Baby Jesus

Today we got out our Nativity set and Clara was instantly obsessed. We have been talking for a week or so about baby Jesus' birthday which is coming and she talks about it all the time. So as soon as we got the set out, she picked up baby Jesus and started cuddling him. After awhile she told me, "Oh! He needs his mama!" Before long she was walking around with Jesus, Mary and two lambs in her arms, along with Baby Joy. I told her it would be better to sit on the couch with them so they didn't fall and break. Next time I look, she had added Joseph, a shepherd, a camel and a donkey to the mix on the couch. She sat for a long time just holding Jesus and talking to him, and even passed up helping me make muffins (one of her favorite things!) so she could hold Jesus instead.

 

Conversations with a two-year-old about Jesus are interesting, to say the least. In addition to sharing her food with the holy family Clara had some serious questions she wanted answered. At one point she asked me, "Baby Jesus have shirt, mom?"

"No, he doesn't have a shirt on."

"His mama have shirt?"

"Yes, she has a shirt on, right here."

"We can get one of my shirts so he can wear it."

"That's very sweet of you, but I think your shirts would be too big."

"His mama need get shirt for him."

"Yes, that would be a good idea. Would you like a blanket for him?"

"No, he's okay right now."

Upon heading to the bathroom: "Baby Jesus have bum?"

At nap time: "Baby Jesus have milky from his mama? Just like I have milky from my mama?"

I didn't let her take Mary and Jesus to bed with her for nap, but they stayed next to her crib and the first thing she asked upon waking was "Where's baby Jesus? I get out and hold him?"

As she was walking through the kitchen with Jesus and Mary: "(quietly) In few weeks it will be baby Jesus' birthday. It's coming soon. (louder) I tell him Mom, I tell him 'bout his birthday!"

She has also wanted to listen to nothing but Christmas carols all day, which she calls "Jesus music." Whenever a new song comes on that she doesn't know she asks, "What they singing 'bout Mom? This song 'bout Jesus when he was born? This 'bout Jesus' birthday?"

Seeing Christmas through the simple, adoring eyes of a child is a precious treat!

A Windy Walk

It was so nice and warm out today (upper 50s!!), but very windy! Pushing Baby Joy into that wind was hard work!

Overheard (coming from the shower where Luke and Clara were showering together): "Daddy, I'm shaving!" Oh my. Think she's a little young for that yet.

Snuggles

While we miss our family, it is nice to be home in our little house and settling into our routine again. Tonight Luke and Clara enjoyed some pre-bedtime snuggles on the couch with Clara wrapped up in her snowman towel after a shower with Mama. Love our little snuggle bug!

Exhausted

After that week full of excitement and traveling, we were all exhausted! Clara and Baby Joy took a long nap today, which I had to wake them from (something I absolutely hate to do) so that Clara would go back to sleep at bedtime tonight. We will be resting and getting back into the swing of things here over the next few days before kicking the Christmas preparations into gear once December arrives on Thursday!

Things I have been most thankful for this week: the love of God, shown through dear, sweet family; time to spend with family, all too rare; sunshine and unseasonably warm weather to enjoy together; safe travels despite traffic, rain and sleepiness; good food, prepared with love and shared with joy; an adaptable little girl who was happy, cheerful and a delight to herself and others despite strange surroundings, new people and many departures from her normal routines; time spent sharing marriage advice and the faithfulness of God with five married couples (132 years of marriage, collectively! Grandparents, parents, one aunt/uncle, one brother/sister in law and ourselves) for the purpose of building up a dear cousin and his sweet fiancee; family, family, family. What a joy!

Thanksgiving Week: Aunt Lindele and "Bunny Pigs!"

