Summer Fun!

The Baylor family has had a fun but busy summer! In June we drove to PA to visit  both sides of our family. It was so wonderful spending time with everyone again!

This picture of is Madison with 3 of her sweet cousins (Tim's brother and sister in laws children)

She loved spending time with Tim's sister's children as well. We got time to spend with Tim's parents as well. Madison was just so spoiled with all of the attention!

We also got to spend some time with my twin sister Rachael, her little boy jordan, my parents and my brother Josh. The kids had a great time in the pool!

Then back in Chicago - we have spend plenty of time enjoying life.

Maddy trying on mama's shades

When I was going through all of her old shoes - she just had to sit down and try them all on to see if they still fit. She is such a girl!

Tim, Maddy, and I have all gone on some nice walks through the forest preserve 

(when the weather isn't too crazy hot that is)

This was Madison on July 4th, ready to go to a picnic ;)

A pic I took of the two of us -she makes me laugh.

We have a pol at the condo we rent, so we have spent plenty of time there this summer! It's best when Tim is able to come down with us because we can take turns watching Maddy while the other does a few laps- great exercise for a VERY pregnant mama ;)

We have also enjoyed having friends over for play dates. Suzanne D and her sweet children, Gavin and Charlotte spent time at the pool with us this day. Madison loves spending time with Charlotte - although Suz and I have found they are starting to cat fight at times too - oh dear - it starts early!

We have also enjoyed going to parks! This day, Madison enjoyed spending time with Tovie Olson (our youth pastor and his wife's little 2 year old). They were adorable. Tovie would reach out and grab Madison's hand to walk with her and Maddy would just giggle and giggle.. it was so cute!

We even had a play date with a puppy! Our friends Katie and Dave Smith bought a new golden retriever puppy and they just loved playing together.

On one of Tim's days off, we went down into the city for a day of walking, eating, and of 

course playing in the fountains in Millenium park!

Do you think she had a good time?

Mama swinging her around - good thing she's a peanut ;)

Tim and I got a quick shot of ourselves while Madison was playing - see her right in the background above my head?! haha- too funny!

There has also been lots of reading going on this summer as Madison is finally sitting down for a whole book - even a few books in a row now! She will usually bring them to us to read to her. And I have been taking part in "Half Priced Books" Summer reading program. If I read to her 15 min a day for 5 days a week, I can get a $3 voucher for a book. So we have gotten some fun new board books!

Most recently, we got together with Kim Yoakum and her sweet boys Michael and Graham. Madison and Michael have such a nice time together!

I guess that's it for now. I have thoroughly enjoyed this summer off to spend with my husband, daughter, friends, and family! It's been such a blessing.  Time has been flying by and I can hardly believe there are only about 3 weeks until Rose is due to arrive!

Funny

I just had to share this because it cracked Tim and I up the other day. Madison was laying with her head on my belly when she sat up suddenly and said ow! She said this as she patted her head and pointed to my 34 week pregnant belly with confusion ;) Rose was kicking so hard that it was bugging Madison! So I guess the sibling rivalry has already begun ;)

7 Years: A Reminder of God's Faithfulness

About a month and a half ago (yea I'm a little behind in blogging ;) - Tim and I went into the city for a day and a night (without Maddy) to celebrate our 7 year anniversary. It was a quick trip, but so nice to get some time together.

We walked around the city a bit and then headed to The Art Institute of Chicago and spent a few hours there. It was perfect because it was one of their free nights!

We spent our time in the Impressionism wing. This is an era of art that Tim and I both enjoy. They were even giving free tours, so we got to learn a bit extra. It was so interesting!

After we were finished, we ate dinner at the Terzo Piano, the restaurant in the new modern wing of the museum. It boasts "Italian with a Modern Perspective". We ate out on the patio because it was such a nice night. Below was our view!

Tim had the pork tenderloin

we both shared some cheeses: Clothbound Cheddar and  Gorgonzola Dolce Latte. They were served with light crips and raspberry jam. Fantastic!

I had the cold crab and asparagus salad. It was  light and refreshing

Afterwards, we walked through the city to the other end of town to our hotel.

 It was such a beautiful night. We enjoyed soaking in the city together ;)

We stayed at the Tremont Hotel. It's an old hotel right downtown. I got the night for free with our Citibank Thank You points!

The next morning we had brunch at the Tempo Cafe down the road from our hotel.

Yummy cappuccino

Great food!

I mean...really great!

All in all, we had a fabulous day together! We had to laugh though because even though we were so excited to get away alone, we did talk about Madison more than we thought we would. Every dog we would see  or fountain we would walk by - "oh Maddy would just LOVE that!" Haha! 

It's amazing how the years have changed things. 

