Book Snob

Today, I discovered that Kiera is a book snob! We went to a friend's house for a playdate and she has 2 kids. Almost the whole time we were there, except for eating, Kiera looked at all the "new" books they had. Once in a while, she would look at the other kids or interact a bit (especially if one of them would try to take her book away), but basically, her whole focus was on the books. I prayed for a child who would love to read, but maybe I should have also prayed that she wouldn't totally ignore other kids when there are books around. Ha ha, I'm sure that will change as she gets older! Here's a video I took of her last week reading one of her favorite books (a book of Bible stories).

Making Progress

Kiera has been making progress again this week which is always a good thing. She's been pulling herself up on everything that she can. We've found her standing up at the coffee table and against the outside of the bathtub. She even stood up in the bathtub, so I have to watch her extra carefully now! She has also been attempting to climb up the stairs! She climbed all the way up them a couple of days ago, with me right behind her all the way! Crazy! She's also learned a few more words:
"peelow" - pillow, "peeno" - piano, "tows" - toast, Nana, "bobble" - bottle, play (in reference to the piano) "caw caw" - whenever she sees a picture of a bird or hears a bird because that's the sound the crows make outside.

Yesterday, I asked her if she could say dog and she said, "Woof woof!" Then this morning, I asked her if she could say lion and she said, "Roar!" So cute! I also said "Hi-yi-yi," the other day and then she repeated me! It's amazing what they all catch on to!

So, I have not stepped outside the house since Monday. Isn't that pathetic? Our plans keep getting cancelled due to the weather and bad road conditions. Last night we were supposed to go out, but then our plans got cancelled. So, we had Jared's step-brother + his wife over along with our friend, Nyk, and we all played Bohnanza. Then, my bro-in-law and sis-in-law left and another couple came over and we played another round of Bohnanza! It was fun!

Here's a picture of Kiera I took 2 months ago.


















"Mom, why are you taking a picture of me 30 seconds after I've woken up?"
"Because Kiera, that is some great hair you've got goin' on!"

Stuck

So, once again, we're stuck at home due to bad weather. I was disappointed that Kiera and I didn't go to "Baby + Me" this morning. We go once a week and it's an hour-long class for moms with kids ages 0-3. We sing a song or two, the lady leading it reads a book (this last time it was a big pop-up book and most of the kids actually quietly watched her read it), we make a little craft, talk with other moms, and they give the kids a snack. The best part: it's all free! Kiera likes it...they always have a big pile of books in the middle. If you want to keep Kiera happily entertained, that is by far the best way to do it! Kiera's very outgoing, so when we were there last week, she went up to this other baby (about 9 months old) and wanted to interact with her, but this little girl was quite shy and started crying! Oops! The lady leading the group said, "Your daughter is very brave." I said, "Ya, she doesn't have a shy bone in her body. She'll just go up to strangers no problem." The first time Kiera met one of my piano students, when she walked in the door Kiera quickly held up her arms to be picked up. My student was very surprised! Yep, that's my daughter. I want to leave you with a totally unrelated picture that I thought looked cool. I've never seen an ice cube freeze like that and couldn't recreate that if I tried!

Yelling + Body Parts

Update since Thursday's post: Kiera has been doing better with not yelling as much at home. She's been doing the sign for "please" since December and now she also says it in English, so I tried to get her to say please whenever she was yelling for food. At first, it wasn't working, but now she's not yelling nearly as much. Also, if I respond quickly, then she doesn't get as worked up. Now she's started yelling in the car for food, though. She wants to eat almost 24/7 these days, so it's hard to know what to do in the car. When I'm in the passenger seat, I sometimes reach back and put food in her mouth, but my arm gets sore and I can't be feeding her ALL the time and always giving in to her every want. Plus, it often makes a mess. She needs to learn to wait for food sometimes which is quite difficult to teach right now. We've tried disciplining her, we've tried ignoring her, and we've tried telling her to be quiet and nothing seems to work at this point. At least she has a healthy appetite! I'm just going to keep praying about it and I know it will get better. I love her and she is a blessing! Here's a video of my little smarty pants that I took last week:

