Faith Like A Child

Lately Grace has been very interested in Heaven, acting out Bible stories, & Jesus' death on the cross. Here are some of the ways I've seen her faith developing:

* She drew the above picture of three crosses. She has been asking who the other people were and why they died.

* She continues to ask an unending string of questions about Heaven. What will it be like? When will we go there? How will we get there? Will our yellow house be there? And on and on....

* She asked me why Jesus had to die. I explained he had to die so that we could go to Heaven and be with God. She then replied, "Mama, couldn't God have found another way?" I sadly explained, "No, this was the only way." She thinks its like a destination that you just need to find another route.

*She has been acting out Bible stories with Faith. She has a sparkly blue dress up dress for Mary & a veil/wings for the angel. I have heard her say, "Don't be afraid you are going to have a baby." & "I am rolling away the stone," while rolling around my exercise ball.

*At our church she made a set of "story eggs." Since then she has taught anyone who will listen the story of Easter. She even visited my dad's Sunday School class to tell them. She knows what each one means.

I have found such joy in seeing her grow in her faith. I pray she will continue to have this enthusiasm for Scripture.

Precious Moments

Above: Grace & Mommy in their matching outfits. Below: Grace sleeping with Daddy.
Parenting Grace can be challenging. She is most definitely a strong-willed child who longs to control her world. She is a very determined little girl, who I believe will change the world someday for Jesus if she sets her mind to it. She has the potential to be a strong leader for the kingdom, and I'm praying God will help her dad and I to shape her into a sold out disciple. Lately there have been several precious moments with her. I try and treasure these moments and save them up for the moments when I think I am going to pull my hair out!! Here are just a few I don't want to forget.

-Getting dressed has been a challenge FOREVER. Once our neighbor actually asked us why they always heard her screaming and crying in the morning. My answer, "Yep, she does that every day-she hates getting dressed." I have tried letting her choose, letting her help, setting a timer and letting her do it herself and every parenting trick in the book but most days it was still a challenge. However somewhere in the last couple of months we have transitioned and its no longer such a battle. The other day she went in and got dressed all by herself. She came out to show me. She had chosen jeans and a red shirt because she wanted to match mommy. A precious moment.

-Many of you know nap time has been another battle I have refused to give in on. We have transitioned Grace to "rest time." But, she is still required to play quietly in her room during the afternoon and if she happens to fall asleep it is a bonus. She really fights sleep, even when she is tired. The other day she crawled up in Jeremy's lap while he was watching tv before dinner. She fell fast asleep before he even knew it. He loved the cuddle time with his little girl. So precious!

-We were doing a devotion before bed tonight. The subject was loneliness. It asked if your ever feel lonely. Grace's reply, "Mom, I'm never lonely. I have my Faith-er." VERY precious, wish all the sister moments were like that!

-Whenever anyone gets hurt Grace has become quite the little nurse. She will run to the freezer to grab a cold pack or run to get Faith's "pink." for her. She shows a concern for others that I hope continues to grow into a precious gift.

-While we were traveling Jeremy and I came into our room one night to find Grace's pop up bed scooted as close to her sister's crib as possible. They were both sleeping with their heads towards each other. I really wish I captured this precious moment with my camera!

-Grace gives hugs and kisses to the baby every night. Precious.

Grace,

Mommy loves you SO much. You have such a sweet spirit. I pray God will continue to grow your compassion for others. I feel so blessed to be your mommy!

My Growing Girls

For Father's Day this year the girls worked together to make Jeremy a piece of art. We are hoping to make this an every year, or every couple of years tradition. That way by the time they are grown he will have an evolving collection. Below, is their first masterpiece. Hopefully they will become less abstract as they grow, and I'm looking forward to how they will add their own talent and ideas over the years.

Grace:

Grace is turning into such a "big girl." Here are some fun facts about what she is up to:

-Lately she has been quite the mama's girl. Even refusing to go to her Sunday School class at times. I'm not really sure what has brought this on.

-She has the most insane memory!! I am constantly amazed at what she observes and remembers. Today we were driving through Quincy and she looked over and said, "Mom there is where we bought my jacket." She spotted the small resale shop we had bought her Spring jacket from several months ago. She often surprises me when driving through Hannibal spotting places and remembering them, even if we only went there once. And she always remember what we did there.

- She has started to enjoy new words. She tries to use them even if she doesn't know what they mean. I enjoy asking her what she thinks they mean. The other day she told me she was a genius. When I asked her what that meant she said it meant she was a very brave girl (nope, not exactly)

-She has become quite set on the fact that when you pray you must say, "watch over us and keep us safe." Jeremy and I aren't sure where it came from since neither of us commonly pray this phrase. But if you pray and don't include this phrase she pipes up and fervently adds it. Listening to her prayers are quite sweet and you never know who or what she will throw in, but I often admire how thoughtful she is to include others.

