Birthday Girl

Warning: This is going to be one of THOSE posts that is all about one of my kids. It will probably not interest 80% of my readers, but I'm posting it anyway because it's my blog and I want to! So if you're not into these posts, come back again soon for something more profound and thought provoking (I hope!)
One year ago, I got up in the morning feeling like something was different. Although this was my fourth full pregnancy, I had never gone into labor spontaneously. I had a repeat c-section scheduled for the 8th and lots to do in the next week before the baby came. But that morning, something had changed and I knew it. As I took a shower, I thought to myself, "Maybe you'd better pack your hospital bag, just in case." I told Jared that there was a possibility that we'd be having the baby earlier than we'd planned, but he assured me that it was probably a false alarm. After all, my due date was still 15 days away, and as I said before, I had never gone into labor without medical assistance.
I spent the morning running errands, buying a few things that I absolutely needed if I was having a baby right away. I had a baby shower scheduled for the next night, but I decided that I shouldn't wait any longer to buy diapers, onesies, and a few binkis, and to get more food in the house. Just in case.
By noon, I had called my friend Kristen, a labor and delivery nurse. I should have called the doctor, but I knew that they'd just tell me to come in and get checked out, and I didn't want to if it was a false alarm. I had a cut and color scheduled with my hairstylist at 4:00. And how could I have a baby with gray showing? I couldn't. But when I told Kristen that I'd been contracting all morning pretty regularly, she said she would feel better if we went into LDRP. I dropped off my kids at Christine's, and Kristen and I headed to the hospital. Jared was closing for lunch at 12:30 and could meet us over there.
To make a long story short, I did not get my hair done that day. Nor did I have a baby shower the next day. They determined that I was in labor, and even though it wasn't hard labor yet, since I had already had 3 previous c-sections, they didn't really want me laboring (the risk of uterine rupture is high after so many.) So at 4:59 pm, Bronwen was born. So much for all the convenience of having a scheduled c-section! From the beginning, she let us know that she was going to do things on her terms.
Here is her "stink eye" face that she makes when she's frustrated or when encouraged to do so by those of us who think it is hysterical!

I went around today, asking my family what they loved most about Bronwen. Here are there responses (Warning, these are not very exciting, but I am striving for authentic journalism here, so I couldn't doctor them up):
Kimball: My favorite thing? She's cute.
Henry: I love everything about Bronwen (very true--he adores her.)
Ian: Um, playing with her!
Jared: (suspiciously) What's this for? (He doesn't like being quoted on THE BLOG.) (Then, under pressure,) I like that she smiles at me when she sees me.
As for me, I love the spirit that she has brought into our home. I feel like we were missing something without her--even though we didn't know it. She brings a softness to everyone. Looking at her reminds me to stop yelling and be the softer, gentler mommy that I want to be. And she seems to have the same effect on her brothers. Their fighting stops when they catch sight of her or when I ask them to help me with her. When they hear Bronwen wake up in the morning or after a nap, they all drop everything and run in to see her. And I love to see that.

Here are a few shots of our little family birthday celebration at Nana's.

I was pleased with the way the ladybug cake turned out. Kimball made a birthday banner for the occasion.
Checking out the gift wrap.
The doll is a hit!It's really too bad that she didn't wear a bib at dinner, because this photo would be perfect without the drippings from orange wedges all over her dress. Bummer.I took some video of her eating the cake, but she was so delicate and unhurried about it that it would have bored anyone who is not her grandma. So I'll spare you. Her favorite part was definitely the Junior Mints. She picked off and ate every one.Everybody else got ladybug cupcakes and ice cream.Kimball helped Bronwen eat the black bug head. Check out his tongue. Yech!In the end, she decided that she wanted clean hands and a sippy cup of milk. We were all a little disappointed that she didn't demolish the cake (as her brothers have all done.) But perhaps she will not have the kind of food issues that her mother has when she grows up. Wouldn't that be a gift?
Happy Birthday, little girl. We love you!

