I will make weak things become strong unto you

How does your appearance make you feel?

Does it make you feel good when you look nice?

I think we all can feel a little better when we look nice. I do. But then a series of events caused a medical condition that over the course of several months left me with large ugly scars on both my shins.

They aren't pretty. But they do look better now than they did 3 years ago, that's for sure.

But even still, I choose not to let it stop me. I don't hide because something about me is different. I don't let the flaws on my legs stop me from living my life.

I shouldn't let any of my flaws stop me or create a negative view of myself. Scars don't mean someone is a bad person. It means we are living life and learning.

I have lots of other flaws too, ones that I recognize and am trying to work through, but might not be as easily seen. We all have things we struggle with. Part of learning compassion is learning that everyone has something that isn't quite strong yet.

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (Ether 12:27)

I don’t understand fully how a weakness could be made into a strength. But the Lord says it can be done, so I believe Him, and I'm working on understanding how that works.

I heard on a podcast recently weaknesses being described in a way I hadn't thought about before:

"Our weaknesses are only our strengths overused." (Jody Moore)

Isn't that eye opening? I also love the work of Carol Tuttle and I believe her when she talks about how our weaknesses are actually our strengths. I am a perfectionist. No, I am thorough! I am lazy. No, I have a relaxed nature! I always put my foot in my mouth. No, I am capable of speaking up.

When we view ourselves in a positive light, it is beautiful and freeing.

I believe growth comes from love. Love yourself and allow yourself to grow. God loves us and gently encourages us to be better, not the opposite.

I'm grateful for my hope in Christ and the reality of His resurrection, which opened the way for the rest of us to gain this same resurrection, the unifying and perfecting of our body and spirit for the rest of eternity, flawless and good.

Our flaws, imperfections, weaknesses don't have to define us. We can still dance with ugly scars on our legs. We can still do our work on the earth though we may stumble and sometimes fall. Life is learning how to get back up again and keep trying. With Christ we can, and heal in the process.

18 Months Old: Eli

Wow, I can't believe it!  Our baby is a year and a half old!  He is getting so big and growing so fast and learning so much!  He is just awesome and we love him so much.  :)

Here's some things about Eli at 18 months old:

