Soccer Mom

As of last night, I am officially a Soccer Mom. Wow, I feel so American saying that! Gabriel had his first soccer practice yesterday and we all enjoyed it. Most weeks, his soccer practice will be on the same night as my church's Life Group. Which means Cary is going to be a Soccer Dad on those nights. But of course I will be going to all the Saturday games! And the occasional soccer practice when it's on a different night when I don't have Life Group.

Anyway, Gabriel had a blast and told me last night that he wants to play "100 years, until I die." I guess that's a good sign ;) He had a little too much fun at times, but I'm sure with time and practice, he'll learn the rules of the game! Here are some pictures and a video.

Gabriel while watching this video: "That's my best friend!"
Me: "I thought Anderson was your best friend."
Gabriel: "Now I have 3 best friends, you, Anderson and that boy!"

Name for our Homeschool

Today I have been brainstorming for a name for our homeschool. Okay, I know it's a little early, Gabriel is only 2, but it never hurts to be prepared! Here are some of the ideas I came up with:

Green Pastures Christian Academy (Psalm 23: "He makes me lie down in green pastures...", plus we live out in the country and have green pastures most of the year!)

Light of the World Academy

Morning Star Christian Academy

New Creation Home School

Eagles' Wings Christian Academy

Rising Son Christian Academy

Tree of Life Christian Academy

Heart and Mind Home School

Heart of Wisdom Home School

And for preschool (before we officially start Kindergarten):

Hidden Treasures Preschool

Faith & Fun Preschool

Which ones do you like best? Are there any names you think won't work for some reason? I would really appreciate your opinion!

Scary!

Last weekend we had one of the scariest nights of our lives. Saturday night after going to bed, Gabriel developed a fever. We had not noticed anything wrong with him all day, and I didn't think it was anything serious, he's had fevers before. Well this time it was different. After a couple of hours, it must have been close to 1pm, Gabriel had a seizure. Apparently it is pretty common for young children to have fever-related seizures, but when it happens to your own child, it is the scariest thing ever! The seizure lasted only a few minutes, but afterwards he was limp and did not respond to us. So we raced him to the hospital, the whole time thinking he might die or something! It was so awful! All I could do was pray over and over again, "God, please let him be alright!"

After we got to the hospital, he slowly started to come back and became more and more responsive. Of course he cried as he was poked with needles etc. As it turned out, he has an ear infection, which is what caused the sudden high fever. He has never had an ear infection before that I know of, and had shown no signs of having one. So they prescribed antibiotics and Tylenol. By the time we went back home (around 3am), Gabriel was counting the stars in the sky, almost back to his old self. We are so thankful that he is okay! He brings so much joy to our life and we love him so much!

Of course it made me think about what God must have felt like when His only Son was dying on the cross. Knowing He could have stopped it, but He chose to sacrifice His precious son Jesus so that we could live!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I have to say that the whole thing really shocked me, and makes me cherish every moment with Gabriel even more than usual. But it also made me worry more than usual. But then last night during our Esther Bible study, Beth Moore's message was about fear. And it made me realize that with any fear, I need to keep asking myself, if this happens, then what? And eventually the answer is always God. No matter what happens, God will always take care of us!

Here is a video of Gabriel dancing to Hee Haw on Sunday evening. As you can see, he's back to his old self!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Shopping at the Mall

Gabriel & I went to the mall today to look for a comforter or quilt. I didn't find anything that was nice and affordable, but we still had a lot of fun. And I only spent about 14 dollars in 4 hours of shopping! We bought a book for Gabriel (using some money that Papa & Nanni sent him), a shirt for me for $3.99 and ice cream. Here are some pictures of Gabriel having fun....and no, I didn't put any quarters in there, it's 3 quarters a ride...crazy!

I ended up ordering this comforter online: Abigale Comforter Set with Bonus Quilt. I've really been wanting something more feminine (read: pink and flowery) in our home and this set was on sale! The only downside is that it's backordered and we won't get it until about 6 or 7 weeks from now. But at least it will be here at the beginning of Spring!

Shirts & shorts

Since Spring here in Texas is just around the corner (it was 75 degrees today!), I went to Kohl's this morning and bought some clothes for Gabriel. He's in size 3T now. I absolutely love Kohl's and get most of our clothes there. Here's what I got today...now bring on the warm weather!

