It Was Like Christmas

Saturday was like Christmas for Sebby! He went out of his room to find a new (borrowed from a friend) bike sitting in the entry. He rushed over and hopped on right away with lots of excited exclamations like "WHOA!" and "BIKE!"

 

He's a bit too short to reach the pedals properly but equally enjoys sitting on the bike while we push him.

 

Later that morning, Darren took Sebby to a used toy sale and spent just a few dollars on a few awesome new toys:

- a hobby horse

(As soon as Sebby saw it he smiled & said "neigh." It was a bargain price of 4 pounds!)

- a toy fire truck

(Yes, it's Fireman Sam and it is ADORABLE to see him scooping with the ladder bucket and "whooo whoo whoo-ing" around the house with it.)

- some new books

(They are Tonka Trucks and Fireman Sam so he asks to read "dig dig" and "whoo whoo.")

He's been really enjoying his new toys.

On a related note, over the past two weeks or so, I have noticed that he starting to play independently a bit better. One day last week he played by himself for almost a half hour while I was cleaning up and cooking in the kitchen. I kept sneaking in to check on him because I wondered if he was asleep or in trouble but he was happily playing. He was fine! I often find him giggling and rolling around on the bed in his room or looking at books. He also loves to play with his fire truck or the teddy bears. This new development is fun for both Sebby and Momma as it means I can manage to get a few more things done without my "little helper" tagging along or messing. Although, his independent play often involves messing, things like opening all of the drawers in our bedroom and dumping out the belts, shirts and scarves on the floor...oh well!

The End Of An Era for Sebby

Last Thursday evening marked the end of an era for Sebby! At bedtime he was too hyper to settle down to nurse, he kept running around on his bed and shouting. After having him wriggle out of my arms for a few minutes to jump around the room, I knew that he wasn't going to nurse that night. Darren came in to put him in to bed and sing him a few songs. Shortly, he was asleep. 

I was surprised at how after 17 months of nursing before going to sleep for the night, he fell asleep so easily! 

On Friday evening, I gave him another opportunity to nurse before going to bed but again, he was too busy wriggling away and jumping around to be interested. Again, I left the room and he went to sleep after Darren sang him a few songs.

At that point I decided that it would be worth capitalizing on this phase of evening hyperactivity to  wean him off his before-bedtime nursing sessions. Due to his ongoing issues with dairy, I intend to continue nursing him until just before his little sister is born because I don't think that he would not be a happy tandem nurser but I do want him to get the maximum nutritional benefits of breastmilk especially because of his eczema and sensitivities to various foods.

I thought I might feel sad giving up these nursing sessions but I was fine with it.  It is a big change after all these months to pray with him then go out of the room while Darren puts him to bed. But it's really freeing to know that I don't HAVE to be there every evening at bedtime. I might even to start doing a regular evening activity like a workout class or even occasionally going out with friends in the evening. When I was nursing Sebby before bedtime, I wasn't guaranteed to be free until about 8pm so it meant showing up late to evening activities if I bothered going out at all. 

The new plan is to continue nursing him twice a day (after he wakes up in the morning and after his nap) until September if he's keen to continue. So far, he's done well with the change. After the first two nights of disinterest, he has asked for milk while we're praying as a family and cried a little bit when I tell him that he can have milk in the morning but he goes to Darren and stops crying within a minute of my leaving the room. Tonight he went to sleep in about 15 minutes.

 We say it almost every day now. Our little Sebby is getting so big!

 

Picnics, Flowers & Summer Fun!

Warmest week in the history of Glasgow??? 

Perhaps.

We had a record 5 lunch picnics.

We let our dirty dishes pile up in the sink and enjoyed lots of time at the park, recognizing that ever-changing Glasgow weather means that next week may be much cooler and cloudier. 

Sebby loved spending so much time outdoors!

Sebby at the Botanics picking daisies for Momma.  

We also got to enjoy lots of live music this week. 

Yesterday afternoon we saw a family performance of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra called "Monster Music". I loved watching the concentration in Sebby's eyes as he watched the musicians playing. And of course, seeing him wave his arms and dance to the music. 

