On tigers and tickles...

This morning was a typical morning for me and my girlies...which is to say, there was really nothing typical about it at all. After all, who needs to get dressed and have breakfast, anyway? It is so much more fun to chase each other around the livingroom and then collapse to the floor in fits of tickles and giggles! Even better if the giggles subside into cuddling on the floor while discussing the relative merits of airplanes vs. helicopters. Naturally, such a conversation will evolve into "flying" on Mummy's feet while I lie on my back with my legs up in the air, which ends up mimicking a possibly drunk seagull more than either an airplane or a helicopter, but that's ok. Incidentally, flying a 2 year old, followed by a 3 year old, followed by a 4 year old...and then doing it again, and again, and again...well, it is fantastic exercise!

Eventually we made it to the breakfast table, where we sat and did very little eating and quite a bit of spirited conversation about tigers. Why not? Tigers and Thursdays go very well together. It was actually a spinoff conversation from the one we had a few days ago about bears...and the one a few days before that about alligators.... The girls are on a predatory animal kick. Mainly these conversations focus on what one should do in the unlikely event that one should face a raging bear, alligator, or tiger. (No, I don't bring up these topics to my very young children! They are quite focused on this right now for some reason, so I just try to keep the conversation light.) It was decided, for instance, that if one is faced with an angry bear, it would be a great idea for one to pull a fish out of one's back pocket (where one handily happens to be keeping a fish at that moment) and throw it to the bear. This would of course be seen as a peace offering, and one would be sent on one's merry way by a grateful bear. In the case of an angry alligator, on the other hand, it was suggested that one would be wise to point out to the alligator that one is not, in fact, a fish oneself, and therefore would not make a good meal for the alligator. This apparently would prompt the alligator to change its mood and slink back into the water, allowing one to continue to play without further alligator harrassment.

Anyway, we did not reach the point of determining a strategy for handling an angry tiger, because the girls got stuck on the fact that a tiger is a big cat. They had trouble believing that, so Google images came to the rescue! Our breakfasts continued cooling while we ooh-ed and aah-ed over pictures of beautiful tigers like this one:



Hannah especially loved every picture I could find of tigers in the water. Her "favorite" changed with every new water picture she saw. Ashley and Bethany were partial to baby tiger pictures, and this one was their favorite:



So cute! I think this was the picture that finally convinced Ashley that tigers really are cats. She was a little perturbed because, as she said, "Kitties are nice and gentle, but tigers are usually a little bit mean, so I don't think they should be kitties."

It took us way longer than usual to get through our morning tasks and breakfast today, but you know what? Breakfast can be reheated -- tickles and tigers must be enjoyed whenever they come along!

Baby fever again...

Well folks, it's that time again! The oft recurring occasion on which I wax eloquent about my longing for a new baby... No, really. If you'd gotten to spend an hour cuddling this little guy, you would feel the same way! This is baby Eli, my newest honorary nephew. (That makes 5 nephews and 2 nieces -- such wealth!) Cute as a bug, isn't he? He opened his eyes enough to peek at me, and gave me kisses, so clearly he loves me and wants me to cuddle him forever and ever amen. This was Ashley's opinion of him....

She kept begging to hold him just one more time, please!, and told me on our way home afterward, "I was just teasing when I said I wanted a puppy more than a baby brother. I think I want a baby brother more."

And Hannah was completely unperturbed by him crying on her watch, and just kept snuggling him and giving him little kisses. So sweet!

Now, I have recently been told that I talk about wanting a new baby "like every week". The person who said that shall remain nameless -- but Erika, you know who you are. ;-) However, I am kind of pathetic about it. I know that. And I don't see my pathetic-ness changing anytime soon. So my baby fever will probably continue to be a regular guest speaker on my blog! But when it comes accompanied by pictures of cutie pies like my new little nephew, hopefully you all will keep putting up with me. :-)

Someday my prince will come...

I know there is a deep question coming when her eyes get that far away look. It may be an expression, but you truly can just about see the wheels turning in her little mind. Then slowly...slowly...her head turns toward me and her thoughtful look focuses on me for a moment before she speaks, and then it comes:

"Mummy, I'm very worried, because I don't know how to get married. I know I'm growing into a lady and it is almost time for me to get married, but I don't know how. And I keep trying to remember when you and Daddy got married so I can know how to do it, but I can't remember. And I don't know who I will marry, either. I don't know when I will be old enough and I feel like I need to know all of those things. Do you think God can teach me?"

Then I wrap her up in my arms, and I ache inside at the knowledge that my baby girl is looking so very far ahead into the future and seeing that it is in fact very close, and dreaming in beautiful innocence of a day when she will no longer be my dimpled little pixie child, but the strong and lovely woman whom God is helping her already to become. And I assure her that He will teach her all those things and more when the time comes, but that right now He delights in her girlish laughter, and her sparkling eyes, and her silly bare feet, and her twirling dances. I tell her that she is His princess and she need never worry for her future, because she has the King for her father.

And she lifts her bright, trusting face to mine, and her little girl smile holds the beauty of womanhood all unknowing in it, and she runs off to play as a child once again. And I weep.

Mom's morning out!

I've been given the privilege of heading up a new church ministry called "Mom's Morning Out". The general idea is for moms like me (yay!) with young children at home to be able to get together and share stories and encouragement and prayer, and generally love and support each other. I'm really excited about the relationship building opportunity here, because we have a lot of young moms who really don't seem to feel connected to other women, and that makes being a wife and mom so.much.harder. So there is so much potential here for us to build encouraging relationships with each other, and I really cannot over state how eager I am to see where God takes this! Today was our first morning together (we're having our "morning out" twice a month), and it was so much fun to get to know each other more. Today we had an older mom (said with much love, Val!) come and share with us some of her motherhood story and experiences -- it was great, and I hope to have lots of moms who have been through the journey and raised children into Godly adults, willing to come share their time and stories with us. I have lots of other fun ideas, too, for activities we can do together. Basically...YAY for the entire thing! ;-)

Women becoming sisters...yay!

