What Winners Look Like

Aug 4, 2012 | Quiver Tree Photography

Remember 87ish days ago when I hosted a giveaway for a free Quiver Tree Photo session and an 8 x 10 canvas or something like that … I can’t even remember what we promised it’s been so long, but I didn’t actually count the days so I’m not sure, I just know it’s been a while? Remember that?

Because we finally worked it out to do the shoot with the wonderful family that won and I am SO glad we did. I love all of you precious people, but I was secretly especially excited the Boltes family won. {And my Dad picked the winning number, so don’t start thinking it was rigged!} They are such a precious and special family, and their two handsome boys were adopted from Ethiopia and Uganda. And I think most of you know the people, and especially the children of Mama Africa have a very special place in my heart.

Megan and Cameron are absolutely wonderful (inspiring) parents and I am very thankful (thank you, Mom & Dad!) that I was able to assist the Hubs at this shoot. They’re such a great family!

I just posted a preview album of photos to Facebook, which will be easy to find if you visit the Quiver Tree Photography page, or if we’re friends. (Are we friends? I hope we’re friends.)

But I’ll also post a few favourites right here, since some of you might not be Facebookers, and that sure is okay, too!

The elder of the two boys, Sam, has a birthday just two days away from the Bear’s. And watching him, and listening to him, it was just so neat to see how very similar they are… such similar slender body types (unlike their more tough and tank-like little bros) occasionally giving the same cheezy grins… asking heaps of questions… and energetic! {The Bear has started saying “you remember when I was three and … ” as if his third year of life is a thing of the past… but we still have two more weeks!}

This little guy (Solomon) is just an absolute dollbaby. He’s got about six months on Tiger Tank, but they remind me a lot of each other, too. Tough little brothers! {I guess they have to be!}

I love these two shots extra specially! {Above and below…}

And this one (below) is one of my absolute favourites…

{Maybe the Hubs should start shooting adverts for children’s clothing or something. I’d like to buy that anchor shirt now, please.}

Christmas Card possibilities… (I’m always looking for those.)

And, if you’re looking for an example of two amazing parents, look no further…

I’ll let you all know when we get a little more than just a wee preview up on the Quiver Tree blog! Cameron and Megan — I’m so glad we got to hang out with you guys and enjoy your precious family! Hope you love the results!

xCC 

We Really Like Good Pictures {Photo Contest}

Aug 2, 2012 | Baby Photos, Reviews

When we decided to invest in a camera to take pictures of the little one we were expecting four years ago, I wasn’t half as excited as I should’ve been. Now that I look back on the years of memories that I have from the days when the Bear was just a wee little thing, and the glorious swaddled up images from the morning after the fateful nine-minute delivery of Tiger Tank, I am just so grateful that those memories are captured, especially since we’re now thousands of miles away from where any of them took place.

{Can you believe this is the Bear? Totally what the Tank looks like right now!}

Now that we are able to not only take quality pictures, but also print them out on high quality photo paper or on a gallery-wrapped canvas, (ya know, in the Quiver Tree Gallery) I have realized that I value that investment even more. It has already happened a couple of times that folks have brought in pictures that weren’t captured particularly well, and the Hubs has had to discuss with them the likelihood that printing them on a big old canvas might not come out as nicely as they might be hoping. Sometimes the images are just low-resolution, other times (in addition to the low-res problem) feet have been cut off or the angles are strange — and I remember that I’m a rather fortunate gal to have a Hubs that knows how to use a camera very well.

I digress. But it seems that’s what I do best!

I just caught wind of a photo contest I wanted to tell you guys about. Shutterfly has had a photo contest running for a few weeks now, and there are two weeks left. Each week they have a different photo theme — this week it’s Sports & Activities (7/30 to 8/5) and next week it’s Parties & Celebrations (8/6 to 8/12).

{Water Fun was last week — wish I’d taken a moment to send this in!}

They’re giving away prizes each week, but the Grand Prize winner will win a trip for 4 to the Bahamas, which will include a 4 night stay and a family photo shoot! Score. I wish Quiver Tree Photography was the outfit responsible for doing that shoot. (Preez?)

