Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Forty-Three

Highlight of the Week

I feel like I should write this next sentence in all capitals, a larger font, and bold letters! But since I don’t want to be obnoxious & sound like I’m screaming at you, I’ll keep it calm: Braelynn has slept all the way thru the night for the last week, in her own bed! I’m not sure if you understand the gravity of that statement! Braelynn has slept in our bed from the time she was born. Okay, so I don’t need anyone to lecture on the “dangers of co-sleeping”, so you can keep those thoughts to yourself – just know that the first few weeks of Braelynn’s life were rough & the only way either of us got any sleep was to simply sleep together. It got us through. And then she just stayed in our bed. She always started out in her own bed, from after we got out of that “newborn slump” and started functioning again, we always laid her down for the night in her own bed, but somewhere in the middle of the night, she would end up back in our bed for the rest of the night. Again, it was simply a matter of functionality and Mama getting sleep.

Derrick & I were talking about it last week though and we realized that I had become Braelynn’s security blanket. She was completely capable of sleeping on her own, she knows how to put herself back to sleep if she wakes up, but she wants her security blanket of Mommy – which leads to her coming over to our bed. She’s 2 years old though & it’s high-time for her to be sleeping the entire night in her own bed. So, we hatched a plan.

Friends of ours had told us about an OK to Wake clock over a year ago when we were at their house visiting. You set a specific time and the clock glows green – signaling the kiddo that it’s okay to get up. If they wake up in the middle of the night & look at the clock and it’s not glowing, they know they need to go back to sleep. Brilliant, right? So, we ordered one. Obviously, Braelynn is at the perfect age for this to actually help & work – she knows her colors & can understand logic – if we had gotten this clock a year ago I don’t think it would have actually done any good. But it worked!! And it’s been a smashing success!! Literally the best $25 we’ve ever spent! Seriously – go buy one because, it’s incredible!!

Yes, This Happened

• Last weekend we traveled up to visit with Derrick’s family & celebrate Easter with them! Our weekend included not only seeing Derrick’s parents & his brother’s family, but we drove down to visit his Aunt & Uncle & cousins who live near Scranton. It was a very full weekend, but it was so wonderful to see everyone & catch up!
• Braelynn participated in 3 Easter egg hunts last weekend! Needless to say: she’s now a pro! I can’t wait to hide eggs this weekend for her to find – it’s so much fun to see her excitement! Plus, she very quickly realized there were two parts to egg hunts: finding the eggs, and then opening them to find what was inside! Speaking of which:
• So, obviously after 3 egg hunts, we have a whole bucket of candy. Well, Tuesday morning, we got up a little later than usual so I was a little rushed running around, trying to get ready for the monthly Tuesdays Together meeting! I got Braelynn all ready and then plopped her down in front of some Daniel Tiger while I ran to get a quick shower. As I was getting out of the shower, I could hear her downstairs talking (to herself? to the dog?) and I heard something about “Easter candy”. Of course, this brought me downstairs pretty quickly and there was Braelynn, sitting on the couch, bucket of egg hunt candy in her lap, empty chocolate wrappers surrounding her, and chocolate in her teeth. Mom of the year award right here folks! Thankfully, she truly only ate 2 pieces of chocolate, but that’s a lot considering we never have candy in our house & she’s probably only eaten a small handful over the course of her entire life!

Feeling Blessed

It’s Easter weekend, so obviously we’ve been reflecting a lot on the reason we celebrate & the meaning behind this season. I know I don’t talk about my faith a whole lot on this blog, but this definitely seems like the perfect time to do so! Without the reason we are actually celebrating Easter, I would have no hope in this life. I mean, seriously, life is hard enough to go through it without hope, or a future, or faith in a sovereign God. I am so thankful that 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to earth with one purpose: to die on a cross in my sinful place, and 3 days later to walk out of His grave to pave the way for a relationship with Him. It’s amazing and in this season of spring with our trees suddenly bursting with green buds and our grass growing like crazy (Derrick’s had to mow twice already!) it’s so refreshing to reflect back on the days that truly rocked this world. Hallelujah!