-She has loved swimming although she hasn't gotten to do it much this summer. Before vacation she started sneaking down to her room and putting on her swimsuit. She would then "swim" around our house until I made her change back into her clothes. I was glad she got to swim on vacation.

-Speaking of vacation, I have to record this funny Grace moment. I looked up at the pool to see she had stripped naked in 2 seconds flat. I rushed over to wrap her in a towel and explain we don't take our clothes off in public. She was very adamant that she was cold and done swimming and wanted her wet swimsuit off. So we ended up carrying her to the condo in her towel.

-Grace continues to be a STRONG persistent negotiator. I have already started hoping she will have teachers with strong clear boundaries!

-Grace has given up napping on most days. However, I continue to require her to have quite time in her room. Some days this goes smoothly and other days she works quite diligently to convince me to let her come out of her room. But overall, it is still working and she falls asleep maybe 2 days a week.

-Grace loves puzzles and it is something she really excels at. She can sit and help do a 100 piece puzzle when she is motivated or it is a picture of something she likes. She is also becoming more interested in board games.

-We are still struggling with counting. While we practice Grace shows no interest in learning to count correctly. We still haven't conquered consistantly counting to 10. But we are making progress...I have a feeling math may be a struggle when school eventually begins.

Faith:

Faith herself has done a lot of growing up lately, and I think we are starting to see glimpses of the "terrible two's" struggle for independence.

-Faith is still sleeping in her crib, but fell out once during nap time reaching for a toy. I am hoping to transition her to her big girl bed as soon as the basement is fixed and the girls' toys return to their playroom. Their room is way to full for another bed right now.

-Faith LOVES all things girly. She is constantly adorning herself with bracelets & necklaces. She also sits very still to have her nails painted.

-Faith's hair is still very short for her age, but we continue to "work the short do." Her newest thing is wearing headbands from the dollar store. She usually keeps these on for quite awhile. ( I never thought I would have a child whose hair actually grew slower than Grace's did!!)

-At her last checkup Faith was more average in size. She is in the 65% for height and 50% for weight.

-After VBS we brought home a cold/flu bug. Grace and I both had coughs, fevers, etc. Faith had a fever and once again went into mild respiratory distress. We ended up taking her to the doctor for a steroid treatment since her breathing machine wasn't helping. Since this is her third incident of having trouble breathing they will continue to watch her for signs of childhood asthma.

-If you have seen Faith walk most people comment on how she waltzes about on her tip toes. Our pediatrician has decided to watch this. If she doesn't flatten her feet by 2 we will consider having it checked out by a physical therapist. So we are working on what Jeremy calls "stomping" when she walks. I personally think it matches her princess personality!

-Faith also continue to learn new words. I love hearing her talk. She doesn't really sign much at all anymore except when we sing Jesus Loves Me before bed. She also loves to yell, "Daddy, Daddy!" whenever she hears Jeremy's ring tone on my phone.

Both the girls are our biggest joy and at times our biggest challenge!

Vacation pictures coming soon...

My Little Artist

So have you ever woke up one day and realized your child had grown up a little bit and you feel like you missed it? I am totally there. Grace recently drew this picture of The Little Einsteins. I was amazed! I had never even see her draw something I could tell was a person. This scanned copy doesn't really do the original justice. The large boy is Leo (red hair). Then on the left is Quincy (brown hair), Annie (blonde hair), and June looks like a purple circle because her face is in pencil. She also drew Quincy's trumpet and Annie's microphone on the right. I was so impressed. If you aren't familiar with the Little Einsteins you probably can't decipher the picture, but to her mom, this is a masterpiece.

Grace,

I am so proud of you! You really love to draw & be creative like me. You are growing up SO fast. Today you were telling me about when you grow up how you will ride the bus and go to school and bring Faith with you. I'm so not ready for that!

Love,

Mom 

My Gorgeous Girls

Sisterly love!






My mom recently took new pictures of the girls. As you can see they weren't super cooperative. Or maybe this is just what a photo shoot with two kids looks like.  Although we did get a few cute ones, especially the ones with Aunt Jo Jo. I especially love the ones of their feet. I of course think my girls are absolutely gorgeous!! (even if they aren't cooperative) They are getting so big.

Girls,

I hope you will always know that you are beautifully and wonderfully made by our heavenly father. I continue to learn that truth in my own life so I can model it for you.  Your dad and I will keep reminding you how beautiful we think you are on the outside and teaching you how to allow the Lord to make you beautiful on the inside too. 