Yes, we are more in love than we ever have been but I think that's because we have gone through good times, bad times, no-kid-times, all-night-up-with-kid-times, carefree times, dark times and more... we have walked through these days together as we have trusted the Lord for grace and wisdom. 

It's good to reflect on the source of our love, especially as things are really going to change around the Baylor household in about 6 weeks when Rose breaks onto the scene. God has evidenced His faithfulness to Tim and I in our marriage over the past 7 years and we trust in His continued faithfulness to us for our future days together here on earth. 

God's faithfulness to us (when we clearly don't deserve it)  gives us such a wonderful example of what our faithfulness as a married couple ought to look like toward one another. And most importantly, God's continued faithfulness to us, gives us hope that our marriage truly can stand the test of time by His grace. 

More Yard Sale Deals ;)

I found this yard sale on craigslist because they had a ton of baby things and maternity clothes - perfect! It was a pretty good drive (maybe an hour in traffic).

 But it ended up being a fun day out with Madison and worth it for the treasures I got! 

These first two pictures are of a sage and cream bassinet. It was only $15 and I was able to wash all of the cloth portions with no problem. 

It has a little storage bin below for diapers, blankets, wipes - you name it!

 It has a nice "cover" for when the baby is sleeping and even a little mobile which includes a light, music, vibration(of the bed portion). Our plan is to use it in our bedroom initially(fits nicely at the foot of our bed). It also has wheels and is very easy to move so we may keep it in the living room too at times so as to give Rose some "Madison Free Tim" haha! I am very pleased with this purchase!

The next two pictures are of these adorable wood storage/decorative pieces. The frames are painted white, pink, green, purple, and yellow. 

The drawers are actually canvas storage boxes with ropes for handles. 

This piece sits on the floor and comes to maybe my elbow (which isn't saying a ton since I'm so short ;) I'm hoping to store socks, tights, hair bows and the like in these boxes. The only trick will be teaching Madison not to pull them out and dump them on the floor!

This one hangs on the wall and the top flowers are actually picture frames. 

There are also little hooks under the baskets for hanging sweaters, jackets etc. 

Once Rose is sleeping through the night, our plan is for the girls to share a room.

 So hopefully this will make their little space cozier ;)


Oh and did I mention that BOTH of the shelf units together were only $8!!!!

I also was able to nab a few bags of maternity clothes and clothes for Madison that are not pictured. 

I love summer and I LOVE YARD SALES ;)

A Year and a Half!

It's hard to believe but our Madison is 18 months today! Where has the time gone?! I truly do feel like it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital! And in about 2 months we will be bringing her little sister home from the hospital! This year and a half has been such a wonderful journey. We honestly have grown with her as parents. God has been so gracious to carry us through this journey day by day. 

She is doing so many fun things lately. She walks fairly well up and down our apartment stairs (we're on the 2nd floor) holding my hand. And she can pretty much walk beside me into a store etc. holding my hand (although she does occasionally flop on the ground because she wants to go a different way than I am steering her ;) I have diligently working on this because I want her to be able to do it when Rose arrives, but also it's getting tough carrying her up and down the stairs with my ever growing belly!  

To be honest, I don't think she quite knows what is going on with the whole baby thing. She does know that my belly is growing and seems to get a kick out of it. She loves to pull up my shirt a bit to expose my belly and give me raspberries ;) She knows what a baby is, but when we tell her baby sister is in my belly she just puts her hands in the air (her sign for -"where is it?"). So she may have quite the awakening when Rose actually arrives ;) 

My sister took this picture while I was home in PA. I was 30 weeks. 

She seems to becoming more independent each day. Tim and I are always saying to one another, "She is looking like such a big girl!" It makes us a little sad to see our baby fade into the background, but also very happy to see what a fun little girl she is becoming!
She has been:
* running faster
* loves swimming
* saying more words- some of the recents are : pool (poo), church (chur), food (foo), bus (bu), cup (cu) and some more I can't remember at the moment. It seems like last week when we went home to PA and she spend time around her older cousins, she picked up even more words. She especially has seemed to get the hang of how to use her lips, teeth and tongue to make sounds a little better. When we say a word and she tries to repeat it, she is getting much closer to the actual word on the first try! But she won't always use it again on her own. It's been fun though. Just for kicks on our drive home from PA, Tim and I were saying the alphabet to her to see if she could repeat the letters and she could get quite a few out!

Of course with her new found independence have come some more temper tantrums, but she has been responding well to discipline so far. We just pray that the Lord will give us wisdom for each new day to guide in into all truth.  We are so thankful for this little girl!

We got this great profile ultrasound picture of Rose (at 26 weeks) and we couldn't believe how similar it looked to Madison's newborn profile pic.

Rose at 26 weeks

Madison's Newborn picture

What do you think?

We will find out soon enough!