On Thanksgiving night my cousin Amber was showing Clara pictures of their guinea pigs on her phone, which Clara promptly called "bunny pigs." She was enthralled with the pictures and so Saturday morning we took her over to the Elliotts' to meet their six piggies. Clara had a blast, as you can tell! Aunt Lindele loves her little pigs and I think she had just a little bit of fun showing them to Clara. We even got to see them climb steps! Our trip was filled with family and animals, can't get much better than that!

Thanksgiving Week: Grammie & Bapa

My dad's parents hosted us all and we were so blessed by their hospitality. Their home is always joyful, relaxing, open and full of love. They are always thinking of others; running to the store when they notice all the clementines are gone, selflessly doing dishes for hours on end, keeping the kitchen clean for those who are cooking (and eating!), making sure everyone is comfortable, happy and satisfied. They give continually. I have been so blessed by their example throughout my life and am more thankful for them every year.

On Wednesday morning, when Clara woke up, the first thing she said was, "Mama, where's Grammie??" She had been so excited about going to Grammie's house and she had a blast being there. Friday evening she climbed up beside them and got to join in the nightly ritual - watching Wheel of Fortune (and she would have stayed for Jeopardy too, if I hadn't carried her off to bed!). I am so thankful for these godly grandparents and for the fact that my daughter gets to know them as well!

We also made our trip to the National Zoo on Friday and it was wonderful!! We hit many of the animals at just the right time to see them playing, roaring, eating and even having a birthday party! In the next few days there will be pictures from our zoo trip up at Stirrup to Stirrup.

Thanksgiving Week: Gramma

Thanksgiving morning the cousins headed out for their traditional game of football. Luke, Clara and Aunt Kay went along to watch; after getting squash roasted, ritz crackers crushed and mixed with butter, mushrooms sliced and rolls mixed and rising, Mommy and I headed over to the field for a little while. We found Luke, Clara and Kay on the nearby playground, having grown bored of the football game (sacrilege to some, I know). Baby Joy was enjoying a cozy swing with Clara, who quickly took off for a little walk with Gramma. Love watching these two walk perfectly in step together, enjoying the gorgeous sunshine and each others' company.

Thanksgiving Week: Uncle Matthew

After a very long drive Tuesday night, we finally arrived at Grammie and Bapa's house at 4:45 Wednesday morning. A few hours sleep and we were ready to go! Clara was a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to everyone. The first one to steal her away was Uncle Matthew, who we didn't get to see last month in Charlotte. I hid around the corner and poked my camera out to get some sweet shots of the two of them laughing and playing the piano together.

New Fruit

Clara was having fun today playing with her wooden cutting fruit and putting them back together in interesting combinations - I told her she was creating new fruits!

Spontaneous Help

Tonight, Luke was working very late getting horses shod before we head out of town tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Clara and I had a good, but long, day. Clara helped me make biscuits to have with our soup for dinner and then asked to wash her hands, so I slid her chair over to the sink and went back to stir the soup. When I turned around again, she was scrubbing spoons with her little brush and telling me, "I wash dishes for you, Mama!" What a sweet helper's heart she has! That little girl is such a blessing to me, even when she's overtired and super emotional.

Technical notes: I am going to try and post early tomorrow, before we leave for Grammie and Bapa's. While we're there, I'm not sure what our computer situation or usage will be and I'm not stressing about it; we are going to relax, take a break and enjoy our time with family. So, if I have easy access and can get posts up quickly, I will but if not I'll put our weeks' worth of photos up after we return.

Fun with Friends

This may end up being the weekly title for my Sunday night posts. Clara sure does have a great time with her sweet friends! I think they were "driving" somewhere and Karoline was the bus driver trying to keep all her uncooperative passengers sitting down. Whatever they were doing, there sure were a lot of giggles coming from the living room!

 

Moment I wish I had a picture of: Clara snuggling with Miss Kristen, just the two of them in the big red chair. So sweet and I am SO thankful that these wonderful people are such a big part of Clara's life (and our lives, too!). We are so blessed by y'all, Niles!

