Milk

I really enjoy blogging, but it seems like most people (myself included) write about cute kids and happy times. When things are tough, I sometimes feel even more isolated because it seems like everyone else has it all together. Surely I am not the only who feels this way. In an effort to be transparent and real, here are some of the things that have been knocking around in my head lately: the good and the ugly. . .

Recently I had a revelation/ break down/ mother of two moment that ended in laughter. I was in the midst of sharing with Chad all of the things that have been on my heart lately that I never say. Mostly I was talking about not recognizing myself anymore. Somewhere between the extra baby weight that is hanging around my middle, the “mommy talk” that is eating my adult vocabulary, and the endless hours spent cleaning up poop and throw up and changing diapers and wiping snotty noses and nursing around clock, I stopped recognizing myself. Now don’t misunderstand, I LOVE my children, my husband, my job, my life. But at the end of the day, when I collapse into bed in oversized sweats, and think back on all I have done that day, it feels that any contributions I have made are relatively small. I was sharing all of this with Chad, and in the midst of pouring out my soul, I said in all seriousness, “I feel like all I am contributing to the world right now is milk!” Chad stopped me, had a good laugh, and decided that was his favorite new quote.

After some reflecting, I was reminded of Ecc. 3 “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. . .A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to embrace and a time to refrain.. A time to be silent and a time to speak."

And here are a few that I’ve added that reflect my season: "A time to indulge and a time to sacrifice, a time to doubt and a time to have faith, a time to play and a time to discipline, a time for health and a time for sickness." I am looking forward to the time for dancing again! It must be just around the corner. . .

Speaking of sickness, one reason I have been discouraged is that our family has been SICK this winter. Since a few weeks before Thanksgiving to now, I think we have all been well at once only a couple of times. January has been exhausting—Pierson had RSV, Ava got pink eye in both eyes, then a cold, Chad and I both got nasty colds and now Chad has the stomach flu. Will we ever be well again? My body and my spirit are weary right now.

Still, I trust that God is involved in the details of our lives—even throw up and pink eye and sleeplessness.

On a lighter note, Ava still keeps us on our toes. My mom was watching her a few days ago for me, and she found Ava sitting facing the wall in the corner. When questioned about it, she said, “I made a pretend bad choice, so I put myself in pretend time out.” Wish she was as receptive to sitting in real time out!

Do blondes have more fun?

Ava came in wearing this wig the other day after it had fallen off of one of her dolls. She tried it on her unsuspecting brother, and we got a good laugh. The first thing Chad said when he saw these pictures is, "You're not going to put these on your blog, are you?" He thinks Pierson will not appreciate it when he's older. I can't help it. They make me laugh, so I have to share!

Happy New Year! Our internet and phone line have been down for about a week, and we just got a guy today to come and fix them. I have many more photos to post, but for today, I'll just share this one of little Pierson. What an expression! He looks like he's up to something.

We've had a good Christmas, but an exhausting one as well. We stayed in Abilene this year, which turned out to be a good thing because both of my kids got sick, and being sick at someone elses house is always tough. Ava just had fever and a cold for a few days, but Pierson's cold turned into an ear infection and an upper respiratory infection (some version of RSV.) We have been giving him breathing treatments every four hours, and have been quarantined to the house for a week now. I haven't felt like we've had much of a vacation. We all have cabin fever!

We did enjoy time with the Thompson family during Christmas, and Chad's mom came to visit for several days last weekend. Ava was so excited about Santa this year, and has loved playing with all of her new toys! As many new toys as she gets, I am always amazed that she ends up being the most content playing with random things around the house in creative ways. She is so into "pretend" these days. She spends most of her day pretending to be someone else. It cracks me up!

Ava's funny comment of the week was last night when she called me from the other room to say, "Mom, I don't have a care." Not sure what she was trying to say, I asked, "What do you mean by that?" " I just mean I don't have a plan." Good to know. My three year old doesn't have a care or a plan. Where does she get this stuff! Funny girl.

We'll keep you posted on Pierson's health as he continue to get better. I'll post more photos later. I'm just glad to have the internet back and be connected with the outside world again since I have been at home so much the last week!

Finally. . .a new post!

From a Halloween post to a Christmas post, I know that I am behind on my blogging. I really have tried a couple of times to sit down and catch up, but I never seem to finish. Pierson is almost three months old today, and I cannot believe how quickly the the time has gone. We've all adjusted and now I can hardly remember what we did before he was here. He is a sweet baby, and much easier going than Ava was at this age! She has always been intense (like her mama), and it seems so far that Pierson may take after his laid back dad! The big developments are that he is starting to smile and chuckle, which pretty much makes me melt every time. It's been more fun this time around. . . maybe becuase I am more laid back since I've done this before, and maybe because I know how quickly each phase passes. I am trying to just soak up this time and it already seems to be going to fast. Pierson has captured my heart! There's just something about a little boy and his mama! It has been fun checking the blogs of several of my Fort Worth friends who are in the middle of what can only be described as a baby boom: Congratulations to Elizabeth, Jamie, Chesley, Shelly and Tara! What sweet babies. I will say that I am glad to see they have not been posting frequently either. I don't feel so bad. I will try to get back into the swing of things even if I only post photos, which is what most of my famiy wants to see anyway. Merry Christmas from The Walters!

