My Olive is 18 months old.
I fear as she reads through this record of our lives some day, she may feel slighted - her first year has not been as well documented as it should have been. I am sorely behind in doing so. What a crazy year her first year has been for our family. But, I've said it before - she has been a source of joy in an otherwise uncertain time.
Olive = fun. She loves to have fun. She smiles big, toothy, drooly grins. She belly laughs when you tickle her or flip her around or nuzzle her neck.
She's her own little person, but if big sister is around, she'll willingly imitate her, whether it's mom-approved behavior or not.
She's still tiny, toddling around on sweet, spindly legs and wearing about a size behind her age in clothes. But those legs are long like her sister's, so finding pants to fit that tiny waist and those long legs is proving to be an ongoing challenge.
She's talking. This is one of my favorite things about this age. I love hearing this new voice. I've heard it plenty in yells and general noises, but now I hear the words apple, owl, yeah, Daddy, Maaaaaama, bowl, door, boo (moo), and many others. She roars and has her own words for baby and doggy, two of her favorite things.
She's my little bookworm. Ever since she was able to scoot over to the bookshelf and pull book after book after book down, she's been enamored. More often than not you can find her in a corner, on the floor, sitting on the couch, flipping through a book. She'll drag a book, bigger than her, over to you, open it up, and start pointing. She may even grab your hand and want you to hold hers as she points to pictures and looks to you to tell her what it is. It's likely she'll already know what it is, especially if it's an animal, but she may just want you to say it anyway.
She's running. Doesn't like the word no. Teases when she knows you want to change her diaper. Likes to hug. Has a personal rule of one pacifier in the mouth, one in the hand.
She's so much fun. There's something about this age that tempts me to want to freeze my kiddos, knowing full well that even more great times are ahead as they get older and, frankly, who wants to have to figure diapers in to the budget for the rest of time?
At times I feel sad that she's no longer quite a baby but I love being on the front row of watching her learn and grow and I'm so grateful she is healthy enough to do the things she does.
I'm so thankful to be her mommy.
Did you know that my Adelaide's initials are ABC? Adelaide Bell Chaney.
When we were naming her we knew her first name would be Adelaide, but what about her middle name? When my sister suggested our maiden name, it sounded right, we loved it...but then I realized her initials would be ABC.
I wasn't thrilled with the idea, although Sabian loved it. It stuck, and I do love her name.
And I love her.
My heart feels a little sad for her lately. While moving to a new place can sound fun in theory, when it's lived out it naturally comes with challenges. When we told Addie we were moving she was excited, and we were excited with her, and we talked about the fun aspects of moving. We did talk about how it meant we would be leaving family and friends, but then we talked about visits to and from them.
Now, not quite a month later, I see the signs of transition playing themselves out in this sweet four, almost five, year old. And I feel sad.
I want to make it better. Quickly. I want to make it easy. Now. But it doesn't quite work that way. There are plenty of opportunities for learning and communicating and growing. I want it to be comfortable. Soon.
I find myself wanting to shield her from the not-so-fun side of all of this change, but I can't, and it would be counterproductive. I know that the best thing I can do for her is show her I love her. To listen, to be patient, to be gentle, to be understanding, but to not let her get away with bad behavior at the same time. And really, the best, best I can do is to surrender her little self to God and pray for her.
I know that if God has sent us here, He will provide in every way. I know it, but to be honest, I don't always feel it. But I know it and I do believe it.
I also know that this super strong little girl is going to adjust better than her worrisome mom, and that when she says, "I miss my friends," in the same minute she's off trying on the day's favorite princess dress and hunting down a crown and missing her friends moves to the back burner. While I know it's important to address the "missing of friends," I'm learning that it might just be more important in that moment to find the shoes that match that crown, and to trust that God is guiding and directing us and that He is taking care of my little girl.
So, I might be a little sad, but I do have hope.
I am so thankful for Addie and so thankful that God cares about the little things, the big things, and everything in between.
It's the eve of 2014, over four months since my last post. I didn't intend to leave my blog high and dry. In fact, it probably would have been a good thing for me to have been blogging consistently this past year.
I imagine as I blog (hopefully) more consistently in 2014, the events of 2013 will weave themselves into my posts - and I hope they do. While 2013 has not been the easiest year I've ever lived, it has been a fruitful, valuable year, and I do not want to forget it.
I'm in a new state, a new town, a new house and Sabian has a new job at our new church. Addie will go to a new school and both she and Olive will encounter all sorts of new. We've made new friends and hope to make more and have new, fun adventures as a family. I am hopeful. And yes, I am sad to be away from family and close friends yet again, but that's what comes with all of this newness.
New. In some cases, when it comes to clothes and furniture and, well, stuff, new is welcome in my book. When it comes to new experiences, new places, new people, it is harder to write those things in my book. Not impossible, not completely unwelcome, just harder. It's easier to choose a new chair for my living room - it's a lot harder to move my four year old away from her family, school, friends...her comfort. But, she'll likely adjust much better and faster than I will. The encouraging part of this is that we'll all adjust and learn and grow together.
As with any other new year, we all face the new. Last year as a family we faced a lot of new experiences just as 2013 was dawning, and the same goes for this year, as 2014 approaches. One thing that remains the same is God's faithfulness, which then prompts this reminder:
"Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided;
great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!"
New mercies. Never failing faithfulness. What a way to end and start a year.
I am thankful for God's faithfulness. Happy 2014!
