Good Moments

Yesterday Paige wrote her name for the first time with no help from me, I had to tell her the letters, but she did the rest by herself. The look of that name was just too precious. My heart melted a little. Again, wish my camera was working so I could post such a cute picture.

Worrying Mom

I guess being a worrier comes along with being a mom, but there are times when I worry more than others. (I am hoping writing it down with take some of the pressure off.)

These past few weeks I have been worrying constantly about my sweet Paige. She has the sweetest kindest disposition, but not many people know it. She is really delayed. When I think about things she should be doing I put her at a 2 1/2 year old level instead of a four. Don't get me wrong. She is really smart and can pick up on anything, but there are things she really struggles with. Her speech is a HUGE one, but I know eventually she will get that. She gets better everyday and has wonderful people working with her.

The thing I stress about with her is her social delays. The speech has something to do with it as she can't talk well enough for kids her age to understand, but she also has a really hard time at church. She is is sunbeams and every Sunday I sit and watch her go sit by her teacher (I sit on the back row with the 7's) I watch them struggle to get her to hold still, keep her quiet, and just behave in general. She doesn't sing or listen to what is going on around her.

This past week the primary president asked me if I wanted to be Paige's teacher or move up to senior primary. I immediately told them senior primary, then had the strongest feeling that I was the one that should be her teacher. (Sorry my team teacher, you're coming along for the ride.) After I told the primary president this I cried for about two hours. How selfish of me to want to have some time away from my daughter. I always thought that Sunday would be a time to get revitalized spiritually, but with Paige it's all about just teaching her how to behave and listen in church. I feel that Heavenly father was telling me that I was the one who knows my daughter best, and would be the best at making her understand what's going on in primary. (Also the only one who would physically hold her in my lap instead of letting her run around the room.)

Still it breaks my heart when I see other little girls sitting quietly, or playing with other kids. I keep telling myself that although she has some delays she has ALWAYS hit her developmental stages, just a lot later than other people. It doesn't stop you wondering if you are being the best mom that you can be or if she would be different if I had done something different. I want people to love Paige like I do, and not look at her as someone who is different. I just have to be patient and make her feel loved and stable at home, and hopefully one day I will be worrying about all those teenage things. If I am still worrying about the delays, then hopefully I have become a stronger person than I am now.

As an after thought: We had parent teacher conferences for Paige at her preschool yesterday, and they are soooo proud of the progress she has made since last year, so there's lots of good things happening too I also feel like we were blessed to move to the area where we did because they have a lot of GREAT speech programs to help her.

New Hair cut

So, tonight I had a spur of the moment drive to get my hair cut. I drove to Great Clips and got the best hair dresser there. She had a lot of fun with my hair when I told her I wasn't picky, just wanted it to be about four inches shorter. I think it turned out rather nice, and love the feel of it off my shoulders. I will for sure go back to her. (Sadly, no camera to show off the work of art.) You'll just have to take my word for it, and wait for our Christmas blog to come out.

Hope you all are thinking about this November and the things you are thankful for before you jump to Christmas. I have thought a lot about the things that I am thankful for, and there is so much that I take for granted. It's good to remember just how much we have here compared to those who came before us and those living in other parts of the world.

Halloween

So I was going to take some really cute pictures of the kiddies and our Halloween fun, but our sweet little Matt decided to break our camera! Oh well, I was wanting a new one for Christmas anyway, but until then we won't have anything but our camcorder. I guess I will have to figure out a way to take pictures with that.

So, Paige was a black cat for Halloween. We went to a ward party on Thursday night, and she went around to everyone giving them loves and telling them she was a cat and meowing. It was pretty cute, and for once Doug and I let her run free. She had so much fun, and it made me feel a little bad we don't let her just go where she wants more. We will have to try to be better about that.

Matt was a monkey this year, and he could have cared less what he was in as long as there was candy involved. We have been practicing saying trick or treat, so now he thinks if he knocks on a wall, smiles and says trick or treat he deserves a candy. At least he says thanks after he gets the candy. I wonder how long after this holiday it will continue. (Probably until I run out of left over candy.) Another thing he has been saying that is soooo cute is whenever I tell him he isn't allowed to do something or have something he says "That make-a me bery upset" It is so cute and I laugh every time no matter how upset he is. He had better come up with a different saying if he wants me to take him seriously.

Back to Halloween. We went up to Huntsville to see Doug's parents. His mom made us home made corn dogs and some chicken stuff. It was really good. The kids fed the horse, took a walk through the leaves and trick or treated, then we went to Aunt Darla's house. Let me tell you. The kids cleaned up there. She had planned on them coming and had two cute cute stuffed ghost pillows for them, a box of gold fish crackers, and as much candy as they wanted out of her bowl. They are so spoiled. They then watched Rio (the dog) do tricks.

By that time it was well past the time we wanted to be home so we hurried home. I dropped the kids down the street a ways with Doug and went and answered the door. About 5 minutes later the kids were at my door. I guess it was more fun to give out treats then knock on peoples doors, which is just fine with me. We answered the door the rest of the night and ate candy out of our bowl.

I am so excited for the holiday season to kick into full swing. I am going to try really hard this month to focus on Thanksgiving and not jumping ahead to Christmas. I want my kids to learn how important it is to be thankful, and how blessed we really are. We'll see how we do.