Sweet side

E has been trying to talk more and more. Words he tries to say now are:

• more
• down
• daddy
• mama
• tree
• ball
• dog
• duck

And probably many others that I am blanking on. Sometimes, he tries to quack or make barking sounds. He loves to do anything A is doing. A calls him her prince sometimes, and I think he would call her princess. Other likes he has: He especially loves to throw balls and is very good it. Every morning he wants to get up and look at his Noah's Ark shelf in his room and talk about the ark and all the animals and at some point get the caterpillar off the shelf. He rans and likes to play chase and take all the books of off any shelf. He still loves shoes and takes all of Daniel's off of his shoe rack if he can make it into our bedroom and next the closet. One of his favorite pastimes is climbing up and down the steps, and seeing how fast he can get to the steps before mommy or daddy catches him. He is very curious and continually wants to know about "that." When he gets hungry, he gets ravenously hungry and is VERY unhappy until his belly is well full. He loves both mommy and daddy enormously!!

Today, we went to volunteer at Jessie's Place. We kept a one year old little girl and had a great time. She was so sweet, and I got to hold her and snuggle up with her. Neither one of my babies really let me do that anymore, so it was precious to me. It definitely made me want to do it again, and one day, I hope to do something with the women there. I thought of several ways to give to the ministry to help them out. I was surprised by how easily I was allowed to enter into the shelter to volunteer - no training, no id, just time. I guess they assume people who inquire of volunteering are genuine because they are few? I still have much to learn about Jessie's Place. I am very excited about it all.

Being a nonworking stay at home mom requires a lot of sacrifice. I know many sahms have all the resources they need, but we are not such a family. We have lots of love instead (cliche, I know). I think we've decided we cannot afford MDO. Maybe we could get a once a month sitter, so I can finally make the many doctor's appts I need to make. Errands are more than twice as hard when you have more than one child to tag along, especially when one is a crazy baby boy. Anyhow, I do take them almost everywhere I go and manage fairly well (now that E is 1! smile), but I was thinking that despite the down sides, there are so many sweet sides to my getting to stay at home, including the volunteering. These sweet sides make the sacrifices oh so worth it!