Chosen Generation

My heart is heavy as a mom. I am not sure if it's the inundation of pretty pivotal news in a concentrated period of time or just these days that we are a'living' in, but I'm feeling overwhelmed.  

Beat down.  

Small.  

Irrelevant.  

In a world where people are massacred going to a movie.  In a country where our civil liberties are being taken away.  In an age where truth is being redefined and those that stand against it are said to be hating.  In a society that's teaching that there are no absolutes, but rather truth is based on feelings and is "fluid".  In a society where legislation is dictating what I can buy and what I can drink, yet informed consent is deemed "unconstitutional" when it means listening to the heartbeat of an unborn child.  Men would rather sit in their Lazy boys and play Xbox than stand for something courageous and women have exchanged being a Proverbs 31 woman for reading "50 shades of gray".  Our political choices have boiled down to choosing between a putz or a Socialist.  And maybe what's the scariest to me of all are the churches, the christian friends, the institutions that are standing idly by or even worse, encouraging this new culture.

I'm scared for my kids.  I look at their innocent eyes and feel guilty for the world that they are going to be raised in.  How can I ever give them enough courage to face the things in life that they're going to face?  How can I shield their eyes and their ears and their hearts from all of the lies they are going to be told?  How can I build up enough backbone for them to not sway in the torrential winds of wrong.  How can a mom and a dad take on the world and give their children something more than a foundation of mush and a legacy of mediocrity?  I've had to resolve myself to the fact daily that...I can't.

I have rediscovered something that I've known my whole life.  Prayer.  Through a small group of women in my life I've rediscovered the greatest gift I can give my children is the prayers that I pray for them.  Prayers for hope, a legacy greater than this world, a future that deviates from the norm.  When I open my Bible, I feel like I've just walked into Ann Taylor Loft on the first day of spring and I'm pointing to everything in the store saying "I want that one and that one and that one"..and I can have it all!  Praying scripture over my children has been one of the biggest things that I've found as a parent.  It's a holy form of plagiarism that I don't even think that God minds.  

Romans 12:11-13- God, I pray that Harper will not be lazy, but will work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.  God, I pray that she would be able to rejoice in You as her confident hope, that she would be patient in trouble and keep on praying.  

Romans 13: 13-14 Father, I thank you that my children belong to the day.  Let Gavin live a decent life for all to see.  I pray that he would not participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or sexual promiscuity and immoral living or quarreling or jealousy.  Instead, let Gavin clothe himself with the presence of the Lord Jesus and not indulge himself in evil desires.  

Colossians 3:12- Therefore as one of God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, may Gavin clothe himself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  

John 15:10-11- For God has not given Harper a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.  

Psalm 3:3- Father God, You are a shield for Gavin and Harper.  You are their glory and the lifter of their heads.

God didn't make a mistake.  God created Gavin to be born in 2010 and Harper to be born in 2012 for a reason.  God intended for them to be brought into this world for such a time as this.  My prayers for my children is that they are not a statistic of this day and time, but rather a catalysts for changing their generation for Christ.  

3 Months- July

In honor of the Olympics, Harper is sporting her red, white and blue for her 3 months pictures.  We are all very excited about the London Olympics this year.  It is BOTH of my kids' first Olympics!  

In Harper's third month, she is competing in the Baby Hundred Meter Rolling Over event as well as the Freestyle Kick Your Feet up and Stare At Them hurdles.  In the past few weeks she has discovered both her feet and her arm.  She will sit in her little bouncy seat and stair at both of them in such amazement.  

One of our favorite things about Harper this month is how much she talks.  Oh my goodness gracious!  This girl talks and talks and talks.  She will stare up at me when she is supposed to be eating and just start cooing and listening to her voice go up and down...and then she'll end with a really big, squealy inhale in.  I love it!  They're the most joyful little noises I have ever heard.  

Harper has also found something really special...her thumb.  Being a rehabed thumb-sucker myself, I know the draw of this addictive appendage.  She has just started sleeping unswaddled, so we'll sometimes look in the monitor and see her sleeping with her teeny little thumb in her mouth.  So, so cute!  Her legs are getting strong too and she's started standing everything now and then.  Matthew and I both love her fat little knees.

We have just started seeing little tiny glimpses of Harper and Gavin's relationship budding.  Gavin has always been really sweet with her, but we have just now started seeing her smile back at him.  He has a new habit of bringing her a little toy duck when she's sitting in her little bouncy seat in the morning.  Lately, he's been starting to try to pick her up by her tummy.  Matthew and I are never too far away, so we quickly come to her aid.  It's cute to hear her little fusses though as he's clearly disrupting her sitting, but then he'll laugh in silliness and she'll kind of make a happy little noise.  It won't be too much longer and they'll be little cohorts in crime.

I cannot even believe that it was only a few months ago- 18 to be exact- that we were celebrating Gavin turning 3 months old.

Dear Time, please slow down! 

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Milestone Alert!  Harper can officially roll over!  Oh man, I am such an annoying mother- I am totally about to brag all over the place about my super smart, beautiful and developmentally AWESOME little girl!  Before I had kids I would have totally rolled my eyes at myself, but now that I'm a mom...I guess I just don't care.  Roll away...cuz that's exactly what Harper was doing on Sunday!  

What you are looking at here, folks, is an actual picture of the actual first time that Harper ever rolled over in her life!  

She was chillin' in the middle of the couch (which wasn't previously an issues since she didn't roll yet) while I was doing something with Gavin.  I looked over and the girl totally went from her back to her tummy...and then just chilled there, like it was nothing.  Of course I screamed and made Gavin wonder for the millionth time in his life what could possible be wrong with his crazy mother.

