Mommy's Little Helpers and The Birthday Party That Wasn't

Since we've started giving Abby a bottle most of the time, the girls have really been wanting to help feed her. Today they both got a chance. They were really cute and were both so proud.



Lainey is convinced that anytime she hears it's someone's birthday, (A) they should have a party and (B) we should be invited. Today we were practicing with the calendar and were looking at dates and such. We've been trying to learn ordinal numbers so I would ask her to find the 3rd Monday, 4th Thursday, 2nd Saturday, etc. She had figured out that if the date had some writing on it, it meant there was something special on that date. Well, we were looking at February and she pointed to a date and said, "What's this day?" I said,"That's George Washington's birthday." She got really excited and said, "Are we gonna go?" I said, "No dear, he died about 200 years ago." She said, "Oh, so are we gonna go?" No, I don't think birthday parties are much when the guest of honor has been dead for 208 years, but that's just me.

And Now a Station Break. . .

Sorry for the lack of blogging or the lack of consistency as of late. Our lives are busy and I am tired. I'll get it back up and running soon and very soon so please be patient! All is well; no one is sick; no need to worry; mom's just tired at the end of the day and blogging has not been at the top of my priority list.

I must say in passing that I love my little girls and am so grateful to have them. They can drive me CRAZY sometimes to the point of wondering how I'll enjoy life as a bald woman (you know, 'cause I'm gonna pull all my hair out), but then they can say and do the sweetest things that make my heart melt. Last night when we were listening to them pray, Lainey said,"Thank you God that I have a family who loves me." And to that my heart answers, "Thank you God that she knows she has a family who loves her."

Today we drove down to visit my good friend Jana and her 3 boys. We met at McDonald's so the kids could all play together for a while before we went to their house. Meeting at McDonald's may not have been our wisest choice as schools were out and everyone within a 20 mile radius of said McDonald's was there. Too many children! So many, in fact, that at one point I lost Sarah Grace. She's not really brave enough to go up into the climbing toys they have so she'd been hovering at the bottom of the slide most of the time. She'd climb up into it for a bit and then scoot out of it backwards. Well, I kept looking for her once to scoot out and she never came. I sent Lainey and Jana's oldest son to look for her while I looked in the rest of the restaurant. I was just upon the point of being frantic when I saw her pop her head through one of the big bubbles at the top of the big tower. She was having a great time and I was most relieved. When she came down and ran over to us, she was so proud of her accomplishment! Just a reminder that it takes baby steps to let them go and even some of those are a bit painful. I still want her to be just a little bit afraid and need me by her side, but it's not going to be that way for much longer. Such is the passage of time. I'll be forever in the debt of anyone who knows how to slow it down a bit!

The Things Kids Say

I've blogged before about the funny things our kids say and how they've become part of our regular conversation. They've recently added a few more funnies, though only time will tell if these become part of the Graham dialect.

Last night I was going to fix fajitas for supper. Sarah Grace asked what we were going to have for supper so I told her, "Fajitas." She said, "What kind of hitas?" My answer, "Fa."

We're nursing a pretty severe diaper rash on Abby right now and I was going to put some baby powder on her this morning to see if that might help. (It didn't; next step may be letting her roll around naked on a piece of plastic on the floor.) As I finished up with the powder, Sarah Grace took the bottle and said, "Is this her power? Oh no, I got power on me."

Today during church, Lon was preaching about legalism and the Pharisees. As a part of his sermon, he mentioned how the Pharisees abhorred death and everything to do with it. Lainey leaned over to me and whispered, "What does 'horred' mean?" I quickly said, "Abhorred, sweetie. It means they hated it a whole lot." She then said, "Well, how did they bury Jesus in the tomb then?" Not wanting to whisper all through church, I leaned over and told her that I'd tell her later. She said, "No, I want to know now." I quickly and quietly gave her an answer that seemed to satisfy her curiosity.

