You're gonna miss this

This weekend we made a trek across Iowa to visit with my family in Tabor. As always, it was bittersweet. It is so nice to see Grandpa and the rest of my family that I always enjoy, and it is so sad to have the absence of Grandma Dalene meeting you at the door to her home.
I have so many fond memories of my childhood from Grandma and Grandpa's farm. I remember when I was a kid we always got together for every birthday. We would have cake and ice cream and spend an evening together. Us kids would tear apart the basement trying to make our own haunted house. I remember playing tunnel tag and wiffle ball in the back yard until it was too dark to see what we were doing.
I very vividly remember making homemade ice cream in the driveway. Wonderful memories of time spent with my family. My whole family. We are still making memories, still spending time together, but it will never be the same.
My Grandpa dug out some family history books so we could take a look at them while we were back. One of the greatest treasures that we came across is a few typed pages, written my Great Great Uncle Edwin. He talks about his childhood and what it was like growing up in a much different time. Some of his memories are heartbreaking, and some of them were quite funny to read...like the time that the family got their first car and my Great Great Grandpa was driving it home and forgot how to stop it...he yelled "whoa! whoa!" but it didn't stop like families previous form of transportation had!
After our sect of the Howard family had moved from Tabor, to Nebraska, and then to Colorado they were called back to Iowa to help care for my Great Great Great Grandpa Heli who was aging and needed the family around him in his last years. Edwin wrote that it was his job to walk each morning and evening with Grandpa Heli and make sure that he was safe. The thing about this memory that I found so fascinating was that Grandpa Heli would tell Edwin about his childhood growing up on the East coast and how he longed to return to his home. What a gift I have to get to know these memories of family members I wasn't ever acquainted with.
I guess some things never change. We all look back at our past and miss the times that we had. It is easy to tell ourselves that we should be looking around at what we have and forward to the future, but sometimes the past is so appealing.
I know that if I was still hanging out in the 80's and eating homemade ice cream at Grandma's house I wouldn't have the life I have now, but that doesn't mean that I don't miss it.
Memorial Day is a day to remember those that we have lost, and I was happy to spend time remembering my Grandma Dalene, though I have to say I do a little of that everyday, but I also spent quite a bit of time remembering the parts of my own life that I now only have as memories.
If you aren't familiar with the country song by Trace Adkins, I will post the chorus for you here. This memorial day week I am missing my past, but trying to do a good job of not wishing away these days. If only I could freeze time, I would stay right here for awhile.

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Picture Time! Like I mentioned, we had a wonderful time hanging out with family and we even made a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo. Here are some photos from the events!

She doesn't look interested, but she did come around and pet Spud. How cute does Kenna look up on that horse?!?!

Grandpa has a bottle calf so Leila got to see him eating up close. She wouldn't touch him but she was sure interested in seeing him!

Leila got to hold Sawyer for the first time...with Mommy's help of course!

Look mom, there's a Monkey!

Playing on the metal gorilla's with Dani and Lexie

Super creepy albino crocodile, way too close for comfort

We got lucky and saw some really active animals during our trip to the zoo. This polar bear was swimming and playing with his ball, bouncing it against the rocks and catching it...very cool!


Leila demonstrating her favorite animal that we saw at the zoo

Leila and Daddy trying out Uncle Kim's new toy

Some recent pictures

Leila has had a couple of recent play dates. We went to see Amanda, Bryan and Lilly last weekend and then on Monday night Cindy brought Bryce and Eli over so we could take the strollers out and have dinner together.

Leila and Lilly, teaching each other their favorite tricks...I think they look like they could be sisters in this picture!


Grandma Lori with her Grandbabies on Mother's day


My Sweet girl looking out the window


Here are Leila and I checking out Sawyer

Mother's Day

I had a very good Mother's day. My sweet husband got me just what I asked for...a Nike + Sportband so I can keep track of my runs and chart my progress online. Hopefully it will motivate me to get back out there and actually run. (I am going to test it out tomorrow!) This is just the kind of jewelry that I was hoping for.


