The Bigger Picture

Just playing catch up at, ahem, documenting our lives.....

Jacob is starting to phase out his afternoon nap.  I'm torn about it, because I know that he needs this rest time during the afternoon and honestly...because I enjoy the respite too!  But, giving up a nap means an earlier bedtime, and possibly less messing-around-time-when-they-should-be-sleeping for the big boys in the evening.  Oh, and an earlier bedtime.  I experimented today: giving J "rest time" in our bed with a few books.  He read for a while, and when I checked on him at one point, he said, "Mom, could you get out of here so I can sleep?"  Hah!  Point taken.  It might be a while before naps are phased out completely....

Wyatt is sick, again.  Just runny nose ick and cough ~ definitely the kind of sick I'll take over that nasty stomach bug any day!  But I still feel bad for my sweet boy, he looks like he feels miserable at times. 
We met another Wyatt yesterday.  He was playing at the museum with his parents and baby sis, when I thought I overheard his mom saying Wyatt.  I asked the little boy if that's what his name was, and proceeded to introduce th family to our Wyatt.  The three big boys enjoyed running around together briefly, and well, just being boys.  It was a nice reminder that my boys are just that: typical, rough and tumble boys who don't always like to share, but certainly love to shriek, take, and head-butt!  The other mom even said, "oh, we're beyond the head-butting phase, we're now on to biting".  So nice to know I'm not alone.

Nathaniel is my sweet-as-can-be gummy-grinning Love.  (Don't be confused: I know his day will come when he is two, three, four, etc...but for now, relishing him as INFANT!).  He is plowing his way through his first half of a year.  Sniff, sniff, sniff.  He started solids on January 31.  He has tried rice cereal, avocado, and sweet potato.  I'm attempting again to make my own food.  I have to get to the store for more produce in order to maintain the goal!  We go through produce like it's water around here - the big boys can devour a whole container of strawberries in almost one sitting.  Not that it's a complaint ~ for the most part, they truly eat healthy! 
Nate is a rolling baby boy these days - he can almost travel the room, with the occasion pit-stop at an arm pinned beneath him or simply being too tired to continue.  He is napping well these days (2-3 naps per day, mostly scheduled...woot!) and last night he woke only once for a pacifier insert @ 2 AM.  Can we please all take a moment to say AMEN?!  That is huge for us - and I hope it's a trend that continues.  My trick was shoveling rice cereal in him, letting him play longer than he really needed to (eye rubbing was in full-force, woops), and then taking a quick bath with him, quick lotion massage, and a large nursing session - bedtime was at 7:00 PM. 

***

I screwed up big time with a work e-mail today.  Long story short,  I included my boss on an e-mail I only meant to send to a co-worker, and it's something I meant only for my co-worker.  I tried in vain to retract it, to no avail.  It's the "first big screw up" I've had probably ever in my 6 + years working at my current job, and I'm definitely being overly paranoid about it....but still.  I feel like a schmoe about it, and I am having a hard time letting it go.  Probably doesn't help that we have yet to hear one word from our boss about it ~ I'm assuming she's in meetings or a training and can't address it yet.  Or, it's not a top priority of hers, and we're greatly over-thinking it.  I'm hoping for the latter.  Except we've more or less owned up to our mistake, and are trying our best to be transparent about that from this point forward.  Oiy vey.  I was all worked up this morning about it....and in taking a step back, is it that big of a deal?  Probably not.

*****

We attended Michele S's Celebration of Life service on Saturday, February 20.  It truly was that: a message filled with hope, and a chance to join her family in celebrating all-things Michele!  Prior to the service, I had found myself thinking: "It isn't right to have to bury your baby" (no matter what the age), and the pastor addressed just that.  My belief is that his message was no coincidence.  Rather, that they were God at Work.  The Pastor's words were ~ "It seems more 'acceptable' when someone has lived to be 80 or 90 and they go on to be with Jesus, but in a young person's life, it doesn't seem 'quite right'".   But he painted such a beautiful image of Michele being healed, whole, given sight, the ability to walk & dance, and ride horses (her passions in her younger years) and being with Jesus that it was impossible to think of it as "not right" - it only seemed perfect, joyous, and redeeming.  Yes, we are sad to be without her on this earth, but we have been given a great Hope that we will one day be reunited with her again, if we believe in and have a relationship with Jesus. 

The phasing out of naps?  The little cold that is plaguing my second baby?  Complaining about not yet sleeping through the night?  That "big work screw up" from above? 
No - they truly don't mean much in the grand scheme of things....