• 33" tall, 27 lbs -- 75ish percentile for height, weight, and head circumference 
• sign language: new words he's learned -- balloon, cold, hot, again, rain, shh
• speaking: "yeahyeahyeah", please ("puh"), milk ("mm"), daDA (inflection on the second syllable), "blue", "Eli", "red", "adidas", "ball", "ick", "go", "nononono"
• animal noises: doggie (snort), bear (rah!), monkey (EH eh eh), snake (ss ss ss), pig (snort), cow (oo), cat (higher pitched oo)
• basketball -- He LOVES basketball. He can recognize a basketball or hoop anywhere. He loves to watch it and he's really good at playing too! He can shoot, dunk, steal, catch and dribble!
• folds his arms for prayers, and about half the time he waits to ask for things until we're done praying
• I taught him to smile for pictures by going "eee!"
• no longer puts things directly in his mouth -- finally! I wondered when that would end and it finally has.
• he's a stinker, he does things he's not supposed to -- climbs on the arms of couches, puts magnets in his mouth -- and looks directly at us waiting for a response
• he's sneaky -- tries to run out of the room at bedtime
• likes to brush his teeth, but doesn't really like mint flavor toothpaste
• somersault -- Uncle Weslin taught him how!
• puts buckets, baskets and laundry hampers on his head (he used to hate putting things on his head). He also loves to put his blanket over his head and run through the house to us.
• plays the piano -- He climbs up onto the piano bench, sits down and plays, and occasionally reaches up to the hymnbook to turn the pages, then sits down to play a different song
• answers the front door
• knocks on doors
• loves books -- with flaps, buttons or just pages!
• food -- loves grapes, hot dogs, cheese, milk, chips and dip, bread, pizza, fries and ketchup, fruit snacks, Eegee's, popcorn
• loves to climb on the playground and slide down the slides
• loves to climb up stairs
• he can say how old he is -- when we ask he holds up one finger to say "one"
• dances to the intro music of shows we watch
• loves to give high fives, pounds, and kisses -- if one person asks for one he usually will want to give one to the rest of the people around
• gives kisses to stuffed animals, and sometimes animals in books 
• loves exit signs, stop signs, the Arizona A, Arizona wildcat symbol, Steelers logo -- he can see and recognize them anywhere!
• knows and can point out clocks
• points out the moon
• likes Batman -- sings the theme song and can point out the logo
• likes to play daddy's guitars -- they are both set up in one room in two corners and he goes from one corner to the other and plays them back and forth
• still LOVES balls
• and still LOVES balloons
• loves to see pictures of mommy and daddy 
• points out pictures of his aunties and uncles
• loves to sit on the couch (he climbs up of course)
• pretends to talk on the phone -- holds it up to his ear
• he likes to point to things and have us tell him what it is -- pop-up toy with 5 animals, sport decorations in his room (basketball, football, soccer, baseball - in that order), stacker toy colors of each piece
• singing songs -- he loves to sing and do the actions to Popcorn Popping, Give Said the Little Stream, Book of Mormon Stories, The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
• likes to open and smell scented fragrance wax
• loves to play the "smell my feet" game -- he sticks his foot in the air or toward our face and scrunches his nose and sniffs as if to tell us to smell his foot. he giggles at our reaction of his feet being smelly! After a bath we do an excited "oo!" like his feet smell good, and he still loves it
• likes playing hide and seek! -- when we ask where his hands are he hides them and then reveals them (he's good at that especially during diaper changes), when we ask were Eli is he covers his eyes with his hands and then uncovers them, and he likes to play "hide Huggy Bear" where we tell him to wait in his room and we hide Huggy Bear and he comes out and finds him!
• loves swimming and bath time!
• wears size 18 month shirts but 18m size pants are way too long, 12-18m pants fit, but he can wear 18m or 24m shorts!
• finally drinks milk from a cup instead of having to use a bottle (took a painful day or two, but he's fine with it now!)
• still sleeping through the night and takes a long nap in the middle of the day (usually about 2 but sometimes 3 hours!)
• plastic surgeon says everything with the growth of his head is progressing fine and looking great! he's still got lots of growing to do and no sign of needing any more fixing (next follow-up in 6 months)

13 Months Old: Eli

Eli is growing up so fast!  He's so much fun.  He's a little tyrant though, he gets into EVERYthing!  Here's a little but about 13-month-old Eli:

We've finally baby-proofed our kitchen cabinets, so the kitchen is relatively safe for him (and sane for us).  He loves going in there and looking at himself in the reflection of the oven, and running around the dining table.  He is a master at walking!  And even runs on occasion, when he's really excited about something.  He throws just about everything.  And wants to play with everything he sees us using.  He's not saying words yet, though I think he's really close.  He tries to say things like "train" and "light" but doesn't really have interest in saying much else, that we know of.  He LOVES going outside!  He practically begs us to take him out, every day!  He still loves opening and closing things, like my laptop and every door that exists, the mailbox, and the toilet if I'd let him.  He has this stacker toy he's learned how to use really well!  And he can press buttons on things, even little ones.  He knows the remotes control the TV and has started pointing them at it.  And he dances when we sing.  I think he likes clocks and wants to play with them.  Even though he's not talking yet he makes the cutest sounds.  I love listening to him.  He loves stop signs!  He sees them across the street and points to them because he wants us to take him to go see it up close.  He knows the sign for "train" and stops what he's doing when he hears one and does the sign!  He's doing so great in his swim class.  He enjoys it.  And the teacher always compliments him on how smooth he goes under water!  He loves playing with normal sized soccer balls.  Usually he picks it up and throws it (not very far) or will push it with his hands, but sometimes he kicks it and it's really cute!  He's down to one nap, and has been for a few weeks now.  He was ready for a little while before that even.  It's been nice though, now we don't have to live our lives revolved around his naps.  I can actually get things done, that is if I need to go somewhere.  Getting things done around the house is an entirely different story!

1 Year Old: Eli

He's technically not a baby anymore!  At his 1-year doctor appointment he was 30 inches long and 23 pounds, both in the 75th percentile!  That's incredible, considering his past markings.  He is our little growing boy!  He is doing great and is super healthy, and I'm so glad!

