Goodbye July 05!

After months and months of agonizing over the state of things at www.july05moms.com I have finally left. I spent over 3 years with many of these women through the pregnancy and birth of Sophia. Wondering how to raise little Sophia these women offerd up suggestions I had never thought of, support when I felt like a failure as a mother and we cried together when we lost one of our own. I am not sure when the mood changed, but change it did. I finally decided that engaging in the 'drama' was not getting me anywhere and by staying I was condoning the behavior of these grown women. It feels a bit weird not logging in. Several times I have accidentally gone to the site, 'forgetting' that I am no longer a member. I chose this, but still it is a bit bittersweet. I know given a few days this will all pass.

To those members who might view my blog: "behavior is a mirror in which everyone displays his own immage" Goethe.

To those who I said were evil and did nothing wrong, I have a few points I would like to make. First I am sorry I lumped you all together. Many of you have been nothing but generous with advice and warmth towards me. I appreciate that. Diane, you specifically. I always enjoyed reading your posts. I wish you nothing but the best. There are many others that this would apply to and only a select few I have don't have anything good to say, and will therefore say nothing at all. But the few I have nothing nice to say about have ruined the rest for me. I feel like the bad behavior is condoned by the rest of you. While I am sure my leaving came as a blessing to you all, I would ask that you think seriously about how you would feel if your daughters were spoken to in the manner in which many of our members have been spoken to. Would you still condone that behavior? We have run off many members who have chosen not to engage in the debate. Perhaps my posts the last few days at J05 were less than becoming of me. This is why I left. I do not want to be 'that' person anymore.

"in the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" MLK Jr.

ABCs and walking

I have not been doing a very good job of keeping up with this. I am sorry!

Sophia has learned, her ABCs in that 2 year old kind of way. It is too cute


And not to be outdone, Gavin has started walking! Today was the first day he walked more than crawled, it isn't going to be much longer and he will be walking all.the.time!

You can see video for both of these on my dropshots page, the link is to the right.

door to door salespeople

I was awoken this afternoon from our nap (Gavin and I) to the door bell ringing. I thought perhaps Shannon had ordered something online and I needed to sign for it, so I went to the door. It was two young girls, probably late teens. They were selling magazines to try to raise money for a trip. I looked through the list and decided on Bon Appetite. Much to my dismay this is going to cost me $57.00 for 2 years! Wow, that seems like a lot. But, it is for a good cause, right?

A couple things that bothered me about this transaction. 1. They wanted to come in my house and sit down to fill out the slip. 2. They asked to use the phone to call the order in (it seems like they should have a cell phone for that, or maybe do it when they get back home). I have visions of getting some $2000.00 phone bill from their using my phone. I am saddened by my mistrust of these two young girls, but in today's day and age how can I not be leery? I feel that by trying to do a good deed I will be robbed or have my identity stolen. How can I change this way of thinking.

I heard a story on NPR today. There was a nun in the Amazon Rain Forest who was murdered. She was walking through the forest on the way to a meeting with some landowners when someone stopped her. They pulled a gun. She said please don't shoot, pulled out her Bible and read a passage, put her Bible back and was shot and killed. I like to think she knew she was going to die and in the moment read the passage to try to save her killers soul. I want the faith she had to be comfortable with her mortality and the conviction she had to preach to the murderers. I want her way of thinking. Even though she was going to be killed she did not let it take away from her doing her job.


Gavin took his first step tonight. One, Glorious, Unassisted step! He also said Ma Ma for the first time! What a Glorious day at the Hendrick house today!

Happy Valentine's Day-- I don't like you!

Sophia informed me that she did not like me! We were coming home from school and I would not give her the Valentine candy from her classmates to eat. She threw a fit and said she did not like me. Rather than upset me like I thought it would I calmy told her that was ok, it will make it that much easier to put you down for your nap! She did not like that one bit.