My Olive is a year old.
This photo of her makes me laugh. She's all eyes and funny faces.
A year. Wow.
Olive's first year hasn't quite been a "normal" first year of life, but it's been a good year. As is customary, here is my one year Ode to Olive.
Sweet Olive Mae Chaney, we've carted you around in this first year of your life. Moving from Florida when you were two months old (a week after you had a little surgery!), moving again into our apartment when you were four months old, and just trying to figure out the rest ever since.
You have such a sweet disposition. You smile at everyone, although if you're in Mommy or Daddy's arms, you're content to stay right where you are. For now, you're still mostly a Mommy's girl, although upon seeing Daddy at the end of his work day, you are keen to spend some time with him.
You're little, but you're strong. Everyone comments on how little you are, but you're a tough tiny girl. Climbing before you could walk, and now that you can walk, climbing on anything on which you can hoist those little legs. It's not unusual for me to walk into a room and find you up on a coffee table, or an ottoman, a chair, or the train table your sister got for Christmas last year. Once you've shown me how proud you are of your feat, you're usually needing a little help down from your perch.
Sleep isn't necessarily your thing. It's been a bit of a jolt to recognize how different your sleep habits are from your sister's. You are early to bed, early to rise, and a few wake ups in between. I'm praying that as you get older, more sleep will descend upon our household. Your mama needs it!
Your eyes. Oh those blue eyes.
You shriek, you chirp, you say "mmmm, mmmm," a lot, especially when you're eating ice cream (which you LOVE). Your babbling continues to increase and become more and more conversational. I can't wait to hear your little voice.
Watching you develop is so much fun. I'm a little sad that you're not such a baby anymore, but you're such a fun one year old and I love watching you grow. You have truly, truly been a bright spot and a joy to our family during this nutty year and I'm so thankful you are part of our family. Prayerfully, we can offer you some more normalcy soon!
I love you, sweet Olive Mae. Happy one year.
Well, well, well. Here I am. I have about ten minutes before I should probably get home to my husband and girls. I'm out while they are busy working on a Mother's Day project. It's about an hour past Olive's bed time and lately she is my girl through and through. So, she's either having a great time because she took a late nap this afternoon, or she's a mess because she's tired and ready for me to be home to put her to bed.
But first...it's been too long.
The first and foremost thing on my mind is finally, almost two months later, wrapping up Addie's birthday. I wrote my sentiments regarding her day, but I did not recap her actual day and her party. I'll attempt to do that in the next (gulp) seven minutes.
While it has been almost two months, I still remember her day clearly. We had so much fun celebrating her. She woke up to balloons littering the floor of her bedroom, which she loved. (Some of them are still residing in the tent in her room.) We spent the morning at my Bible study at church where she played with friends, hung out with my mom a bit, then headed back home until we picked Sabian up from work.
Dinner was, of course, Addie's choice. And, of course, she chose Chick-fil-a. We ended up at a location we don't normally frequent and when we arrived, it was packed. Clowns, balloons and kids dressed up as superheroes and princesses were everywhere. Totally coincidentally, Addie was dressed in her new birthday Rapunzel dress from my mom, so she fit right in. When we went up to order the cashier asked me, "Is she dressed up?" Confused, I answered, "Yes, but what is going on?" Apparently we hit the right Chick-fil-a on the right night. It was their family night and the promotion that night just so happened to be a free kids meal to any kid dressed up as a superhero or princess. In an instant I was super happy and at the same time humbled - I kind of saw it as a God thing.
So, we scored a free kids meal and Addie got her face painted and a balloon sword. We almost could have stopped right there, but we had a surprise for Addie.
Our gift to our sweet girl was her inaugural trip to Build-A-Bear, where she picked out a hot pink cat to bring home as her friend. A bright hot pink cat. And, when the store employee showed Addie the matching, miniature Rapunzel dress she could dress her in, it was all over.
I have to admit, it was pretty cute, Addie in her Rapunzel dress and her new stuffed friend in hers. Her new friend's name? Rapunzel Cat. Addie has always had a knack for naming her stuffed animals just what they are - brown doggie, white doggie, you get the picture. So, we added Rapunzel Cat to our family that evening.
I actually would have been content to call the birthday doings done, but we had planned a party for her with some of her friends for the following weekend. Our apartment is too small for this sort of thing, which presents some challenges. I had in mind what I wanted to do but was finding it hard to bring to fruition what was in my mind.
In the end we had Addie's party at a local floral shop that now dabbles in cupcakes. They dress up a couple of rooms, all cupcake-d out, play a few games with the girls, provide cupcakes for decorating and an ice cream sundae bar. Including Addie we had five girls and might I say it was fun, but five was plenty!
Maybe naively, I tried to teach these sweet girls how to play Simon Says. Turned into equal parts hilarity and exasperation.
We had a lot of fun with Addie and her friends that day, even discovering, about 30 minutes before arriving to set up, that the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Belleville, right where we were having the party, was in full swing. The more, the merrier.
Addie is still fairly fixated on her birthday, and when she sees something she likes she says, "I want that for my birthday." I've stopped trying to explain to her that her next birthday is a year away. She says it, I listen, and we go on. Frankly, I don't want to rush it. Five means one year older, it means starting kindergarten. Those are good things, and even though we still have our challenging moments (days, weeks...!), I don't want to be in a big hurry.
I am thankful for Addie, and the fun we had with her on her birthday.