Big Smiles

Our Christmas Photos at Jacob's Dream

Just Monkeyin' Around

Pierson Reed

My friend, Susan, was in town for ACU Homecoming and took some cute pictures of Pierson while she was at our house. She is in the process of starting up a photography business so you'll have to check out her website when it is up and running. She lives in Weatherford so if you're needing some photos, look her up!

The week in pictures

We've had an eventful week. Pierson turned one month old yesterday, we visited the Pumpkin Patch on the windiest of west Texas days, and I cut 10 inches off of my hair for Locks of Love! Here is the week in pictures:

I'm finally getting around to posting about the last two weeks. As many of you noticed and pointed out from my previous posts, I had some lofty goals for my week off, but Pierson decided to make his debut a little early, and I so I spent Monday, September 17th at the hospital instead of attending ACU's lectureship! The funny thing is that when I posted that late night blog on the 16th, I was having a lot of hard contractions the whole time I was typing. Little did I know I would be holding my son less than 12 hours later!

I use this blog as a journal of sorts, so I am going to post a little about Pierson's birth story. It was pretty exciting! I stayed up late on Sunday night blogging because I was pretty uncomfortable and having some hard contractions. I didn't wake Chad because I had been having pretty regular contractions for months and had even packed my bags and the car twice, but the contractions always stopped after a while. At about 1:00 AM, I finally laid down and fell asleep. At 5:00 AM, I woke up with even harder contractions, but continued to lay in bed while I timed them. They were only about 7-10 minutes apart so I wasn't too worried, and I was still convincing myself that this was not real labor. Finally, at 6:00 in the morning, I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't stay still so I got up to take a shower. Chad woke up and I told him I was having some contractions, but I thought they would go away so he could go back to sleep. About 5 minutes later as I was getting in the shower, my water broke. I stuck my head out of the bathroom door, and said, "Scratch that! This is it. Get up!" Chad lurched out of bed and started running around packing his bag and getting Ava up. I went ahead with my shower and got ready. My mom arrived at our house around 7:30 to take care of Ava while we went to the hospital. I still was in no huge hurry and figured it would be mid afternoon before we had a baby in our arms.

We got to the hospital around 8:00 AM to check in. My contractions were considerably harder at this point. The nurse let me know that there were so many women in labor that all of the delivery rooms were full! They put me in a small pre-op prep room and promised that I would have the next available delivery room. Several women were much farther along than I was and so they assured me I would have a room soon. Within the hour I progressed from 3 cm to 6 cm and got my epidural, which worked this time! What a HUGE difference from the epidural I got with Ava! I still felt a lot of intense pressure this time, but nothing near the pain I felt while delivering Ava. Friends and family arrived to visit and wish us well, and by 10:30 I was fully dilated and ready to push. I progressed so much more quickly than anyone expected that they ended up having to wheel my bed down the hall to the OR to deliver because there were still no rooms available. Just a few weeks before, I had been watching Father of the Bride II with Kate and made the comment that delivery is not as dramatic as in the movies since they don't actually push you down the hall while you're in labor anymore. I was wrong on that one! Chad was grabbing cameras, I was breathing deep and nurses wheeled me quickly to deliver. After about 30 minutes, Pierson Reed was born at 11:04. He was perfect, and healthy at 6 lbs 11 oz! I fell in love instantly.

We did get a recovery room and stayed in the hospital one night. The last two weeks have been a blur of loving moments with our new family, as well as some emotional fall out from hormones, sleeplessness, and learning how to parent a 3 year old and a newborn. Ava has adjusted well overall, but has had several tantrums in the past couple of weeks. It's all I can do sometimes not to cry right along with her. We are all adjusting right now. She kisses and loves on Pierson, but has made the occasional comment about wanting him to go back in my tummy or to the hospital. It's hard for her since I spend so much time nursing, and I feel badly that I physically can't play with her the way I did before since I am still healing and am taking care of Pierson occupies so much of my time. I am sure that everything will smooth out in time as we figure out a new routine and hopefully start to get more sleep. Many of my friends have two, three and four kids and seem to have it under control, so I am thinking of you all as a reminder that I can and will figure this out! In the meantime, I am praying for peace and patience for each of us, and an extra degree of wisdom for me and Chad to be both consistent in our discipline as well as gracious and loving since Ava's world has changed!

