A Modern Day Parable

We've had a perplexing problem this past week.

See that cute puppy in the crook of Aftyn's arm?

Well, Aftyn likes to sleep with him and a couple of other stuffed animals affectionately named bunny and bear. Creative, huh?

Well, puppy went missing about 2 days ago.
Every time we laid Aftyn down for a nap or for bedtime, she would ask, "puppy?".

The first night, I just told her that puppy must be hiding, after doing a quick scan of her room and the front room.

Aftyn seemed to accept this answer with no problem, and went to sleep cuddling with bunny and bear.

The next day, same question about puppy.

Same answer from me, but this time Aftyn kind of smiled. Smiled!

I wondered what was going on in that little mind of hers but just dismissed it and was grateful she was fine sleeping without him.

I looked for puppy both days, but still couldn't find him.

It didn't even dawn on me until Saturday night why Aftyn smiled and accepted puppy as "hiding".

Reed came and told me when he put Aftyn to bed that she asked about puppy again, but this time told HIM puppy was hiding, and then she smiled at Reed and said, "boo!".

She thought puppy hiding was funny because she thought it was a game.

I've been thinking about that all day long, mostly because we finally found puppy again, just like Aftyn knew we would.

It finally just dawned on me in the last hour what we can all learn from this situation.

It's all about perspective.

If we have faith that the situation we're in will turn out okay and we choose to stay

happy, well, I think I've learned it's all the better for us and for those around us.

It helps us all to feel a whole lot happier.

What did YOU learn from Aftyn's parable?

Mommy Got Bored/ Aftyn's Crazy Hair

More Sewing Projects, Consider Yourself Warned!

Part of a jumper size 12 months that I took apart. I found the skirt part of
the jumper in my sewing fabric and decided it would make a great spring-y skirt for Aftyn!

My version of a newborn size skirt that matches Aftyn's

Sewing has been a very therapeutic thing for me the last few months.

I am grateful for my mom who gave me my sewing machine,

who helped me do my first sewing project years and years ago.

Sewing has literally become my outlet for stress which is why you might have seen and may

continue to see a whole lot of sewing projects on this blog.

Please don't see it as a brag-festof any sort,

instead understand that I like to put these projects

out there to show that I was able to overcome whatever I might have been struggling with, I

conquered my stress along with the fabric, the thread and any things that might have stood in

the way of me completing what I wanted to make.

It is a personal victory of sorts for me to sew all these things!

And I want to celebrate my victories with all of you so FEEL SPECIAL! :)

And thanks for celebrating my victories with me.

Blogger is being dumb. That's why this post won't let me arrange the lines the way I want to. Sorry it looks weird.

It's All About the Little Things

On Wednesday of this week, Reed finally felt our baby kick! He was so excited, as you can imagine. It was nice to see such a big smile on his face.

Aftyn brought home her first coloring picture from Nursery this week. She told us it was a picture of "Daddy". She was excited to carry it around and looked at it all the way home from church, pointing out things like eyes, shoes, and stuff like that. It was VERY cute!

And yet again, here's the potty training topic again. Aftyn hasn't had an accident in, if she makes it through today, A WHOLE WEEK! And now that I've said that, I'm sure she'll have one. It's not really about the accidents, it's more about the fact that she's learning to hold her potty and let it go at the right time. Yay!

Sorry, but it's important I get these things written down somewhere! :)

Have a good Sabbath day!

Updates From Our Life

I feel like I've become a bit of a slacker on the family news front.

Although it's exciting to be having a baby and Christmas was fun,

that is not all that has been happening with us the last few months.

For the last 6 and a half weeks, Aftyn has been sitting on her toilet/the big toilet a WHOLE lot, in the belief that she was ready to go potty on the toilet!

Thankfully she was ready and although she is not completely done potty training, she certainly has a good grasp finally of what it's all about. My potty training mentor says we can call her "done" in about 4 more weeks. Let's hope it all goes as planned. :)

This whole process has been a huge part of our lives for the last month and a half. Potty training at this age is a fair amount of work, but for me COMPLETELY worth it. I'm grateful I had this time to spend with her before the baby gets here. Instead of working on a whole lot of projects, this has been my project.

We decided to splurge and took ourselves to go see the new Narnia movie on New Years Eve with Aftyn. We sat down and got Aftyn all situated with her binky (since it was her bedtime) and her blanket all in her very own seat! She actually seemed quite enthralled, even when I lent her my 3d glasses she didn't try to take them off and her eyes were glued to the movie screen. She finally fell asleep after watching for about an hour. She never made a peep the whole time so we all really enjoyed that movie!
(Unlike the next day when we went to go see the Harry Potter movie without Aftyn b/c of the violence, and the people in front of us brought their VERY rowdy and distracting 3/4 year old who was bored and pretty awful throughout the movie.)
*Just so you know, we don't get to see a whole lot of movies in the theater, we got to see Harry Potter thanks to some friends who gave us free tickets! And a generous grandma and grandpa who didn't mind Aftyn coming to visit for a few hours. *

Aftyn has also started going to nursery every Sunday since I teach in Primary. She really seems to love it! She's always excited to see me at the end, but she's never "looking" for me when I go to pick her up. I always have to call her name to get her attention. I take that as a good sign.

Reed is still working, I'm still being a mom. I'm in "early prepare mode" for this baby, as I'm sure you can tell. I feel like if I can prepare early and slowly then there won't be a mad rush to do all the normal things you do to prepare for a baby at the end. That will be nice.

On the home front, we're trying to utilize all the space in our little house getting ready for our new baby. Having to clear out some stuff and organize our garage and fun projects like that. It's nice to have a chance to do that every once in a while.

We're still hoping, as we do every spring, to get our backyard in. I'm mostly planning on it happening this year, because this year Aftyn will be able to enjoy it a whole lot more I'm thinking. With the sprinklers already in, all the rest should be easy, right?

If I think of more to add, keep your eyes peeled. I'm trying to be better about it. I really need to work on getting more pictures of Aftyn. I'm slacking in that department as well.

One Thing To Check Off My To-Do List

Yeah, I'll be saving this little beauty until our newest family member joins us.

Because it's always fun to have new things to use in new situations.

It makes it all feel special.

Because it is.

*Side note: I got the pattern for this here. My advice: use an additional layer of fabric besides the outside and inside pieces to help it keep its shape instead of being rather floppy like mine is. Oh well. Live and learn.

Funny Aftyn quote from Today

Alysa to Aftyn "Are you supposed to be in bed sleeping? Yes or no?"

Aftyn " No" some hesitation "yes"

What a smart kid she's turning into! It was hard not to laugh while putting her back in bed.


**Other exciting news! Aftyn has finally started singing/humming songs!! It all started because we were looking at her Sleeping Beauty book we got from some good friends with AWESOME pictures - I started singing the song Aurora sings when she's in the wooded glen by herself
"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream". (I was mildly obsessed with this movie as a young girl, as you might be able to tell. )

Anywhoo, Aftyn and I danced while I sang her the song, which she loved, and then when I put her back down she started humming, mind you not the exact tune I had been singing, but you could tell she was trying to recreate the dancing/singing we had just done. **