7 Quick Takes Friday (#44)
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When people used to ask how many kids I wanted I always used to say four or five. I really wanted to have a big family and couldn’t think of any other way to show my love for Frank. But after having Mary Rene, I changed my mind. I don’t want Mary Rene to be an only child but I honestly can’t imagine how my heart can love another child as much as I love her. I always hear that when you have a second child your heart doesn’t divide but it grows. I can’t even begin to imagine loving another baby as much as I love her, but I guess, only time will tell. For now I will watch as my friends do it. My friend, Emily, gave birth to her second daughter, a beautiful baby girl, Beatrice Louise, on Monday. CONGRATULATIONS! One of her last post was about how she was reading “Goodnight Moon” to her daughter Ella and she realized at that moment it might be their last moment alone together. It was a touching post because my heart ached for her but at the same time my heart was aching for myself. If God so blesses me, someday I will have that same feeling as I am reading to Mary Rene. I’m looking forward to learning from Emily and how this heart of hers is growing and growing each and everyday.
-2-
Monday evening I stayed up and I sewed three taggie blankets and then I decided to make a baby cube for Beatrice. About five months ago I was at a baby shower and I saw these cloth baby cubes sitting on the food table. I realized how easy it would be to sew them and decided I would give it a try. Apparently I forgot about that internal conversation until now. I took some yellow fleece and cut out the letter “B” and then I cut a satin heart and sewed both to different pieces of fabric.

I had a little of the St. Louis Cardinals fleece left and was able to make a square of the cube from it.

Now my cube has some St. Louis flavor. I meant to add tags to some of the sides so it would be a taggie cube, but as you can see, I forgot. The cube is much bigger than I anticipated and it isn’t as square as I would like but hey, it is my first cube. Four days after completing it, I was on one of my new favorite websites, Make It and Love It and I noticed that she did this same project back in March. Ugh. Now I feel like a cheat. Although I must say, mine has more flavor since I added the fleece “B” and the satin heart.
-3-
About two months ago, Frank and I made the decision to take a break from being Eucharist Ministers. We were scheduled every other month for the noon Mass but some weeks it would be really hard to commit to that Mass time because of Mary Rene’s nap schedule. I called Richard, the Eucharist Minister coordinator, to tell him to remove us from the schedule for a couple months. I was happy to get his voicemail because I hated to disappoint him over the phone. A week went by and I never heard from him. And then I got the call. He had passed away, at his home, and was found four days later. It turns out that I probably called when he had already passed away. My heart sank in grief for him and his family. But even more, my heart yearned to be a minister again. So on Sunday, Frank and I started ministering again but now we have switched to the 9 a.m. Mass. Mary Rene usually takes her first nap at 10 a.m. so this works out perfect.
-4-
I have finished my first official week of not pumping. On Tuesday I was able to take my co-worker, Laurie, out to lunch for her birthday. Yesterday, I was able to get a new battery installed in my Jeep and run into Kohl’s and Best Buy for some errands. It was like old times all over again. I can now say, I don’t miss pumping.
-5-
I don’t want to jinx myself by saying this but, I have been doing an awesome job of getting up every morning and running. I still have to be quiet and try to trick Sophie…most of the times I fail. My running friends are gearing up for a half marathon in March. They have asked me to join and I highly doubt I will be ready. But, I might be ready to do the 10K the day before the race.
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Tomorrow is supposed to be really nice outside and this may just be the last nice day for awhile. What is something fun that Frank, Mary Rene and I can do outside? I was thinking Grant’s Farm. Frank wants to go apple picking. Any suggestions?
-7-
Mary Rene has learned how to get on and off the couch all by herself. I must say, she is very gracious and careful when she does it. The only problem is she likes to pester Sophie all day long.




I say pester because she likes to stick her finger in Sophie’s eye.

What does Sophie do? Absolutely nothing. Good dog.





November 6th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I do understand how you wonder if your heart can grow bigger and have enough love for another baby! I think it just does. I think Grant’s Farm sounds like fun tomorrow. Matt and I are going to the H1N1 clinic to get Natalie vaccinated…who knows how long we will be waiting! Enjoy your weekend. : )
November 6th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Wow! I think that it hasn’t been a full month since I’ve read your blog, but Mary Rene is clearly so much bigger. I do not know much about hearts growing with love for children, but it seems to me that if one is surprised by how much one loves one child then it could certainly happen with each additional child.
Good for you for running! I am training for a half next spring and am always reminding myself that it should be easy since I don’t have to deal with things like taking care of a child.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Trena,
Encouraging news is that the day I went into labor, all the worries about loving another baby taking away from loving Ella went away. I just felt a peace about it. Since we’ve come home, I occasionally feel bad that I can’t spend all of my time reading to Ella, fixing her hair, getting things for her right when she needs them, because I’m in the “nurse every 2 hours” phase. Thankfully Christopher is home for 2 weeks as we adjust and he’s filling in the gaps for me. Today I tried to get Ella dressed and she told me she “wanted her Daddy to do it”! Wow, okay, Daddy’s Girl! Hope that makes you feel better!
Love the cube you made Beatrice! You are so crafty!!
Glad you’ve been running again.
Emily