Then I moved her to the floor- because clearly she can't ever be placed on the couch again unattended- and she did it again.  This time, she had enough oomph in her roll from her back to her tummy and then back to her back again!  Maybe it's from all of the Olympic trials we've been watching, seeing the gymnasts.  Well, whatever it is, I'll take it!  

 Now that she's an accomplished roller, she can't lay 10 seconds on her back without wanting to roll over onto her stomach.  And of course, every time she does it- even several days later- she gets a cheer from either her mommy, daddy or brother. 

I also must note that after perusing a few of my pictures, I would like to point out for everyone's clarification that we do actually wear clothes in the Cox house..and at times, full sets of them, which would include a shirt AND pants.  I love the picture below that shows them both in one of each...I promise that both pieces have a coordinating top and/or bottom, respectively.

The skies the limit, Harpie Girl.  Just don't grow up too fast!  

Scrapbook moments

How many times do I hear moms say about a cute thing that their kid did "oh that was so cute, I'm going to have to write that one down!"? Well, I guess you can't answer that question for me, but I will tell you that I hear it quite often.  With best of intentions I have said it myself but still have yet to write anything down.  Well, that's what's happening today folks.  My house is cluttered and messy and if I have one more stray piece of paper hanging around with anything written on it, I might just have to scream.  So here is my online scrapbook to record some Gavin moments from the past month or so that I hope that I always remember.

Gavin is becoming quite the big boy and as such is starting to do some of his own chores.  Among the things on Gavin's "to do" list are:

• Brushing his teeth (this usually consists of chewing on the end of his toothbrush and drooling until we have to change his shirt)
• Picking up his toys
• Getting the trashcan on trash day- this has become Gavin's official "job" at the Cox house.  He really likes it- and I must say he does it with pride.  Usually Gavin can go a little rogue when we take him outside- what kid wants to stay in their own front yard?  But when we tell him it's time to get the trashcan, he'll run straight to it, tilt the top towards him and take it straight into the garage.  Lately he's even gotten to where he'll point at it and start "talking" about it when we drive up if the trashcan is still out.  He takes ownership of his chore to say the least.

Another Gavinish tale is how he takes care of his little sister.  He's becoming quite the big brother which is a big job for a 20 month old.  He sometimes has some "Lenny" moments where he want to pat her a little harder than one might appreciate, but for the most part, he does a great job.  He likes to play with her on the floor and get in her face with a smile.  He gets almost 100% when we play the "where's harper" game where we ask him to point to her different body parts.  He is very excited to know that she has a mouth, nose and eyes just like him!  He takes his brotherly duties very seriously! The other day I asked him to bring Harper a toy and he absolutely outdid himself!  Gavin brought her 9 books, a stuffed dog, a move-and-crawl ball, a blue block, a little people lion, and a dust pan and broom. What was even more great was that he felt the need to put most of these on her face. 

Gavin is also quite literal and super smart.  It's amazing to see things start to "click".  You can tell he knows what you're talking about when you say certain things.  Like the other day when Matthew told him to clean his plate.  Matthew was actually telling him to eat the rest of his dinner, but Gavin took it to mean this...

He literally cleaned his plate but putting all of the things on his plate into the cup holder on his high chair.  Did I say that kid is smart?! 

He's a very avid golfer.

And while I admire his dedication to the sport, it's also very good to see that he also diverse in his love of sports.  As shown above, he enjoys mixing golf with basketball.  He will also put golf balls on his tee ball stand or use the golf clubs to find balls that have rolled under the couch.  How smart is this kid?

With this kids love of all things having to do with a ball, you can imagine how excited he was when we went to a "bouncy barn" a few weeks ago and he was able to play in a whole pool of balls!  I, however, was not- a worker came over and told me to get out of the ball pit- apparently there was a fear that I was going to crush all of the balls.  Oh well- at least I'm not a mom who's afraid of looking silly for her kids...a trait I'm afraid Gavin might come to appreciate less as he gets older...

While I was on maternity leave I was faced with a dilemma that I would love to be faced with everyday- what to do with all the time we had to spend together?!  It was so fun to get into a little daily routine with him and figure out things that we could do together.  We had a really fun time making up activities, one of them was playing with beans. 

Some other things that I hope I never forget...

• Gavin calling playgrounds "wee's".  We'll pass by a playground or slide and he'll go crazy trying to point out the "wee" to us.  I think he gets it from us saying "weee" when he slides down a slide.
• He's known the word basketball for a long time, which comes out kind of like "bayball".  When we go on walks around the neighborhood, he'll point out every single basketball goal in the neighborhood by saying "bayball....bayball...bayball."  
• Lately when we are taking a picture of him and we say "say cheese" he'll cover his eyes with his hands like he's playing "peek-a-boo".  I think it's because he's knows the flash is coming.  At least he smiles while he does it.  Maybe we can learn to photo shop out his hands...

I know he won't be little his whole life and these sweet baby/little boy moments are few and fleeting.  

I hope that I can always remember the sweet, soft feeling of his little baby cheeks when I kiss him and the weight I feel when he rests into my shoulder when we're singing him "Because He lives" at bedtime.  

I hope that even when I'm at my wits-end when he's a teenager I can still remember the sweet smile he has when I go to get him out of bed in the morning or the look on his face when he knows I'm being silly.   

He's a sweet little boy and even when he's a handful, I'm so glad that he's my handful!