Anywho, you just need to head over to Facebook, like Shutterfly and upload a photo to enter. Apparently you’ll get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering, but I don’t know what dat is. 🙂 You can enter this week and again next week… so if you have a moment, I think you should go for it. And if you’re not already a family of four, I have a suggestion or two about who you can invite to join you if you win. 😉

The official rules are right here. And I feel like a responsible adult for taking a moment to share them.

And after this photo contest is done, I’m thinking I should maybe host one right here with a giveaway. Would you send in a photie for a chance to win a prize? I’m thinking the odds would be in your favour ’round these parts!

xCC

This Little Love of Mine {Actual Gender News!}

Aug 1, 2012 | The Good Word, The Parenthood

I look out the window that’s high overhead and see a gray sky. Scotland comes to mind and I’m flown away briefly to a few gray memories, before I journey back to the reality on the TV screen on the wall. A large metal fan oscillates back and forth, looking for a new direction to blow a little cool air. The lights are dim, and it draws my attention to the wall where it’s mounted. These walls have been painted pink. I smile.

I focus again on the black and white images on the screen. My brow furrows a little as I try to make sense of them.

There’s the bladder. Those are the kidneys. A mouse moves across a screen to direct my attention to two black circles.

The room quiets again, occasional boops and beeps breaking the monotony of the fan, gentle and steady, back and forth. I can see a spine, a rib cage.

This is an arm right here. Pulled up, almost behind the head on this side.

I smile because I’m laying on a table, my belly exposed and covered in gel, both of my arms are stretched back, hands cupped behind my head.

The baby is like me.

{Our first tiny heartbeat, almost four years ago… wow!}

HH stares at the screen with great interest, glances over and teases me for being teary-eyed.

“I can’t help it! It’s just so amazing!” I wipe away tears. Why try not to marvel? These glimpses into this secret world never cease to amaze me. This sacred sanctuary where fearfully and wonderfully, this precious life is being knit together, right here.

I wipe tears, keep staring.

Through the blur and static a face emerges briefly. There’s the face! See?

There’s an ear, a foot, we clearly see the tibia and fibula inside a tiny little leg. This is glorious.

“What’s the scale of that, to actual size?” I ask as she measures the thigh bone.

“That one? That measures 4.5 cm.”

HH holds up his fingers with about four and a half centimeters of space in between.

“Wow! Oh liefie.” This Afrikaans word is the first to come to mind — in my mind I hear old friends saying it to their small children, like “Lovey” or “Honey” or “Dear” but perhaps with a connotation of smallness. It sounds like the word for Love, as if you’re saying “Little Love.”

This little love is there on the screen — the tiny person, created out of love, who’ll someday be walking, talking breathing, from love. Love.

And I sway back and forth like the fan — thinking about asking, uncertain of whether I want to. There’s just one more detail about this little love we don’t know for sure yet that I sure would love to know.

We see crossed feet, I smile and marvel. We listen to the heartbeat and watch lines move across the screen. Like a tiny train, chugga-chugging in our direction, about to change our lives forever, the precious heart of this little love quickly beats, and I remember hearing the Bear’s heartbeat for the first time more than four years ago. Suddenly, everything was different.

My mind wanders back to that epic moment all those years ago, and then the big question comes, “Now did you guys want to know the gender?”

HH laughs and I grin from ear to ear. “Yes please!”

She moves the wand around for a while longer, an adorable little bottom emerges, I furrow and stare at the screen, almost holding my breath.

I am so thankful. And I’ll be thankful for whoever the Lord wants to give us — but I sure have been hoping for someone I could dress in ruffles and pink and polka-dots.

We receive the news, she types it across the screen, prints out a picture with a pointing arrow, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. I cry.

HH says his mind flashes forward to a wedding day in the distant future.

