A New Addition

We are excited, thrilled...just so happy to announce that we are expecting another little blessing!

On January 3rd, two days after coming back to Florida from our Christmas break in PA, I found out that I was pregnant. I had a plan for how to tell Steve and quickly Titus and I went into action. I knew I wanted to wrap a big box and put a pink and a blue balloon in it to float out when he opened it. We went out and got everything we needed...and it turned out just as I'd envisioned!

The box waiting for Steve when he got home from work...





Steve's face was priceless...exactly the same excitement as when he found out we were pregnant the first time.

The next part of my plan was to take Titus and the balloons and go to the beach to take pictures. Since we wouldn't be able to tell our families in person, I thought we would take pictures and make announcement cards to mail to them. It was a cool and windy evening so we quickly took our pictures and headed back to the house.








I knew I wanted to wait until after I saw the doctor to tell everyone...because until then it just doesn't feel real to me. As with Titus' pregnancy, I had no symptoms at all! I met with the doctor last Thursday and saw the baby and the little heart beating. Such an amazing thing. Can you see it?...



...don't feel bad, Steve couldn't find it either. :)

Intentional Motherhood

This morning I had the opportunity to hear Catherine Hickem speak at our church. She is an amazing speaker and author. She really challenges mothers to look at themselves when parenting and to parent with intention.

She started with Luke 12:48, "...from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I had never heard that before in the context of parenting, but how true!

She talked much about how God chooses our children specifically for us. That our children were sent to shape and grow us, not just for us to shape their lives. I think about that with Titus and the aspects of his personality that stretch me. It is just for that purpose...to stretch me.

She talked about the fact that our own self-esteem as mothers tells our children whether or not they are important. She said, "When I don't matter to myself it tells my kids they don't matter." That was a new thought for me.

Some more quotes and notes that I took...

The more I value my children the harder I will work at mothering.

Children don't know who they are, we tell them and they believe it.

My children teach me as I teach them, I need to be willing to listen first.

Love my children for who they are, not what they do for me.

It's not my child's job to meet my (self-esteem) needs. I need to meet theirs.

Punish with wisdom, not emotion.

I need to be at my best when my children are at their worst.

Don't feel sorry for my children for experiencing my circumstances, it will shape them.

Parent in a way in which I know I did right by my child, not that I made my child happy.

Build trust.

Teach children their value is not based on occasional acts of disobedience or failures.

A child knows when we make a decision that benefits us and not them and it destroys trust.

Be a God-dependent mom.

Catherine's message is to make a plan for parenting. Decide what is your definition of an emotionally and spiritually healthy, successful child who will contribute to the world and make a plan for how to develop that. In her book "Raising Your Children with No Regrets" she writes,

"When we understand our purpose and direction in life, we demonstrate more confidence, exert more energy, possess more hope, set bigger goals, and experience a greater sense of accomplishment. We're more likely to hang in there when things get tough because we know the current state will eventually change.

When it comes to our kids however, we seem to meander through their childhood and adolescence instead of determining goals on this arena with intention, as with other important missions in our lives."

And that was just from the introduction. :) Maybe as I read though each chapter I'll come back and take notes on here. Mostly for my own benefit, but also to share with others because I think she has so much wisdom!

Titus at 18 months

At a year and a half, Titus...

is all boy yet can be very gentle and loves to give kisses
loves cars and trucks and says "beep eep eep" while driving them
says "please," "thank you" and "excuse me" regularly
loves balls and now says "touch down" in a deep voice when playing with his football
is still attached to his elephant blanket and needs it to go down for bed or naps
sleeps from 7pm-8am and naps from 12-2pm
is strong willed
can open the front door
is starting to favor dad over mom
has been on a total of 10 flights
has spent approximately 95 hours in a vehicle (car or Uhaul) driving between PA & FL
loves dogs and isn't afraid of them when they get too close
is very organized and likes to line up his cars and trucks
says, nope, which actaully comes out as "mope"
is starting to be more bold in public
likes hide-and-seek
likes to go down the slide at the park
loves bathtime
loves his shoes although he's almost always barefoot
enjoys collecting shells and rocks on the beach and chasing the birds
is a true beach baby!























More Titus words...

dada, mama, yes, no, socks, feet, eyes, nose, head, car, truck (uck), bus, push, let go!, baba (banana), juice, cup, beach, boak (boat), blocks, snack, seat, Ming Ming..from WonderPets, trash, Ewww, goss (gross), nice, hit, tractor, bug, three, hot, bubbles, help, fit, more, football, uh oh

We are continually amazed at his vocabullary. It grows daily! He is also starting to put words together like, "more please" or "thank you, dada."

