Book Review: God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergren

God Gave Us Love is another sweet book in the children’s series by Lisa Tawn Bergren. This series of books centers around a family of polar bears. In this particular book, the theme is God’s love for us and how we should be showing that love to others.

While this book seemed a little disjointed to me, my 3 year old daughter didn’t seem to notice at all. She liked hearing the story of Little Cub and his outing with his grandpa and had plenty of questions to ask about the book after I finished reading it. Parts of the book were a little too deep for her to truly understand, but when it came to the main message of God’s love and showing love to other people, it was portrayed very well.

I love that these books are sturdy board books that withstand a lot of rough reading by children! It even holds up well to my infant’s chewing! And as always, the illustrations in this book are precious and capture my daughter’s attention well.

I would recommend this book to parents and grandparents of small children. I would also buy these books as gifts for expecting parents.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

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Being Taught

Today was another good day. Taelyn went to school. Lillian and I went to Northwest for their powder puff pep rally. It was great to see all of my students from the past couple of years. It made me sad to be missing their senior year. It was great to see them all, though, and get hugs and be able to catch up briefly. And I got a few senior hearts, which I will treasure forever. The seniors at Northwest do senior hearts every year. They cut out heart shapes and write notes on them to the underclassmen and teachers. They spend a lot of time on these and it is a really special tradition.

After the pep rally, Lillian and I came home and she got a short 30 minute nap before it was time to go get Taelyn from school. We came straight home and had lunch. Lillian had diced carrots and apples and Taelyn had a hot dog, fritos and applesauce. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then the girls took really good naps while I read. It was a very good afternoon.

When they woke up we played in the living room and then in Lillian’s room. Taelyn made a huge mess, but didn’t fuss at all when I told her to clean it all up. She even managed to get everything back where it belonged. Progress.

Tonight we went to eat at El Sombrero with Heather and Brian. It is funny how difficult it is to enjoy a meal out to eat when you have 5 kids between 2 families. But the company was fabulous, as always, with these 2. And Taelyn loves playing with their girls.

On the way out to eat tonight, Taelyn was telling us about a friend in her K3 class at school. She said that she asked this friend if he knew about Jesus and he said, “no,” so she told him that Jesus loves him very much. How convicting. How is it that my 3 year old has no problem asking her 3 year old friends at school, as well as her teacher, if they know Jesus, yet, I have a hard time asking that same question? Especially considering that she doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand the magnitude of what Jesus did for us all. Or how much He loves us all. Or what He gave up for us all. But somewhere in her little mind she grasps that Jesus loves us, even if it is only because that is what we tell her on a consistent basis, and she understands that she should be telling others about this love. Why is this an area that I continue to fail in?

Thank you, God, for what you teach me daily through my children.

All my girls!

The best part of my day today was that the lovely Tracy Tran and Anna Kristen Mitchell stopped by for a visit after their Powder Puff practice. Well, Tracy had powder puff practice… apparently Anna Kristen can’t catch. Hehe.

They tried on some old formals that I had here at the house and it got quite giggly. Tracy referred to my 10th grade prom dress as the “disco dress.” They did each leave with a dress though. Anna Kristen left with one that she thinks she may actually wear. Tracy left with one that she thinks she will wear to a future costume party! What a fun time. I miss those girls and my other students so much and I am so thankful for the way that God allowed me to get to know them while I was teaching.

Taelyn and Anna Kristen.

Both sets of my girls!

I can only hope that my daughters turn out like these precious girls when they are in high school. I’ll be a happy momma!!

Lillian disappeared for awhile and when I went to track her down this is what we found. She grabbed the toilet paper from her bathroom and trailed it into Taelyn’s room. Oh, boy.

Loved my visit today!! Now I am going to wash my face, fold some laundry and then get in bed with a cannoli and a good book!

Lu you

Lillian says “tha you” for thank you, a lot. That is her absolute favorite thing to say and we rarely hear “uh oh” anymore. Today when I picked her up from the nursery after church the lady in her room said, “Uh… she told me thank you.” It kind of surprises people.

Well, last night she started saying, “Lu you” for Love you. It is the absolute sweetest thing ever. Not that she knows what she means when she says it. But I still love to hear those words coming from her mouth. She said it several times throughout today and tonight. And judging from my reaction she can tell that I love to hear those words so that makes her say it even more. Sweet girl.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a week and kept forgetting. On Monday night, Scott got home from work and immediately says, “Come on, Taelyn. We have to go run an errand.” Well, like I didn’t know what that was about. I stopped him and told him that he absolutely did not need to go get me anything for Valentine’s day. I didn’t want anything. I did not want him spending money on any overpriced items that he felt like he needed to get for this holiday. And I meant it. He kept moving towards the door so I grabbed Taelyn. I said, “Taelyn, do NOT let daddy get me anything when y’all go run your errands. He is not to buy me anything for Valentine’s.” She agreed.

