Just trying to stay cool

It's been over a week since I last blogged, but not much has happened since then.  We've just been trying to stay cool and keep Emma cool.  She's a REALLY hot-natured baby, so she doesn't mind the pool at my parents' neighborhood at all.  She enjoys it most when we take her out of her float and hold her in the water ourselves - then she can really splash it up.

Emma had therapy last week as usual, but with one major change - a man.  The Care Center had to rearrange some of the therapists' schedules for the week because a couple of them were on vacation.  That resulted in a little bit of a mixup for Emma's OT and PT, but it turned out to be a beautiful thing.  We had Emma there for PT at 9:15, and she was a little fussy...but not as bad as she usually is.  Forty-five minutes later, she was much calmer for Chris, her OT for the day.  The next 45 minutes were complete bliss as she and Chris "played" quietly.  Emma didn't fuss once, and...dare I say it...she enjoyed herself!  Emma has always preferred men...and I mean, ALWAYS.  It seems that therapy is no exception.  We've had a really hard time getting Emma to behave/work during therapy because she gets cranky and just plain doesn't want to work.  My mom said she did ok, but not great, yesterday with her regular therapists, but it was nothing compared to her new boyfriend, Chris.  (Chris DID try to tell Emma that he's married, but she didn't care.  Little homewrecker.)  I'm very afraid we're going to have to make some changes in order to allow Emma to get the most out of therapy, but it makes me very sad.  We like her OT a lot; if only Emma would work for her like she did Chris.

After Emma was done with therapy on Friday morning, I made a game out of pretending to toss her in the ball pit and then finally set her in it.  The ball pit is used to help kids find and maintain their balance and also to develop the motor skills to catch and throw the balls.  I didn't want to traumatize her, so I took her out after only a few minutes.  Emma immediately wanted back in, and I grabbbed these shots:

If I hadn't had an appointment to get to, we would have stayed even longer and let Emma play.  Maybe this Friday...

A look back at this week last year:

June 26, 2010

June 28, 2010

Do you ever have those days/weeks/whatever-period-of-time when you just feel blessed?  I'm going through that right now, and it's wonderful.  I'm stressed, and my summer work schedule doesn't allow me to do anything that I really want/need to WHEN I want to do it, our house hasn't sold, we don't have a house we want to move into, I wish Emma would stop choking, etc, etc, etc....but I just feel so loved.  I feel surrounded by God's love.

This past Sunday's sermon was basically about joy vs. happiness.  A light bulb came on in the middle of the sermon when I realized that Emma is proof of the Spirit living in us.  Happiness is fleeting and temporary; joy is deeper and permanent and can only truly be found in the Lord.  Children Emma's age are too young to knowingly seek the joy of the Lord, much less know the difference between happiness and joy.  If true joy was fleeting like a temporary state of happiness is, Emma would not smile at us in the midst of choking, gasping for air, and even spitting up.  That is an underlying sense of joy that can only be attributed to the Lord.  I call Emma a happy baby all the time because she's so personable and loves to be out in public behaving herself yet being nosy at restaurants and shops.  But she's not happy...she's joyful.  I know the Holy Spirit is with her because of her permanent state of joy despite all her struggles.  (Side note: our church's nursery workers probably don't believe a word of this, but I promise she will be joyful in the nursery one day.  Soon?  Probably not.  But one day.)