A Gift

Girls, a "Gift" is something that you give, whether its money, food, toys, time, a helping hand, advice, a little patience or just a kind word, with no expectation of anything in return.

Chicken Baby Food.

Angelina, I was just feeding you dinner and decided to let you try chicken and chicken broth baby food. You have not been eating baby food very long but what you have had so far you have enjoyed. Today that ended when I gave you a big spoon full of chicken baby food. Wow, the face you gave me was so retched it almost made me sick just looking at your reaction. You quickly spit out the food and began to cough and your face turned red. I will admit I did taste a little bit of it and it was prety nasty, the food was pureed chicken.

I do admire you and your sister at this age because you both are not afraid to try just about any thing. This is the major reason I have to keep a close eye on you so you don't hurt yourselves. I do hope you keep this kind of attitude into adulthood, while being safe too. It is easy to not want to try new things because you think you know what it will be like or just plain scared. Try new things as often as possible it will help you get the most out of life, and many times its fun. I do want to make sure you stay safe so don't try something that will get you hurt.

Life Challanges.

Girls, there will always be problems, pain, loss, confusion, in decision, fear, and hate through out your life, please just understand they are only challenges. What makes you who you are is not the challenges you face but how you handle them. There will always be challenges and it is not up to us to determine which are better or worse but the fact that everyone has them. Never trivialize a challenge that someone may have because it is small to you, it may be big to them. Always be empathetic and encouraging to people you know or love who are facing a challenge. People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. (That is someones quote but I can not remember who)

Laughter.

One of my most important goals in life is to make each of you laugh at least once a day, it is one of the best feelings in the world.

Elf Myself

A little Christmas fun is always the best and here is some fun I will send out to all our friends and Family. This is called Elf Yourself and was brought to my attention by a blog that I read and thought I would pass it on. (Thanks Lisa) If you would like to create one yourself go to this link it is great fun and worth a little time to creat, just a few minuets I promis.

Angelina's First Words, and Being A Little Sister

I was out of town on the 27th of November, but Janenne called me when you started to mumble some words at 6:55 pm. Your mom called me and left me a message of you saying DADA which is close enough for me to pronounce those as your first words. This has come 9 days before your 6 month birthday and I could not be any prouder of you. You have recently become very aware of your environment and when people are around you especially me and Janenne. You get the biggest smile when we look at you just like Sofia did when she was your age.

Just in the past few weeks Sofia, you have been holding your sisters hand when you are in the car together. You are very sweet to your sister and try to hold her hand and comfort her, you will be a protective big sister.

I tried to be the best big brother and little brother I could growing up but it did not always work out for the best. I have the blessing of being able to be both growing up and it has given me prospective not everyone has in life.

As a little brother I wanted to be just like your Uncle Luke but it seemed I could never quite make it to that level. He always had the "cool factor", no matter what he did I thought it was so cool and in many ways it was. I remember when we played basketball he never let me win, actually for a long time I never even scored a point. At the time I was devastated but it drove me to play better so maybe one day I could beat him. This would not happen until I was a sophomore in high school and he was in collage. Wow what a moment for me, he was a little pissed off he got beat. I will never forget for years I was always proud to say I was “Luke Schmidt’s little brother”.

The funny thing is Angelina this stuff will effect you but one day when you are on your own and grown up you will realize it doesn’t define you. There will be many memories you will have being the little sister and when those events take place they will be good or bad. As time goes on those memories will only be categorized as fond events that you will laugh about, even the bad ones you will want to hold onto before they are totally taken by time.

You will look at Sofia differently and you will become closer to her as you start your own families. Should you two not talk often; when she is needed she will be there for you with no judgment just as your big sister. I do not get much of this from your Uncle Luke, but then again I have to ask.

With You My Love Multiplied.

I never knew how much love I had to share but on June the 6th 2007 you doubled that love. I learned that day that I have no limit on the amount of love I have to share with you, your sister and the rest of the world. I was able to take in more of the feelings and emotions of your birth since I had already been through the process with your sister. I was fearful that I could not love someone as much as I loved your sister but you proved me wrong. I am sure that is not the first leasson i get from you or your sister. As you know we named you Angelina Hope which was derived from the greek word angelos meaning "messenger".

It Began With You.

The day you were born was the day I would come to understand the world differently. It would be futile for me to even try to explain in words what brought those tears to my eyes on that morning of April the 6th, 2005. The feelings inside my heart included love, joy, pride, fear, thankful, nervous, optimistic, and anxious to finally meet you. I felt like I was going to explode. I have heard it said that having a child is like having your heart walk around outside your body and I would have to agree. We named you, as you already know, Sofia it means "wisdom" in Greek.