Eight more weeks - REALLY?

This has pretty much been the state of affairs lately. The head is cut off because I'm not quite sure I'm smiling in this picture. I think I have one every-day maternity shirt that still covers the entire belly. This is obviously not one of them, even though I thought it was one of my longer ones at the start of this pregnancy. My belly is measuring about two and a half weeks larger than my current week, but nothing the doctor is concerned about. It's just a change for me since with Charlotte I was always measuring about three weeks smaller than my current week. Maybe this one will actually come on time!

It's amazing to me how much more quickly this pregnancy has gone by. For the longest time there, I kept bumping into things (tables when sitting down for dinner, walls when turning corners, Peter, when trading places in the bathroom while brushing our teeth) because I didn't think my belly was big enough already to have become my own personal obstacle. That's how fast time has flown this time around. I don't even think I had a second trimester. But, with all that said, it's amazing to me how the Lord has still used each moment to prepare me for this next stage of our lives. He's shown me such growth and maturity in Charlotte these past couple months, which has greatly eased my mind about having a newborn and an 18-month old at the same time. He's given me great encouragement regarding my many fears of how on earth I'll manage now keeping two children alive, let alone being there to teach, lead, and love them by his grace. He's also given me the support and compassion of an understanding husband who does everything he can to show me daily how much he loves me. Not to mention his role as founder and president of the Victoria Maintenance Program, with daily hip and back rubs before bed. I don't know how my back would survive this pregnancy without him! There were definitely many freak-out moments at the start of this pregnancy with sobbing cries of "how am I going to do this?!?", but God's amazing grace has turned those moments into waves of peace, trusting he's always pulled me through, and he's not about to stop now. I am so grateful to be serving such a remarkable God! James 1:2-4 has been on my heart lately, and a great encouragement to me during this time.

I decided to leave you with a smiling top-half!

Our Little Love - 15 Months

It's hard to believe our little baby girl just turned 15 months old. Every day I see more of her babiness fading away and being replaced by a sweet little girl full of personality and spunk. There are so many new things she does every day and I've needed to record them for a while now, so I'll just go through a few off the top of my head now.

In the past three months she started walking. She took her first few steps around one year of age, just from one piece of furniture to the next, and most of the time I think without even realizing she was doing it. But, it was over Christmas break, when we were visiting Pete's family in Baltimore, that she really took off. She started walking from one room to the other without a second thought. A few weeks into January is when she started getting up on her own, unassisted from any furniture or nearby legs to pull up on, and after that happened I haven't been able to stop her. She wants to walk everywhere and will squirm out of my arms when I try to carry her. She loves walking up and down the stairs to our apartment, and uses the railing all on her own to help her up. It's a lot of fun to watch, and I have to admit it can be much easier on me at times when I have my arms full. She never seems to get tired either, which amazes me because she's got such little legs. She'll never stop to be picked up along the way because she's too tired. Come to think of it, I rarely see her too tired for much of anything.

I started teaching Charlotte simple sign language around six to eight months, and she uses it now quite regularly. Some of her signs include "more", "please", (often those two used in conjunction when wanting something sweet that either Peter or I have near by), "again" (used often when she wants me to pull her around the house in the laundry basket), "help" (usually when needing help taking lids off jars to explore what's inside), "all done", "milk", "eat", "dance", "hurt", "patient", and "wait" (the last two being the most important, but the last to understand, of course). She wants to communicate so badly lately that often she'll use a few signs at once to try to tell me something she doesn't have the word for. She talks quite a bit too. Most of it is baby babble, of course, but some of the words we can make out are "Mama", "Dada", "hat", "puppy", "dolly", she tries to say bath because she loves them so much and gets so excited when we tell her she gets to take one but it usually comes out "da!", "hi", "bye".

I mentioned that Charlotte loves baths. We'll tell her it's bath time and she runs down the hall way toward the bathroom, trying as best as she can to take off her shirt along the way. When we get her undressed, she's now understanding how to walk her dirty clothes back to her room and put them in her clothes hamper and to put her dirty diaper in the trash can before she gets into her bath. That's probably the best part of the day, seeing our naked little baby traipse back through the house to get to the bathroom after throwing away her dirty diaper. We'll give her lots of bubbles, which she likes to rub up and down her arms, and all her favorite bath toys. I think if we didn't cut her off at around twenty minutes, she'd stay in there all night long. We'll ask her if she's ready to get out, and she adamantly says "no!", turns her head away and gets herself very busy again playing in the bath. We'll drain out all the water and she's still sitting in the tub, playing with the toys, and making the most of the all-but-gone bubbles remaining in the tub.

