Sunday, July 25, 2010

Renewed Faith in Humanity

For me, grocery shopping is a sure fire way to ruin my afternoon. Factor in a baby and a stop at a wholesale club store and it's a recipe for disaster. On a recent trip, the mercury was rising to 100 degrees as we tried to accomplish this task. First, the wholesale club was overcrowded. T's carseat completely blocked any view I had as I tried to navigate my way through the store to pick up a handful of items. One would think that people might see my limited ability to navigate and give way to a small woman pushing a cart with a baby on top, but sadly no. Over and over again, people cut me off and caused me to stop my cart abruptly all while holding onto her carseat so that it wouldn't topple out. Finally, approaching the register, I entered a self checkout line so that my crying baby wouldn't offend any cashiers. Of course, as fate would have it, two of my items couldn't be scanned. I couldn't tell if the sideways looks I received was because of Miss T's crying, or because I twice had to call for help with my order.
Finally, we made it out to the car. I stashed our items in the trunk (while pulling a muscle in my shoulder - really, I know its a great deal, but does dishwasher detergent have to come in a 5 gallon size?) and drove us over to the grocery store. Hoping for a more pleasant shopping experience, I put on our Moby wrap to "wear" Miss T (remember the 3-digit weather outside?). From the deli to the produce section, Miss T was all smiles and garnered a few oohs and aahs from fellow shoppers. By the time we reached the canned goods aisle, she was crying again (can you blame her? would you want to be running these errands on your weekend?). With many more sideways looks and eyerolls, I tried hurrying through the remainder of our shopping list. This was not easily achieved as my shopping cart would rather topple over than turn in any direction. At one point, I almost let it, just to make a point! I skipped the ice cream (even though it was BOGO free, so you know how desperate I was!) and speed-walked to a register.
With Miss T all out screaming by now, I was trying to get all of my items onto the belt when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a sweet 80-something year old woman (and here's where my faith returned) offering to put all my items on the belt for me. I was nearly in tears I was so thankful. It figures that of all the people in the store that were completely capable of lending a hand, it was a frail little old lady who could barely stand that offered to help. She even suggested she stay with me so she could walk me out to my car and put the groceries in the trunk! I thanked her profusely and told her I could take it from this point. On my way out, I fought with the cart some more only to run into a store employee who then helped me bring the cart to my car and put the groceries in the trunk.
As I drove away, tears of gratitude filled my eyes. Despite how many times I thanked these two beautiful people, I don't think I could ever express my true gratitude. They have no idea what a light in the darkness they were for me on that day. I won't forget their generosity and I will remember this the next time I see someone else having a rough go. Instead of a nasty look, I hope I can offer some light and help them out too.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Obsession

I'm am so obsessed with everything baby right now, its a little sickening! Anyways, through a 3-6 month baby board, I've stumbled onto another blog that is doing a cloth diaper give-away. There are extra entries for linking your blog to theirs (facebook liking as well, I don't twitter, so no third entry for me). So, here's the ad for their giveaway for my extra entry!
Cloth Diaper Give Away!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Throwing Aces At Charm City Church

For several years now, hubby and I have been devoted our Wednesday nights to MetroKidz, a Bible-based kids program at our church that reaches out to inner city kids. Last night might have been one of the coolest nights we have ever had! Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with these kids, but some nights are work. Not last night though, I don't think I had seen so many teachers smiling all at once. Why were we all so excited you ask? Orioles pitcher #13 Will Ohman and the Orioles mascot came to visit us!
Per the usual (lately anyways), Miss T and I arrived late. The kids were settled into the sanctuary already, music was playing, and The Bird was "warming" the kids up. Like a giddy little girl, I hurried to get Miss T out of her carseat so that we wouldn't miss our chance to wave at The Bird. I should mention that last year at a game The Bird "kissed" me on the top of my head, so we have sort of a thing going on. Anyways, I was happy to see that Miss T wasn't scared of The Bird and we got our chance to wave. (He blew kisses to Miss T later on!)
After a few more songs, my dear hubby got up to make the introductions for our guest speaker. You could see all over his face how excited he was! After quizzing the kids about pitching, ERAs, crowding the plate, and some other stats, Will Ohman took the stage. Had I met him in a grocery store, even wearing a jersey as he was last night, I wouldn't have thought for a second that he was a MLB player. He's a regular looking guy with a beautiful wife and two adorable kids, a boy and a girl, both 4.5 year old. He talks and holds himself like a regular guy. He certainly doesn't have that "I'm a celebrity" air that I was half-expecting! He told the kids about who he was and what he does for work and he gave them quite a few nuggets that I hope they were listening to and took to heart:
-We are all given talents by God in order to glorify him. His gift was being able to throw a ball with speed and accuracy. There are many kinds of gifts and each of us needs to find ours.
-In order to glorify God with our gifts, it takes A.C.E. Attitude, Concentration, Effort
-His favorite part of his job is also the most scary. He gets called to the mound to strike out the best hitter on the other team usually when there are guys on base. This high pressure scene is where he is able to best use his gifts for God's glory.
Will answered many, many questions for the kids (and some teachers) from "How many times have you played the Athletics?" to "Do you get nervous?". There were some really poignant questions too. When asked if it was difficult to be a Christian when he is in that type of surroundings, he said not really. When they have games on Sundays, they have someone come in to have a service, even if its only for 15 minutes or so. He said a lot of his teammates pray and are usually doing so during the national anthem.
After the questions died down and the kids were being dismmissed for dinner, Will and his wife handed out player cards and helmets for each of the kids. They stuck around after dinner and signed cards and helmets outside for the kids on their way home. Such a nice guy and a great family. We truly enjoyed their visit to MetroKidz and the message that was shared. I hope the Orioles re-sign him, so he can come back again next year!
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Monday, July 19, 2010

