Sunday, October 3, 2010

Blessing Shower

"I'm going to act like I'm looking off in the distance while she takes my picture."

One of the ONLY pictures I have of this child smiling!!!

And back to the scowl that is so normal for Addison (please notice the hot pink nails and baby ring she is wearing....she is 20 months going on 20.)

Trey is loving life and Addison just wishes he would walk away. You can even see her teeth are gritted here. I'm sure he was close to being pushed off.


Last night we went to a blessing shower at my in-laws for some people who have been friends of their family for as long as I can remember. Now, you may be wondering what a blessing shower is because I know I had NO clue until I had one when we got married. I will admit that when I first heard about these things I had several thoughts..
1) I was nervous that I would have to stand in the middle of the room or something while everyone circled me and said things.
2) I also wondered if these blessings came in the form of tangible gifts, like my toaster I needed or coffee pot.

Yes, I know this sounds selfish, but I had never heard of this before so I'm just being honest.

However, what it turned out to be is a really neat way for people to give advice and bless a couple getting married or having a baby. When you take away all the "stuff" all that is left is the important things anyway. We got so much great advice from the couples at our shower that we still remember. Now, they also take everyones picture and make a scrapbook with the advice so you will always have it.

So...anyway, last night was a blessing shower for a couple who had a baby and everyone had great advice for them. Mine and J.O.s advice was to not stress about the small things...they will outgrow everything. I remember stressing about when to take the bottle away, when Trey would potty train, etc, etc. I remember the silliest thing I stressed about with Trey was him going to bed with a cup of milk every night. I mean, after all the dentist assured me this would rot his teeth out. HELLO...he only had 4 teeth until he was 2 1/2 and even then I'm not sure if you are aware of this but baby teeth fall out. I finally quit caring so much and realized that he wasn't nearly as attached to it as I thought he was and he just quit taking it.

It's so nice not caring about the fact that Addison has a paci that must go everywhere, or the fact that she demands to have a cup of milk in bed with her, or the fact that she hits me randomly sometimes (okay, maybe I should worry about that one). I have just decided that they grow up so fast that I refuse to stress about every little thing.

J.O's advice was also to take time for each other. I have to admit that J.O. is the one who helps me with that. He loves to travel (with or without kids) and he is so good about making sure we take a big vacation and go little places throughout the year (even if it's just a weekend to Fayetteville!). I have come to love these times away and we have so much fun.

I think it's so funny to see the difference a second child makes. Trey was kinda an experiment on what to do and what worked as a baby (and now child). I didn't think anyone else could do it as well as I did and a schedule was so important! Addison is just a ton of fun because we are so much more laid back and don't let things bother us. If she stays up until 9 or 10 at a certain grandparents house (you know who you are! :) we just know she will come home and take an awesome nap for us!! Everyone wins!

Anyway, I'm no expert but that's my 2 cents and if anyone ever wants to give you a blessing shower don't be afraid. They really are awesome!

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