Next, My darling daughter Leila first picked me some beautiful flowers from our yard :)


And then, she brought me an adorable paper flower pot with Leila hand prints for flowers growing out of it...an art project from school. I didn't take a picture of that, but it is adorable. Cory brought her home from school and she brought the package right to me. I opened it and she tried to take the present back. Apparently she wanted that for herself, but I managed to get it away from her so that I could display it on our fridge. I was thinking about taking it to work, but Cory says that he would miss getting to look at is so I guess I will give him a break even though it is a Mother's day present! :)

On Mother's Day we went to my parents house in Lowden, where my sweet little sister Dani gave me a bouquet of flowers, just because she is the best. (Thanks Dani)

So, as you can tell, I was very blessed this Mother's day, but I have to tell you about the very best gift of all.
Sunday night we got home from our trip to Lowden at about 7:30. Leila goes to bed at 8 on most nights, and even though she had taken a pretty nice nap on the drive home, we decided to try out bedtime. So we carried her to bed and put her in her crib. Like most nights she whined a little bit and then rolled onto her belly and asked to be covered up by her nigh nigh blanket. So we covered her and went back out to the living room. We knew she wasn't asleep so we turned on the baby monitor so we would be sure to hear if she needed anything else. She was awake in there for about an hour, and it was so freaking cute to listen to her talk to herself in bed! I heard her say, "Baby Sawyer, Dani, Cassie, Andi" as if she was just listing off the people she had seen that day. Then she started playing our car trip game with herself. When we are in the car we will ask her what sounds different animals make, or we will ask her "who says quack quack." Lately she has been asking us the same questions, and we give her some wrong answers just to hear her correct us. We had played this game on the way to Lowden on Sunday, and now on Sunday night we could hear her in her room, "What does a cow say?" "quack! quack!" "NO!" It was so cute. I think that this struck me for a couple of reasons. First of all, I just think it is so neat to know that she remembers conversations so well when there is no one there to prompt her. And secondly, I think it seemed like she was laying in bed thinking about her day, and she was thinking about her family while she put herself to sleep. How sweet is that?!?! If you read my last post you know how important family is to me, and it just warms my heart to hear Leila talking about her family and remembering the fun day she had while she drifts off to sleep.
Go ahead and call me a softie but I am sure that I my eyes got a little misty while I sat here and listened to my daughter, my big girl. What a wonderful gift.

God Help Us...The Terrible 2's are here

This has been a terrible weekend as far as Leila behavior has gone. I love her to death, but it is getting to be very frustrating.
Cory hit the nail on the head this morning in the car while she was throwing a monster tantrum after church, "It's kind of interesting that Leila likes that Beauty and the Beast book so much...I think that title fits HER very well." and I whole heartedly agreed. She is a beauty, who has a tendency to morph into a beastly little thing.
Today we had a fit in the morning during church...she wanted to climb over the back of the pew and onto the table behind it. I tried to pull her back over and make her sit down, and she tried to bite me. Not good. Cory ended up taking her out of worship and downstairs to play on the playground equipment outside of the church. I understand that sitting quietly for an hour and a half is a lot to ask of a 2 year old, but I do have some concern about how that might look to Leila. "All I have to do is throw a fit and bite someone and then I get to go outside and play." I don't know what we should do in situations like that. But we had another fit when it was time to get in the car and leave. She screamed and arched her back so we couldn't buckle her seat belt. Cory fought with her for a while but finally we just said fine, that we would just sit in the car until she calmed down. That worked, she was diffused pretty quickly and then did a pretty good job after that. It seems like her little fuse is just getting shorter and shorter and it is getting harder and harder to get her to do anything we want her too.
After Church we went through the mall to look for some sandals for Leila and we ran into a couple coworkers. They were both also out for some Sunday shopping and we all happened upon each other in the middle of the mall and stopped to chat for a minute. One woman asked us what we were up to today and Cory mentioned that we had just come from church and were picking up a few things before nap time. She looked at the other woman in our group and asked, "Did you go to church today?" She answered no, and the first woman said, "Oh good, I am not the only one that skips church!"
We quickly confessed that this was our first time there in a couple of months too, and are not what one would call loyal church goers. This led to a discussion of church and why would one go or not go. I mentioned that for me, Church isn't so much for myself, as I feel pretty grounded in my faith (though, I do enjoy church and feel renewed faith from attending). I want to be sure that church is a part of Leila's understanding of the world.
These two paragraphs are related by a theme that is very important to me. As a mother, it is something that I grapple with all the time. How do I raise my child to be the best that she can be? I try to think about the way that I interact with Leila and the things that I teach her and talk to her about, and how those things might impact her development.

So I have an assignment for my fellow blogging mom's. Make a post on your own blog about your parenting values. What's important to you?

