Here's the Line to See Jesus

Thanks to Abby...

Look Who's Stepping Up to the Plate

Family Flowers

All four of us got out in the yard on Friday to plant purple pansies. Everyone had a job...

Abby was busy smashing the newly planted pansies with up-close and personal jet spray...



While Katie checked the suitability of the soil...


...giving it two thumbs up!


And asking, "what's next?"


Until Abby got a mischevious look on her face that made us all think she had the next move planned...

Um, uh!

Who Needs an Alarm Clock?

A few days ago, I posted my morning wake-up call... Abigail in my face, telling me that she needed to take a bath...come on, what's wrong, I am trying to take care of business and I need your help!

A few days later, I was awakened by blinking lights in my face...opened my eyes to see that the blinking was Abigail's new "light up" shoes that Mimi had purchased the day before...but only after MONTHS of asking by Abby. She was so excited to get the shoes that she had them on before anything else and was quick to head down the hall to show them off to her SLEEPING Mommy.

Well, here's the topper. Saturday, I was awakened by Abigail hollering to me from the "potty" in our master bath. She was saying, "Mommy, I am pooping on your potty because I did not go at Tuesday Morning yesterday!" We had gone shopping at Tuesday Morning the day before. She urgently told me, "Mommy, I have to go potty." So, we asked the clerk for the key and then Katie and I waited for Abby to finish her business and return the key to the clerk. Not two minutes later, "Mommy,I have to go poopoo now." Seriously? So, we again got the key and went to the bathroom, only to sit for 5 minutes while reading all of the signs in the bathroom. She spelled out T-U-E-S-D-A-Y M-O-R-N-I-N-G more than once...

Then, on Sunday morning, which happened to be the one morning of the year when the calendar gives everyone an extra hour of sleep. That is, everyone but Abigail and her parents. At 5:45 am, she bopped into our room full of energy and got into our bed. Her motor was running. Every word she has ever learned came out of her mouth in the hour between 5:45 and 6:45. The only thing that stands out was her asking me, "Mommy, what was that girl's name that we saw at the zoo on Tuesday?" I kept telling her I did not know what she was talking about, while pulling the pillows tighter over my head. Until, finally, she got frustrated and insisted louder and louder that, "Yes, I did know who she was talking about. That the girl was wearing boots and her mommy was wearing a pink shirt!"

Lately, I have been wondering whether I will ever experience the frustration of getting a teenager Abby out of bed on a Saturday morning... hmmm...

Big Accomplishments!

Look carefully. Abby's first signature! I helped her write the letters of my name, but she did her name all by herself! The portraits are of Mommy on the left and Abby on the right. They both have one big ear and one little ear... two eyes and a bellybutton.

And...Here's Katie's big accomplishment for the day! She has actually taken a few steps, but hasn't fallen in love with walking quite yet...

"Happy-Making" Girls

Since Abby was little, I have told her (and now Katie too) that they "make me happy". When Abby was two, she would say, "Abby happy-making". So now it is a bonding phrase we use, and I told her many times yesterday that she was "happy-making" and she laughed! It was a heavenly day, the kind that feels full of glimpses of heaven. Now that I have been working part-time, I treasure my Fridays off with the girls. We all wake up with the question, "so what are we going to do together today?!" Yesterday, Abby was full of joy, good attitude, quick obedience, patience and concern for her sister... she was busy "happy-making".

Here are a few random quotables from the last few days...

When I heard Abby in the backseat telling Katie, "I will hold your cheese, if you want me to," I said, "Abby, that was so kind. You are a great big sister." She responded, "It's kindness in my heart." So, I asked, "How did it get there?" (thinking I knew the answer she would give)... She surprised me with, "Someone put it there when I was dead." "Huh?" I said. "Yes, they put kindness and a hat in my heart when I was dead." "Oh. How did you get alive again if you were dead?" "John The Baptist healed me." Random.

At 6:45 am this morning, Abby was standing at the edge of my bed with no clothes on and her face was right in front of mine, saying "Mommy, I need to take a bath." I said, "Ugh. Abby, can you please wait a little bit? Put jammies back on and cuddle with me." Silence. Finally, "Mommy, what's wrong? I need to take a bath." I said, "Abby, Mommy needs to sleep a little more." Abby: "Mommy, I am trying to take care of business and I need your help!"

