Rock and Roll

Who needs to walk when you can rock your way through life? Oh Kaden! You are too fun!

Potty Like a Rockstar!!

I am SO proud of our Braxton! He has officially said goodbye to his awake-time diapers. We replaced his favorite Elmo diapers (Pampers brand) with an Elmo potty and he has been doing great. It only took a few days for the idea of potty training to "click" for him and a little over two weeks for him to be mostly accident free. He still has the occasional accident, but I'm so proud of the progress he has made. What a smart little cookie!

I tackled the "potty training a toddler" challenge with my dear friend, Leslie whose little boy is one of Braxton's best buddies. Having a mommy buddy while going through a challenging phase of parenting was so helpful! We could cheer each other on, give each other advice, and not let each other quit. Both our boys are potty trained now and I think its safe to say we both maintained our sanity during the process. :-)

We had tried potty training last October and it was a big, fat failure. Braxton wasn't ready and I made a lot of mistakes as the potty-training parent. We tried the intense 3-day potty training method and it was awful. Justin and I both were a frustrated mess which in turn made Braxton a mess. This time, I took a laid back approach. When we began potty training, I expected him to miss the potty every single time for the first 4 days. Wow! What a difference this made in how our experience! When you expect the accidents every single time, you aren't frustrated or disappointed when your child has an accident every single time. Instead you can celebrate the times your child actually does make it to the potty! I wish I would've taken this approach the first time. Braxton and I were both less frazzled during the initial training phase and it was a success! Live and learn...poor first child...

Potty training was going great for about a week and a half and then he began to regress. The accidents started increasing as the initial excitement and curiosity dwindled. Of course this was frustrating, but my wise, wise mom gave me an excellent piece of advice. She told me to circle a date on the next month's calendar (I circled Valentine's Day) and reminded me that by that date, Braxton's regression would be long over and we would be coasting. It was true!! Here we are only a few days from Valentine's Day and Braxton is mostly accident free! Hurray!!

Our next step in potty training is to celebrate the number of days he goes without having an accident. We're going to be making a paper chain and add a link for every day he doesn't have an accident. When he has ten links on his paper chain he gets his much anticipated Tim Tebow poster for his room (to say the kid is obsessed with Tim Tebow is an understatement).

Braxton happy to say goodbye to his "Elmo" diapers. We used his no-longer-needed diaper money to buy diapers to donate to Life Network's Diaper Drive.

A Person's a Person No Matter How Small

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you."

Jeremiah 1:5

Yesterday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. We were blessed to hear an update from one of the Directors of Life Network, a pregnancy crisis center that our church supports. This organization is incredible. They rescue babies by coming alongside the mothers, not by preaching to them. They provide counseling, baby necessities and ongoing support and parenting education for parents beyond the birth. I was able to attend their annual Gala and was so blessed and inspired by the stories that were shared by the parents themselves. God is using this organization to do mighty work!! At Christmas we received a Christmas card from Life Network containing the names of all of the babies who were celebrating their first Christmas that year because their mom came to organization and chose LIFE. Praise the Lord!! I love this organization so much and would encourage anyone to visit the website and consider supporting them. http://www.elifenetwork.com/

One exciting way to get involved with supporting Life Network is by donating formula, diapers and other items to their Lifesteps Baby Boutique. This baby boutique provides infant necessities for moms within their programs. What a blessing! February 23 they are hosting a diaper drive to help replenish their supply. Consider grabbing a pack while you're at the store (or if you're like me and you have to visit the diaper aisle weekly anyway, grab an extra pack :-P) and let's support some local moms who chose life. All the details for the drive are on the Life Network website.

Sanctity of Life week held new meaning for me this year. My whole life I've known about abortion, but never as it pertains to me...until last year. When I was pregnant with Kaden he had a few markers appear on his 18 week ultrasound that my OB said could be indicative of Down Syndrome or a serious heart condition. That was all we would know until his follow up. It could be nothing, or it could be life altering. For 4 agonizingly long weeks, we had to consider the possibility that our family was going to be very different than we had pictured. Raising a child with special needs was never something that had even crossed our minds. We chose not to dwell on that possibilities. We educated ourselves so we could be prepared if the followup confirmed a disability, but we knew that no matter what happened, there was only one choice to be made: life. From the moment of conception until natural death, life and death is only in the hands of the Lord. End of story for us. However, my OB felt the need to repeatedly inform me (I even got a "reminder call") that I would have to schedule my ultrasound before a certain number of weeks so that I could terminate the pregnancy if that's what we chose. I was dumbfounded. Abortion had never been something that had been discussed in regards to ME. I couldn't even fathom killing a child simply because he wasn't perfect? How is that ok?! I was half-way through my pregnancy and I had just seen his little body, his brain and his heartbeat on the ultrasound. Yes, we were facing the possibility that he may not be perfect by man's definition of the word, but He was still a sacred human being being knit together by our Heavenly Father...and my Heavenly Father never makes a mistake!!

I praise God every day that Kaden's follow up ultrasound eliminated any fear of a disability, and even though it was a scary 4 weeks, I am thankful for it because it tested my faith and made me even stronger in my pro-life belief. A child is not a choice.

Kaden's 22 week follow up ultrasound. Look at that sweet face, his adorable nose and his little fingers. He still holds his arm over his face for comfort. Can you believe at this stage of his development, I was asked if I would be terminating?!

Braxton's 13 week ultrasound. Look at how perfectly he was already being formed by his Heavenly Father.

Braxton's 13 week 4D ultrasound. I was amazed when I saw this and even though he looked a little bit like an alien, I was madly in love. :-)

Celebrate the sanctity of human life. As Dr. Seuss so eloquently penned, "A person's a person no matter how small."