I love shopping for Gabriel, more than for myself! His favorite was the helicopter shirt, but he liked all of them. Here are 2 more shirts that I recently bought for him.

And I got this one for my niece in Holland today...I love it and she does too (she saw a picture of it on the computer)!

Toddler Bible Blog

I started another blog, the Toddler Bible Blog. Here I will share the daily Bible lessons I give to Gabriel. I just started doing this this week, so hopefully this blog will help me to stay motivated. I guess this is my unofficial start homeschooling Gabriel! Go here to view my new blog: Toddler Bible Blog

I Love You

Yesterday my 2-year-old Gabriel said the words that every mother can't wait to hear: "I love you"! Okay, I admit it sounded more like "Fi fove fou", but he doesn't need to say it in a perfect way for my heart to melt! And he may not understand the full meaning of the word 'love' yet, but to hear him say it anyway makes my heart overflow!

I think God feels the same way about us. He can't wait to hear us say "I love You". We don't need to say it in a perfect way, and we don't have to understand the full meaning of 'love'. We can say it anyway, every time we think of Him. Just say - or think, or sing - "I love You" and His heart will overflow with love for us! I love You, Lord!

Longing

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

As most of you know, I still nurse Gabriel to sleep. He usually wakes up twice during the night and always wants 'kilky', which is Gabriel-speak for 'milk' (don't ask!). Last night when he woke up and was desperately asking for 'kilkykilkykilkykilkykilkykilkykilky', Psalm 42 came to my mind. "As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." Initially it made me laugh inside, but then I started really thinking about that verse. I wish I could say that my soul always longs for God in the same way that a deer longs for water, or that Gabriel longs for 'kilky'. Sure, there are times when I can't wait to spend time with Him, times when my heart sings with His joy, times when I can't wait to see His face! But those are just moments, and then I fall back into 'daily life', with all it's distractions. In fact, even during my 'quiet time' with God, my thoughts wander and before I know it, I'm thinking about 10 other things. I'm such a mess!

Thank God that He gave His Only Son to save messes like me. You know what? God longs for us the same way that deer longs for water, or that Gabriel longs for 'kilky'. He desperately wants our full attention, He want us to spend time with Him, to love Him like a Father. Lord, please fill my heart with that same longing for you, every minute of the day!

What about you? Do you long for Him?

Sleeping problems...

Gabriel a few minutes ago...sleeping in my bed. We have been co-sleeping since he was 4 months old, before that he slept in a bassinet right next to me. I used to nurse him to sleep until he was about 15 months old, then I 'trained' him to fall asleep in his own crib, after I nursed him. Which meant letting him cry until he fell asleep. It was torture, for both of us! But 'everyone' said it was the right thing to do, so finally I gave in. After a month of crying, he would finally fall asleep by himself without crying, for his nap and in the evening (he still wakes up about twice every night, and then I'll just put him back in my bed and nurse him to sleep).

Well, it looks like we're back where we started. About a month ago, Gabriel no longer wanted to fall asleep in his own crib, and before I knew it, we were back to nursing him to sleep all the time. It's so frustrating, because now everyone is telling me again to just put him in his crib and let him cry. Even our pediatrician says it at every check-up! Well today I finally gave in and put him in his crib - awake!- for his nap. Instant hysterical crying! I let him cry for an hour (!) but finally couldn't stand it any longer, especially since it didn't look like he was going to sleep any time soon. Same thing this evening. He screamed and cried for an hour until I finally gave in. Then I nursed him to sleep which took about 3 minutes.

Does anyone have any suggestions what I should do? I have no problems with him sleeping in my bed, but poor hubby has been in the guest bedroom for 2 years now since the bed is not big enough for 3. And I'm so tired of people including my own family telling me to just let him cry himself to sleep. Of course that's easy for them to say, but I'm the one listening to him cry all this time which breaks my heart! I wonder if there's some other way to 'sleep-train' Gabriel that doesn't involve so much crying?

Sorry about the rant, I just wanted to get this off my mind tonight. Thanks for reading :-) Night night, sleep tight everyone!