Inseparable

The question I hear most frequently these days: "Baby Joy (insert activity here) with me?" Any and every activity is fair game for Baby Joy's participation. Today it was swinging in her blue swing. I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit both of them in, but we were able to make it work. As usual, they had a grand time.

On a related note, I never thought I'd have to plan ahead to get two little ones changed and dressed, put on two sets of shoes/hats/jackets, etc so we could go somewhere before I had another child myself! I'm reminding myself right now to leave enough time before church to get Clara and Baby Joy changed, dressed appropriately and ready to go.

Overheard: Clara to Baby Joy this afternoon: "It's okay, Baby Joy. You don't need to cry. Shhhhh. I will snuggle you.... Mama, Baby Joy is sad. She's crying. I will help her. She needs her blankie." (all this while holding Baby Joy gently and patting/rubbing her back)

"I curl up with Sadie!"

Not much else needs to be said. This is our rug for damp boots next to the wood stove.

Overheard: One of Clara's favorite things these days is to back up a statement with another "because" statement. The two statements do not have to have any relation to one another other than proximity in her speech. Example: "We're having tea party, because it's supposed to rain this afternoon and, um, because, we're having tea party." This is currently the form every such statement takes - line A, "because" line B, repeat line A. Hearing her experimenting with the English language is so fun!

Tea Party

Our proper tea party this afternoon. Clara doled out the eating utensils - apparently according to size, since I have the largest spoon possible! (The green place setting is mine.) I wish I had a picture of the whole set up after she snitched some of our cinnamon-applesauce ornaments, put one on each plate and declared them, "Cake!" We then had to "sing for the cake" which meant singing Happy Birthday. Whose birthday were we singing for? Clara's, of course! (Later on I did find one of the ornaments with a small corner nibbled off - she just couldn't resist the urge!)

Story for the Day: Clara has been so obsessed with muffins lately. At dinner, Luke asked if we should start calling her "the muffin girl." "NOOoooooo Daddy (almost in tears), I'm CLARA!!!" Sometimes teasing is funny. Other times it is not. Only she knows the mysteries of the difference between one time and the other. Luke quickly backpedaled and returned to her good graces by referring to her for the remainder of the meal as "Miss Clara," which she loved.

For Wednesday

Since I was sick all day yesterday, I headed to bed early while Luke was still on the computer and didn't get around to posting. Looking at the pictures today, I have to laugh. So many choices! There's Clara eating (and sharing) her banana with her dolls who are sitting at their dollhouse table; stirring and sipping tea with a raised pinkie finger and a french twist in her hair; rocking with Baby Joy and Lucy the Moose while totally rocking a funky '80s headband hairdo of her own creation; relaxing on the couch, one knee bent, snuggling Baby Joy while reading "Jesus Loves Me" to her (still with the same hairdo); and last but not least, riding her rocking horse with Baby Joy in her lap while texting Daddy on Mama's phone ("I sending him message, Mommy."). Oh my, choices!

Since this is the only one she's actually smiling in, I'll share it here. The others you can see over at Stirrup to Stirrup.

To file away under, "Important Life Lessons Learned from a Two Year Old" - upon being admonished to stop crying and use words, Clara burst out with, "I need to cry!!!" It's true. Sometimes tears are all you have to give. (This was several days ago.) I have taken a different tack, am trying to be more understanding and helpful and have been acknowledging her feelings more when she melts down (quite often these days) - things I always meant to do all along but I suppose the sheer quantity of tears had gotten to me a bit.

Today, however, when she retorted, "I need to whine...." after being corrected for whining I looked her straight in the face and replied, "No. You do not need to whine. Sometimes we need to cry, but whining is never necessary." Another good lesson I should remind myself of on occasion.

Precision

That's what it takes to paint your fingernails. It's also very difficult for two-year-olds. This little girl was practicing today.

In other news, it's been almost 12 hours since we've had any bodily fluid issues, so I think we're on the up and up! I can't wait to have my healthy little girl back!