Little girls playing ring-around-a-rosy while they wait for their mums to finish talking...yay!

Daddies (who generously shared their time to help with childcare) helping themselves to our goodies while they thought we weren't looking...um, yay?

On what's been keeping us busy lately...

Painting with my baby... Building super tall towers with super fun Uncle Brett...

Movie nights with good friends who recently moved an hour and a half closer to us -- yay!

Hanging out with a favorite cousin, who didn't get permission from me to grow up so quickly...

Playing mysterious hand clapping games with said favorite cousin...

I wish sometimes that I could capture every single precious fun moment on camera...but then I would be glued to my camera constantly and I guess the moments wouldn't all be so much fun.

We spent this afternoon napping and watching the last Elite Eight games, and then trooped outside for some good muddy springtime play, and our second bbq of the year. Happily received my third phone call from a realtor in as many days, scheduling yet another showing for our house back in Spokane -- maybe we'll sell it yet! And now my girls are shrieking as their daddy plays crazy silly games with them, and every time he starts to stand up he's tackled amid cries of, "One more time, Daddy, one more time!"

What a beautiful day, in a beautiful life, from a beautiful God!

Defaulting to bullet points...

Not only have I not blogged for about two weeks, but tonight all I'm bringing to you is bullet points. There are so many things in my head waiting to be blogged, and I hope to have time soon to sit down and really focus on some serious topics, but in the meantime I want to at least record some current happy thoughts about my girlies before time does its predictable thing and erases them from my memory. :-)

• The girls have been paying a lot of attention when we're driving lately. It's great because I've long wanted them to learn how much they can entertain themselves on a long drive by watching what's going past the windows. What I did not anticipate, however, was that we would end up talking nonstop about the things they're seeing through the windows! The other unexpected "bonus" is that I have three emerging backseat drivers. At least half a block before we reach a red light, the chorus begins, "It's a red light, Mummy! You have to stop! Watch out for the other cars! Are you going to stop? Don't forget to stop, because red means stop!" Yes, it's a thing of beauty. Stop signs are another new dislike of mine, for the same reason. Also, because someone had the dumb idea of actually putting the word "stop" on stop signs, which gives us another thing to discuss every.single.time. we come to one. "That's a stop sign, it says stop! S-t-o-p is how we spell stop. G-o is how we spell go...." Bless you, creator of the stop sign.
• We've been making some changes lately toward healthier eating. (This will get its own blog post sometime soon.) The biggest change has been to add a lot more fresh fruits and veggies into our diets, and that's gone over really well because the girls love those as much as we do. However, I've been getting a lot of requests lately for "mac and cheese", which until these recent changes had become more of a weekly staple than I would like to admit. So tonight I was so happy when Ashley ate three helpings of my homemade fettucini alfredo (fyi, this is easy to make with organic ingredients!), and then announced, "This is way better than mac and cheese!"
• The girls and I spent two hours outside this afternoon -- playtime for them, yard work for me. Ashley spent a huge part of that time chatting up the neighbors, social butterfly that she is! I love how confident she is, and that she will just casually talk with an adult about her plans for the summer, etc., without it even occurring to her to be nervous. Anyway, I began the huge task of cleaning up our yard for spring. The previous renters obviously didn't do much of anything with the outside of the house the entire time they lived here, and it is all an overgrown mess! Adding to the mess is all the gravel that got pushed into the yard every time our driveway was plowed this winter, and the whole picture is quite daunting. I raked and raked and raked, and still have plenty of gravel in the yard, so I was super blessed when my sweet girls joined ranks to come pick up the gravel, one little rock at a time, and throw it back into the driveway! It may not be the fastest approach, but it's one that made me so proud of my sweet helpers. :-)

Another day in paradise...

Today:



~I learned that morning is so much better than afternoon for doing school with squirrelly little girls. After lunch the energy is gone and cooperation/focusing abilities seem to vanish into thin air. Oh, and the girls have some trouble as well.

~I wore cute sandals to put the garbage cans out by the road, even though winter is making an unpleasant menopausal exit involving snow and rain and many, many clouds all at once. I'm pretty sure it actually was a more pleasant job because of the cute sandals.

~It occurred to me that maybe with two preschoolers in the house, this would be a good time of life to invest in an electric pencil sharpener.



Pretty sure that the ghost of Carpal Tunnel Future is screaming at me right now.

~I discovered that pedicures and pink toenails all around can cure the blues caused by waiting until the afternoon to do school. That's just one of the benefits of having an 80% female household.

~My baby fever came back with a vengeance, thanks to this post on my friend Holly's blog. Seriously, click on it and look at how perfect and precious he is...do it so I'm not alone!

~It took five minutes for a thrilling game of "pirates' birthday party" to undo half an hour of cleaning and organizing the girls' toy room downstairs.

~My heart smiled when I sat down to read The Cat in the Hat to the girls at breakfast this morning, and Ashley asked me, "Could we read some more of the Psalms today instead?"

"It's ok, it's so nice! It's just another day in paradise -- there's no place that I'd rather be. It's two hearts, and one dream...I wouldn't trade it for anything. And I ask the Lord, every night, for just another day in paradise." Phil Vassar