So fast forward a bit and Scott is at walmart and picks up some cookies. My smart Taelyn says, “Daddy, who are those for?” He says, “mommy.” And he said that Taelyn LOST it! She started yelling in the aisle, “NO. NO. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET ANYTHING FOR MOMMY. YOU CAN’T. NO,” while trying to knock the cookies out of his hands. Trying to regain control he told her that they weren’t for me they were for him. She said, “Oh, okay,” as calmly as she could. Event over. I got cookies for Valentine’s. That girl! I hope that she listens to me like that when I tell her really important things to do and not do when she is in high school!!

Rainy Day

She dreamed of being at the park instead of stuck inside.

Rainy day, movie day. We watched Tarzan and Robin Hood.

My sweet little face is back to normal!

Sweet Girl

She loves to crawl under this end table.

But she has a hard time getting out from under it!

The favorite pose.

Looking to mommy for help. The remains of her allergic reaction look like she was in a fist fight.

Playing with Tae’s Valentine’s balloon!

A new day

Lillian is looking much better today. She still has some swelling around her right eye and it is starting to bruise, but her face looks more like herself this morning.

Breakfast!

Little red bite-looking dots all over her body. But no huge raised welts! Thank goodness!

Playing with Tae’s toys.

She slept all night last night, but did wake up at 6am this morning to eat since she didn’t get that last feeding before bed last night. I fed her, changed her and gave her some Claritin, and then took her to my bedroom to play so that she wouldn’t wake Taelyn up. She ended up going back to sleep for a little while in my bed (which was so NICE! She never does that!).

Taelyn is being really sweet! I don’t know if I mentioned this in my post yesterday, but she keeps saying, “Lillian looks funny, take a picture of her!” She had me take 100 pictures yesterday. She was really worried about her sister yesterday morning. Sweet girls.

Update on Lilli Vanilli

Just wanted to give an update since so many of you have sweetly called and texted to check on my sweet girl today. All morning she was pretty much the same. She was exhausted this afternoon and definitely ready for her nap when I went to put her down. She slept about 2 hours and when she woke up she looked MUCH better from the morning. The huge red welts that covered most of her body this morning had shrunk down to what looked like little red bites. They had a beginning and end which is really different from how they all just ran together when we were at the doctor’s office this morning. They are still all over her body, but much, much better. Her eyes were still swollen, but not even close to as much as they had been. She could barely open her right eye this morning and she could open both of them wide with no problems after her afternoon nap. This was really encouraging. I guess the Zyrtec was doing its job. At least she was starting to look like my little girl again.

This was while she was eating lunch… before her afternoon nap. She still looked pretty bad at this point.

Look at those poor eyes. She doesn’t look like my baby at all.

After her nap I brought her into the living room and she didn’t want to cuddle with me at all. She just kept reaching to get down and play. She crawled all over the living room playing with all of her toys, so I guess she felt better. I nursed her about 5pm and then she had oatmeal cereal for dinner.

I let her play in her room for a little while after dinner and about 6:30pm put her in the bathtub with some baking soda, just to help in case itching starts. After her bath I got her ready for bed and sat down to rock and nurse her, but she fell asleep before she was able to nurse. That is the first time that has ever happened. I tried to wake her up enough to nurse, but she was exhausted and wouldn’t latch on for long enough. She may wake up hungry in a few hours, which I’m kind of happy about because I want to be able to check on her in the middle of the night without waking her up.

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers. I truly felt them all day today. It was overwhelming how many friends that I had lifting my sweet girl up. I don’t expect the rash to be gone for a few days, but I am hoping that it won’t be as bad in the morning as it was this morning. I’ll keep you posted. Love y’all.

Please Pray

I am asking you guys for prayers for my baby. When I got her up this morning she had raised, red welts all over her body, including her face. Her eyes were swollen from this. Of course, I freaked out and walked around in circles for about 20 seconds not knowing what to do first. I called Scott and asked if I should head to the hospital or the doctor’s office (I know, I know. I’m THAT overreacting mom). We went to the doctor and apparently she is having an allergic reaction to the Augmentin that she is taking for her ear infection. I was skeptical that this could be the cause, but after a quick google search (I know, I know. I already told you that I’m that mom) I realized that it is very common for allergic reactions to penicillin to happen 7 or 8 days after you begin taking them. It is so sad seeing my 10 month old looking like this. I don’t think that it is painful to her because she was acting like her usually happy self this morning, but it still makes me so sad for her. Right now she is napping peacefully.

Please pray that this goes away quickly. I love y’all and truly appreciate your prayers for us.

Still such a happy girl!

Balentine’s

It has been a wonderful Balentine’s Day so far! I got Scott a coffee mug from Shutterfly that had the girls pictures on it and says “Love” and some other things. He got me some cookies and some k-cups for the keurig. We got Taelyn some candy and a heart shaped bowl and an Ariel toothbrush. She liked the toothbrush the best!

Lillian and her Valentine, Cruise. Lillian is 10 months, Cruise is 3.5 months!

Lillian and her wild after-bath hair!

Taelyn had so much fun at her Valentine’s party today at school. They made heart valentines.

They colored heart pictures!

They sat in a circle with their bags and exchanged their valentines. So sweet.

Lillian dumped cheerios all over herself.

Quite proud of her accomplishment.

And, of course, they had sugar. Lots of sugar.