Needing Strength + Rest

This week has been a challenge for me. I haven't been sleeping properly a lot of nights (I'll wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning and can't go back to sleep), so I've been waking up tired and then what energy I can muster Kiera has been zapping right out of me. I've also been discouraged with her not walking as I find it tiring to carry her around, even though there have been improvements I know that the day will come eventually. It just sometimes feels like forever lately, but I know in my head that it's not. I've even been working out a bit with small weights to try to strengthen my arms! Kiera has also been yelling a lot when we're not looking at her and she wants our attention (usually for food). I'm not sure how to teach her to not yell and to ask nicely as she doesn't understand what I'm trying to explain to her. Any suggestions? All of these things have been piling up on me and after several days of feeling discouraged on and off, I said, "Ok. I need to go to the Lord again and spend time reading Scripture out loud over these situations." I was flipping through Psalms and praying and asking God to fill me up with His Spirit because only He can truly satisfy me and asking Him to give me strength. Then I flipped to the next page, and BOOM! This Scripture jumped out at me.

Psalm 103:2-5 "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." (emphasis mine) That's EXACTLY what I needed to read! These were the other verses that spoke to me:

Psalm 91:1 "He who dwells in the shelter of the most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

Psalm 116:7 "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."

I desperately need to rest in Him, as my own strength is not strong at all. Only He can give me everything that I need. Why does it sometimes take me so long to realize these things? It's like driving a car on empty...it needs gas! Psalm 62:1 "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him." I'm so thankful that He gives me true rest + strength! :)

Steps In The Right Direction

This past week-end, Kiera started doing two new things!  On Saturday morning, I went to get her from her crib and I found her like this:

She pulled herself up to a standing position in her crib, which she had never done before that!  Now whenever I go get her, she's always standing in her crib.  Good thing we lowered her mattress in anticipation that hopefully someday she would learn how to do that!

The 2nd thing she started doing was walking along furniture!  I know, most kids are already doing that before or around the 12-month mark, but I'm happy for every little milestone that Kiera hits, especially anything that has to do with walking!

Walking, Piano + The Answer

I found most of your guesses to be quite hilarious as almost all of them were WAY off base! I actually thought that nobody would guess it correctly this time, but my father-in-law was the first person to guess it right...it is the inside of a ferrero rocher with the nut + chocolate taken out of it! He does win a prize (Jacki) as it's his birthday this week-end and he will be getting a present. :) My cousin, Beth, also guessed it correctly after my dad-in-law, so way to go! Thanks for playing along, it makes it fun!

It's been a fairly normal week with not much new going on, except for Kiera pooping in our bathtub for the first time, which most of you read my status already on facebook. My new piano student started lessons this week and that went quite well. I love that I have almost all adult students this year. They're fun and they learn quite quickly most of the time! They don't hop off the piano bench or stop playing in the middle of a song and start talking about what happened in school that day (like one of my previous 5-year-old students). The adult students also don't take 2 years to learn their notes. Actually, by the end of 2 years, this little girl still didn't know her notes. She quit lessons after that, which was probably best for her at that time. I think she started lessons a bit too young. She sure was a cutie, though!

I've been praying A LOT for Kiera to learn how to walk. On Wednesday, God said, "Why don't you start thanking me that Kiera is going to walk and learn to balance instead of just asking?" I said, "Ok, I can do that." So as I walked Kiera around, I would say out loud, "Thank you Jesus that Kiera is going to walk. Thank you Jesus that Kiera is learning to balance." Then yesterday, I decided to let go of Kiera and she stood for 3 or 4 seconds without holding on to anything and she took a couple of steps before falling into my arms. She has never done that before, so praise the Lord! He is increasing my faith and I do believe that Kiera will walk, even though she's still very wobbly right now. Oh, and her right leg doesn't point out to the side anymore (most of the time) when we walk with her, so that has very much improved as well! God is definitely working in her life!