There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

At 17 months old, I was blessed with a baby sister, a sidekick, a friend for life. Alli and I shared a bedroom until I went to college 17 years later, and when she 
came to BYU the next year,
my friends and I opted to spend another year in on-campus housing at Heritage Halls and she lived in the apartment downstairs. The next year we were back to sharing a room and then we traveled together for a study abroad one summer in Jerusalem (one of the highlights of my life so far.) I left on my mission to Russia in the fall of 1994 and by the time I got home, Alli had already left for her 18 month mission in Honduras. She arrived home shortly before my wedding. Since then, although we have not been roommates, we have remained close friends, talking nearly every day. She insists that she spent the first half of her mission praying that I wouldn't get married while she was gone and the second half praying that I'd find the love of my life and get married when she got home, so she is one of a few people who take the credit for Jared & me falling in love.
Alli has always valued, prized, and looked forward to the divinity of motherhood. I think that perhaps the hardest part for her of being single long past when she expected to be was that she couldn't be a mother. When Kimball was born she was living in Salt Lake City and I in Southern California, but within a year she had relocated, partly because she couldn't stand to be away from him for very long. She was invaluable to me when Henry, our colicky second, was born, especially when I struggled with post partum depression and really felt like I needed support on a daily basis.
When we moved north four and a half years ago, it was a blow to her to realize that she had little control over where our children lived, etc. She had always treated them as if they were her own and I think she really felt that way and was crushed when we felt inspired to move away. I missed her terribly, but you should have seen how my kids missed her--it was as if they had lost one of their two mommies! My heart has ached for her over the years since I became a mother, knowing how much she wanted the life I was living.
Then, a couple of years ago, along came Flint. He treats her with so much love and respect and is most definitely the man she had been waiting for all those years. They married and decided that they wouldn't wait too long to start a family. A miscarriage slowed them down and worried them that their plans might not come to fruition. But happy news! This morning at 3:15 am, their baby Isaac Flint was born!
Yesterday morning I got a call from Allison on her way to her last day of teaching, saying that she was pretty sure that she was in labor. Flint was working up here, so a few minutes later he called me for a ride to the airport. I fell to my knees and asked the Lord to please let him be there with her for the labor and birth of their first baby. Then throughout the day I frequently prayed for them. I know that I can be a worrywart, but when someone I love is in labor I always feel like I need to plead with Our Father for their life and the life of the baby. I guess it's because to deliver a baby we go into the valley of the shadow of death. And I can't imagine anything more awful at a time of joy and hope like the birth of a baby than the loss of the baby or the mother or both of them. I was so relieved and grateful when I got a text message at 3:30 am, telling me that all was well and that Isaac had come.
Allison will finally get to be the mother that she has prepared all her life to be. She has been so wonderful to my children and to her other nieces and nephews. I am so filled with joy and gratitude for this long awaited blessing in her life, and pray that she will find joy and fulfillment as she relishes motherhood.
P.S. (I hate using this blasted laptop. It regularly messes up the formatting and won't let me move pictures around or use multiple photos. Thank goodness our new PC is on its way.)

A Child is Born

When I was six years old, my mother had her fifth baby (I was the eldest)--a boy named Tyler. He was MY baby as far as I was concerned. I helped feed him, change him, hold him, and mothered him as only a big sister can. He was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.
Well, that little baby has grown up and today, he became a daddy. He and his wife, Erika, welcomed their first son into the world in the wee small hours of the morning. I had taken my cell phone to bed with me, hoping I'd get a text message when the little one had arrived. All day Monday I prayed for Erika, that the baby would be well, that she would be well, that we would have good news soon. So I was relieved to finally get the text message at 4:00 am that he had arrived safe and sound.
I don't mean to be stealing Tyler's thunder by posting about this. I know that he has uploaded pictures to his blog but hasn't had time to post yet. I will leave him to fill you in on all of the details, just give him a day or so more to soak in his new baby and to bring Erika and Scottie home from the hospital. I am just so filled with gratitude that baby Scottie is here and has joined our family. A new baby is such a miracle, and especially through those harrowing hours of labor you imagine all the things that could go dreadfully wrong and pray that none of them will.
Now Tyler and Erika have so many wonderful things to look forward to. I'm not talking about the sleepless nights and the two-year-old tantrums and the teenage rebellions. I'm talking about the tightening in your chest when you think of anything being less than perfect in this child's life. I'm talking about the lightness in your heart when you hear your baby laugh, or when you see his eyes light up at the sight of your face. I'm talking about the sweetness of seeing your child gently kiss a new baby brother or sister, sensing that even as toddlers, they feel the miracle of a new baby. I'm talking about watching your child accomplish something that was hard for them and seeing the pride on their faces as they look to you to celebrate with them.
Welcome to parenthood, Erika and Tyler. Enjoy the journey. It may be the hardest thing you ever attempt, but it will also be more rewarding than any job, any educational achievement, any thing you can create. It will make you hurt like nothing has hurt before and love like you've never loved before. It is a blessing from God to be a parent, and it is His plan for us. And welcome to the world, baby Scottie!