Friday, June 19, 2009

A day in the life of Jesstine

Well, it's summer time and I am SO glad! Mommy gets to spend a lot of her time with me. She still takes me to the place with the big pool and lets me play with other kids while she goes away for a little while. When she isn't at the place with the big pool, we get to stay at home and play! I like it a lot! Here is an idea of what my typical days are like with Mommy:


I start my day out with some cuddle time with Mommy and my friend, Babe B. Dumpty. I love my cuddle time! I used to get tired of it pretty fast. Then I realized how comfy it is to snuggle up to Mommy!



After some cuddle time, I eat a hearty breakfast. Mommy has been letting me use my hands more often. I like it, but I am not so sure about fruits and veggies. I would rather have meat and cheerios!

After breakfast, Mommy lets me crawl around and play with my toys. My knees were starting to get really sore, so Mommy bought me some new things that are like long socks that cover my legs, but not my feet. I like them, but Daddy keeps calling me a Maniac.

After some play time I take a nap. Sometimes I don't want to sleep, so I like to stand up and see how long it will take Mommy to come and get me.
After my nap, Mommy and I either stay at home or she goes to the place with the big pool. Then we come home and I take another nap. Sometimes after my nap Mommy lets me play outside in the water. It is a lot of fun because it is really HOT out after my nap!
Well, it is time for me to play some more! I hope you all are enjoying your summer! Next week Mommy goes to college for a few days and I get to play at Grandmom's! Then it is off to swimming lessons! I LOVE swimming! Catch you all later!
Love,
Jesstine
(Mommy says Hi too!)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Rainbow Babies

I recieved a WONDERFUL email tonight from Shannon Barnes, director of Agape'Care Cradle. Agape'Care Cradle is the organization that helped us with funeral arrangements and so much more after the death of our oldest daughter, Babe B. Not too long after Babe B.'s death, we were asked to do an interview for a local TV program called, "It's All Good." The idea was to spread the word about Agape'Care and what they are doing to help families who have to endure the loss of a child. Agape'Care is a one of a kind service that is only located here in Wichita. We were only three weeks out from losing Babe B., but we agreed to the interview because we felt that Shannon and the Agape'Care volunteers helped us SO much, it was the least we could do! There were 3 other families that were interviewed that day. One of those was the family of my good friend, Cheri. As you know, Cheri recently delivered a healthy baby girl, Olivia Faith. Tonight I received the best news. All of the families interviewed for that program have now had a "Rainbow Baby," or a baby after the loss of another. One of the other mother's made us aware of this term that is used in certain circles. Here is a quote that she made. I find it to be so profound and want to share it with the world:


"Rainbow babies: In some circles, babies born to families after the loss of a child are referred to as 'Rainbow Babies.' The idea is that the baby is like a rainbow after a storm.'Rainbow Babies' convey the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn't mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope...."


Andrea Sanmiguel


My Rainbow Baby,Jesstine, is such a blessing and joy! When I think of rainbows, I am reminded of the rainbow that God sent to Noah after the great flood in Genesis.

"(12) And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: (13) I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between you and me and the earth......" Genesis 9:12-13
God made a "promise" that he would never again flood the entire earth. Now, I know that the rainbow in the case of "rainbow babies" is not necessarily a promise that it will never happen to one of us again. I do know that we have an even greater promise from God. A promise that through the death of His son, we have a home in Glory someday where we will see all those who have gone on before us. I have had a picture in my head of what it will be like to finally see my daughter's smile with the light of Heaven shining on her face!

This is all ironic because today's sermon today was about promises or covenants. I know after reading these words I will never look at a rainbow the same way again! AND I am proud to think of my Jesstine as a "Rainbow Baby."

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

10 Months Old!

Well, we have reached the 10 month mark! Jesstine is growing oh so fast! Not only that but, she is mobile!!!! She seems to have been doing a few things within the last day or two that seemed to take her forever to figure out. She is now crawling on her hands and knees. She only started to REALLY do that yesterday. She has also started to pull herself up to her knees to get to things. She can sit up from a crawling position (to Grandmom's delight), but you have to catch her doing it. She turns pages in her books (of which her favorites are either Elmo or the touch and feel books). She is just getting so big. We are still working on trying more and more finger foods. Last night my mom came over to eat some steak with us and then watch Jesstine while we went to a movie. Jesstine sat at the table with us and had some zucchini. She ate it up! So we gave her some mashed potatoes and she LOVED that! You can tell in the pictures below that most of it ended up on her face instead of in her mouth! She had a rough night last night with us gone. I think she is finally old enough to KNOW that Mommy and Daddy are gone. She cried and wouldn't take her bottle at bedtime. She didn't go to sleep until 9:15 (she is usually out at 7:45 if not just a little afterward). She woke up several times during the night and fussed for a few minutes then went back to sleep. She was up ready to go at 7. She has been pretty cranky today. Anyhow, on to the pictures! Here are just a few from the last day or two, plus the important 10 month picture!
This is a mashed potato face! She has been experimenting with silverware also. It usually ends up on the floor not too long after she gets them, but she likes to hold on to something while she is eating.
Here she is on her knees with one of her favorite toys. Any new mom's out there: this is the BEST toy for kids 6 months and older! It is an Incrediblock. You can either get a used one at a consignment store or on ebay or you can go online to www.fisherprice.com and get one. I think they are only available around Christmas time though.