This afternoon, we went to an informal worship time at church, which was also really family friendly as it was a small crowd of all friends that we'd invited and Sebby was able to enjoy the music and play without being distraction.

Hoping the weather stays this nice!

It's a ...

GIRL!

Sorry to all my non-Facebook-blog-readers by taking so long to post on here. 

 

Surprised, excited, I did a little dance on the way out of the hospital where we had our scan (ultrasound). So excited to meet our little girl!

We have a short list of girls names that we're trying out but haven't come to any conclusions just yet.

Word On The Street

This morning, Sebby & I set off early to enjoy the sunny Glasgow day. Our first stop was "The Sewing Box" to drop off a pair of Darren's trousers for hemming. I've gotten to know the lady who works there after having gone there a few times, she's really talkative and nice. I hadn't been in in at least six months but soon we began chatting like old friends. She pointed to my bump and said, "So, when are you expecting your second?"

She was the first person to comment on my bump before I mentioned that I was pregnant! I figured that I was either wearing a very "pregnancy revealing" outfit today (a grey maxi dress) or I am starting to get out of that it's-possible-to-mistake-the-bump-for-a flabby-tummy stage. 

A few minutes later I walked by the cafe just around the corner from our house and one of the friendly, Italian co-owners was out on the sidewalk. She said hello and asked when the baby was due. What, someone else noticed? OK, I guess I do look pregnant.

We walked on to the Botanics to enjoy the sun. While we were waiting for our friends, we met another pregnant woman who had a toddler close to Sebby's age. We were talking about our busy toddlers and she said knowingly, "It gets even more tiring as you get more heavily pregnant." 

This afternoon when Sebby & I were walking home, we passed the other friendly, Italian co-owner of the cafe near our place and he asked when our second baby was due. 

Alright, after 4 comments in one day, I'm calling this a pregnancy milestone. 

At 20 1/2 weeks, guess I look pregnant?!

* Interestingly, as Darren was shooting these pictures, he commented that I DIDN'T look pregnant and was surprised that people had commented. Then, he told me to position my hands at the bottom of my bump to show it off some more.

Why We Want To Know

I can't believe that my 20 week scan (ultrasound) is on Tuesday! When I booked the appointment, 20 weeks seemed so far off, yet the time has flown by. Overall, it feels like this pregnancy has gone by so much faster than my previous one. 

I can hardly wait to find out whether Little Lung is a boy or a girl! I know that some people love keeping the gender a surprise so that can have the suspense of finding out at the birth, but neither Darren & I are that keen on the suspense. There are probably 2 main reasons why I'm really looking forward to finding out if our baby is a boy or girl...

  

We want to be prepared with gender-appropriate clothing. 

 Especially since we are living in the UK, it will help to find out the gender in advance so that we can bring over some of Sebby's old baby clothes from Canada if we're having a boy. If we're having a girl, we will return to Canada with all of the clothes that Sebby has outgrown.

We're so excited to choose a name and begin calling the baby by that name right away.  

While I was pregnant with Sebby, a friend shared about how they had decided to begin calling their third child by name as a way to help their older children adjust to having a new little sister. She said that helped the whole family bond quickly with her. When their baby was born, she was already a part of their family, she was always Naomi (never "baby") and they were so glad to finally meet her. We loved that idea and decided to choose Sebby's name early in my pregnancy. We started calling him by name after we had confirmation that he was a boy at our 20 week ultrasound. Since we had many ultrasounds due to early pregnancy complications with Sebby, we had many ultrasounds done overseas. From 10 or so weeks onwards, we were told during each ultrasounds that the baby "looked like a boy," although we weren't even sure if they could tell at that point. 

I'll admit that even though we're exciting about choosing a name for our baby, we're having a bit more difficulty agreeing on a boys name this time around. We're not 100% settled on a girls name either, mostly because there are SO MANY girls names that we love.

Just a few more days to go...

We'll keep you posted!

Lunchtime Fun

As I was making lunch for Sebby, he saw my coulorful silicone muffin cups by the sink. He kept asking for them until I passed them down for him to play with. Once lunch was ready, the only thing he was interested in having on his tray was the muffin cups!

