Finding Peace

I spent time this morning (while Ava was/is napping) re-reading an old blog post that I decided not to publish, called Family and Expectations. I began writing that past post out of frustration, and after much thought, it became one of those angry letters that you just have to write, and then throw away because no good will ever come of it. I re-read it today and it got me to thinking, is it appropriate to place expectations on family members? On parents, on children, on siblings, on in-laws? As I was reading the old post, my first thought was that it was not ok for me to have such high expectations for family- to expect certain things of them and to be disappointed or upset if expectations are not met. But on second thought, I think that we all probably, naturally, place expectations on people. Some are positive, some are negative, but I think that they are necesssary, in order to have the types of relationships with people that we need. Brady and I now have a daughter of our o...

I don't know how to describe our Kai, other than to say that he is the perfect mix of SO many different things. We were so lucky this Spring break to be able to coordinate our schedules so that Christine, Kai, Brady, Carrie, Derran, Austen, Ava and I were all able to go over to the Island together, to visit Nanny and the rest of the family. We were also lucky enough that Auntie Sherri happened to be out of town and offered up her huge house so that we could all stay together. It was so nice for us to be able to get away, but also stay together. Kai is 4 years old, and it would seem that 4 is a peak age for curiosity, about all different sorts of things. Kai had started asking his Mom about death - how a four year old comes to be curious about death, I am not quite sure, but I am certainly curious myself.  Brady and I (and I alone, before Brady was making trips with me), have made a habit of taking flowers to Papa on each trip to the Island. I think I have been doing it since...

 Our sweet baby girl, there has been something wonderful about every month of your life, well, there have been a lot of something wonderfuls - but this past month has been the most exciting, for us and for you. It has been a very busy month for you, and as an adult you just don't think about how many things there are to learn in this world, and how overwhelming it must be for a baby to be seeing, hearing, and experiencing so many new things every day. We try really hard to celebrate and practice all of these new things with you, but I think we didn't fully realize how overwhelming it must be for you until it started affected your sleep, and our sleep! This last week or so, you have been waking up on your back, when we put you down on your tummy. You are showing us that even though you are sleeping, your mind is never quite resting. You have so much to learn and to do, that we think you are practicing while you should be sleeping! I think you are a bit like your Mommy th...