Let me never forget

There are moments I want to freeze in time forever.  Moments I pray I never, ever, ever forget.  Moments that fill my heart and make me smile no matter what the circumstance (or cry if it's that kind of a day). 

One of these moments is right before Arianna goes to bed at night.  She's all bathed and smells amazing, in her little jammies and sleep sack. I nurse her and she is mostly asleep.  As soon as I stand to put her in her crib, she comes to a little, so I cradle her up so we are cheek to cheek.  I whisper to her how much I love her, what a good girl she is, how special she is to me, tell her I'll see her in the morning, and that I love her so much one more time.  She stays so still, touches my face, and I even caught a peek one time and she was smiling with her eyes closed...like she was soaking in it as much as I was. 

Another time is when I nap with Josiah.  I nap with him almost everyday as I work nights and can pretty much always use a nap!  He lays down next to me and I watch his sweet eyes and mischievous smile as he starts to squirm a little before he sleeps. As he calms down and gets ready to sleep, he just says "mama, fingers", and I give him a finger from each hand to squeeze onto.  He holds my fingers tight as he drifts off to napland.  Sometimes I fall asleep that way too, waking later to remember that was just to help him fall asleep.  Occasionally I'll catch him wake up a little, look over and see I'm napping there too, so he lays back down and falls asleep.  I love watching the peace of sleep come over him, cherishing the finger holds, as someday this will be only a memory. He is my sweet, sweet boy. 

I am blessed.  So very, very blessed to be the momma to these to little ones.

December 2012

The joy of siblings.  Josiah is so in love with Arianna and cannot wait to play with her.  He tries, oh yes, he tries to play with her, but so far she is pretty unexciting.  It is sweet to see them together.  How I pray for their relationship to always be close and trusting and loving. 
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Josiah and I got a gingerbread train to make this year.  Try as I might, it looked nothing like the box, but we had fun decorating it (once I got over the fact that it was impossible to make it perfect).  Josiah especially loved trying out the candy and frosting.

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Josiah has grown and developed in such incredible ways.  His language is beginning to explode, both in English and Spanish, and he loves pretty much any activity he's presented with.  I love watching him process things and can almost see his mind taking it all in.
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We brought out the exersaucer for Arianna which she wasn't too thrilled with yet.  Thrilled though, would be Josiah.  He just HAD to get in there and thought that was truly the best thing ever.  While Arianna's feet didn't even reach the bottom, Josiah could practically kneel on it.
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A friend from when I lived in DC sent me this little outfit for Josiah...so we had to pull it out for Arianna as well.  Sure makes Josiah look skinny and little, although she had a little over a month on him at the time!
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And so the difficulties of trying to get a good picture of both kids continues!  We manage one every now and then but Josiah lasts about 3 seconds and is done.  Christmas pictures were a must though, especially Christmas morning in their jammies and before we went to church

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We had a good Christmas filled with family and naps.  We got Josiah a guitar this year, to add to his musical collection.  He loves it and continues to play it all the time (2nd only to his drums)

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I will never get over the peace of watching my babies sleep.  I could stand next to their cribs forever and just look at their sweet little faces.  I think Josiahs bear even has a smile from the cuddles he gets all night.  I love to just stand there and dream about their futures, their lives, pray over them as they have so much ahead and unseen.  It is a special place to be their momma.
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We took Josiah and Arianna bowling for the first time and although Arianna wasn't that excited about it yet, Josiah LOVED it!  The had a special bar that sends the ball right down the lane to knock all the pins over, so he got more strikes then either of us!  He continues to ask us if we can go again!
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If nothing else, Josiah is good for a laugh.  He is constantly up to something, always drumming and trying new things.  He never ceases to amaze us!