Eli - The Athlete!

Eli is officially finished with his first season of t-ball and soccer. Crazy us, we decided to sign him up for both sports at the same time...just to see which one he liked best! After shuttling the little guy between soccer practice, t-ball practice, soccer games, t-ball games, soccer pictures and t-ball pictures...we weren't all that upset to hear that he'd rather not play soccer next time. It WAS entertaining, though, to watch him try to stay as FAR AWAY from the soccer ball as possible. If that meant waiting for all of his other teammates to run by him in order to get to the back of the pack, that's exactly what he did! :)

T-ball was more his speed, but as you can see, he's the SMALLEST one out there! There was two Eli's on his team (so much for picking a unique name...) and he was "Little Eli." I certainly hope he grows soon! ;)

Eli - A Girlfriend?!

Ah, my sweet little boy has an eye for a sweet little girl! Her name is Samantha, and quite fitting, he has picked the absolute CUTEST girl in his Mother's Day Out class. Seriously, this girl is CUTE and she has the brightest red hair and biggest, bluest eyes. Not so bad, Eli. He spent all last night "calling" and "texting" her. Which by the way, what is this world coming to when a four year old knows how to text on his pretend phone?! Anyway, he paced up and down the hall (just like his mama) telling "Samantha" about his day. I could hear him in the other room asking her if she wanted to come over, then making up a little song that went something like this, "If you have a little dog, come over (imagine a high pitch ending), if you have a big dog, come over, if you have a table, come over (I'm assuming he was just saying whatever he saw at the time), if you have a shoe, come over..." It went on and on. Tessa and I were laughing (to ourselves, of course, we wouldn't want to interrupt!), before she decided to see if Eli wanted to call her little neice Maddie. Sure enough, he did. Just like that his fascination with pretty little Samantha was over in favor of another cute little girl. This time a blonde! Ah, the fickleness starts early. My son's already a "playa, playa!" ;)

Trust.

The issue of trust plagues my thoughts today, so I looked for advice - where else? - on the web. Here are a few of the quotes I found.

"Trust is like a vase. Once it's broken...though you can fix it, the vase will never be the same again."

"Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart."

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."

The "advice" I found just complicates things all the more. I'll take the second and try to trust my heart...and pray that the Lord places the real "advice" directly on it.

Eli - Heaven?!

My baby boy is four. It doesn't seem possible that four years ago yesterday, I was in the hospital praying that my sweet little angel would be healthy (and would HURRY up and get here)! ;) In fact, I told Eli the story right when we woke up yesterday morning...right after I told him Happy Birthday and that he was now officially four years old. Which, a little side note here, was the funniest thing ever! He was so excited...he giggled a bit, said "I'm FOUR" over and over again, then giggled some more. He then followed up with, "I feel so BIG!" Lol. Okay - back to the original story. I told him that four years ago today, I was in the hospital. He interrupted right away and said, "Oh no, Mommy! Why?" I explained that I was in the hospital to get him out of my tummy... He said, "Oh, oh! I 'member that!" I said "Oh, you do?" laughed, then we got up and got ready for church. At lunch, I was telling my little brother the story and Eli interjected that he DOES remember. He said it was like a swimming pool in there, and a park, and the ice cream man was there and God was there. Hmmm...I had to ask if he really thought Mommy's tummy was big enough for all of that (which at the time, I certainly felt like it was), but in all sincerity, it made me wonder if in some way our little ones DO remember. All of those things would be like Heaven for Eli...a little slice of Heaven before entering the "real world." Just a little something to ponder.

Eli turns FOUR!!

Reality.

Yet again, my heart has been broken. My character and integrity have just been harshly criticized by the very person who told me that he loves me more than anything and the very person whom I loved so dearly. There was a time in my life when I would allow those cruel words to crush me, because I wasn't completely comfortable with who I was. But I now know that, like everyone, I have my faults and I have done things that I'm not proud of...but that does NOT make me a bad person. I will not allow someone to tell me that I'm not a good person or a good mother, simply because they are looking for something hateful and negative to say. Especially when I work so hard to be both. That being said, it is incredibly disheartening to know that someone who is supposedly in love with me could be so hurtful. I'm hurt, confused, but mostly disappointed.

Why?

Why is it that every time I feel like I have my life in order, that everything is finally falling into place...something happens to knock me off my feet? Wait, I think I just answered my own question. I just re-read that sentence, "every time I feel like I have my life in order" and realized that maybe, just maybe, I'm trying too hard to do it on my own - once again - and not relying on the Lord like I should. Wow. There's something to be said for blogging to give you perspective.