MOPS, and Marriage :)

Dear Elijah,
I have gotten most of my energy back, and for that I am so thankful. God has been so gracious to me during this sweet pregnancy, and I am able to still take care and spend good quality time, laughs, and playtime with you. Although I do have to dodge a lot of tiny kicks, and by tiny, I mean small foot, HARD kick. You like to kick a lot when I'm getting you dressed, and so I have to turn you away from my tummy, or make sure I am getting out of you way. Hahaha. You have picked up new things such as when you wink now of days, you do a head bob with it. You tilt your head to the side really fast while winking! It's so funny, and makes me laugh so hard sometimes. You look so cute doing it. You are still waving hello and goodbye, and you have learned to wave with your fingers now along with your whole hand going up and down. You start with the whole hand moving up and down, and then turn your hand around and wave with your fingers, although you are waving toward yourself. Hahaha! Looks like you are telling people to come here. Heehee. So cute! It still melts my heart when you lean into us and start to snuggle your face into us, and love on us. It's just so cool to have such a loving baby. You are so strong willed too! Oh my goodness, if I pick you up while you are walking, you go straight to throwing a mini fit and kicking your legs. I realize these days that you would much rather roam around on your own two legs then be held. But you still can't roam all by yourself, so you need our hands to walk around. It gets pretty tiring, BUT always exciting to watch you stomp around. You stomp a lot... haha...
You and I had a busy day yesterday. We started with MOPS, which we both really enjoyed. You had fun in the nursery with the nice ladies and other babies, and I had such a great time with the other mommies I met! They are all so kind, and I am blessed to have been put at such a great table of moms. I think 4 of the moms at my table are pregnant! I'm in good company ;) We heard an awesome speaker, Julia Anderson, speak on marriage. It was amazing! I learned so much. It's crazy how in such a short amount of time, you can have so many revelations. She encouraged all of us to step back and really take a good look at who we are, and also our marriages. I was so happy to be reminded of so many important things, and also to see that, yes, at times I make the effort to do all the things God calls us to do in a marriage, but also, that I need help from God to be consistent in those things. It made me realize JUST how much I love your daddy. It made me see that I am willing to do what it takes to have a joyful, healthy marriage. It also made me realize just how great I have it being married to your daddy! He has allowed me to stay home with you, and do the things that I love. He works so hard, so that we can put gas in our cars, eat, live with a roof over our heads and so much more. I'm blessed that he is such a great father to you. He loves being your daddy, and he is such a good example of love to you. I saw how much he does to make me feel important, and loved. He creates an environment of peace for me so much of the time, and he is also my rock when I need him to be. He leads us, and he loves us. I love that he is involved in our church in a lot of ways, I love that he has accepted my family as his own. I love that he can make me laugh like no one else. I really got to see how my actions can bring joy, and good things to us, or destruction and hurt. I'm so thankful that God cares enough for your daddy, you and I, to put people in our lives who can show us, and teach us how to strengthen our relationship and not destroy it. I am so thankful that I can learn from wise women who God has anointed and called to be involved in teaching others. Um, I hate to end this so abruptly, but you are throwing things our of your crib, and banging your bottle against the rails. I need to go get you out of your crib now. Hahahahaha! You little cutie ;)