Two hours later, I’m back at home, and we’ve spoken to the grandparents far away in South Africa. They smiled across the computer screen and clapped their hands. I’m now holding my phone up to the lips of that heartbeat we first heard four years ago. He speaks it into the mouthpiece, not quite loud enough for his grandpa to hear it across town:

I’m gonna have a sister!

Sounds like pink and polka-dots are in our near future… and I’m ecstatic.

xCC

 

 

Jesus Says Come

Jul 30, 2012 | The Good Word

It was in church two weeks ago when it hit home. (Again.) No matter what the wakeup time, something (or some little person) occasionally seems to hinder us starting the half-hour journey early enough. We’d hurried in a few minutes late, plonked down on an empty row, and I was busy trying to simultaneously sing and worship and make sure the Tank was still with us and not wandering off.

At the end of a time of worship where I felt mostly distracted, and guilty for being distracted, the Pastor reminded us that Jesus simply says, “Come.”

Now if you’re anything like me, which I hope for your sake, you’re not, you sometimes feel like you’re just not good enough to just come. I think about all the things I haven’t done — all the places where I’ve fallen short, and they form a collective whisper in the back of my mind. The more haven’ts there are, the louder it gets, until there’s a resounding shout:

You’ve got to get it together before you can get to Jesus!

I’ve been tired — especially being pregnant — I haven’t been getting up early in the morning to read the Word. I haven’t been spending the time I think I should be spending in prayer. I didn’t take the opportunity to show love in this or that situation. I was worn out after a week of hospitality and didn’t accomplish these things on the list which I think are important and make me good enough to stand before God.

And those words from a Pastor with a microphone were the tip of an iceberg of truth that a gentle God-voice kept whispering to my heart, sure and steady, for perhaps another week or so — long enough for me to believe it:

You’ll never really get it all together! Just get to Jesus!

Jesus said Come. Come to Me, all you weary and heavy-laden. Come to Me, let Me give you rest. And none of those verses about coming were followed by a list of haven’t’s and didn’t’s which would disqualify a person from being allowed to just come.

And for that matter — I can approach the throne of God, however and whenever, but never because of what I have done or what I did do. This, friends, is why Grace is so Amazing. I can approach the throne of God because when He looks at me, He sees Jesus. The things I’ve done and the things I’ve left undone, my should’ve’s and my shouldn’t’of’s… they are all covered by the One who gave His life for me. I wear His righteousness to approach the throne. Like the beautiful words of an old hymn, this truth sings to my soul:

Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.*

Can I get a hallelujah? Is that not an absolutely glorious piece of good news to start your day, your week, or even the rest of your life with?

You don’t have to have it all together to meet with Jesus! Even if you’ve been feeling far away, if you’ve been struggling to walk out what you believe, even if for a season you’ve been questioning His truth — Jesus says Come. Come, come, come.

He loves you. He wants to meet with you. He has a plan for you.

Today, tomorrow, the day after — the invitation still stands.

Come.

Will you?

xCC

 

*Before the Throne of God Above, words by Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863.

Travelling with Small Children

Jul 25, 2012 | The Parenthood

I think this post is pretty long overdue. Every time we go on a big old trip that approaches the twenty-four hours of travel landmark and wipes us out for a while, I think to myself Self, you need to write down some tips about traveling with children, first because other people could benefit from your mistakes experience and second, because you will probably need to go back and read those tips again in six months or so. When we got back from this most recent trip to Scotland and a friend asked me for traveling advice, I decided I would finally put my fingers to the keys on the subject.

Ready to dive in?

{Look! Getting ready for the Bear’s first ever trip to South Africa…}

Travelling Tips for Anybody

I’ll start with some tips that have a wider breadth of application — I know not all of you dear readers are likely to be toting a toddler on your next trip to Vegas.