This is just a close up I took of her after I got the 10 month picture out of the way. You can kind of see a little bow on her head. I have FINALLY found a way to keep bows in her hair! She got too smart for headbands. They are handmade from a site called etsy and are constructed using a baby snap clip! They are SUPER cute! Most of the time they stay in even in the smallest amount of hair and as long as they aren't to heavy. She has a bigger white one that falls out pretty easily.


And last but certainly not least, the 10 month picture. Believe it or not this was the first picture that I took. She got too wiggly after that!
As always we hope that all of you are well! Stay tuned for more pictures! She does something new everyday it seems like! Hopefully we can catch some of it on camera for your viewing pleasure. Happy Father's day to all you daddy's out there!
In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine Hutchins

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Lions and Cousins and Swimming Oh my!

It has been a busy few days in the Hutchins' household. Jesstine has been reaching a few milestones. If they aren't milestones, they are skills that stand out in our mind as things to remember. On Wednesday of this week, my Sister-in-law and nephews came up from Tulsa to spend a few days. We had a blast! Jesstine loved being around her cousins! Her and Ian have a special affectation for each other! She thinks Noah is funny too! The week was filled with a lot of joy for our little girl. She did a lot of swimming/water play! It started with her first swimming lesson on Tuesday and then we were in the water everyday since then except for Wednesday. It has been fun! We also discovered that she likes the swing! Luckily we have a playground in our housing development. The first time we tried it (a few months ago) she seemed overwhelmed. Now she giggles like crazy! Here is our week in pictures below! There are also a couple of videos. They were taken on my phone so the quality isn't great. I guess you gotta work with what you have right? Here you go:

Although this isn't much of a milestone, it is certainly a sign of things to come for our little girl. She is still crawling mostly on her belly, but having Charis around a couple of weekends ago was good exposure for her! She is beginning to pull herself up on a lot of things around the house!

This is something I was told she should be doing two months ago! I know it is different with every kid. She would attempt it earlier but it ended up looking more like a victory pose or something with her hands held together high above her head! Now we can say that she really claps! (Notice her waving to Aunt Jenni as she passes that way)


On Thursday when Jenni, Noah and Ian were here we went to the zoo! It is always a little dicey with kids this age. You never know what they are going to take an interest in or not. Jesstine is at this stage where everything in the animal kingdom is either a cat ("tat") or a dog ("daww"). The zoo was mostly made up of dogs for her (including this lion). I was able to get some great pictures of the lions! This was right after he finished taking his bath (I also have a picture of him with his tongue hanging out. Anakin would approve!)

Jesstine in her zoo finest! She was actually wearing a giraffe outfit Grandmom picked up for her before she was born. The hat is one of the WONDERFUL Gymboree hand me downs from the Hanson's. We really appreciate all of the clothes they have given us! This hat got a lot of use this week (notice it is in some later pictures).

Here is Jesstine's buddy Ian (the little boy not the Orangutan)! He is snuggling up to this hairy ape! We were amazed at how close the Orangutans and Gorillas came up to the glass. It gave us a great look and some great photo opportunities.

Here is Ian loving on Jesstine! Notice she doesn't mind a bit! She actually relishes the attention!

This is kind of an early birthday present for Jesstine from her Grandmom. Grandmom already has a big spring horse that she got for the boys last Christmas. She found this one online and couldn't pass it up! If you will look at an earlier post where I compare pictures of Jesstine and her Daddy, you will notice that he TOO had a horse like this as a little boy! I am hoping she will get some great use out of it! Compare the look on her face with that picture as well!

Here is only a snippet of the swimming that we have done this week. It is also my chance to brag. There were two other little babies at swimming lessons. Jesstine was the second oldest by mere weeks. She was probably the most advanced swimmer (such as it is at this age). The swimming instructor commented on how babies generally kick their legs together until about 10 months when they start kicking independently. Jesstine is so happy in the water! She is already kicking her legs independently. I have mentioned how she even sticks her face in with no cajoling! This week was no exception! Jenni taught us a way to put her under without her swallowing so much of the pool! Too bad you can't do that in these little pools. This was shortly before she swallowed some water and coughed so much she threw up in the pool! Poor girl! As you can tell she still had fun!

This is another toy that Grandmom got for Jesstine! Grandmom finds the coolest things! We were unsure about it and because it hooks up to the hose, it puts out cold water. She still had a blast as you can tell!
And finally the joy of swinging! She was so happy in that swing!



In this picture we discovered that she thought it was hilarious when she thought she was kicking us so hard we fell backwards. I used to do this with kids I babysat. They all think it is hilarious! I guess it is funny to think that someone is pretending you are hurting them and falling backwards. Or maybe it is the sound that comes as her feet make contact. In any case, if you can strain your ears enough to hear her above the wind, it is the cutest sound! My co-worker Terri is always looking for a new clip of a baby laughing really hard. Well here you go! (Again, sorry for the poor quality. It looks great until it uploads to another application. Then it gets blocky and garbled!)



Well, we hope you have all had a good week! Oh, and here is a shout out to our friends Tracy and Cheri! Congrats on the birth of little Olivia Faith! We are so happy for you. May God bless her with good health and a long life in her mommy and daddy's arms! (In case you don't remember, Tracy and Cheri have experienced two losses in the past two years. Olivia is their first child together to make it past the viability stage!)
May God bless all of you! Until next time when we post Jesstine's 10 month pictures!
In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine Hutchins