"Mama, My Tummy Feels Silly"

There was vomit in Clara's crib this morning when I went to get her. She wanted to know what it was (she obviously didn't remember the incident =P). I told her something yucky came from her tummy up out of her mouth and asked if her tummy was feeling funny. She replied, "Uh huh." A few minutes later I noticed her gagging slightly and she said in a quavering voice, "Mama, my tummy is feeling silly again." Poor girl, I felt so bad but couldn't help laughing a little inside. She was a little off all day so we did lots of snuggling, watching Thomas the Tank Engine, reading books and just being cozy. Here she is on the couch this afternoon, happy as a clam at this point, snuggling with both her blankies and all her stuffed animals that had just come out of the dryer.

She was feeling much better when she went to bed tonight so we'll see how things look in the morning. We'll be staying home from Bible study and planning on another cozy day to make sure she's all better. Hopefully we'll have no more "silly tummies" around here!

Sunday Fun: Dress Up!

Yesterday afternoon I went to my first food swap! It was tons of fun and when I arrived at the Niles' house afterward, I found my little girl in this same outfit (photo courtesy of Luke). She had been having a blast playing dress-up with her friends!

"You Got Married!"

One of Clara's new favorite things is to look through the photo albums from our wedding. She will search for her favorite pictures and tell me, "I used to be at your wedding" or "I got married!" ("Who are you married to?" "Daddy!!!")

This evening while I was cooking dinner she got very quiet in the living room and when I peaked in on her, this is what I saw:

"Mama, I'm snuggling with her!" It has been so sweet to watch Clara get even more attached to Baby Joy. They have done everything together the past few days - today Clara even started announcing that Baby Joy needed to go potty, running to the bathroom with her and holding her over the toilet! It's so wonderful to watch her imagination and creativity blossoming.

Out for a Stroll

Although it was chilly and breezy today, much colder than the rest of the week, we still bundled up and went out for a bit. While Luke and I stacked firewood, Clara pushed Baby Joy all around the driveway for a very long time. They had a blast!

Later this afternoon Clara was pushing Baby Joy around inside and they went all sorts of places - the grocery store (where they got "cash back"), the gas station (apparently Baby Joy's stroller runs on gas?), the grocery store again and who knows where else. As they passed through the kitchen where I was making dinner Clara would say things like, "We be back later. Have a nice day, Mom!" Gave me visions of her in 15 years!!

As we were petting Sadie tonight Clara got up, grabbed "something" off her little blue table and said, "Here Sadie, here some moneys for you." I asked, "Oh, did you get money for Sadie? That's nice." *pause* "No Mom, Sadie not have hands for money."

At dinner Luke and Clara were being completely silly and she asked, "What happened to you, Daddy?"
"I fell out of a tree and bonked my head on a rock."
"NOOoooo!"
"I got hit by lightning."
*looking up at the kitchen light*
"NOOoooo!"
Mama: "Yes, he did!"
*pause*
Clara: "That's weird!!!"
Luke and I both just about died with laughter.

Ahh, What a Life!

Although the forecast this afternoon was for rain it stayed sunny and warm until late in the afternoon, so we enjoyed another morning outside and yet another picnic lunch with smoothies. Sadie was keeping watch a little ways away and Clara decided at first to go pet her, then thought she needed to lie down with her. Ahhhh, this is the life, basking in the sun next to a good dog....

We are traveling south to spend Thanksgiving with the Pinckney side of the family this year and we are all SO excited about our trip! Lately every time we say Psalm 100 together, when we get to the line, "enter His gates with thanksgiving" Clara pauses and says, "We are going to Grammie's house for Thanksgiving!!!" Today she asked, "Who will be there?" so we listed all the names of family members who will be present (a long list!). When we got done she said, "Let's talk 'bout names again!" We spent a good portion of this afternoon rehearsing the names of all attending family - hopefully this will help her warm up to people more quickly in person once we get there too! When she woke up from her nap she was ready to go to Grammie's house, but then remembered, "In two weeks Mama. We go in two weeks." That's right little girl, and we can't wait!