This is something that i think about a lot. And I fall short of a lot. For me, the most important things for me to teach Leila are as follows:
Compassion - I never want to hear that my child intentionally hurt another person, I want her to have the ability to put herself in other's shoes and treat people the way she would want to be treated.
Self Confidence - No matter what she looks like, or what she is good at or not good at, I really hope that my daughter will be better at recognizing her strengths and feeling comfortable with herself. Along this same line, I want to teach her self respect and personal value. I know that I set a bad example, and I need to be more careful about the way that I talk about myself, not just for Leila, but for myself as well. I am what I am, and I know that there is no better way to teach Leila self acceptance, then to have that quality myself, and I am not quite there yet.
The importance of family - When I was a teenager my great grandfather passed away. He had lived into his 80's and I have memories of him from my childhood, but he was a quiet man, and not someone that I was particularly close to. I remember that when it was time to make the trip across the state for his funeral, I begged my dad to let me stay home. I don't know what it was I didn't want to miss, but I don't doubt that I had my priorities out of line. My dad was angry with me and he said, "You may not feel like you need to be there but if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be here!" I felt terrible because he was right. And I packed my stuff and I went, I don't think that anything that anyone has ever said to me has resonated like that did. I hope that from then on I have lived my life with an appreciation for my family that I can pass on to my children. Not only would I not be here but for my parents and grandparents, but I would not be who I am if not for my siblings and my aunts and uncles and cousins. When we leave this earth, all we have to leave behind is what we created, and I learned that from my great grandpa, and my father, and it brings me comfort now when I think of my grandma Dalene and the love she left with me. I hope that Leila will understand that, and cherish the people that she is blessed to have along side her during this life.
Health - This is another tough one for me...I want Leila to eat whole foods, healthy foods, and of course, this starts at home. I am trying very hard to cook more, and cook healthier, but again, this is something I am not doing well enough with.
Gratefulness - I try very hard to be thankful for what I have, which is no small amount of wonderfulness. I hope that Leila will be able to see that when she sees other kids with more stuff, better bikes, bigger houses and fancier cars. We are beyond blessed, and I want to teach her to recognize that in the face of envy.
And last, but certainly not least...Faith. For me, faith is very strongly coupled with compassion and gratefulness. I will not be upset if Leila grows up and decides that she is not Christian. I will be sad if she doesn't grow to have faith in something bigger than herself, and a reason to live a compassionate and grateful life of love for others.

I know these are pretty steep expectations that I have put on myself, but I don't necessarily look at them as expectations for her. I adore Leila, even when she is the "beast."

If anyone has some parenting tips for me, I am all ears! Comment away!

Hello out there!

I haven't been the best about posting lately, but I have been meaning to log in and put up some pictures lately, I just haven't gotten around to it yet!
Things are going really well in the Coobs' household. Leila is currently entertaining the idea of potty training. She loves to wear her underwear, but we haven't been brave enough to venture out of the house without a diaper. She had her first accident today so I am sure we aren't going to be taking that step for awhile! I am not excited to be done with diapers...I am nervous for the days of having to find a bathroom at the drop of a hat and for now, diapers are easy, I just don't want to ignore it if she is ready and miss our opportunity to do this painlessly.
Today Cory and I ran/walked in a 5K race for the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City. We didn't actually have a clock to see what our time was, but I was pretty ok with the results. I didn't run as much as I hoped to of it, but I feel good for going out there and giving it a try. I feel like I accomplished something, even if I didn't run the whole thing. Can I just say that I love my husband so much? Cory is a naturally thin guy who can, and does, eat whatever he wants to. He doesn't work out, basically because he doesn't really have time these days, but he still signed up for this thing and walk/ran right along with me. Having a supportive spouse is such a wonderful thing! Now if I could only get him to eat more healthy foods and lay off of the fat, we would both be healthier and maybe I could lose some weight!!!
My mom and dad watched Leila while we ran our race and after we were done we met up with them at Andrea and Steve's house.
Andrea is doing really good. She is a natural mommy, but I could have told you that a long time ago!!!!
Sawyer has already surpassed his birth weight and is nursing like a champ. I don't have any new pictures of the Smith family but I am sure you will see Sawyer's face on this blog again! :)

Leila and I Planted some flowers this week while Daddy was out with some friends. It went about as well as you can imagine planting flowers with a 2 year old would go. She wanted to have her own garden shovel, and Daddy happened to have left his grill tools on the deck, so...she improvised.


Here are some other shots of our project...







And one last one of Leila and I taken by Daddy