Is poo a sacrilegious thing to pray for?  I hope not, because I've been praying for it for a whole day now. 


   Joce has been having some trouble ever since I pureed a couple of sweet potatoes and froze them into little cubes and subsquently fed her a lot of them every day, because that's what I had on hand.  I like feeding her homemade baby food, and it didn't really occur to me to mix it up much because I read somewhere that it's a good idea to feed the same food for 4 days straight to make sure no allergies develop, so I figured it would be fine.  Well, I think she's a little stopped up from all those yummy yams, (which she loves, by the way) and so now I'm feeding her prunes.  Which, amazingly, she likes. Go figure.

   So.  Calling all Moms.  And Grandmas.  And baby food experts.  And whoever else wants to weigh in on the situation.  I am very open to all advice, tips, suggestions, ideas, etc. that you may have on the topic of baby food.  What amount is a good serving size?  What is a good variety of fruits/veggies and what is too much variety?  Can there be too much variety? Has anyone tried freezing avocado? If so, how did that go?

   And what about grains?  I thought maybe I would wait until she is a year old to introduce any grains/wheat/cereals because of the amount of celiac people in my family. My brother, my grandma, my uncle, my cousin.  And I thought maybe instead of using the Gerber rice cereal, (I haven't done any yet) I would make my own "porridge" from the Super Baby Food book.  But in that book she makes it sound like it is a very integral part of the baby's diet NOW, and I shouldn't wait.  It would also help with constipation, as it has a lot of fiber, so maybe that's what she needs now.  I know, I know, talk to your pediatrician.  But the lazy part of me is throwing it out here on the blog first. :)  I will still ask our doctor, but I'm just curious to hear from other moms on tried-and-true methods and tricks they've tried and liked or disliked.  So anyway, that's what's going on in our life these days!  And I'd love to hear from you all.

   In other news, if you have ever found yourself pregnant (I'm not, just addressing something that's been on my mind lately) and wishing for a certain gender and feeling horribly guilty for it, check out this post.  


   Honestly, I think it is a beautiful, honest post, and is SPOT ON.  I was just recently chatting with a friend who is expecting right now, and, to be perfectly honest, was hoping for "the other gender".   I think this post does such a great job at addressing a fact that affects most moms-to-be.  Maybe you were the rare specimen that honestly didn't care what you had, and if so, good for you.  But for the rest of us, it is nearly impossible not to imagine your baby as either a boy or a girl.  I tried to do it.  I tried to think of "my baby" as either one.  But you can't.  It's a BOY or a GIRL, and those two are so radically different, how can you NOT think of it as a certain one?  And along the course of your pregnancy, the one you maybe just a teensy bit, even subconsciously want, is going to be the one you think of it as, and so you find yourself thinking of your baby as a he or a she and feeling guilty for it.  And I'm here to say that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.


   I thought throughout my whole pregnancy that Joce was a boy.  I had several dreams it was a boy, and almost everyone told me they just "thought I was going to have a boy."  Well except for a woman on an elevator in the hospital that took one look at me and prophetically announced "You're having a girl", and promptly walked out.  I'll admit, at the time I had such a strong feeling I was having a boy, I thought it was a little presumptuous how sure she sounded, and probably even chuckled to myself about the whole thing.
 
   I'm not sure why I thought "boy" so much, except for the fact that I wanted one.  I never had an older brother and always thought that would have been so neat, so I wanted that for my children.  Also, I just thought boys would be so much easier!  Throw on a t-shirt and jeans and you're ready to go.  None of those frilly, hard-to-keep-clean dresses and skirts, ribbons and bows and little pairs of shoes.  And there's just something easy to understand about a boy.   You give him a pile of dirt and a shovel and he's happy for hours.  And then the teenage years come and you give him a basketball or a car and he's happy for hours.  With girls, you have hair and nails and boys and emotions and feelings and friends and drama and what's-my-meaning-in-life and where-am-I-going and what-am-I-doing and all those deep issues that seem like impossible mountains to climb when you're a teenage girl.

Let's just face it, I was afraid.

   Afraid of knowing how to relate to a girl.  Afraid of wanting too much to be a friend, that I wouldn't know how to be a mom.  Afraid that she would fall for a boy I could hardly stand to be around, much less stand the thought of being with my little girl.  Afraid she would break my heart.  Afraid she would be a fragile, sensitive, emotional little being that my brave, adventurous, sometimes impulsive self wouldn't know how to relate with.  Or afraid that she would be a brave, adventurous, impulsive, stubborn tom-boy that would be so much like her mother there would be lots of conflict!  Besides, boys are always having so much more fun.  I'm the type that always wanted to be out on the field/court playing football or basketball rather than twittering on the side with a bunch of giggling girls.  There were a lot of fears connected to having a girl.  So I wanted a boy.  And I think that is a very human, very basic, very natural thing to do.