Christmas Comes to an End

Christmas has come and gone once again and with it the first days of the new year. We are back in Florida now. Sitting here in the house with the heat on. Only the second time we're used the heat since living here. It's been in the 40's at night and mid 60's during the day. You'd think that just coming from Pennsylvania we would think it's warm...we don't. It reminds me of spring or fall up north. That feeling of coolness and wanting to open the windows but it's just too chilly.

We are glad to be back though. It always feels nice to be back in our own home. Titus was so excited when we walked in the door. He said "tractor!" and ran right for his big one from my sister. He went around to all his old toys and seemed to remember everything. I wasn't sure if he would. When I gave him his woolly sheep he just hugged it for the longest time.

I think we were all three just so happy to be off the plane and out of airports. We had a rough trip back. When we arrived in Philly and went to check our bag, we were told it was 5 pounds overweight. After I had so carefully packed everything so it would all fit we now were being told to rearrange everything. We ended up throwing out a few things so we wouldn't have to pay the huge fee for an overweight bag. Next stop was security. We got stopped by the toy/diaper bag. Apparently a miniature snow globe is not allowed on a plane. Steve's mom gave Titus a small snow globe, by small I mean tiny. I guess because of the liquid we weren't allowed to take it on. So...I started crying...emotional from leaving family, frustrated, and worn out. It got the best of me. It's difficult knowing that to get to our family we have to go through all of that...the distance, the stress, the work. In those times of traveling it all seems too much. When we finally made it to our gate and Titus was just about through with it all...we were told there would be a delay. Then we had to switch gates as there was a mechanical issue with our plane. An hour and a half later we boarded. Titus was very restless until the plane took off and then he feel asleep and slept until we landed. Such a blessing.

Saturday afternoon we finally got around to having Titus open his gifts from us. Since we changed our flight to leave FL earlier than we expected he didn't get to open them before we left for PA as we had planned. We had so much fun. He took time to open and then play with each gift before moving on to the next one.




Now the house is a mess with toys all over the floor. It's been fun to watch him play with his new things and also the ones he hadn't played with for the two weeks we were gone.

He seems older than when we left here for Christmas break. I think he thrived on all the love and attention he got from the families. He loved tackling his cousins Jackson and Clara...being fussed over by his cousin Autumn...sang to by his Mom-Mom and aunt Jane...spoiled with treats by his Grammy and aunt Adrienne...tickled by his Pappy...chasing the Crans' dog...having a play date with miss Adi Harwick... All the things that make living away so difficult for us, we were able to experience in those two weeks. Seeing Titus with family and friends and seeing them enjoy who he is.

Snow Days

After making some quick changes to our flight schedule on Friday at noon, we made it to PA just in time to get snowed in at my parents beautiful home. We were watching the storm track and decided if we didn't get in before the storm hit we probably wouldn't get a flight until just before Christmas day. Our airline waived the standard fee to change a flight and got us on a flight Friday at 7:20pm instead of Saturday at 2pm. We got to my parents just before midnight and the snow started falling just after 1 am. Saturday we sat by the fire watching the snow fall, and fall, and fall. I think we got around 16 inches here at the house. Titus loved the snow and would point and say, "no" (meaning snow). We bundled him up and went out several times over the past three days since being here. We are having such a special Christmas holiday and are excited to see the rest of our family members and to watch Titus open his gifts on Christmas morning.

Happy Birthday Jesus

This afternoon Titus and I went to a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party. A mom around the corner from us has one every year and invited us. It was the cutest thing. She had a cake, craft, snacks and read a little book to the kids. Titus was one of the youngest and was sort of in a world of his own. He loved the backyard. It made me miss our house in Atglen with the big yard and our dog who we left behind in PA. Titus is funny because sometimes he LOVES kids (especially those older than him) and other times he just wants to play by himself. Friday evening a teacher from school had her small group girls offered free babysitting for the staff kids. We dropped Titus off for a couple of hours and went to sit on the beach. When we came back to get him he was chasing after the older kids and trying to tackle two at a time. I guess he's like anyone else...some days he wants to be "social" and some days he wants to be left alone. :) But...back to the party...they had a huge swing set with a slide, that Titus climbed the whole way up! I've never known him to be a climber, but he was quite determined to make it to the top...and he did. He loves being outdoors and I wonder what he'll do over the two weeks we'll be in PA. I can't imagine we'll spend much, if any, time playing outside. Our poor little guy will freeze. When we got in the car after the party, the thermometer inside the car said 100 degrees. It went down a couple of degrees as we drove...but even so...it is so hot here! we rarely (maybe once a month) watch the news here...not sure why. But when I did catch it last week they were talking about the record breaking heat we were having. I can only guess that is continuing to be true this week. I am packing up our hats and scarves and sweatshirts and pants as we are getting ready to leave here on Saturday. I've been counting down the days for a while now and can't believe we are so close now.