the virus through my milk. I like thinking that I didn’t suffer through the flu in vain; by undergoing the symptoms, I was able to spare Rebecca (but unfortunately, not Susanna, since her sickness preceded mine). Wouldn’t it be nice if I could bear all of my daughters’ burdens like that? Just undergo the illness/problem for them, acquire the immunity/lesson on their behalf, and then transmit the benefits to them?
I recently read a quote from Tony Woodlief, a Christian blogger I enjoy following (http://tonywoodlief.com/). His most common theme is parenthood, but he often weaves in topics of grief and suffering, a topic he is familiar with, having lost his own daughter to cancer. He wrote, “"We parents would go straight into Hell to save our children, which is exactly what God did for us." His words keep coming to mind. I hated watching my child suffer through something even as relatively painless as a stomach virus, and found myself wishing I could somehow bear that burden for her. The Lord did infinitely more than that: He allowed His only begotten Son to suffer and die so that we, His children, might be healed from the sickness of sin. He took the penalty of our sins upon Himself, so that we need not endure the punishment. I’ve always been moved by the following hymn stanza:
“Death and the curse were in our cup:
O Christ, ’twas full for Thee;
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
‘Tis empty now for me.
That bitter cup, love drank it up;
Now blessing’s draught for me.â€
Now as a parent, I now have a better appreciation for the sacrificial love of my Heavenly Father. I’ll never come close to fully grasping what He did for me, but having children of my own has infused new significance to the words of the Bible: “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.†-Isaiah 53:5.
March 15, 2009, at 8:33 pm | I always thought that rosy cheeks were a sign of good health…
Not necessarily.
When I plucked Susie out of her crib this morning, I was surprised to see that her cheeks and nose were bright red, as if she had applied Halloween make-up in order to be a cross between a clown and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I concluded she must have rubbed her face against something in the crib, and assumed it would fade as the morning wore on. However, I knew something was amiss when she lost her entire breakfast immediately after eating. Becky does that about once a week (just to make sure I don’t forget how to do laundry), so I hoped that Susie was just temporarily channeling her sister’s sensitive stomach.
I dressed them for church in new clothes from Jim’s Aunt Mary, and wouldn’t you know, Susie’s cheeks matched her outfit:
She acted normally all through church, but then she lost her lunch. Literally. And later her dinner. And her dessert. So the poor thing hasn’t been able to keep anything down all day. Thankfully, she’s not running a fever, and the doctor on call told me it’s probably just a stomach bug. I’m grateful that she doesn’t seem too distressed by the illness. In fact, she had enough energy this evening to play with her sister. Becky thought that maybe rolling over on top of Susie would make her feel better.
Hopefully my little apple-cheeked dumpling will be back to normal soon. See, she’s telling me that she’s sure she’ll feel at least “a little bit†better by tomorrow.
March 14, 2009, at 9:08 pm | This was a week for the record books! Not only did the girls start rolling over, but as of yesterday, Susanna is now the proud owner of not one, but TWO teeth! And boy, did she ever work hard for those two little chompers. She’s been in teething mode for months now, so hopefully the poor child gets a break from the drooling and fussiness before she starts on the next tooth (I hope I get a break, too).
Rebecca was determined to share the limelight. Today, I noticed she now has a tooth on the top left, so the girls have five teeth between them. Not quite enough to justify introducing crackers and cookies into their diet, but I’m sure it won’t be long before they’re longing to sink their teeth into something a bit more crunchy than oatmeal and mushy peas.
The girls were in their glory today as we took them to a church meeting this afternoon. They behaved well during the message, and only became fussy afterward when we were chatting and eating with our friends. They must have been taking after their dad today – he never wants to socialize for long either! Of course, it feels like just yesterday when my sister and I would whine and tug on our mom’s arm to drag her away from her friends and toward the car after church. We thought she’d never stop talking! And here I am now, in my mom’s shoes, wishing for just a few more moments with my friends while my two daughters are vociferously protesting. And all I can say is…sorry, Mom!
March 14, 2009, at 12:00 am | Have you ever seen anything more hilarious than these high heels the girls are modeling? Jim’s mom’s good friend Becky bestowed these fantastic shoes on the girls while I was still in the hospital on bedrest. I remember unwrapping them and laughing so hard tears came to my eyes. At the time, I couldn’t imagine the girls ever being big enough to wear these fancy heels (I actually couldn’t imagine the girls at all, given that my only glimpses at their cute faces had been via grainy ultrasound at that point, and I could barely tell their noses from their kneecaps!). Now, the girls are acting so grown-up, I figured it was only fitting that they wear their grown-up shoes! The pictures don’t do the shoes justice – they actually have soft little pointy stiletto heels. I would have taken more photos, but the shoes are still a bit big, so they were repeatedly tossed into the air as the girls vigorously shook their legs in an effort to see what on earth I had placed on their feet. They seemed more amused by watching the shoes fly across the room than by wearing them. Either way, they had me in stitches!
 
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ABOUT US I'm blessed to be saved by the grace of God, loved by my wonderful husband Jim, and embraced by my twin girls, Rebecca Faith and Susanna Joy and my sons Jimmy and Danny. I started this blog in May 2008 when I was hospitalized for pre-term labor at 24 weeks gestation. The Lord allowed me to keep the girls inside until they were 34 weeks along, and on July 27th, Rebecca made her debut, followed by Susanna, five minutes later, on July 28th. We ecstatically welcomed Jimmy into our lives on April 25th, 2011, and Danny on August 31, 2012. This blog has been a personal journal of faith and motherhood and the only way I can remember which child did what and when. Thanks for stopping by to share in my Faith and Joy! Feel free to e-mail me at: [email protected]. |
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