  1. Pack Light :: “I really, really regret packing light for this trip.” — said No One. Ever. Especially if you’re lugging your kid’s gear along with your own stuff, but even if it’s just you, you will appreciate the easy stroll up to the check-in desk or slipping one reasonably sized bag into the trunk of the car.
  2. Plan Ahead :: You really will save yourself a heap of backache and headache while you’re away if you give some good thought to the clothes that you are going to put in your suitcase. As much as I hate it, planning outfits really is the easiest way to make good choices. Think about how you can get multiple wears out of what you’re packing so that you’re getting more bang for your packing buck. Although I almost always regret not throwing one or two things in the suitcase, it is often the case that even if I’d thrown an extra ten things in those hectic five minutes before our departure, I still wouldn’t have chosen the items that I end up wishing I had on the trip.
  3. Pack Early, Go to Bed :: Staying up late the night before a long trip to pack is just plain silly. Plan a slot of time a few days before the trip to get the bulk of your packing done, then you’ll just have to grab the toiletries and stuff you use every day the night before/the morning you leave.
  4. Remember the basics :: Don’t forget comfortable shoes for your travels. Pack toiletries into something that closes/zips so that a little leak doesn’t get your whole bag soggy. I think the travel size containers for shampoo, etc. are totally worth the 50 cent price tag.
  5. Use Trial and Error :: Don’t be afraid to try packing more than one way to see how things fit.
  6. The airplane is the desert :: No, seriously. Do you know what the conditions are at 30,000 feet? They’re so dry it’s like the desert. So pre-hydrate before you hop on and then re-hydrate continuously throughout the flight. If the flight attendants aren’t dropping by with water, get up and get some. You need it. Your kids need it. It will help you feel better on the other side.

There are some more great tips on packing here.

{Arriving in Amsterdam last month…shew-whee, tired!}

Good Travelling Starts at Home

  1. Forgive the lecture, but if your kids can’t sit still at home, do you really expect them to do it in the car or on an airplane? In preparation for your travels, pay attention to how much your kids are listening and obeying you. You might need to spend a little extra time training them in the way they should go before you get going. Make it fun — build a pretend car or airplane with chairs from the kitchen on the floor in the living room. Use your normal belts as seat belts and practice focusing on a sitting-still activity for an hour… get your kids excited about the fun they’re going to have, flying on an airplane, or riding in the car.
  2. Practice the sermon before you hit the pulpit: Find some sitting-still activities that actually work for your kids. DO try this at home. Practice getting small children to sit in your lap for a while if they’re going to be lap-kids on the plane. Bring a pair of headphones that fit your kid’s ears. The ear buds they pass out on the flight don’t stay in wee ears. Ever. Even if your headphones don’t work on the flight system, you can use the headband-style headphones to hold the ear buds in place.
  3. Get strategic with those carry-ons :: Are there books that always engage your toddler? Would a new sticker book, some stamps and a stamp pad or a colouring book keep your child entertained for a good wee while? A kiddie laptop that has a heap of games on it or downloading a few kiddie movies onto your laptop or iPad are sometimes very worthwhile investments. Don’t count on in-flight entertainment to take care of this for you — sometimes it’s broken and sometimes you’re on a flight with one screen per twenty people and the in-flight movie is Thor. #Thathappenedpeople

We are That Family has a Mega-Tip List for Road Trips right here.

{A Nursing Pillow like The Boppy can really help a baby sleep nicely on your lap. Look at that teeny-tiny Bear!}