Mamma Bear

Yep, I have completely turned into a Mamma Bear. I'm not sure when this happened, or how, but it's definitely there. An event occurred this weekend that made this very clear to me and now that I have admitted it to myself, it is easier to recognize and see it action - and apparently, my Mamma Bear self roars her mighty roar all the time! So, back to the enlightenment, we go to an inner city church that is very much like a missions church, so much so that during the summer missions teams come and serve our negihborhood and stay in our building. This week, there was a team of 50 people from NC, very nice, very eager, very friendly. During service on Sunday, Miss T was being very good and I was hoping to actually make it through a service without having to sequester us to the prison of the nursery. I could tell she was getting sleepy and got her binkie out and started to cradle her in my arms (the ONLY time she lets us hold her like that is when she is ready to go to sleep!). Just then there is a tap on my shoulder. I look over to see a very sweet young lady (probably young 20's). She very nicely asks me if she can hold Miss T.
My reply: "Umm, she's a bit fussy (she wasn't at all) and I'm trying to get her to go to sleep, so if you don't mind I'll keep her"
My inner dialog: "Ummm, who the heck are you? And who do you think you are asking to hold a child whom you don't even know when she is clearly with her mother! For all I know, you could be plotting to kidnap her, and who wouldn't want to kidnap her, seeing how beautiful she is! NO, you won't be holding her, now or ever, so back off!"
Ahem, so while the request may have been a little strange and the outward response was fairly polite (with a lot of restraint), the inner Mamma Bear was raging. I've recognized this side of me in other situations now, like when our dog of 7 years gets a little rough within 10 feet of Miss T, when she's fussing at all in her Daddy's arms, when Grammie is holding her just a little too loosely for my liking. For the time being, Mamma Bear has been kept secure in the confines of my head, oh but for the poor soul that finally unleashes her. Lets all hope that doesn't happen!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Oh, how she amazes me!

I think until you have children, that there are so many things that we just take for granted. Yesterday, I watched as my daughter reached for a rattle, grabbed it and shook. This might not seem like much, but for weeks I've been prying her little hand open, placing that same rattle in and closing her fingers only for her to open her hand and drop it. All on her own lasst night, she did it, exactly when she was ready to. It seems such a small thing, but tears came to my eyes, I was watching my daughter learn and explore her world!
So much else about her amazes me, daily. Yesterday, she smiled upon seeing me for the first time. Mind you, she smiles all the time in reaction to other smiles, but this one was because she saw and recognized me. My heart nearly exploded, and even though she had woken me up several times the night before and I was a cranky mess, that beautiful little smile changed the course of my day completely!
The "words" she forms are like music to my ears (even though I'm completely tone deaf!). She finds all new sounds to make and even teaches me how to make certain sounds. She was making a new clicking/snapping noise and it took me a day to figure out how she was doing it!
All of these actions may seem small to us adults who function on a "higher" level all the time. However, the relative intensity of how much she is developing and learning all the time is by far greater than anything we do. How often do we challenge ourselves to learn something completely new? It would be like me deciding to learn how to change the oil in my car today and tomorrow, I think I will learn how to sail a boat. Dear Daughter, you are truly an inspiration to me!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What's with the title?

My 3 month old daughter has gotten very smiley lately and I'm dying to hear her laugh for the first time. She is definitely a ticklish little girl, but still no laugh yet. When I do tickle her, I use my fingers very lightly and ask "who has ticklebugs? T has ticklebugs!". If you try to imagine this literally though, it's pretty grotesque. Bugs running up and down my baby's torso tickling her, blech. This will probably cause her to go to one of two extremes: having a phobia of insects, or becoming an entymologist! For the time being, she likes it and so do I.

Introductions all around...

This is my first blog, and my first entry! Allow myself to introduce, um, myself...

I am a new mom of a beautiful baby girl, a wife, a grad student, and a future microbiologist. I wear many hats apparently and I try to do all of them well! I am originally from New England and have relocated to the mid-eastern states for graduate school. Being a Yankee (but not a Yankee fan!) I consider this the south though I'm told by locals that it isn't (it's below the M-D line, isn't it? then it's the south!). We live downtown in a major urban setting and try to give back by mentoring and teaching the Bible to inner city youth. I am currently teaching 5-6 grade girls whom I adore!

I have no idea where this blog will go. I randomly started it today simply because I clicked on a button to follow another blog. Maybe it will go somewhere, maybe not. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch some memories of my baby girl growing up, my grad student experiences, the situations my husband and I find our selves in as we strengthen our marriage and the many ways God inspires us in this city.

That's all for now!