Picnic

Today was warm and sunny again! What a wonderful blessing after all the rain we had earlier in the fall. We enjoyed the weather and, since Clara was desperate to stay outside as long as possible, decided to have a picnic for lunch. I'm so glad it was warm enough for us to enjoy eating outside! We even had smoothies as the "main dish" which we haven't had in quite some time. Clara was carrying hers around everywhere, since it took her quite awhile to get it all down!

Pine Needles

I have been slipping lately with getting pictures posted the day they are taken! Anyway, this is from yesterday. We have been loving the warm, sunny weather and have spent lots of time outside. Yesterday we raked up lots of pine needles, put them in the wheelbarrow (Clara was a big helper!) and, of course, took a few breaks to sit in them!

We also took some time for Clara to swing while I pushed her. She wanted to "sing" and started reciting Psalm 23. When she was done she said, "Sing more Mommy!" We went through Psalm 1, Psalm 100, the Lord's Prayer and back to Psalm 23 - how glorious and precious to recite Scripture in the middle of God's creation with my little girl! It was so fun to say Psalm 1, "He is like a tree, planted by streams of water..." surrounded by trees! I love that Clara calls reciting Psalms "singing" - she truly can feel the melody and rhythm of the language and really responds to it.

Warm and Cozy

Last weekend when we were down in the city for Clara's blood draw, we went by Joann's and got some fleece to make her a sleep sack for this winter. She usually does a pretty good job of staying under her covers, but I wanted to have this as an option because her room gets pretty chilly at night. She was SO excited to make it but more excited to snuggle in it - she just wanted to lie there, she didn't want me to cut it or move it! But in the end she was glad because I finished it just before dinner and she's sleeping in it now. Success! Now that I know how easy it is, I think I'll make a couple more!

Snuggles

Sadly, I forgot my camera when we headed out the door to church this morning. Which means, I didn't have it the rest of the day since we headed straight to the Niles'. Luke took some pictures for me with his phone, and although Clara's eyes look a little scary here due to the reflection, I still love this picture. She got to stay up and watch The Amazing Race with us and she loved it! Her favorite part of all was sitting next to and snuggling with all of her favorite people in turn. Here she is with Scott, Kristen and Annabelle. I think Uncle Scott enjoys Clara snuggles too.

Ponytails courtesy of Karoline.

Stacking Wood

Today was a beautiful, perfect fall day. Sunny, crisp and gorgeous out. We spent a lot of time today stacking firewood and Clara was super excited about helping (for awhile). She thought carrying wood in her arms like this was the coolest thing! Love that this little girl always wants to help, no matter what we're doing.

Oops!

Imagine my surprise when I came to do tonight's picture and saw that I never actually posted yesterday's! I had it all done up and somehow must have gotten distracted before I hit the "publish" button. Oops! Here it is:

Clara was snuggling with Jija tonight, the teddy bear that was my favorite ever since Aunt Laura brought him to me in Kenya when I was 4 months old (I think?). The story goes that I used to sit and just look at him and say, "Jija, Jija, Jija..." Clara thinks he's great - he's one of several stuffed animals that surround the head of her crib. She told me very seriously tonight, "Mama, he's mine. He's mine, Mama." I gently told her that no, he's Mama's but you are taking care of him for me right now. She solemnly agreed.

Kitchen Light

In case you're wondering, we were baking Scarlet Gingerbread Muffins.

Such a Helper

Helping Mama stack wood for Daddy this gorgeous, sunny afternoon. How nice to be outside and enjoy the warmth a few more times before winter comes for real!

Too Hot!

Clara was a little anxious to eat tonight. But her soup was too hot! She enlisted Daddy's help in cooling it down.