Life In Indy

Life in Indy has been sweet. We have our lazy stay at home days, and our adventrous days where mommy gets lost and Bekah likes to help me "find the bookstore" and coaches me along in the backseat saying, "you can find Jump in Jungle mama, you can!" : ) 

Slowly, we are getting the hang of this new life of ours and, in the meantime

, spending lots of time together, many days without daddy, and always appreciating those with! him. I can't help but appreciate these quiet days with our dear children. It's days like those that I sincerely cherish, for it's the so callled boring days that give me the opportunity to bask in the joy that they bring me and the gratitude I have towards God, for making me a mom.

I have always felt bad about how I never sent out an "official announcement" for Benjamin and had high hopes of sending out a "we've moved" card with his picture on the front, but,

I just finally let go of the idea deciding to spend my free time in other ways,  and told myself that the Christmas card served that purpose (but I am still kicking myself for not putting his stats on it!) . . . oh well! You can only do so much, right?

Here is the intended picture that Aunt Sarah took, I thought I might as well put it in the post!

Lots of people have been asking about Bekah and how she is doing.

She is doing just fine now, though it's so obvious how much she misses having friends around.

Please know how much we appreciate your concern and prayers for our little girl at this time! Everyone has been so sweet, in the way they have been thinking about her!

 Here are some ways she is coping and working through this big change:

Her beloved Barbara has really stepped up to the plate.

Barbara really fills a big void these days.

While at the park one day, Bekah mentioned that there weren't any kids and wondered where they were. I gently told her that perhaps it was too hot and that she would see kids at the park when the weather got cooler.

Her response was a simple, "It's okay, Barbara is here with me!"

Like I tell Zack, "Thank God for Barbara!"

I too have had to "step it up," with her fellow dress up friends like Lina, Ava, Catherine, Evie, Colt, Izzie, Margaret and Brinley far away, how can I say no when she asks me to put on my Snow White dress too???

She is turning into a total mom these days, doing everything I do with Benjamin, with Barbara or Minnie. When I finished nursing Benjamin, Bekah took the boppy, and set  Mommy Minnie with Baby Minnie in the "proper position!" : )

It always brings a big smile to her face, to read friends blogs, recieve cards in the mail, and talk through skype!

Here, she is watching a slideshow from her class last year. She LOVES it!

She has certainly had some more "me time" for one of her favorite pastimes,

 reading.

The weekly trips to the library has supported that very well!

When her friend Lina went to Disney World, we felt like we were there with her, each step of the way! When they  would  send us pics of what they were doing and "who" they saw, Bekah would hurry to find a book with that princess as if she was trying to recreate the moment here!

One thing is for sure, this girl needs to get to Disney World, stat!

Maybe thist spring we can make that happen sweet girl!

When we moved to Houston, I made a collage of all her friends, so this move, we updated it and made sure we represented all our friends, old and new! Bekah really enjoyed doing that and looking at it each day.

It's been interesting, how often she mentions a book in any given situation. Here, she wanted to put Barbara in a backpack, just like "they do in my big sister book mama!"

Then, she always runs to get the book to show me the part.

The reading teacher in me loves seeing her learn about new things in books to help her accept them and learn about them in real life, so cool!

The first few weeks were rough, behavior wise, I am not going to lie. But it was understandable, her whole world had changed! So, my mother in law gave me some great advice. She said, "if Bekah is acting like a 2 year old, you need to treat her like one, when it comes to discipline." So as well as the time outs increasing, I had to reward her for things that were a no brainer before we moved, that I was starting to "expect of her." It really helped to keep things more positive and here she is with her marble jar. Bekah gets a marble when she does something simple like clean up, be patient, not be grumpy, and when she hits 10 ( before we moved, it had been 15), she gets a treat! Cool thing is, we have a candy story only 2 minutes away, walking! So, that incentive has been awesome! 

Packages and cards have always been wonderful, even more so these days!

Here is Bekah about to open her new Tiana dress from her friend Lina!

(teehee, this post mentions her BFF Lina, ALOT, because we love her so and missing Lina has been one of the hardest parts about this move! They just loved each other so much, they really are kindred spirits!)

Even Gramommy got to be a part of this special and long awaited moment!

And wouldn't you know, they shipped it to us from Disney World "just because?"

When they were there, they just had to get something for Bekah too!

What amazing friends they are!

Lina got one too, like I said, kindred spirits!

I know lots of prayers are going up for Bekah to make some sweet friends this year, and already I have felt those prayers answered in our friends Luke and Logan!

They are the kids of the fellow from last year, who had to stay on an extra month and a half to train the new guys, like Zack!

(Bekah with Luke, only a few months older than Bekah)

We hung out with them every week, before they moved and Bekah instantly loved them!

I think it was God's way of "getting us through the summer," because once school starts, I know she will make some friends!

Playing at Luke and Logans house:

The Jump and  Jungle that took waaaay too long to find!