Yard Sale Deals

A few weeks ago, I happened upon a neighborhood yard sale while I was running errands. Maddy and I decided to stop, get out the stroller and walk around the neighborhood to see what deals we could find.

 I think we did pretty well.

For less than $25 we got the following:

* one red chair - Maddy loves this and carries it around everywhere in the house to sit on.
* two winter hats and one summer hat
* one set of magnetic alphabet letters and numbers- I tried putting them all on the fridge to see how she would like them and she promptly threw them all on the floor and I was stepping on them all while I was cooking (Our kitchen is so small) - so I think I am going to wait a little while on those ;)
* an entire "My Little Pony" castle including ponies, furniture, Hot air balloon etc. (She is so cute playing with this. She even ran and grabbed one of her ponies to bring into the bath with her tonight. I think it will only become more fun over the years as she starts really "playing house")
* push/pull music toy (not sure of the name) - but she drags this thing around everywhere ;)
* a cute white shirt for ME!
* an adorable brown beaded necklace for ME !
* 3 pieces of tupperware for ME!

Overall, it was a fun day walking through the neighborhood and finding good deals with Madison! 

Don't you just love a good yard sale?

Rose Gave us Quite the Scare

Last Wednesdsay (5/19) I went for a gorgeous 3.5 mile walk along the lake with some of my friends in the city. It was pretty warm, I was pushing a stroller, and I forgot my water bottle (yikes!) It wasn't a great combination to say the least. I started feeling tightness and pain on the way back from our walk and even kept taking breaks, but I remained uncomfortable. I came home, laid madison down for her nap and then laid down myself and drank a ton of water. I couldn't help but time was I was sure now ere contractions. They were about 6-10 minutes apart. But eventually stopped after an evening of rest and water.

So when the following Saturday (5/22) I was out hitting up yard sales with Madison, I didn't think too much about the tightness and pains I was feeling again. It was pretty hot out and I was pushing Maddy around the neighborhood checking out the deals (which I found some great ones that I will hopefully post on later). The pain and discomfort continued until I got Madison home and laid her down for a nap. I again laid down again and tried to rest and drink a bit of water (but I was feeling kind of nauseous too, so I couldn't down too much at once.) Maddy and I got an hour of downtime before it was time to church. The discomfort continued, but wasn 't horrible. Afterwards, I was in charge of setting up, running, and cleaning up after a pizza dinner at church. I wasn't feeling great, but kept busy. By the end when Tim and I were cleaning up, I was really feeling pretty bad. I even asked tim to carry everything out to the car for me so I could just walk out behind him empty handed. But again, I thought I would just go home and lay down and drink some water and the contractions would stop.

Tim had already planned to go to his previous boss's birthday party (which was 45 min way) and I told him just to go - that I would be totally fine and would call him if I needed him. Maddy and I got home at 8pm. I laid Maddy down and immediately had some water and laid down as well. Over the next our the contractions got to be anywhere between 4-10 minutes apart and they were feeling more painful. I was on my hands and knees on couch before I finally called tim around 9 and said, "babe, you had better come home" He rushed home as I called the doctor to see what I should do. Since I am only 26 weeks along, my doctor said to head into the hospital to see if they could get the contractions to stop. Fortunately our dear friend Stacey who has babysat Maddy since she was three months old, came over right away to stay with Madison while we headed out to the hospital.

I honestly thought that we would go in, get a shot to slow things down and head back home. But things kept coming up and before we knew it were there over 24 hours. The contractions continued even though they had hooked up me up to an iv for fluids. My last ultrasound indicated that I my placenta might be over my cervix, so they wanted to do an ultrasound before they could check if I was dilated. Things seemed to be progressing, so while we waited to get the ultrasound, they gave me a shot to slow down the contractions and a steroid shot to help Rose's lung development just in case she did come early. They also did a swab test to determine if I might be likely to have her preterm (crazy they can do that!), and a urine test to rule out any infections. At that point a midwife came in

and gave us the worst case scenario - if we couldn't get the contractions to stop, we would have to be flown over to Loyola because they have a high level center to take care of Rose. I did not need to hear that. I started to cry immediately. Fortunately the nurse came over right away to encourage me that there were many steps that they would take before that would ever be a possibility.

After that, we went to get the ultrasound. It was about an hour long and it was already past midnight. Tim and I could barely stay awake. But we were very thankful for it in the end, because the technician let us know that the placenta was just where it was supposed to be, that for SURE we were having a girl (the other tech had been unsure) and she even is mailing us a profile picture of our little Rosebud ;)

By the time we got back to our room, they let us know that the swab test came back negative as well as the urine test. THey check me and I was not dilated yet. So basically they wanted to still monitor me over night. and then stay til the next day so that I could get the "steroid booster shot" -they needed to be spread out over almost 24 hours. The contractions completely stopped by morning. The next day we got to relax and nap as we were taken well care of. I was glad that Stacey was able to stay with Maddy so that he could keep me company.

