]]> http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/02/20/hangin-with-some-friends/feed/ 0 http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/02/17/project-52-growing-up/ http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/02/17/project-52-growing-up/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:45:29 +0000 Jenna http://www.jleegraham.com/?p=152 52:5

Motherhood is

GROWING UP

I’ll Love you forever.

I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.

The other day we drove to a very cool park and I was able to get a few great pictures of Giyana! With my eyes looking through my lens I realize that she is actually posing for me! I then think to myself I remember the days when I would spend an hour chasing her little butt around just to get ONE usable picture. I used to bribe and trick and ploy my way into capturing a silly smile from her. Until now that is. These days if I say G lets take a picture, one hand gets thrown up on her side, with a hip poking out and she is ready! Not only is she “modeling” for me but she has taken a very big interest in taking pictures herself! This year for Christmas Santa brought her her very own shiny pink point and shoot camera which she loves.

As I look at the pictures that were taken that day, I can’t help but feel so many emotions. So proud to see the beautiful little girl she is becoming, so sad to say that she is no longer a baby and somewhat scared for the future and what having a pre teen girl can mean. I feel all of these emotions but most importantly I am grateful for it all. The smiles, the laughter, the tears and the tantrums. It has been three years since this little ball of fire entered into my life and here she is, growing up.

Motherhood is

PEACEFUL

Lay your tiny head down,
And sleep, my little star
Your life’s a new adventure,
And you will journey far.

Feel my lips upon your cheek,
Know that I am near
To wrap warm arms around you,
To wipe away a tear.

Close your weary eyes now,
Dream sweetly through the night,
For even in the darkness
My little star shines bright.

I watch you gently sleeping,
Beautiful and brand new,
Be at peace and slumber,
My heart belongs to you.

Having two babies definitely has it’s crazy moments. It’s funny to me that when I had just one baby I actually thought that was hard! Some days are very busy, full of making breakfast, swim lessons, lunch, pre K workbooks,  diapers, potty training, breastfeeding, trips to the zoo, trips to the grocery store, working out, making dinner, cleaning, bath time and much more! This one particular night I was giving both babies a bath at the same time. After I took Jax out he decided he could wait no longer and was ready to be fed! So there I am feeding my sweet. freshly bathed and naked baby in a towel, while Giyana is very “actively” taking a bath. While I am instructing my 3 year old to wash under her arms, belly and legs, I look down and see the very most beautiful thing. My sweet baby was so tired he fell asleep while eating (something that happens VERY rarely these days). With all that was going on and everything that was on my mind from the long day, I was immediately transformed into a state of peaceful bliss. As my heart was melting, I had my husband bring me my camera so I could capture this moment and remember it always, exactly as it was. The days around here can get pretty hectic, but these peaceful moments are truly what I live for.

Motherhood is

PERSISTENT

Potty Training. One of the most persistant struggles I have had so far as a mommy.

Is she ready? Is she scared? Is she just stubborn?

We started really “potty training” almost a year ago. Since this last summer I started to buy the Huggies pull-ups in the small $10 bags, thinking each time this will be the last bag of pull-ups I will buy. It’s been at least 8 months and I am still purchasing them. We always wear pull-ups at night and about 4 out of 7 nights she wakes up dry. She is wearing big girl panties during the day now with very few accidents…but the poop, is a whole other story. Is she scared? Maybe. Is she ready? Yes! Is she stubborn? Without a doubt. Last night was the first night she came to me to tell me she needed to “poopy in the potty”. I of course dropped everything I was doing and skipped/ran to the potty with a very big smile on my face! “This is it” I thought to myself. Twenty minutes later, still sitting on the potty with no result, she took the hope right out of me by saying “I don’t have to go poopy mommy”. We actually did this three times total. After the third time she went back to playing and five minutes later she pooped in her pull-up. It’s really not that big of a deal to change her dirty diaper, because lets face it its all I do these days, but when poopy accidents happen in big girl panties, it’s no good. I know she is ready and I know she knows how, so why then? This “pressure” I am feeling when it comes to this particular milestone may result from all the other girls her age being potty trained, is it something that I am doing wrong? I also know that like every other achievement in her life, this too will come. This is the part where I have to take a step back and relax. It will happen and until then, just stay persistent.

Motherhood is:

LEARNING TO LOVE.

We are all  born with an innate ability to love and and a need to be loved. As a newborn, the feeling of love starts by having simple needs being met, to feed when hungry, to change dirty diapers and to just simply be held. As babies grow there is even more love to share by playing, kissing, laughing and spending time with them. Love is simple, a subconscious act, but how do we teach it?

At the age of three, the act and ideas of love seem to be coming up quite a bit around here. When something does not go her way (ie: “No you may not have a cookie before dinner.”) Giyana very quickly throws out “You make me sad mommy, you don’t love me anymore!” There are also times when she decides to take her love away. If it’s time to turn off a movie before nap time I get “I don’t love you anymore mommy”. While I always reply with “OK well I still love you”, I do wonder where she gets these feelings and words from. I can honestly say that I have NEVER told my daughter that I don’t love her anymore no matter how frustrated she can make me. So what is “love” to her?

Now that Giyana shares the love that mommy has with younger brother Jaxson, it’s important to me that she knows that the magnitude of my love will never change. I find my self making sure to have one on one time with her daily by doing things that she loves to do together. It’s also important to me that she love her brother unconditionally. Now I know, from experience, that growing up with siblings there will always fighting, arguing and yelling, but there MUST be love. This is why from the very beginning we have instilled in Giyana to Love her brother. “Always take care of your brother and love him because he is your baby and he loves you”. To this day, with all of the loving and not loving conversations, I have never heard her say anything negative toward her baby brother.

