Past, Present, and Future

Parenting is a funny thing.  Before you ever become a parent people always tell you things like, "time flys so enjoy every minute".  Once you have a child and you are sharing a treasured moment about them people say things like, "just wait until those teenage years".  Keeping in mind I only have about 4 years of experience at this time I think my advice would have to be that every age has had it's blessings and I don't think the future will be any different and while I remember the trials of every age as well, I look back at each and am now able to smile about the trials, after all, we all made it through alive, even if we had our doubts at the time.  So, PRAISE GOD for the blessings of the past and present, pray for the future, and have faith that you will continue to count the many blessings your child brings you and learn from the trials so that they too are blessings.

I often think about the past with Melanie when I see babies.  I do miss the days of snuggling with her tiny little body and the way she was ALWAYS happy and her little smile lit up her entire face.  I couldn't hold her without seeing the amazing love and grace of God.

I also remember the first two months when I wondered if I would ever get a solid night's sleep.  It seemed like every time we got a sleeping/feeding schedule down and we would get a decent night's sleep, it would change.  It's amazing in the moments of exhaustion the things you will do that you always swore you wouldn't.  I swore I would never let her sleep in her swing or bouncy chair because I knew how hard it would then be to get her to break that habit but sure enough.......

.......I did and I paid for it later when we moved to Reno and I had to spend two nights getting up every two hours to train her to sleep in her crib and as you can see I continued to let her sleep in her swing from time to time.  As my mom always said, "Never wake a sleeping baby and when she's asleep, you should be too!"

I miss those baby days from time to time but I also loved her toddler years.  She really was and still is a good little girl.  We have been lucky to be able to take her everywhere with us and she never pitches a fit and always makes the best of every situation.  One of our favorite things to do back then and still today is to spend time down at the ballpark relaxing in the sun, and visiting Charles. 

 

Now that doesn't mean she didn't have her moments, but even upset she would make me smile as you could just see how the injustices of the world destroyed that moment of her life.

 

Yes, that sad face was over the fact she was cut off from eating chocolate covered pretzels.  Okay, so maybe I've cried like that over chocolate too but thankfully no one was there to snap a picture in my face!

If I were to reflect on the present, I would have to say that she amazes me daily.  She is smart and witty, kind and loving, cute and funny, sweet and gentle......

 

She loves life and the people in her life.  She loves to learn new things and help others.  Even her moments spent "reflecting on her choices" you can see are helping her to be the person she is.  I love to talk with her,  play with her, teach her, read to her, snuggle with her, and learn from her.  She is that daily reminder to appreciate the simple things and count your blessings.

I don't know what Melanie's future will hold.  She dreams of many different careers:

Construction Worker

Landscaper/Gardener

Housekeeper

Firefighter

Chef and future Winner of Cupcake Wars

Zookeeper

 

.......whatever she does I am sure she will be great at it and we will love her no matter what and be so proud of her, we already are. 

As for those teenage years, they worry us some as she is strong willed and her pediatrician ignored my request to have a tracking chip surgically implanted in her when she was first born, but we'll make it through with a lot of love and a lot of prayers and we will all be better for having gone through it all together.