Precious Memories

 My mother in law is bringing a bouncer toy over for my baby boy today. I'm very excited about it. It reminds me of when I had Joy, my second girl. I would put her in her bouncer every morning and say, "Hi Joy," several times to her while I was making breakfast and washing their bottles. It was so cute. She would just smile and smile, like my baby boy smiles at me now in the mornings. 

I think the smell of me making coffee makes him want to smile more. That makes sense. :)

Other good memories I have... I remember Joy poking our bunny in the eye multiple times. That was funny. He had black around his eye. Maybe she was just enthralled by how his eye looked. I remember Serenity going in circles around the driveway on her scooter and making it look like a circus act. The only thing we watched with a circus was Madagascar 3. It was adorable to see her do that. I remember her speeding down the street on her scooter, just as fast as a car would go. I was always amazed with her great athletic ability. If there was a scooter Olympics for kids, she would have won the gold medal for sure. 

I remember doing exercise videos with Joy called Just Walk, or something like that. We would do the step aerobics together in the living room. It was adorable to see her do it with me. I remember taking the girls to the pool and them climbing up the ladder and jumping in the water into my arms. That was so cute. 

When Serenity was a newborn, I took about 10 pictures of her every day in all kinds of outfits. She was my first child, so I was on cloud 9 having her. She made me so, so happy! Often times the flash was on with my phone so she would wince at the bright light flashing in her face. That was funny. I didn't know back then how to turn the flash off. 

After Joy was born I went to pick her up at the hospital and I felt so much love for her. I have never felt so much love for anyone in my life. It might be because her birth was high risk. She came out blue with the umbilical cord around her neck. I think it was from the Pitocin they gave me to speed up my labor. I was so thankful that she made it and I promised her and myself I would take excellent care of her. 

I felt a similar great compassion for my current baby. He was a primi and was only 5.5 pounds at birth. He was so skinny, but that made him so much cuter. I kept thinking he reminded me of my big brother who was always super skinny. I felt much closer to him for that reason. I promised him I would help him get fat quickly, and I did. He looks like a little football player now. :)

I remember I baptized Serentiy in a lake. I dunked her without fully explaining the whole thing. I think she thought I was trying to drown her. That was pretty funny. I mean I felt bad too, obviously. With Joy, I baptized her by just putting water on her head. I figured I should make it a more fun experience for her. 

I remember going on bike rides with Serenity in a bike seat in front of me. With her helmet on she looked like a baby toadstool. People passing us were always like, "Oh she's so cute!" I was like, "I know...." 

One time I was lying in bed with Joy for nap time, but she didn't seem tired. So we were going over what sounds different animals make. That was always so cute when we did that. 

I remember playing hide and go seek with the girls in our house. Usually, they would hide in a closet. That was lots of fun. We often went to rivers and lakes and hiking trails all over Austin together. I had so much fun raising them for the 7 years that I did. But then it all went up in smoke, for many reasons.

Those memories are why I wanted to repeat all that with a new family, and now I am. Praise God for giving me another family. It is so wonderful to get to be a mother again.