She loves him, and it is wonderful.

]]> http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/01/27/project-522/feed/ 1 http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/01/22/6-months-down/ http://www.jleegraham.com/2012/01/22/6-months-down/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:49:00 +0000 Jenna http://www.jleegraham.com/?p=36

Jaxson;

I can’t believe it has been 6 months already since you entered into our world! We are all so in love with you and enjoy watching you change and grow right before our eyes!

*You weigh 18.2lbs and are 27in long! (60% in weight and 80% in height)

*You are still breastfed about every 3-4 hours, around the clock. You slept through the night one night about a month ago for 8.5 hours! Mommy thought it was the beginning of something wonderful but now believes it to be a growth spurt that was responsible for the very peaceful night.

*You started solid food last  month in Oregon while home for Christmas. Rice cereal, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes are some of your favorites.

*A small little tooth on the bottom right side of your mouth is trying to come through. We can finally see the culprit behind ALL the drool .

*You started sitting up last week and I am finding that it is your favorite to sit up on the rug and play.

*Your best friends are Baxter the monkey and Elmo.

*You love to be held but honestly you seem very content in your swing and in your new exersaucer/jumper.

*You have started to pull on mommy’s hair and big sister’s too, which means mommy has to watch the both of you very closely because GiGi thinks you are hurting her. (sibling rivalry has already started;))

*You have flown on an airplane 4 times already! We have traveled to Oregon twice since you have been born.

*Some of the fun places you have gone are to the Oregon Coast and you have hiked the Sweet Creek Falls, in a front pack of course.

You have gone to Busch Gardens theme park and zoo, to Clearwater beach in Florida, and to the Gasparilla parade in Tampa.

*You are babbling lots these days and blowing bubbles all the time. You laugh the most when mommy growls or roars like a tiger and your sister Giyana can make you laugh by just being silly.

*Your smile is beautiful, it lights up the room and melts mommy’s heart.

*You also got your very first cold/cough. It lasted about a week (along with big sister) and there was never any fever, so we were blessed.

*You had your first small haircut! Just a little “evening-out” off the back!

What an amazing first 6 months it has been and we are so excited to watch you continue to grow! We love you!!!

Love,

Mommy, Daddy and GiGi. xoxo

Motherhood is:

A JOB

And I love my job .

    While some people may criticize or “hate” on the stay at home mom, I wish for one week they could trade me places and actually see all the “work” that goes into staying home. If you are doing it right, staying home can be very challenging, and sadly we do not get paid for it. Yes, we do stay home and don’t have to get up and fight traffic to clock-in to a job, but we do have to get up and face our day like so many others and there really is no clocking-out. Through all the laundry, breaskfast, lunch, dinner, crying, more laundry, diapers, potty training, breastfeeding, tantrum throwing and more, staying at home is a job (if not a life-long career) and I want to be very good at it. This year I plan to set my alarm Monday through Friday, shower, put on makeup and get dressed just like anyone else would for their job. I plan to have schedules and to stick to them. Although some days may seem impossible (who doesn’t have a bad day?), staying home is definitely a blessing to me and our family and I am so happy I get the opportunity to spend this short and amazing time with my babies.

This picture was taken when Jax was only 1 week old. I just love how Giyana is looking at him like he is just the coolest thing since Mickey Mouse clubhouse! This is when my job changed from being a mommy of one beautiful baby girl to two adorable little babies. And boy, did staying at home get harder! More diapers, more laundry, more crying, but most importantly there was also more laughter, more joy and much more love.

OK, so I am three weeks late in starting this project but I am so excited to do it! One of my favorite blogs I follow is by what I like to call a “professional” mother. Now I know that a mom is a mom and technically we are all “professional”, but this mom seems to really have it all together. She is very inspiring to me and is the source for a lot of my motivation for actually doing this blog! Her name is Shawna and her blog is here. When I first started reading about her life, I came across a project she was doing that I will participate in this year called Project 52. Every week we will be taking a picture that responds to a phrase. I plan to answer the phrase “Motherhood is…”  making this project about the relationship I have with my babies. I think by the end of this I will have not only a better understanding and appreciation of motherhood but also I will be able to see all that I/we have accomplished as a family this year. Now, the ultimate goal of this project is to get me to take more pictures every week and get better on my photography skills, but just for this week I am using a picture I have already taken about 6 months ago. It is one of my very favorites and it just captures one of the first moments when I really felt like a real mom, now that I have two.

I am 3 weeks behind so I will be catching up in the next few days and from then on I plan to post every friday! Here we go!

I think this blog will be very helpful to me as far as getting “projects” done and keeping my thoughts organized! I already have so many ideas and different topics I want to post about, which leads me to the “purpose”. The purpose of this blog is to reflect on my day to day blessings and challenges that someone like me, a stay at home mom (SAHM) experiences. So naturally this will for the most part be about my daughter Giyana (3), my son Jaxson (6mos), and husband Stephen. We have recently moved to Florida and now call it home which left many of our friends and family in Oregon. So if anything this is another way to help family and friends in “Keeping up with the Grahams” . The final goal I have for this site is to work on my photography skills. Since Giyana was born, I have been fasinated with taking pictures of her and now of my beautiful son. This has truly become a passion of mine and I am now officially an aspiring photographer. There are so many projects that I plan to be involved in that hopefully will push me to the next level in my photography skills and soon maybe an actual business.

So I say again, welcome to our life and I really hope you find this blog on one of your “must read” lists!

Jenna