 I gave him a few pieces of pasta and he just kept asking for "more, more, more" muffin cups. I handed him a few and when I turned around a minute later, instead of eating his pasta, he had stacked it into the muffin cups on his tray.

 

Concentrating intensely on stacking and unstacking those muffin cups.

 

"If I put these on top, maybe Momma won't see that I didn't eat my pasta!"

Guess he wasn't having a "hungry day" today. Other than a few "nacks" (snacks) and some rice, he didn't eat much of anything. Oh well, at least he exercised his creativity over lunchtime.

Sunny Days in Glasgow

We spent our Thursday afternoon with half of the population of Glasgow soaking up the sun on the lawn at the Botanics. It seems that when there's a warm, sunny day, Glaswegians leave work and all other responsibilities to flock to the lawn of the Botanics for some much needed Vitamin D. In this city, warm, sunny days are a cherished rarity that must be appreciated to the fullest.

 

Sorry for the horrendous quality smartphone photo of Daddy & Sebby blowing bubbles. 

 I need to get into the habit of bringing our SLR along more regularly.

Haircut, Please!

Sebby's disastrous first haircut that left him with an unintentional undercut has finally grown out. It's almost time from another trim.

Darren keep proposing (at least once daily) that we shave his head so that the hair grows back in thicker. I say, "No way! He's 16 months. He'll look like he's ill with cancer if you shave his head at this age." 

 Sebby, not fully understanding what he's being asked says, "yeah!" every time Darren asks him if he wants his head shaved.

I'm nervous about cutting it myself and even more nervous about letting Darren do it (since he was the artist responsible for the previous haircut) but don't really want to pay the money to have a barber do it. 

I almost started trimming the sides of his hair in the bath a few nights ago then remembered that cutting his hair while wet was our fatal mistake last time! I'm going to have to give it a go on dry hair sometime soon...if I can figure out how to get him to stay still for more than 5 seconds!

Learning and Being Challenged

One day last week after I put Sebby down for his nap, I found a free sermon online to listen to while eating lunch. The first in a series called "Raising Covenant Families" by Dr. and Mrs. Wilson Benton, it was both encouraging and challenging:

I was encouraged...

God intends our children to be a joy to us! Parenting is an expression of love to God, to the child and to the task of parenting itself.

Sebby brings such joy into my life! Through the process of becoming a parent, I have learned to better understand and relate to God and have experienced God's grace in countless ways.

 I was challenged...

The first things that our children learn about God are things that they learn from us. 

What a huge responsibility! Having an impressionable toddler around, I am very aware that children are little sponges and they quickly learn to imitate everything we do. However, I hadn't really thought about the fact that Sebby will learn truth about God from our moment by moment actions and interactions as well as from our words. I realized that I need to ask God to help me get better about  teaching Sebby about God as we go about our everyday activities. 

The most challenging part of the sermon for me was about how God places a high value on our nuclear family but an even higher value on our covenant family, the church, all believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ! 

I had NEVER considered that the Bible teaches that our relationship with our nuclear family is only for this lifetime but our relationship with our covenant family is eternal. In other words, from God's perspective, the ties that bind us together as Christians are more important and lasting than the ties that bind us together as spouses or as parents and children. In heaven, we will no longer be husbands and wives, parents and children, we will all be brothers and sisters. 

What? 

I definitely need to spend some time letting that idea sink into my heart and mind because it's a difficult one to grasp, however it certainly does help me see a new perspective for setting priorities. I recognize that I need to wrestle with finding a new balance between prioritizing my family and the Christian community. 

Currently, our family of three and a half is much more of a priority than my wider church family as I spend substantially more time and energy on Sebby and Darren than I do on the wider body of Christian believers. Darren and I have recently been talking about our desire to get more involved in our church and last week I felt God challenging me to take initative to organize something with the other young moms at church. 

I sent out an official invite to brunch at our place (it's tomorrow!) and I pray that it will be a good stepping stone to building relationships with some of the women from our church. I need to begin spending more time praying that God would open my heart to make more room my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

I am thankful that Sebby slept longer than usual that day so that I got to listen to the whole sermon (he slept a gloriously long hour and forty-five minutes). Thank you Sebby and thank you God!