Thank you for all of your prayers for Pierson's safe arrival! We are so thankful the miracle of this new little life. I am amazed and grateful every day. Enjoy some more photos:

Pierson Reed Walters

Welcome Pierson!

Summer and Chad went to the hospital at about 7:30 this morning, and just 3 1/2 hours later, Pierson Reed made his arrival at 11:04. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair. Summer, Chad, Ava, and Pierson are all doing well! She wanted me to post some pictures so friends and family in Ft. Worth could see him. I'm sure she'll have more to add later.
~Kate

10 days and counting. . .

Ava pretending to have a baby in her tummy!

I am up again way past bedtime reading random blogs because I can't sleep. I am ready to have this baby. Or I'm as ready as you can be, I guess. I am going to enjoy some down time this week. I took off from work, so maybe I can get a few last minute things done or clean, or I might just rent a good movie and put my feet up since it might be the last time for a while.

My friend, Becky Brooks, is speaking at Lectureship, and I am glad to be living in Abilene so I can take advantage of the great wisdom that will be pouring out of ACU the next few days. I hope to attend at least a few of the lectures. I look forward to hearing Becky speak about being transparent tomorrow; she is a great public speaker, and wise beyond her years.

Today, we passed by a homeless man who hangs out in a parking lot not far from our house. Chad has had a couple of conversations with him, and actually wrote a blog about him recently. As we passed by, Ava noticed him and asked what he was doing. We told her that he didn't have a house or a car, so he sleeps right there in the parking lot. She asked, "But does he have a pillow?" Chad explained that his name is Roland, and he has backpack he uses as a pillow, but sometimes he doesn't have food, so maybe we could bring him some lunch on the way home. We talked about Roland in the car for about the next 15 minutes. On the way home, she reminded us to get a snack for Roland, which she wanted to hold. She was very excited to give it to him. He thanked us and told us,"God is so good," before he sat back down on the side of the road. When we arrived home, Ava was still talking about Roland, and said, "I want to go sit by him." There is nothing sweeter than trying to teach Jesus' love to your 3 year old, and realizing that she is teaching you.

Ava has been nothing but excited about being a big sister until today. It may have just been that she was so tired, but as I tried to put her down for a nap, she threw a fit, and let me know she didn't want a baby! I reminded her that it was going to be fun having a baby because she would get to be a big sister! She cried as loud and hard as I've heard her cry in a while saying that she did NOT want to be a big sister. She fell asleep curled up on my shoulder repeating that phrase over and over. It was actually pretty pitiful. I know that Pierson's arrival into our family will be such a blessing, but I am reminded that it may also be a difficult transition for Ava. After her nap, we spent some time at the Sheets' house and she loved getting to help take care of the twins, so I am hoping that her meltdown was more from exhaustion than real emotion. I think once he's here, she will be excited. . . at least for a while!

Hopefully the next time I post, I'll have some new pictures to share.

Ava turns 3!

On Saturday, we had Ava's 3rd Birthday Party! It was fun this year because she was so into every detail and had anticipated the party for weeks. She told every stranger we met, "When I turn 3, I'm going to have a Flip Flop Party with chocolate cake and a jump house." It was a big day! If you know Ava at all, you know her obsession with shoes, particularly flip flops. She picked the theme of her party this year! Here are some pictures of the day. Somehow I managed to get through the party with no photos of the jump house, which was the highlight of the party. We did get video footage though! I made it through the day without going to labor which was a plus also. Now we're just awaiting Pierson's birth day!


Showing how old she is...






















Playing her new pink guitar






















Blowing out candles on the flip flop cake


Opening presents


Lining up cars to make a "Sea World parking lot."


There are so many things that I love about my daughter at this age. Here are some things that I don't want to forget about Ava at age 3:
1.The way she rolls her eyes and nods her head when she says something she knows is funny or cute!
2. The way she sings all the time and when she is singing praise songs, she lifts her hands to God.
3.That she finds slapstick humor hilarious! Any one who is willing to fall on the floor, run into a door, or bump their head on her behalf becomes her new best friend!
4. She is so sweet with babies, talking in a high voice and trying to mother them.
5. Her favorite toy right now is matchbox cars. She loves to line them up in little "parking lots."
6. The way she likes to pretend shes the mama and fix my hair
7. Her giggle
8. She likes us to "scratch her back and tell stories" at bedtime.
9. Her interest in shoes, especially flip flops, shiny shoes, high heels, and "farkly" (sparkly) shoes
10. Her interest in Spanish because of Dora the Explorer. It cracks me up when she says something that sounds like jibberish and then tells me, "I'm just speaking in Spanish."
I could go on and on, but right now she is done with her bath and I need to go help with the bedtime routine!