Abby was singing "I stand at the door and knock, knock, knock...and if anyone hears my voice..." I asked her who is knocking on her heart. She told me Jesus. I asked is she was going to invite Him in, and she thought for a minute, then sadly told me, "No, I want to stay here with you..." So we talked about living here with Jesus in our hearts, even before we go to Heaven one day. So sweet.

Abby: "Katie, look at this!"
Katie: "Wow!"

When I got home from work one night last week and a friend named "Avril" was watching the girls, Abby said "I can't call your friend "Armadillo". I said, "What?" She said, "I asked her, and she said 'no'. Her name is 'Avril.' It's a French."

Katie's latest word, "Belbow" for elbow.

Katie: "Babby!"
Abby: "Katie, please do not call me "Babby" anymore. My name is Lilly."

Abby: "Popop, please don't call me Abby-ca-dabby" anymore. I am 'Abigail'(pronounced in Spanish)."

Abby: Drawing a face, said, "look, I can draw a nose with two holes for picking"

Current obsessions....

Katie is obsessed with cleaning.

Abby is obsessed with names...telling us every hour that her name is something different.

Katie is obsessed with walking on her knees, rather than her feet.

Abby obsessed with drawing and writing letters. Little pieces of paper are all over our house, covered in wonderful letters and faces and shapes.

Oh What Lovely Days!

Oh, what lovely days we have had lately! And, so you know, I borrowed the phrase "lovely" from Abby. She always wakes up with a joyful heart, and one morning out of the blue she said, "it's a lovely morning to spend with family!" We do not know where she learned it, but we loved it! And she was speaking truth! Abigail is in the sweetest stage. She is truly a pleasure to be around. And Katie is talking and singing nonstop... and thinking about walking. Abigail is loving that she can really communicate with her sister now. She asks Katie questions, and Katie responds with "hmmm hmmm" or "uh uh"... Abigail loves it so much that she will ask the same question over and over until they both burst out laughing. They also get a kick out of the "Katie - Abby" cup game. Abby has been mimicking my efforts to keep the ownership of their cups straight by pointing at each of their cups, saying "Katie... Abby...Katie...Abby" Then, Katie will copy Abby by pointing at the cups back and forth... And she still calls her sister "Baba". She usually wakes up earlier than her sister at nap time, and if I take my eyes off her, she ends up in front of Abby's door, hollering "Baba! Baba!" and then lets forth tons of squealing and laughing when Abby wakes up and opens her door. We are drinking deeply of the precious moments around here...what lovely days, indeed!

Young Life Camp - Part II

I was cleaning out the camera today and came across more pics from Young Life Family Camp at the beginning of the Summer.

Feeding the chipmunks

Katiebug Sings

Katie sings a lot, just like her big sister. The song I hear most frequently is "Jesus Loves Me." I can pick up on the word "Bible" and that's usually the only way I can tell what song it is. She also loves to say "no way!" when asked most any question, but especially "would you give Mama a hug?". I learned that she usually means "yes" when she says that, because I when I would ask her if she wanted a banana, I would put the banana away after she said "no way"...but then she would break into tears...

And, now, for the first time in public, we present "Katiebug", singing "Jesus Loves Me."

More Kiddie Park

Any of my old friends out there? Remember this place? Not too much has changed, although the roller coaster is no longer there. I will always remember screaming so loud on that thing, the operator stopped it after only one trip around to let me off... Abby loves roller coasters, so she is sad it is no longer there.

Little Girls

We spent a blissful afternoon at the Kiddie Park today. Katie got to ride the rides for the first time, and she loved it. When she and Abby rode the cars, she waved and hollered "hi" at Abby every time around. We have many more photos, but these are my favorites. I will add more tomorrow. So check back soon! :-)

The Shoe Gene

Abigail has a shoe addiction. She did not learn a love for shoes from me. I am known to wear shoes until they have holes in their soles. Until I started working again recently, I wore my brown crocs almost every single day since Abby was born. I'm serious. So, where did Abigail acquire this shoe fettish? Did she maybe inherit it? Hmmmm.... oh, yes, now I remember. I once overheard Aunt Kim and Aunt Cori getting to know each other for the first time...and I am certain that they were laughing about their shared love for shoes... Aunt Cori summed it up by saying, "you know, a pair of shoes just isn't worth a girl's time if she doesn't have to pop a few Advil to wear them."Given that both Aunts have boys, I think Abigail has a good shot at being spoiled by her aunts in the shoe department! :-) They all share the shoe "gene" afterall.