Other than watching her naked little body run through the house before bath time, my other favorite part of the day is when her Daddy comes home from work. As soon as she hears his key turn in the lock, she gets this super excited look on her face, squeals, claps, and starts jumping up and down in my arms if I'm holding her. She LOVES her Daddy, and that fact right there just lights up my world. He adores her and it really shows in all the time and attention he gives to her. She knows Daddy's the one to go to for a good time of wrestling, tickling, flying through the air, or that extra bite of cookie. It's really great to see the two of them together and I'm so blessed to be married to a man who is such a fantastic father to his child.

With #2 on the way in a few short months, I try to get Charlotte ready for the change to her world. I know at 15 months, her understanding of this reality is very limited, but I still tell her daily how excited I am for her to be a big sister to her new little brother or sister. I tell her there's a baby in Mama's belly, and she'll lift up my shirt to "look" for it, then very shortly thereafter get distracted by my belly button. She loves to look at pictures of other babies. We have a few baby magazines on the shelf and she'll get them out and page through them for twenty minutes at a time some days, just looking at the baby pictures. She's also super social with other kids and always wants to be where they are, even if they're much bigger than her. I just know she's going to be a great big sister and will really enjoy having a little play mate to spend her days with.

Another really neat thing about Charlotte's personality is that she loves to share. Whatever toy she's playing with, she'll always bring it over to me and let me enjoy it as well. She has a favorite dolly and stuffed puppy she plays with most often, and she'll bring them to me and have me give them a kiss and cuddle and then she'll kiss and cuddle them in return. She also loves sharing her food. Just about every meal, she'll take a bite and then insist that you take the next bite. Then she'll look for her dolly and want to share the food with her as well, which I found is great if you're talking about sharing Cheerio's, but when it's spaghetti, it's a whole other story for Dolly. Dolly is presently in the washing machine with Shout sprayed on her face.

Meal time has become a fun time for us all and also a bit of a challenge at times. Charlotte has a true independent streak to her, which I'm sure is the same for most 15 month old children. She will eat about three fourths more food if you let her use a fork and/or spoon. She loves trying doing it all herself and I've had to force myself many times to really let go and allow her to get a little (or a lot) messy and just explore and enjoy herself. At times I think it's been more of a learning curve and growing time for me than it has for her. She's definitely taught me how to let go of many of my control tendencies. I thank the Lord for that!


I just really love our little girl. It amazes me how my heart can continue to grow each day and how amazed I can continue to be by another human being so young and so small. She is such a beautiful and delightful blessing in our lives and I am a better wife and woman because of her. I pray every day that the Lord would give me wisdom to know how to best raise her, how to best discipline her, and that I would be patient and long suffering with her in times of challenge. I continue that prayer two-fold for this next little bundle that will soon make his/her entrance into our lives. It is definitely the most challenging job I've ever had but the only one I could imagine for my life. I thank the Lord every day that I get to spend it the way I do, whether it ends in tears or laughter, I can't imagine doing anything else! I love you Charlotte, my sweet little love.

The Icepocalypse

I like to refer to the Dallas, TX "Ice Storm of 2011" as the ICEPOCALYPSE. Sounds more dramatic and sensational than even the TV crews can come up with. "It was thundericing the other night! The power was a flickerin', people was having accidents left and right, they almost cancelled the Superbowl, and we almost died or even worse!"

"In other news, Victoria Smith has razed ire for commandeering her nearly 15 month old daughter's pacifier. Mrs. Smith ordered the cease and desist from pacifier usage on account of cabin fever. 'There just was nothing else for me to do,' said the stranded at home mother. 'I'd like to see friends and get out of Dodge but it was just not worth it. Besides, the sliding glass door was frozen shut. So I had to find something to do. I looked around and there it was: my next "mission" was just staring at my face from my daughter's mouth. I just wanted to get a kiss from my daughter that didn't have a pacifier flavor to it anymore.'"

"There you have it folks. That's all for this news hour! From Dallas, TX I'm Pete Smith. Good Day!"