And one more funny thing that kids say that doesn't involve our kids. Last year at our church camp out, a then 7 year old boy was playing horseshoes with several of the men. Not quite understanding the scoring system and what different things were called, he asked, "So, how much is a hooker worth?" One of the guys said, "Oh, about the same as a ringer." Kind of makes you what kind of church we go to where they talk about "horred" and how much a hooker is worth!

Her Life as a Feline?

Does anyone else see any similarities between Sarah Grace and Felix the Cat?

The Election, Field Trips, and Dirty Bellybuttons?

Sorry for the delay in blogging, but I was too caught up in the election coverage last night. Though I am thoroughly disappointed with the outcome, I know that the Lord is sovereign over all things and is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords no matter who happens to be at the helm of our government. To paraphrase a very gifted pastor I heard on Sunday, we can pray just as fervently for a president we didn't vote for as much as we can one we did vote for. And now, as believers, that is our job. The election and its outcome has given us opportunities to have some good conversations with Lainey about how even though we don't agree with Obama on much of anything (if anything at all) we still have a biblical obligation to pray for the leaders in our country. She asked why we didn't agree with him. As our number one reason for not voting for him is his stance on abortion, we discussed how he thought it was okay to kill babies if a mommy decided she didn't want it before it was born. Dear, sweet little Lainey seems to get it better than most any politician and provided the most straight forward answer I could have ever hoped for. On her own, she said, "Well, if you don't want a baby, the best thing to do is to give it to someone who does." Thank you Lord that, at age 5, she already values the sanctity of life and sees adoption as the better option when faced with the decision of abortion.

Yesterday, Lainey's class took a field trip to the fire station and the library. All of the moms went as well and I thought it was great fun. I think Lainey enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed my own kindergarten field trip to the fire department. One of the firemen put all of his gear on so the kids would know what they looked like in case they ever needed help from a fireman. They got a grand tour of the fire trucks and even got to sit in one. They were able to help "clean" one of the engines and even got to get in the back of one of the ambulances. They each got their own fireman's hat before they left and were all really cute walking across the street to the library. I wonder if passers-by thought the library might be in danger with all the little firefighters running over? We had a tour of the library and got to see how they check books back in and get them ready to go to all of the other libraries in the county whenever they're needed. All in all, the library tour made me say, "Oh, I want to work here when my kids get older." I'm a book nerd and think I would be in hog heaven if I was surrounded by them day in and day out.

Today we had lunch with some dear friends from church. They are surrogate grandparents to all of us and we love them dearly. The girls know where she keeps her bag of toys and her children's books and so they made themselves at home and started playing. Lainey found a new book in the collection called "What is a bellybutton?" She asked what the name of the book was and when I read it to her, she stuck her hand under her shirt and said, "Is it this? Is it this hole right here?" I told her it was. She said, "You know what? When I put my finger in my bellybutton, it's all yucky inside!" I think it might be time for a bath and a good bellybutton cleaning!

Lainey, World Wide Traveler?

Another mom at school last week told me that she overheard the following conversation between Lainey and a little boy around her age:
Boy: Have you been to California yet?
Lainey: No, but I've been to Lynden.

Who needs California when you've got a miniature Holland just a few miles down the road?

The Battle of the Broccoli: Sarah Grace:1 Mom:0

Today I had a moment with Sarah Grace that would make her father proud. Most everyone knows of Lon and his dislike of all things vegetables. There are a few that escape his hatred, but those are rare and often fried. We're from the South, it's what we know. Anyway, I don't share his hatred of vegetables (at least not as many) and am trying to instill a love for them in my girls. So in order to pursue this goal, I fixed some broccoli with our supper the other night. It seems that at this point in their lives, his stance on vegetables is winning and mine is losing. Oh well, I thought, more broccoli for me because I LOVE it. Well, this morning as I was finishing getting ready for church, I came into the kitchen to find Sarah Grace in the process of cleaning out the fridge. She had opened the bowl of broccoli and dumped it into the trash and was just about to empty out a bowl of macaroni. I said, "Well, I guess we were done with the broccoli?" She said, "Yeah, cause I didn't like it!" What can you do except smile and go on and keep trying to win the age old battle of getting kids to eat their veggies? My quest continues!