*The Doctor basically said that I was having preterm contractions, not preterm labor. They were consistent contractions, but did not seem to be leading to labor. He thinks I have a sensitive uterus and need to just be extra careful to drink plenty of fluids and take the time to rest as soon as I am feeling tightness and pain. I am so thankful that Rosebud did not come early and that she has some more time to keep baking. Thank you all for your prayers!

We ended up watching the LOST recap and finale from our hospital room. Quite the memory!

Savoring the Moment

I sit here in the quiet of our home while my sweet 16 1/2 month old daughter naps peacefully in the next room. Worship music is playing softly in the background; I have a freshly steamed vanilla latte sitting on my coffee table and I just closed my Bible after reading and contemplating Job 6 and 7. I have resolved to savor this moment- the day after a busy four months of Clinical practice and finishing classes for the semester. It was heartbreaking for me to leave Madison each morning to teach other parents' children when my heart was longing to stay with my child and invest my life in hers. But I knew it was necessary for a time. I am glad I did it, but oh so glad it is over now.

So here I sit soaking up the peace of the moment. My heart rejoices with the opportunity to pour my energy, love, and gifts into Madison, my home, and my husband. I fully understand that this gift is not possible for every mom and family and may not always be possible for me. So I choose to treasure these days of watching our little girl discover the world for the first time, of teaching her the difference between right and wrong, of playing silly games on the floor with her. I choose to cherish the opportunity to plan healthy meals for our family and to make our home a haven as a gift to my husband. Oh no- I am not naive, I know that in a few months (especially when baby Rose arrives) these tasks may become routine,ordinary, and perhaps even overwhelming again. I suppose it is the knowledge of that fact that compels me to write this now. I don't want to forget this moment.

Dear Lord,

Grant me a heart full of love, joy, and thankfulness for this time in my life. Help me to treasure the little blessings that you bestow each and every day. Equip me with patience and wisdom to be godly mother who prays for her children daily and trains them in the way of the Lord, reflecting your love. May I honestly be able to say to my children, "Follow me as I follow Christ".

Amen

Belly Pics

Katie Barker, Madison and I all went on a walk in the forest preserve near my house the other night. We had such a nice time together. She was gracious enough to take some belly pics for me. I think she did a really nice job. Thanks Kate!

I can hardly believe that I am 24 weeks pregnant with Rose. There are less than

4 months left now. We are getting excited to meet her.

But at the same time I am really looking forward to spending some extra time with Maddy before #2 arrives ;)

How can eternity influence a mother’s daily tasks?

I first read this on my friend Kelly's blog. I couldn't help but pass it on. What a wonderful reminder as Mother's Day approaches.

[Excerpt from a sermon by John Piper.]

I believe it is a very high calling to be a mom charged with teaching everything she possibly can to one, two, or eight kids.

The women who flourish most and who delight most in that calling—and who are best at it—are not women whose lives are enclosed by their houses. They are women who are aware of the world. They’re aware of God’s global purpose. They’re aware of the ultimate purposes of God in history. They’re aware of things in history and in the far off reaches of the world today that God is doing. And those are part of what they want to build into these children. They want to raise global Christians, world Christians.

A mother will delight most in the little baby in front of her when she has a vision of God and a vision of the world that’s big enough to admit that this little child has a destiny in front of him or her and might become this or that.

If she is totally absorbed in her little home—with no vision for the world—then I think her domestic scene is probably going to shrivel up on her, and she is going to feel that it is small and constraining. But if she sees it in the wider context of what she is a part of in the missionary enterprise, I think every detail of her life can take on a global significance, indeed, an historical significance.

I really believe that. When I used to sit down for devotions with our four boys at home my mind wasn’t simply, “OK I have a duty as a dad: I’m supposed to do devotions at night.” My mind was, “What will they become?”

Ralph Winter used to say that nothing has an impact on kids except what they do daily. So we did prayer & devotions daily.

The goal isn’t just to fulfill some little task that parents are supposed to do. Rather, you’re building men & women who hopefully someday will have absorbed so much of God and so much of the Bible that it’s going to shape their whole world.

Amidst the dishes, the diapers, the laundry, and the carpools, might we never forget that we are shaping the world-view of our children. They need to daily see a big vision of God and a big vision of His global purposes.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there! May your day be blessed and each day with your child be honoring to the Lord.

Few pics and update

I finished all of my assignments thus far and only have two more major projects due Monday May 10th! My last day of clinical practice will be Friday! I have learned so much from being in the classroom again and really did enjoy my time with the kids. I will miss them, but I have to admit, I just can't wait to be home with this little gal again!