Especially for the Small Ones

    1. Count Diapers, Add Extra :: A flight delay once stranded my sister and she was down to the last diaper. A fellow passenger was kind enough to hold her kid while she went to the bathroom to scoop the poop out of a slightly soiled diaper so that they could make it the rest of the flight. I’ve never seen diapers for sale at Duty Free, and I am pretty sure you’re not going to find them on that cart the flight attendants push down the aisle. Make sure there are extras in your carry-on! You just don’t know what’s going to happen when you travel, so be prepared.
    2. Pack Extra Clothes for the kids AND you :: You might not be likely to spill juice on yourself, but it’s twice as likely your kid’s knee might find its way to his tray table, or yours. Baby spit-up… a juicy diaper… I don’t need to go on. Just put a little something extra in the carry on, for everybody.
    3. Cabin pressure changes :: This is specifically an issue for babies and very young children. You know how your ears sometimes have trouble equalizing when you’re changing altitude? That hurts baby’s ears even more. If he or she likes a pacifier/binker/dummy, try your best to remember to give it to baby specifically at takeoff and landing, and other times in between. Nursing, sucking the thumb or giving baby something to drink are alternatives that can help keep the ears equalizing as the plane rises to cruising altitude or makes the descent.
    4. Throw out the schedule (sort of) :: Sometimes the staying on schedule will help keep your baby happy during a long trip, but other times, it just isn’t going to work. Don’t stress too much about the fact that you’re getting off-schedule if you’re the scheduling type — the fact that you are stressed will make your kid more stressed. And if you’re changing time zones, you’ll have to re-work the schedule on the other side anyway. If they will sleep, let them sleep!
    5. Snacks. Are. Awesome. :: We kind of throw out the eating rules when it’s travel time, too. I will not fight with my kid over eating Delta’s vegetarian pasta. If he wants the dinner roll with some butter and that’s as far as we get, great. I’ll save the cheese and crackers when I pass in the tray and maybe he’ll eat those later. Pack plenty of extra snacks, because when all else fails, passing the fifteen-month-old who’s hollering in the backseat M&Ms one at a time might just save the day. {Did I ever tell you that it was about 11 hours on the road to get from our place in Gordon’s Bay to the Hubs’ folks in Bloemfontein?}
    6. Happy makes happy. :: I hope I’m not the first to break the news to you. You’re a parent now, and with little ones, your preferences kind of come second. Communicate with your spouse about how you can take turns or do shift duty with the kids. {I’ve seen spouses fighting on airplanes about who should be watching the kid. Tweren’t purty.} Know that it is very possible you will not get to watch all of, or even part of, a movie on the flight, but that’s okay. Because you, and all the other passengers, will be happy that your kids are happy. So go ahead and absorb this present reality — by the time they hit three or four they might watch movies and be very low maintenance — but until you reach that golden point in time, make peace with the possibility that you might not get to dive into that vacation book just yet.
    7. Grab that Bassinet :: You know those funny holes on the walls where the plane is divided up into sections,the ones right in front of the bulkhead seats? A lot of airlines have little cots that fit into those holes, or strap onto a table that folds down from the wall. It is DEFINITELY worth asking the airline if you can reserve the bassinet seats as soon as you book your flight, if you have a baby that even just *might* sleep in there for a little while. You’ll be thankful you don’t have to hold them the entire time! Ask when you make a reservation, ask again when you’re checking in… ask the flight attendants when you board… it doesn’t hurt to keep asking if you don’t manage to snag those precious seats right away.
    8. Perhaps consider one of these! (FlyeBaby Hammocks — has anybody ever tried this? I am thinking it could be a very worthwhile investment if we are going to travel early on with wee Collie #3.)

The Sermon in a Nutshell: Thinking through your travel schedule, being prepared, communicating with travel companions — even the small ones — and planning ahead are really the keys to a successful trip. If you are able to drive while the kids are sleeping or take an overnight flight where they’re likely to be flat out asleep for seven or eight hours, great. Even if it’s the case that you have very little control over the travel schedule, just being mentally prepared for what’s ahead is usually a big help. It might even prevent you from the sudden realization that you’ve suddenly growled – aloud – at the airport security agent who is just doing her job, and just asked you to take the shoes off of your eighteen-month-old while you’re juggling folding down the stroller to send it through the x-ray thing and trying to keep an eye on the other two bags that you’re toting along as well. Not that I personally know anything about that. Ahem.

Have you spent any time traveling with children? Have any tips to add to the list? Please leave a comment!

xCC

 

Other Helpful Links:

The TSA’s website has a big section devoted to Travelling with Children — this is where you’ll find regulations about bringing juice/breastmilk/formula and other stuff aboard.

This website is all about Flying With Kids. Who’da thunk it?