    So what I would like to say to any expectant mamas out there who are wanting something different than what they're getting and feeling wretched for it.....relax.  It's a natural tendency, and once that little munchkin is born, trust me, you have no idea the storehouses of love and emotion that will overflow for you.  At least, that was my experience.

   I can never in a million years imagine having anything, or anyone else.  It's funny how I had all those fears and trepidations about a girl, and now it's just the most natural thing in the universe to dress her up in frilly little dresses, play with her hair, take oodles of pictures of her and just feel already as if we're the best of friends.  I dream about tea parties and doll houses.  I dream of baking cookies and shopping together and chattering about life over cookie dough ice cream.  These are my dreams now, not dirt and frogs and building forts.  Although if she wants to do those things, I'm game! :)  She is the light of my life, and I love every feminine, gentle, girly way about her, from her hair just like mine, down to her toes, just like mine.  I am loving being a mama to a little girl.


   But like that post revealed, for a woman who was afraid of having a boy and wanting a girl, her little Toby is the best thing that could have ever happened to her.  So to my dear friend, don't worry!  It's going to all work out.  You're going to just lovelovelove your little one, and it's all turning out just the way God wants it to.  And for those out there that are sad you're not having/don't have a girl because they're so much more fun to dress, check out this post.

    I think anyone who thinks boys are no fun to dress has either not been looking around, or just isn't being creative!  There are loads of cute boy things out there!  Hop to it!

   Well, I've said my piece.  It's time I go take my morning nap now.  We had a very late night last night, and I'll have to post about that another day.

   What says "summer" more than baseball and Coca-cola?  The word summer maybe, but not much else.

    Leaving Florida, we squeezed ourselves into our compact, little rental car and took off for Atlanta, Georgia.  Agenda:  meeting up with friends Mike & Deb Stoltzfus, and catching a Braves game at Turner Field.   My cousin Brandon Beachy plays for the Braves, so we were very excited to be going to one of his games, even though he wouldn't be playing due to an injury.  Thankfully, he's all better now, and doing better than ever!  So first of all, a little write-up on the man of the hour is in order....

    Blogger was having issues the other day and wouldn't let me post all of my pictures.  So here's just a few more from our beach photo shoot in Florida.  These pictures of the babies with their Grandma and Grandpa are so precious to me...so much love captured in these images!


    "Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." -Alex Haley
 "The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.” -C.S. Lewis
    "The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new."  ~Rajneesh


    "The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated."  -Washington Irving


   *Sigh* Looking at all these photos just makes me want to go back!  Or better yet, sell all my belongings and find a humble little cottage by the shore somewhere, and live the rest of my life there.  There is something so peaceful, even healing, about the ocean.  Time spent there is never quite long enough.

   "I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought."  - Helen Keller

Florida, Part Two.  

   While in Florida, I proposed the idea (o.k. so I insisted, and would've taken them kicking and screaming if they wouldn't have agreed)  that we take these little babies out to the beach and capture their little gorgeous selves in photos.
   When you become a mother (or if you are one),  you'll understand this obsessive, impulsive urge to dress up your child in uncomfortable clothes and take pictures of him/her.  They change so fast and each day they wake up seeming a little different than the day before, and if there isn't a camera permanently glued to your eyeball, snapping dozens of pictures as you clamber around after them, you feel like you're missing something.  It's much like that panicky feeling when you're leaving on a trip and you just know you're forgetting something.  Not a pleasant feeling.

    Meet Xavier.  The first-born grandchild of the Steve Smucker family, and so far, the only grandson.  He just turned two and can already say just about anything!  He looks a lot like his mommy with captivating blue eyes and fair skin, and is going to become a big brother this year!  He is such a sweet boy with a big personality, and it's going to be so much fun watching him grow up.




   Next up is little Madison, the cutest little bundle of endless energy you ever did see!  Summing her up in two words would have to be, go-getter.   This pretty little lady has no fear, and embraces life with reckless abandon.  She looks just like her daddy, but there's a lot of her mama in her too! I can't wait until her and Jocelyn are old enough to have tea parties and play dress-up, although if they prefer to climb trees and build forts that's fine with me too. :)


   And last but not least, the teeniest of the grandchildren, our very own Jocelyn Kate.  She is the light of our lives and it's hard to remember what life was like without her.  She loves to smile at friends and strangers alike, and I hope she never loses that!  She's got her daddy's eyes, her mama's hair, and her very own smile.  I can't wait to see her personality develop into the person she's going to be, and share in that journey.  I don't want to miss a single moment!

*The pictures of me were taken by Amy Smucker.