Christmas in Baltimore

As the saying goes, better late than never. I've finally gotten around to downloading our Christmas pictures from Baltimore. These are just a few shots from our Christmas celebration there and a few of the days surrounding it spent with friends and family.

 

The first year we were dating, Pete asked for a flannel shirt, but nothing "Texan" or "country". I got him a nice flannel shirt and also a very ugly cowboy/Texan joke-shirt as well. Well, this is the sixth shirt now that he has to add to his collection. Unfortunately this was the ugliest one I could find this year. I've set some high standards for myself over the years.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's! (2010-2011)

We spent a week in Baltimore, MD with family and friends this year for Christmas and New Year's. It had been 2 years since I had spent an extended period of time in Baltimore. I feel like there were a lot more changes in the landscape there in previous visits than I saw this time. The White Marsh area had changed a while back so that wasn't new to me. Victoria and I were exhausted and lost a bit of sleep the week or two before heading off. We were looking forward to breathing a sigh of relief as our daughter requires a lot of attention these days. It was going to be nice to see someone else keep a watchful eye here and there.

I took Victoria out for her birthday to the Melting Pot in Towson, MD. It was good. I hadn't eaten duck before and it was really good. The lobster pieces too. We got the whole Fondue a la France "Big Night Out" special they were running. Definitely recommended (2 Run HR in my book thanks to the duck). It was good to have that extended time together as man and wife.

I took Charlotte out into the woods behind my parents house briefly Christmas day before heading out to my brother and sister-in-law's place for dinner with her family. Charlotte was cracking up at the sound of me walking on dried up leaves on the ground. She was bending way over to watch it as I carried her and it was admittedly off balanced enough that it was difficult to handle her pose and enjoy her laughter at it at the same time! She definitely wanted to see what was going on! It was a good memory as she was introduced to the back yard I have many fond memories of with neighborhood friends. I picked up a monkey ball off the ground for her to investigate as a keep sake.

Before coming to Baltimore I was a tad nervous how I might feel around friends I hadn't seen in a while. It went fine. Seemed easy enough. No awkwardness was felt on my part anyhow. Some close friends I hadn't seen face to face in 7-7.5 years. Time sure does move along.

After arriving back in Dallas, TX a friend at work asked how I felt about being home. I happened to be considering the odds of winning the Mega Millions Lottery jackpot of $355M. It's something like 176 Million to 1. I looked up the odds of being struck by lightning in the United States and it is 300,000 to 1. Someone quacked something about the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There was a character who claimed to have been hit by lightning 7 times based off the true life of Roy Sullivan. One of the scenes that character pipes up is during the narration of Benjamin Button that is an appropriate answer to my friend's question:

Button: It's a funny thing about coming home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same.

Old man: Did I ever tell you I've been struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was sitting in my truck, just minding my own business.

Button: You realize what's changed is you.

As we left my parents Subaru when we arrived at the airport to return to Dallas I was reminded of the times my Grandpa Smith would get emotional as we said our goodbyes and left Sturgis, MI to return to Baltimore after Christmases or Summer vacations. The trigger: seeing my mom's well up with tears.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip seeing so many friends. There's something about seeing someone face to face that just tells you everything is all right that an email, phone call, or letter can't quite communicate.

First Steps

Charlotte started taking a few steps here and there a few weeks ago, and has yet to stand on her own and walk across the floor, but she will pull herself up on something and then walk across the room. I was able to record one of those sweet first occasions.

Christmas Party

Every year our ministry group has a Christmas party, and it's one of my favorite meetings of the year. Everyone brings their favorite holiday food, we have wonderful fellowship, sing Christmas carols, and end the whole thing with a white elephant gift exchange. There are certain rules to our gift exchange though that make it "extra special". The thing is, you can't spend any money on it. So, what comes wrapped up by those we've come to know and love greatly, is anything from a hideous pair of "his and hers" matching Texas flag polos (sorry Steve) to a huge gift box, of, you guessed it, gift bags (compliments of yours truly who had WAY too many baby themed gift bags stored up after Charlotte's baby showers). It turns out to be tons of fun and the crazy part is that you actually find yourself wanting to steel someone else's really bad gift. These are some pictures our good friend, Stump (yes, that's his name), took at the party.