20 months, 19 days

For Italo and I, the journey to parenthood was very intentional. We tried for more than 6 months to get pregnant with Annabelle and had lots of conversations prior to the "trying" about having babies. One of the things, I always thought of was staying up all night with a sick baby. Well, don't get me wrong, there have been lots of sleepless night since Annabelle was born because of one reason or another, but she has never thrown up...until Sunday night. I always thought that happened all the time with little kids, but we have been lucky to make it 20 months and 19 days with the worst part of baby explosions being diapers.

I awoke at 2:30 to hearing Annabelle crying and knew by the sound of the cry, it was different than her normal, I am awake and want company cry (which I always ignore). So, I got up to get her paci and try to get her to lay down until I realized that she has thrown up. So-up we go. I was trying to figure out if it was best to give her a bath or just wipe her down so she could go back to sleep. I decided sleep was more important for her, so I wiped her down, changed her clothes (Italo was stripping her bed down at this point) and brought her to bed with us. After she got into bed with us, she starting singing and talking and I knew she would not go to sleep. So, I found another sheet, laid her down and sat in her rocking chair while she tried to sleep. It id not take long before she lost it again. So, again, change her clothes, change her sheets and then wait for her to go to sleep. As we were more experienced this time, the procedure did not take as long so she went back to sleep pretty quickly.

As I sat in her room, listening to the wonderful noise of her sleeping and sucking on her paci, I was able to think about the joys of Mommyhood. And believe it or not, this one one of the moments that gave me joy. There truly was no other place I would have rather been at that moment. Don't get me wrong, I did not want Annabelle to be sick or hurting, but being able to be there to comfort, protect and help her when she was sick, was a joy I can not explain. As a working mom, there are lots of moments that I do not get to take part in, but in the middle of the night, no one needs me but her. And I love being able to give myself completely to her. I was so happy to sit next to her bed, waiting to make sure she would sleep soundly.

P.S. The next morning she lost her tummy again and I called my parents to see if the food I fed her the night before was possibly expired....Well, needless to say serving her food that expired 3 YEARS before she was born is not a good idea! Poor girl!

CHRISTMAS!

The Frigolis had a wonderful Christmas celebration with our family this year. Of course, it was filled with house hopping and running late to each place we were supposed to go, but it was a joy to be around so many people that love us in the season of love. Christmas Eve, Annabelle and I went over to my mom's house around noon and played with Jacob, Grace, Allen, Kimberly and my mom. We enjoyed playing games while Annabelle napped, and the older kids played together. We then went to my childhood church for candlelight service (where the rest of the family joined us) and enjoyed a traditional service filled with the beauty of thousands of glowing candles. It was a great way to start the evening so we could be reminded of the wonder of a newborn Baby born to save us from our sins! We then went back to my mom's house for Christmas dinner, followed by the reading of the Christmas story by my mom's dad-Granddaddy and then having a gift exchange.

Granddady reading the Christmas story

Grace, Jacob and Annabelle - Excited Christmas cousins!

Annabelle had quite a lot of fun with the gift she gave her relatives. It was a box of hersey kisses that said "It's a GIRL" and a note that announced that she was going to have a little sister named Margaret (Maggie) Rose in April.

Daddy and Annabelle reading a book she got from Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Allen

Italo and I were quite surprised an impressed when we gave Annabelle a present to pass out to her great grandmother, Granny Jean. She looked around the room for a minute and then walked right over to her and handed her the gift. Our daughter is just a genius! :)

After each gift Annabelle opened, no matter what it was, Annabelle would say either-"WOW" or "Uh Ye" at what she show inside. These are some PJs she got from GrannyJean and Granddaddy. Her excitement is very contagious!

More Presents to open-she was pretty tired of opening presents after the first gathering, we had, too bad, we had 2 more big things to do before the Christmas gathering were done!

What is this?!?!?!?!?!

Her first Christmas present to open on her own!

That evening, we spent the night with my mom-this is her most important wish of the Christmas season....We all slept in the same room, so Annabelle woke up at 5:30 (not unusual for her at all-but she usually puts herself back to sleep) and realized that she was not alone, she started saying "Mommy, Daddy" like she was trying to wake us up. I got up, found her paci and blanket and told her it was still bedtime. I am glad she was too young to know what was waiting downstairs so we could all go back to sleep! She woke up again at 8:00 and we proceeded to wake up my Mom and Chris by signing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" as we went into their room. We then had a Birthday party for Jesus where we ate Pie for Breakfast and sang Happy Birthday to our sweet savior. After the pie, Annabelle still wanted her oatmeal---YAY---she has some good habits! We then tried to get her interested in her stocking, but she was more interested in the Christmas tree now that the presents were gone and she could see it better. After that we walked down the street (in ourPJS) to my Grandparents house and continued our birthday party by giving Jesus words of Praise for his Birthday. There is so much to Praise Jesus for this Christmas season and it was very sweet to hear everyone's "presents" to Jesus.

When Annabelle finally saw what was in her stocking, she was glad to get a new Blanket!

Christmas Morning Wonder-She liked all the ornaments on the tree!

Annabelle in front of the Nativity scene at my Grandparents house

Eating Jesus' Birthday pie!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

After the Birthday Party, we got dressed and went to my Dad and Andrea's house to celebrate with them. Annabelle enjoyed walking around from person to person eating brunch from their plates. It was a great Christmas brunch for her! We then opened presents and played games while Annabelle took a nap. (we ran out of room on our camera, so we don't have any more pictures) After she woke up, we went to my Dad's parents house and had a wonderful feast and yet another gift exchange with the extended family. This celebration is always the one constant in the Christmas plans and all of the family makes a point to be there. It is awesome to see some folks we don't see as often and celebrate with them. My favorite new tradition is that we all pick a name to pray for in the family throughout the year. I was so excited to have 4 names to draw this year for my family and it was a moment of realization of how much my family has expanded over the last 3 years! I am so blessed and grateful to our Lord for all that he has done in my life!

Jesus' Sweet Mercies

Yesterday did not turn out the way I thought it would when I woke up. Italo and I had a VERY quiet weekend, which is very rare for us. So we were home to watch things more than normal and on Saturday we noticed that our older cat, Sphinxy, was getting sick and actually letting Annabelle touch him. That NEVERS happens, so I knew something was up, but thought we could watch him until Monday when I could take him to the vet. By Sunday afternoon, we knew we could not wait any longer so during Annabelle's nap, I took him to the Emergency Clinic.

As is always the case at Emergency Clinics-Sphinxy and I had to wait a LONG time. So-there we were in the room for about 2 hours waiting to see the doctor. I knew the outcome would not be good, so I was sad and holding my big cat.

Well, low and beyond--I started feeling my sweet little baby move in my tummy! This was the first time during this pregnancy that I could for sure say that I felt him move! It was like he was trying to keep me company while I was alone with this difficult situation.

We ended up having to say goodbye to Sphinxy yesterday, but before we did, Italo and Annabelle joined me at the clinic to say goodbye. Annabelle was playing around and sitting in my lap while Italo and I talked about our options and I reminisced about all the good times with our little buddy-Sphinxy. She was completely unaware of why we were sad, or really that we were sad at all. She just kept insisting that the bottle of lotion in my purse was milk and was trying to get me to open it up for her to drink.

But in the midst of that difficult situation, Jesus was reminding me of all of the blessings in my life-they were all around me-in my tummy, on the floor laughing and in the chair next to me crying just as hard as me over a lost life. My sweet, sweet family-all four of us were together and everyone was loving on me in their own way! Jesus' blessings are just priceless!