BRAXTON BLOG

I’ve not been blogging for a looong time.  I’m very sorry about that, I’ve missed out on jotting down some really cool stuff from the girls’ life.  Ella is going to be three this year!  And Lilly is turning one.  We’ve spent many nights at the dinner table in absolute astonishment wondering where the last year of our life went.  We feel like we’ve missed out on Lilly being a baby.  Sure we’ve been here and enjoyed every aspect of her development, but we haven’t documented it like we used to.  Now add in number three coming in February and life is just full of well, life.  I never imagined myself really having kids, and certainly never saw myself having three children.  But God had a different plan and I am so happy He did.  We have decided to go into delivery without knowing what we are having this time around.  I think that is a very special thing to learn the very nature of your child at birth and I am so glad we’ve settled on it at least once.  Lilly and Ella are starting to be more like playmates lately.  Lilly is quite adamant sometimes about getting her big sister to play with her.  She will even crawl over Ella and basically lay on top of her to get her attention.  Ella takes it all in stride very well for the most part.  There are times when her almost three-ness comes out but in general she does very good at being the subject of infant attacks.

It is so amazing to see how very unique each child is.  As Lilly’s personality develops it is quite clear that she is nothing like her sister in some respects.  Lilly has less patience for some things (like food) and when she wants something she gets mad before even indicating a desire for it.

We have started potty training in earnest with Ella and all seems to be going well.  In fact she is so proud of herself for wearing panties that she fights us when we put a diaper on for overnight.  They are both growing up so very fast and I fear adding in a third may make it all seem faster.  I’ve decided that I need to make an even stronger effort to get back to blogging their lives so that someday, I can present all the little details of their youth to them for their own education and entertainment.  We’ll see how I do.

So just what exactly can you stomach as a person?  Become a parent and you will find there are likely no limits to what you can stand.  Recently we have been trying to hype the concept of the potty for Ella in preparation for Lilly’s arrival.  A few nights ago (I forget if it was before or after Lilly came home), Ella came running up to me whining and holding her hands out in front of her.  She had a distraught look on her face and so naturally I was concerned.   Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be poo on her fingers.  Ella had been putting her hands down her diaper and discovered she needed to go potty (make that, had gone potty).  After cleaning her all up, I tried to explain that she needed to let me know before she went potty and we could start learning all about it.

Now fast forward to last night.  We put Ella to bed at normal time, she had a wonderful chat with Grammy on Skype just before.  Everything seemed like a normal night.  Later around 9pm she cried out which isn’t all that unusual so we thought nothing of it.  When we went in to check on her on our way to bed, we discovered she had gotten sick in the bed.  We woke her up so we could change her clothes and her bed and decided to bring her to our bed, her mattress was soaked and her room did not smell too good.  We got her settled in our bed and back to sleep only for her to wake up a little later and get sick again.  She was so pitiful, she kept saying “I wanna go night-night, Dada”.  We got her cleaned up again and settled and Mommy and Lilly moved rooms just in case she had something contagious.  One more time she woke up but she caught herself before she got sick.  As I sat up she knew it was coming, the poor little hing was so scared about having to throw up.  I coached her through it and cleaned her up again.  The amazing thing is the parental ability to sleep with the smell of vomit in your nose all night.  This parenting thing isn’t always easy, and sometimes it will make you cry, but God certainly makes you strong enough to survive it.  I would never have been able to sleep through the night with that smell if it weren’t my daughter that was sick.

So today we were feeling a bit more normal.  Stomach bugs are gone, sleep is slowly coming back to each of us (more to Daddy and Ella than Mommy) and all is finally somewhat well.  We were working on the cabinet we store all of the baby stuff in in our kitchen and Ella was happily coloring on the newspaper with an ink pen.  Keep that in mind, it will be important later.  Ella started out on the ottoman but was poking through the paper (lovely artwork on the ottoman now, in ink).  I moved her to a small side table so she could keep coloring and she watched me climb into a chair and work in the cabinet.  “Careful, Dada,” she would call as she busily colored away.  Later, she started ripping the papers and throwing them all around so I went to check on her.  At first, I only saw it on her hand.  “No big deal,” I thought, baby wipes are amazing ink removers.  Then I looked down as Ella looked up.  I immediately busted out laughing, Mommy wanted to know what was going on and when I showed her, she turned around and hid her face as her shoulders shook.  I asked if she was laughing or crying and there was no response.  After a few minutes she told me to stop laughing after she composed herself so she could inform Ella that this was not something we do.

“Is this paper?” Mommy asked.

“No, not,” Ella replied.

“What do we color on, Ella?  Only paper, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Are your hands paper?”

“Yeah!”

“No ma’am, they aren’t.  And your face isn’t either.  We don’t color on our face, that isn’t funny.”

(laughter) “Funny, paper!” (more laughter)

Luckily, baby wipes are amazing little cloths of wonder when it comes to situations like this.  I managed to clean her up completely with one wipe.  This definitely goes in the category of very difficult to be mad about.

She’s here!  Lilly Hope Braxton born 12/10/2010.  She weighed in at 6lbs 15ounces and was 18 3/4 inches long.  We had an interesting home coming, we got home Sunday (12/12) and settled in to prepare for a new addition to our family.  Monday morning, we both woke up with a stomach virus, what a day!  Lilly’s first appointment was at best difficult to get through with two sick parents struggling to be awake.  Today we feel much better and Lilly is doing great.  Ella is obsessed with Lilly to the point that it is difficult to take the baby from her when it is time to feed Lilly.  She throws a complete fit everytime we pull her away, but eventually that will all subside and we will settle into a routine.  I hope

The moment is here!  They have decided to induce Mommy today to bring Lilly into this world!  As I sit at home with Ella worrying myself sick while Mommy is alone at the hospital I can help but be all tingly at the thought that today I get to meet my second daughter!  I am so very excited, I don’t know what to type.  Rather than ramble, I’ll just say this is going to be an awesome day!