My daughter's birthday is December 29th. I was on bedrest the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas because she kept trying to come early. With way too much time on my hands I would google what to do about a child's birthday being so close to Christmas. I stressed over whether I should celebrate her half birthday instead. My mind ran in circles while I lay in bed with the laptop. It was all a needless worry really. I'll explain why a little further down.
On Christmas Eve the bedrest was lifted. My first time out of the house was to go to the midnight service at our church alone with my husband. It was really a special feeling to be that pregnant on the night we celebrate baby Jesus' birth. She hung in there four more days, but on a very stormy early morning of December 29th, 2004 she was born.
She does go to our church preschool four mornings a week and what I've done is we celebrate with our family on the 29th, but save the party with her friends until the weekend after everyone returns to school. That way there's some distance from Christmas and friends are more likely to be in town. It's a win, win. We celebrate her birthday for what feels like weeks, she's happy, and I'm way less stressed.
So this year she said she wanted to have a princess tea party. I didn't want to have the typical Disney princess theme so I devised my own. Tea parties are completely up my alley. So I had fun making the invitations, princess crowns for the girls, and turning our kitchen eating area into a little girl's haven.
The only downfall was that my little princess, though she begged for this party and insisted we invite all the girls, is a little overwhelmed and shy when there are lots of people around. The room made her happy in the morning when she woke to discover it. She soaked in every little detail, but when her friends arrived she wanted nothing more than to cling to my neck or leg at all times. I felt so badly for her. She just couldn't wait for everyone to leave.
Her guests did have a wonderful time though. They were so cute, so many dressed in costumes or very pretty dresses. They sipped daintily out of the tea cups Ava chose while my son served as the butler. All in all to me it was so sweet, I just wish Ava could have enjoyed it more.
She loved getting some new clothes, a pretend make up set, hello kitty desk set and lots of fun games including princess bingo, and the tea party game. We all played tonight while Daddy worked. I got her a book about children's tea, and my dear friend Kim who is her godmother gave her a book called, "A Child's Book of Grace." After skimming through it I'm so excited to read it to all of them and try out the activities.
Oh.. and to get to the point of my title on this post. My girly girl has been a little envious I think of all the time her brother has been getting with Dad while putting together his lego agents mission six truck. It took over ten hours between the two of them to put it together. She also admires her big brother so much and sees how much he enjoys legos that she insisted she wanted the lego agent shark set for her birthday.
I know this will be a passing phase, but Daddy completely obliged and spent the morning putting it together for her. Somehow it doesn't look right in her room. But I know I need to let that go, and let her enjoy her tomboy side. Now she and Jackson are running around acting out their missions together. It's rather sweet to overhear. However, little Audrey has already quietly gotten her fingers on the toys and broken a few. I've announced it is Daddy who'll work on fixing it. I tend to break legos even worse than they already are when I try to repair them. And then they're truly upset. So to divert a big meltdown I've suggested we put the lego repair mission on hold till Daddy is home and has time. Whew... I'm off the hook for now.
As for me. I'm feeling the big need to get things in order now that her party has come and gone. There are lots of loose ends like writing thank you notes and some 'happy new year' cards. Since we left for Maryland rather early this year for Christmas I wasn't able to send out all the cards I usually do. Again, to let myself a little off the hook I decided some will be Happy New Year cards. I've received them in the past and actually like them after the major influx of the holidays so I hope the receivers of ours won't mind.
My son's favorite bible verse is, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Proverbs 3:5. I heard him whispering it under his breath one day as he was getting ready for a baseball game. He told me he says it to himself whenever he feels nervous. I love how children will say things that strike a chord in our lives as well. He got me thinking about learning to trust and how I don't always fully trust in the Lord with ALL my heart. I have that head knowledge, but do I always exercise it? Sadly, no.
How do we learn to trust unless we do things that seem scary or hard and cause that butterfly in your stomach feeling that my almost two year old so sweetly calls, "dee dee?" How do we learn to live more like God without "dying to ourselves," to our selfish and worldly nature? When I feel nervous or scared or alone I have to remember that He has a perfect plan for me and part of what I need to do is to stop thinking and researching and just TRUST. He will take care of me and more than likely the blessings will far surpass what I could have ever imagined possible.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20.
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