Getting Everyone Up To Date

OK, I admit that I haven't been the best at keeping up my blog lately. I have been quite busy baby-sitting and such. Anna Kate is no longer staying with us, so I should have some spare time now. We will see how that works out though.

There has been a lot going on. We are getting ready to start discipleship training on Sunday nights at church. Daniel is going to be teaching a financial class by Crown Ministries. I am going to be leading the children's choirs. This should be interesting. I have no experience working with children's choirs, so I am just praying that God would give me the resources that I need and the grace to pull this off. We don't have a permanent music minister right now, so I don't have someone like that to go to for advice. I am pretty much on my own. I do have some good helpers though. For Christmas we are just going to do a very simple Christmas musical. The 3-5 year olds will sing a few Christmas carols at the beginning. Who knows, maybe one day I will be inspired to write some children's music.

As you have probably noticed, I have been inspired to write some lullabies lately. Hmmm, I wonder where that inspiration came from? Sometimes Taylor's books will give me a jumping off point. I have always wanted some lullabies to sing to Taylor at bedtime, but I didn't know any, so I just started making them up. It kinda came pretty naturally. I am in the process of having a friend of mine arrange one of my songs for me. If he has time, I may have him work on the others too. My goal is to one day record all of the songs on a cd for Taylor. I also have some other ideas for how I want to use them.

Daniel got me a keyboard for our anniversary and I downloaded a program called Finale off the internet that allows you to type out your music and print it. The version I got is supposed to allow you to scan in music and edit it. So far I have had trouble getting the program to recognize the scans though. Sometimes the music ends up all jumbled up or the notes are all in the wrong places. I am still working on it though. Daniel wanted me to be able to record my songs into the program to create sheet music. I think you are supposed to be able to create MP3's too. When I get my songs arranged with accompaniment I will post them on my blog.

Taylor has been making some progress over the last month in her speaking. She has started saying baby and ball while doing the signs. She also says all gone when she is done eating. She is saying bye-bye a lot more clearly too. I can't remember if I mentioned her animal sounds or not, but her favorite is the tiger. She does that one everytime she sees a picture of a tiger. She can also moo. At one time she said quack, but I have had a hard time getting her to say it lately. She has a book of nursery rhymes that starts off with Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and it sounds like she is trying to quote it while she looks at the pictures. The only thing understandable, of course, is baa.

Taylor is also starting to show more interest in her shape sorter. I have been a little concerned because she has not mastered it yet and she gives up really easily. I have been meaning to talk to her therapist about that, but she hasn't seen her in two weeks. Hopefully she will see her tomorrow.

I am sure that there is something else that I am forgetting to blog about. Maybe now that things are a little bit quieter around here I will have some more time to blog and won't get so far behind. (Yeah right! That's what I always say about scrapbooking!)

Lull-a-bye, My Little One

Lull-a-bye, my little one.
Close your eyes; the day is done.
Go to sleep; don't make a peep.
May you dream something sweet.
Lull-a-bye, my little one.

Lull-a-bye, my little one.
Sleep, my child for night has come.
Angels at your bed at night
Keep watch 'til morning light.
Lull-a-bye, my little one.

Words & Music by Carrie Poe

Sleep, My Little One

Lull-a-bye, close your eyes.
Go to sleep, my little one.
Lay your head upon my breast.
It's time to say "Good-night" to sun.
Moon and stars are shining brightly in the sky above.
And God is watching over you, so sleep, my litte one.

by Carrie Poe 08.03.08

Mommy's Little Blessing

It's not always easy to know just what to do,
So I cry out for wisdom in taking care of you.
God alone gives me the strength I need for every day
And grace to know what's best for you in each and every way.

You're Mommy's little blessing, you're Mommy's gift of love.
I cherish every moment that God grants us from above.
I understand that letting go is part of loving you.
You're Mommy's little blessing; I hope you know it's true.

When I hold you in my arms I pray a simple prayer;
That God would take your little heart into His loving care
And mold you into the woman that He wants for you to be:
A woman of great faith and love and true integrity.

You're Mommy's little blessing, you're Mommy's gift of love.
I cherish every moment that God grants us from above.
I understand that letting go is part of loving you.
You're Mommy's little blessing; I hope you know it's true.

by Carrie Poe 08.03.08

TGIF!!!!

Whew! Thank goodness this week is finally over! It has been rough at times, but God has been faithful to get me through it. Baby-sitting has been a harder task than I initially thought. Anna Kate had 3 rough days out of 5 this week. She is one of those babies who gets really worked up once she starts crying and you just have to let her calm herself down. She will cry hard for 30 minutes until she will let you have the satisfaction of figuring out what it is that she needs. It was very frustrating. I think part of the problem was that she missed her mommy. This was the first full week for her without having mommy around all day. I am sure that she was a little out of sorts because of that. Today was much better though. She took longer naps today and stuck more to her original schedule at home. I was definitely tired when her mother came to pick her up though.

Taylor has had a bit of a rough week too. Both babies are teething, so that has been a bit of a nightmare. Taylor has been more whiny this week than I have seen her in a long time. She has gotten a lot more clingy with me since Anna Kate started staying here. It has been nice to have her sit in my lap while I'm watching TV, but it is a bit annoying when she won't leave me alone to put AK down for a nap. I have to close the door and then Taylor ends up standing outside the door crying. It is pitiful.

Taylor has also become quite the acrobat this week, but not on purpose:

• On Monday she came in the bathroom with me and was leaning over the bathtub and reaching for a toy or something while I was waching my hands. The next thing I knew she was falling into the bathtub. Thankfully there was no water in it. She wasn't hurt or anything - there is a soft mat in the bottom of the tub to keep her from sliding around in it - but she cried anyway. I think it just scared her. It was really funny.
• Yesterday I had a squirmy Taylor on the changing table and was just about to give Taylor some Benadryl for her cold when she flipped off the end of the changing table backwards. Her suitcase was there beside the changing table, so that kinda broke her fall, but it really scared her and I think she must have busted her lip a little because she got blood on my shirt. I couldn't see anything bleeding though. She screamed and cried a little, but after rocking her for a few minutes she calmed right down and was ready to play again.
• Today I was holding AK on the couch and Taylor always wants on the couch with me. I pulled her up on the couch hoping that she would sit quietly beside me. Oh but no! She had to start standing up and crawling around on the couch. I was doing my best to spot her, but as soon as I didn't have my hands on her she fell backwards once again off the couch. I caught her by the leg before she hit the floor, but it still scared her and she cried for a little while.

One of these days Taylor is going to start tumbling all over the place and she is going to think it is fun. Needless to say, this has been a crazy week for me. I am glad that it is over and looking forward to a little rest so I can get over this cold that I have.

On a positive note, Taylor is getting used to taking only one nap a day and has been a lot less sleepy in the morning hours. She is also imitating us a lot more, which is the first step toward talking. She is imitating sounds and some words. She says "yep" everytime you ask a yes or no question. She is always pretending to talk on the phone too, and kissing her baby dolls. I want to get her a nice baby doll with a bottle and a paci and see if I can teach her to feed the baby and put it to sleep. My grandfather made me a cradle when I was a little girl, so I am going to get that back from my parents and see if she will play with it.