Grace's Fish

A couple of weeks ago we had a big event at our house. We became the owners of two goldfish. One of the incentives for Grace to become potty trained was the enticement of getting her very own goldfish. Every trip we made to Wal-Mart we had to go and look at the fish. Well, a few weeks ago on our Thursday night family night we went and purchased our fish. Grace picked out a purple tank. (of course!) We also bought bright colored rocks and something for them to swim through. We decided to get two so both the girls could enjoy the fun. They have LOVED helping feed them each night before bed. And sometimes will even watch them swim until they fall asleep. It has been super fun watching them enjoy their very first pet (our cat doesn't count because she is kind of grouchy!).

Since these original pictures were taken we have gotten a real live plant, from Gramy, to add to the tank. And we had to replace one of the fish. The weekend I was in the hospital we came home to find one of our fish hadn't made it. Needless to say it was a little more than I could deal with at the time! So we opted to have Jeremy go and buy a new fish before the girls returned home. I was worried they would figure it out, because it really looks different, but they didn't. While Jeremy and I both thought this would eventually be a good way to introduce the concept of death we decided this wasn't the right time with everything else going on in our family. So far the fish have been a fun & pretty easy addition to our little family. Grace would really love a dog but we are waiting till she is a little older to take on that challenge...

Jo Jo's Birthday Hat

Faith LOVES cake!

Earlier this month was my sister's birthday. We went to visit my parents to celebrate. That morning I asked Grace if she wanted to make Aunt Jo Jo a picture. She said, "No, I want to make her a birthday hat!" And so together we made her a birthday hat. I marveled at how specific of idea she had about how the hat should be made. She wanted to use my scrap booking scissors to cut it out. She also thought it had to have ribbons. She worked very hard at it. And Jo Jo graciously wore it for her and oohed and aahed over her creation.

Reflecting on this little project I realized how much I enjoyed seeing my creativity come alive in Grace. If you know us or read my blog you know that most people attribute Grace's strong-willed personality to me. And I'm not saying that it is a totally negative attribute. But its really fun to see something positive and realize she got that from me!! (Yes, Jeremy is also very creative-but he is not crafty so I'm taking credit for this one!)

Potty Training: The Saga Continues...

So back in my pre toddler days of parenting I remember having a really naive thought. I was talking to Lindsay and she referred to potty training Addy & putting her in panties. I thought to myself, "I thought she did that when they lived with her parents like 6 months ago..." But I didn't give it much thought. I just figured they had moved a lot. Lindsay, I formally want to apologize I had no idea potty training was such a process. (If you are the parent of a child who was potty trained at 18 months, or potty trained in 24 hours just feel blessed- or at least e-mail me what book you read!) Well, at the end of February Grace will turn three. We officially started potty training when she turned two!!!! Yep, a year ago Grace started wearing panties. And she did pretty good. By the time summer came around she was stringing days together with no accidents & I thought we were making progress. Then Jeremy started traveling, we lost our schedule, and Grace decided she was no longer interested in the potty. (When I say not interested i mean she would kick, scream, and refuse to sit on the potty.) So I did what I said I'd NEVER do as a parent. I put her in pull ups. Pull ups are expensive, very expensive especially since Grace basically used them as diapers she could remove. (I should mention from the beginning she has always pooped in the potty so this was a big bonus!) Oh, I didn't give up completely. At some point Grace expressed a desire to have a fish. So we made this fish poster together and put it on the bathroom wall. She received stickers for using the potty. When all the fish scales were full she could have a fish. This still did not motivate her to actually use the potty. She simply found the pull up way more convenient. So as Christmas approached I decided it was probably time to try tackling potty training again. On Monday we went back to panties. It has been a bumpy road. She has already had way less accidents then when we first attempted panties. But she did wake up from her nap on Tuesday and refused to put on panties. She simply stated, "I don't want panties, I want a pull up!" I didn't give in and neither did she. She spent 45 minutes in her room screaming, kicking, and crying. (Okay, I did go in at some point and pray for her and try to calm her down-it didn't phase her!) Now I have heard parents say that if they hadn't gotten a second child they would have thought, "this parenting thing is pretty easy." I personally have not had this experience. If this is easy than, have mercy! But there is another part of me that understands Grace because she is so much like me. And I had no idea I was hard to potty train (but my mother has since assured me I wouldn't do it until it was my idea). So I continue on with this in mind- my mother was successful!!! 

Grace,

I'm sure there will be a point in your life when you read this and wish I didn't blog. I know, I know its embarasing. Sorry. But just hold that thought for about 10-15 years. Then maybe you will have a little toddler running around and you will be glad I did- I promise. I love you sweetheart!