 Actually, I would drive for hours if it meant that my sweet girl would get to play with her friend!

And finally, the day came where Luke and Logan had to move away.  . .

Here they are, at their going away party.

Sort of sad:

 parties are going on left and right, down there in Houston,

and the only party that Bekah goes to here in Indy, is a going away party . . . .

for her only friends!

Gotta love the irony there!

But as I said, I am confident that God's timing was perfect in this "fleeting friendship." He knew that Bekah needed some familiar faces up here, to make it feel more like a "home," and that, He gave us.

Did you know that when she first met Luke on the 4th of July, when I told her that we needed to leave, she said,

"Oh! Well, I am going to give Luke a big hug and kiss, okay mama? Because he is my friend!"

And she did JUST that, only 5 senonds later! Ha!

So cute! She was a bit overly eager to be his friend, glad he ended up liking  her too!

Thanks again Luke and Logan, we miss you already!

Another familiar name in our household is, "Lila from the Library," a statue of the little girl at the Library. Bekah must say hello to her each and every time we go, and can be heard saying,

"Mama, let's go to the library, so  I can see Lila!"

She then gives her a hug, sits next to her and just gazes at her!

( I named her Lila, btw : ))

Lila may be her friend now, but with school, bible study and dance class starting in just a few weeks, I am hopeful her friends will move from being inanimate objects ( Lila and Barbara) to real people!

Here we are signing her up for dance class, which starts tomorrow actually!

She has grown to love her room, that girl can play up there for hours if I let her! With company of course, she never has been "one to play by herself!" But there are days where I ask her if she wants to go to the park, and she would rather stay home "making the dollies talk" up in her room.

Really glad she feels so safe and happy in her room.

We go out to dinner alot, every Satruday night in fact, it's turned into a tradition. It's mommy's night off and a great way to spend time together as a family!

It makes a difference that they are really good when we are out to dinner too!

Sunday, after church, we always go to LePeep so Bekah can get her Mickey Mouse pancakes.

I have found that Bekah really appreciates the routine of going to the same restarant each Sunday.

We may not have familiar faces just yet, but places, we do! I think it has reallyhelped her adjust!

I guess here are some "familiar faces," but yet again, they are statues!

Downtown Carmel has all these statues on Main Street, one being the fairy statue that Bekah must visit each week we are there!

And here are some REAL familiar faces, Pops and Gramommy came to visit!

We took them down to Main Street for our Sat. Night dinner : ).

The statues really are a sight, I don't blame Bekah for asking to see them each week!

She decided that this was "Lila's Daddy" because he is reading a book!

Family pic

(why am I leaning like that???)

Leave it to me to mess up a rare family photo op!

As I said, Bekah has been thriving on the "new routines" we have tried to create for her here, and frozen yogurt is one of them! After dinner every Sat. night, you can find us here, at the local icecream shop!

Thank you Pops and Gramommy for visiting us, it was just what this family needed!

Bekah has been loving our every other week visit to the Children's Museum, voted best in the USA!

Here she is on a pretend plane,

flying to Egypt!

They have a great Hot Wheels Exhibit there right now!

Benjamin took a pic by the motercycles for his friend Henry! : )

To the naked eye, it may have been an exhibit that Bekah could have "breezed through", but you give her a car to "decorate"( wall decals peel on and off the car) and a cool "uniform" and that girl is just where she wants to be, "pretend world!"

My favorite part, and Bekah's too, is this whimsical kiddie area, with all these old fashioned toys, including this 90 year old carosel!

Benjamin had this sweet little grin the whole time riding, as if he  felt "cool" for being able to do what the big kids do!

One things for sure, his big sister definitely knew how cool it was!

Really, you could stay in this museum for a whole day, even the Dino exhibit was awesome!

Dino Bekah sitting on her eggs.

We also go to the library every week for library stroytime or what you see here, "a dance party!"

A dance party, at the libary??? Why not!

Bekah was game and of course, had to dress the part!

If we have already gone to the Children's Museum, the library and the park and feel like getting out of the house, Barnes and Nobles never lets us down!

Bekah gets to look at books and mama always seems to needs to pick out a book for a gift, so it's a two in one shopping trip!

A special thank you to all of our Houston friends for sending us those special post cards!

( at our going away parties, the guests were sent home with pre addressed cards to send to us once we moved!)

 Bekah looks forward to getting mail every day! She learned just yesterday that "mail doesn't come on Sundays," as she was requesting to check the mail! : ) Already, we have 12 post cards and 5 cards up on our fridge!

These cards with pictures, kind words and the cutest kiddie drawings and writings have done WONDERS for these homesick Texans! They lift us up so very much!

What an awesome idea, thanks again Ting and Kim!

We are just where we are supposed to be right now, and if we are sad, it's only because of all the beloved friends and family we had to say goodbye to down in Texas!

It's going to be a great year, but once Bekahs gets to see those seasons,

Texas here we come!