Early signs of Abigail's addiction popped up before she had much of a vocabulary. She would go all the way to my closet and bring me shoes when she wanted to go "bye-bye", and, even more memorably, she would join Jake in the closet and hold shoes up to him. Even if he already had other shoes on, she would throw a fit if he did not take her recommendation. Later on, all the workers at our gym's kid's club were on "shoe alert" when Abigail (around 18 months) arrived because she had swiped a pair of fake crocs one time.

Lately, at her new preschool, they have told me that she is doing very well with everything, but that the one thing to note is that she chronically puts on another little girl's shoes the moment she takes them off... as if she is watching and waiting for the exact moment to pounce.

This morning, she had taken a "Family Fun" magazine off my bedside table and was flipping through it. So I asked her to find an activity in there that looked like fun for us to do soon. Next thing I know, she is excitedly hollering, "Mommy! Mommy" "Can we go buy these shoes today?" She has spotted an ad for Payless and set her heart on a pair of sparkly tennis shoes....

But here is the best shoe story of all... Mimi picked Abby up from Spanish class last week, fed her lunch and then dropped her off at her preschool. In filling Mimi in on the important details she needs to know to lend a hand with Abby when I am at work, I made a point to tell her that Abby must wear tennis shoes to preschool and warned her that even though I had put the tennis shoes on before leaving for work, Abby might try to change her shoes and persuade Mimi that it is ok. Well, last week, when Mimi picked Abby up from Spanish she had on some brown suede-like shoes with flowers. Mimi did not say a word, but on her own initiative, Abby simply said, "these are tennis shoes, Mimi". Mimi let her wear them to school. So when I picked her up from school that afternoon, I immediately noticed the shoes and asked her if Mimi had given them to her. She said "yes" and assured me that she had told Mimi thank you for the new shoes. Later on, I also thanked Mimi for buying Abby the new shoes... Mimi said "your welcome." So, here is the good part. The next day when I dropped Abby off at Spanish, one of the other mother's approached me and said, "oh, good, Abby is wearing Sienna's shoes! Sienna has Abby's tennis shoes!" I very confidently replied by saying, "oh, no, I'm sorry. But these brown shoes are Abby's. Her grandma bought them for her last week." The other mother and the teacher looked at me funny and then the teacher told me the story about how Abby had put this other little girl's shoes on before Mimi picked her up. Then Abby left before the other little girl's mother arrived to pick her up. The icing on the cake is that Mimi thought maybe she had forgotten buying the shoes, and she actually accepted my thanks when I mentioned it. Too funny!

So, I have finally come to the point of accepting the fact that my daughter has inherited the "shoe gene", a fact that will surely impact our entire family's life significantly. The evidence is undeniable... lest you think I am being negative, take a look for yourself... http://littlegraymatters.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-shoes_11.html and http://littlegraymatters.blogspot.com/2009/03/popop-little-cinderella_17.html and see #14 here http://littlegraymatters.blogspot.com/2009/08/priceless-conversations_29.html and see #6 here http://littlegraymatters.blogspot.com/2009/04/trials-and-triumphs-of-terrible-twos_07.html. But we are all committed to helping her live the most normal life possible...

Happy Days

Here's a little update since the last blog post...


It is official. Katie has a sweet tooth. She is picky with anything and everything that is not packed with sugar. So here she is enjoying her first rice krispy treat...

Katie has been busy. Abby sees to it that she always has a nametag on her back, as she is enrolled in Abby's gym "kid's club", Sunday School, nursery and music class...all which require nametags, duh!

Katie has developed a love for cooking...

One day, she got a little carried away and knocked over the restaurant...

But her sense of humor has returned...

Abby hosted a birthday party for "Lambie"... with as many stuffed animals and babies we have around our house, birthday parties occur very regularly...

Abby made muffins... unbeknownst to me, she made them in her play kitchen with green "Superfood" smoothie...

We built an ark under the playroom table and shepherded all of our stuffed animals and baby dolls on board just as the "rain" from the white noise machine began pouring down...

Abby turned our bedroom into an obstacle course, which was all fun until her toe caught on a pillow as she hopped over it and propelled her into our footboard...within a minute or less, she had a purple golf ball growing out of her head...

Daddy and ice packs to the rescue...

Katie discovered a bump on her head that needed a little attention too...

This Mom has loosened up...see Katie enjoying a milkshake from McDonalds... and you don't even see the Krispy Kreme hats on the floor of my car...