Lent

I am struggling with what to give up for Lent. There are so many things I want to do (not give up, but do, like blogging more, spending more time cleaning, reading, with the kids etc) that it makes it difficult to decide what I want to give up. Once I decide what to give up, it should leave me some free time to do some of the things I want to do, and need to do. When I think about all the things to cut back on time wise, sadly the only doable option is to cut back on my online time. So, I will limiting myself to 1 hour during the week and 2 hours on Saturday and Sunday. That is an insane amount of time anyway. I wish I had the will power to give it up altogher for lent, but I don't think I could and if I cheated I would have no problem cheating for several hours a day.



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I registered both the kids for preschool next fall. They will both be doing a 3 day, Monday, Wednesday, Friday program. Sophia is currently enrolled at this school and it is FANTASTIC. I can't wait to get Gavin involved. I was lucky to get them both in my first choice. It is crazy how people camp out to get their kids in the right school. Shannon did it for Sophia to get in last year, I was thinking it would make Gavin a shoe-in. Little did I know it would not. I was very lucky we did not have to put him on a waiting list. With that out of the way I can focus on enjoying them this summer, and planning all kinds of wonderful adventures.


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Both of the kids are doing well. Sophia is finally counting! For her mid-year testing she passed everything except the counting. She knows shopping, but not counting. Talk about guilt! I have been working with her, while we shop about how many bars of soap are there etc, and it seems to be working! YAY! Dandy!

Gavin is soooooo close to walking. I can't wait to see him take off. He wants it so bad, but is still holding on to a little bit of fear. He is so cute it makes me ache sometimes. He is growing so quickly. He is still not sleeping through the night, but no longer needs fed, just a pacifier and he is back out. I look forward to getting rid of the paci's soon. If I were a stronger person they would go with Lent as well.

Oh well, maybe next month!

Dandy

Gavin had his first birthday!

I don't have any pictures downloaded yet, but Gavin had his first birthday celebration. G-Lo came from Las Vegas to participate in the festivities. We ordered 2cakes from Edible Art, one for us (almond flavored) and one for Gavin (vanilla). Gavin seemed to really enjoy his cake, I felt bad for him later though, he threw up 2 times. He did not even eat that much cake, but I think it was too rich for him.

Sophia is doing terrific. She has really grown up a lot in the last couple of weeks, emotionally. She does the cutest things, like count 1...2....3 at Gavin when he does not do what she wants. It really is funny. I try so hard no to laugh when she 'punishes' her dolls. I don't know what I ever did before I had kids. They are the best things to ever happen to Shan and I.

Mom is in town and sleeping with Gavin, well, I should clarify that. She was sleeping with Gavin, but he apparently doesn't take kindly to sharing his space. He woke up and would not go back to sleep. So, Grandma Lo has been sleeping on the sofa. She went to Mama Mary's house tonight to try to get some sleep. I hope she is able to.

It is late, I am heading to bed!

Dandy

I really need to keep this updated.

I feel like I need to post pictures to keep this updated and so I haven't posted. Well, I am just going to plug along without pictures. I am hoping that someday the kids can read this online journal to learn about the fun, and not so fun, things they did from day to day.

Today Sophia had Bible study study as she calls it. She has been feeling under the weather and did not eat breakfast this morning. She drank like a fish, but no food. Mary picked her up and took her to the church where Sophia promptly threw a fit as she thought they were going to eat. I had to laugh out loud; I told her she was going to BSF and then out to eat with Gavin and Suzanne.

Sophia likes to eat outside as she calls it (eating out). I think she would eat out every meal of everyday, despite my 'awesome' cooking. Everything I make is awesome according to Daddy and Sophia.

Gavin is plugging along. He is not talking or walking yet, but I don't think it will be much longer. He likes to wave to himself and say bah bah bah. He is still a little peanut compared to his sister. His next well visit is Friday, I will know more about where he falls on the growth chart then.

It's a little late to be thinking about New Year's resolutions, but one of them for me is to keep this updated. My goal, ideally, would be daily. But, in shooting for the realistic I would like to have this updated at least 3 times a week, so check back often.

Dandy