Name That Thing

Can you tell me what you think this is?

The Pup

Here's a recent video of Kiera doing her 2 favorite pastimes: reading + kissing. She loves giving us lots of wonderful wet kisses on the mouth lately. :) She also learned to say a few new words on the week-end: yes (she nods her head while saying it), mo (more), and pless (please). There are about 20 words in her vocabulary now...makes me proud! :)

More Blessings

Today, Jared got a bonus at work and it was bigger than last year's, so that's a blessing! Also, he got a raise today and it was MUCH bigger than we expected, so that's a double blessing! Why did I worry about our finances? God is obviously so much bigger than that!

Kiera is learning new words left, right, and center these days. Maybe she's trying to make up for the lack of walking! :) Yesterday she learned how to say "touch" and "up." She points up when she says it which is so cute. The day before yesterday she learned to say "toes." When we ask her where her nose and mouth are, she touches them. When we ask her where her belly button is, she lifts up her shirt and puts her finger in it! (ha ha)


















I'm going to try to get a video of that. I did get a video of her singing her own little song last week, so here it is:

Answered Prayers

Last week, we ran out of chicken breasts. I always buy the big case when it's on sale. I looked through all the grocery flyers and there weren't any on sale. I prayed that they would soon go on sale and in the meantime I figured I would just buy a small package, which I was going to do on Monday. We went to Jared's dad + step mom's house on Sunday for waffles with white sauce + strawberry sauce (mmmmmm)! We hadn't told anybody about our chicken situation. As we were leaving, my mom-in-law handed us a bag of frozen chicken breasts and said, "Here's a gift." She said that she had been planning to give us chicken since the previous week-end. I just about burst into tears because she had NO clue that we had just run out of chicken! I asked for it to go on sale and instead God gave me some chicken for free!

I was thinking about getting a part-time job to help us out financially, but I wasn't feeling peace about it and also there aren't a lot of good part-time jobs out there right now. Our evenings during the week are also quite busy with Jared being in school, having to do homework, and going to cell group. It seemed as if we were stuck. I had placed a couple of piano teaching ads online and I got a couple of phone calls, but nothing panned out. Jared's dad suggested I advertise online on Kijiji. There were quite a few other piano teaching ads on there, plus I was thinking, "It's March. Nobody starts piano lessons in March. They all wait until September," so I really didn't think anything would come of it (oh me of little faith), but I thought, "Sure, why not?" This week I got an e-mail from a lady who's eager to learn piano and she commutes in from a nearby city to where we live every day for work and she asked if she could come for lessons after work!! She's now signed up to start next week + is very excited about it! HALLELUJAH!!!! I am blown away by how God provides for us and He makes a way when there seems to be no way! Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Kiera Talks But Doesn't Walk

Kiera is over 16 months old now and still not walking. She is getting steadier, though, and enjoys walking holding on to one of our fingers in each hand. I'm starting to feel like a hunchback and I'm more than ready for her to walk on her own for that reason, so I pray that God gives me the patience I need and that He will strengthen my back! She is learning more and more new words now. Her most recent ones are "hat" and "hot." I didn't purposely teach her to say hot...that one she just picked up on her own! She says "bap" for bath. She does say, "Hi Mom," to me but still prefers to say "Hi Dad," more often. She shakes her head when we say "No," and nods it when we say, "Yes." Apparently she said, "peek-a-boo" when my mom was baby-sitting her last week, but she hasn't said it since then! We've been teaching her the parts of the body and she knows where the nose is and the mouth. When we ask her where her belly button is, she lifts up her shirt and looks down and sometimes pokes it. SO cute! She's definitely a smart one. Here's a cute little video from 3 months ago that I was going to post earlier and never got around to it until now.