Some notable things he's up to:

• Signs "please" -- it's adorable
• Loves doors -- open, close, open, close, open, close....
• Still loves lights, and points to them often
• Speaking of pointing, he has learned to point where he wants to go or what he wants and someone will take him there or give it to him
• Drinking normal milk!  He loves it.
• Can stand up from the floor without help!  He sticks his butt up in the air and stands from there.  It's super cute.
• Clapping!  All by himself.
• Waves "hi" and "bye"
• Pro at holding his bottle, and tilting it up so he gets everything that's in it
• Wants to stand all the time -- including bath time!
• Puts toys and anything he can hold over the baby gate at our hallway.  He must be training for basketball!
• Smiles when he sees the flash of a camera!
• Looooooves his grandpas, and Uncle Weslin --- because he knows they will take him to see whatever he wants to see
• Has a fascination with exit signs!  If there is one around he can find it.  And he wants to see it!
• He knows: 
• exit sign
• helicopter
• daddy
• mommy
• grandma/grammy
• grandpa
• mustache
• come here
• give/bring it to (me or someone else)
• go get (daddy)
• outside
• please
• milk
• dance
• bite
• (and more I'm sure that I didn't think of...)

I can't believe it's been a whole year!  I love my little baby-turned-toddler, oh so fast!

11 Months! (Baby Eli)

Eli is 11 months old already!  I say this every month but I just can't believe how the time flies.  But at the same time it's going by at a perfect rate.  I love our silly little boy!  Some things he's up to:

• He loves to close doors, and he's figured out how to open them too.  Doors, cupboards, drawers, anything with knobs!
• Speaking of doors, he loves to go outside, and since Daddy takes him out the front door sometimes, most days if not all he plays over by the front door and slaps it because he knows it can open and that outside is on the other side.  Today I saw him putting his fingers in the crack to try to open it.  He's so smart!
• Also on that note, he likes to slap the windows too.  He plays a lot by the back door which is a sliding glass door (and slaps it) and constantly rolls over on his changing table to slap the window that is right by it.  Sometimes Daddy takes him to the window that faces the street to watch cars go by and he slaps it too.  He likes to go outside and wants to be out there!
• He loves to go over to the piano and reach up and press down on a few of the notes he can reach with one or each hand.  It especially attracts his attention when I'm playing.  It's so cute and so fun!  I love seeing him reach up and play and hear the "dink dink dink" of his piano playing.
• He's learning the art of fake crying!  We're trying to teach him that he doesn't need to cry when he wants something...
• Randomly this month he started giggling like crazy when we would put him in his crib at night along with our wrapping in a blanket and goodnight song rituals.  He immediately starts to roll over so he can reach to the side of the crib to stand up!  It also makes him laugh when we pin him down on his back.  He thinks it's funny!  What a silly kid!  We loved when he would smile when we started singing our goodnight song, but now he just tries to get up like it's a game!
• Literally the first thing he does when we put him down for bed or for a nap is get up.  He instantly rolls over, grabs the side of the crib and stands up.
• He LOVES the bath!  Still!  He is the most talkative when the bath is turned on.  He gets so excited!  He squeals and babbles and wants to run/crawl/whatever quickly over to the tub and play in it.
• We've been going to a swim class still.  He's doing awesome and loves it.  He goes under water like a champ!
• He's also a champ at eating solids!  He eats a variety of foods, even some to chew.  He's doing great!  He even had (a lot of) Thanksgiving dinner!  That was fun.
• And he's gotten pretty good at picking things up and put them in his mouth to eat.  He still drops some on occasion, but he's improved a lot!  We started him with puff snacks, but he's even eating little squares of cheese now!
• He finally caught on to blowing bubbles in swim class (and does it! Sometimes I can see actual bubbles).
• I think because of that he's discovered new noises he can make with his mouth, namely a motorboat sound (or farting sound).  He does that one a lot.  He did it for like a week straight. 
• He also makes a blowing noise by blowing his bottom lip out....  It's cute.
• And he makes a sort of popping noise with his lips.  That one he does a lot recently.  It's sort of his "go-to" noise.
• His also "go-to" noise is a clicking sound, with his tongue on the top of the inside of his mouth.  Kind of like a "tisk-tisk" noise?
• He says "momomom" a lot lately!!  He started doing it again and does it frequently.  We think he actually means "Mom" when he says it...  It just seems like he says it when he wants my attention.  Some of the time at least!
• He really likes playing peek-a-boo.  It makes him giggle a ton!  It's super cute that he plays with us...  A couple times he has walked out from behind something and I'll react and he'll go back behind it (the couch, door frame, wall) and then peek back around with a smile when I react again...  So fun!
• We have a couple normal sized plastic pumpkins and Eli loves to play with them.  He crawls over to one and pushes it across the floor and crawls after it and does it again.
• He loves to be thrown in the air by Daddy!  Well, by Mommy too but Mommy doesn't do it very often because I'm not very strong and he's getting heavy!  Eli will smile and giggle and laugh in the air when Daddy throws him up!  It's so so so cute!
• The other day I sneezed next to Eli and he laughed so hard!  So I proceeded to do a series of fake sneezes, all of which he thought was hysterical and laughed so hard at!  So funny!
• He likes to play the chase game.  It's cute how he'll be walking along the coffee table and sometimes when we're behind him he'll look back at us to see if we're there or coming and I'll say "I'm gonna get you!" and he'll squeal and run away, and look back, and squeal while he runs down the table, etc.
• He has been walking along ALL of our walls.  He can pretty much walk all the way around our living room (and down the hall if we let him!).
• Tables don't stop him because he has learned how to duck. 
• We bought a walker/activity toy thing, which he did NOT want to walk with the first time we showed it to him (he lifted his legs up like a sitting position while Adam held him in place... so funny!).  But a week or two later he was going to it on his own and walking with it by himself!  It was so cute!!  He would smile and giggle because he was so proud of himself and he was so happy.  And he did it all himself, I only helped him steer.
• We also had been working with him this month on walking while holding only one hand of ours.  He started doing really well!
• And we even finally got him to stand unassisted!
• But the BIG NEWS is that HE STARTED WALKING!!!  He took his first steady step last week and since then he has gotten the hang of it and has been walking around everywhere!  He's still learning and nervous sometimes, but he's doing so awesome and is pretty brave!
• He has CUTE little cheeks and I just want to kiss them all day!
• I love love love hearing the pitter patter of his feet when he walks on hard surfaces!!!!
• He still fits into 6 month clothes.  But we have some 12 month that he also wears.
• He's getting the hang of brushing teeth!  When I take him to brush his teeth he opens his mouth for me and even doesn't bite down on the toothbrush long enough for me to do a quick soft scrape of all his gums and tongue.
• When he wakes up from a nap we find him standing in his crib (sometimes crying, so sad!) and when I walk over to him he wraps his arms around me!  He gives us hugs a lot, it's so sweet!
• He's still sleeping through the night.  It's great.  And he's having two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  They seem to be getting shorter maybe...  But he definitely needs those two naps still.
• His new trick is pointing!  He points at Mommy and at Daddy and at lights...  Sometimes he'll point and then wave.  It's so cute!
• He also makes this really cute cheesy face.  He lifts his chin and squints his eyes and shows his teeth.  We love it!
• Another new trick is getting down from the couch!  He somehow knows how to go backwards, feet first and on his tummy, to get down.  It's awesome.  He's awesome!

Eli is growing up so fast!  I'm loving every new milestone and trick and thing that makes him laugh and happy...  It's so fun watching him learn and explore and try to figure things out and see what he's interested in.  He's growing up and we love him to pieces!!!

Eli's 9 Month Dr Appt Results

Eli had his 9 month appointment with the pediatrician this morning.  He's doing great!  It took a little while but he is bulking up and growing like crazy.  And he's perfectly on time with all his developments (something I had worried about prior to his surgery 3 months ago).  :)  According to the doctor's office Eli is:

19.8 pounds - 33-34%

28.3 inches - 47%

WOW!  Considering he was down to the 0% in weight and under 20% in height, that's awesome!

And he's growing lots of hair!  At least lots more than he used to have.  ;)

LOVE this kid!!!