Dad - Stop That

Not sure what I love more, the picture above or the story below.

Teachable moments for dad.
Balancing playing ignorant vs. making Lydia cry!
I was shaving this morning and Lydia came in and said "Stop that, I need to ask you a question."
So I dutifully did and came to the computer where she looked on the screen and said...."Dad there is an Ark, but no dinosaurs in the Ark. That is pretty funny, but WHY is that?

So did I tell her those things don't exist anymore and crush a 3 year-old or just play ignorant? I chose the latter. But I loved the picture that I received through e-mail so much that I posted it as my wallpaper on my computer...hence how she saw the picture.

As a side note, all credit to the artist Regan for capturing this great perspective.

Concentration

I apologize for the posts this week since they don't have any pictures. But I love sharing stories about the girls too!

I told Brian a few days ago that Hannah has developed a new future career possibility. I think that she would be a great labor and delivery nurse. She has this new habit of pursing her lips together and breathing like they teach you to during childbirth classes. It is quite hilarious!

And it really only happens when she is doing a task that requires concentration. When she is focusing on something or trying really hard to finish something, she will purse her lips together and start deep breathing. It is really funny!

And Brian got to see it in action last night at dinner. She was trying to use her silverware to eat her food, and she started breathing like that. He looked at her like she was crazy! Lydia immediately started laughing hysterically which soon led all of us to be laughing together! It was quite a sight!

So, if you ever see Hannah breathing like she is in the middle of intense labor, don't worry. She is just concentrating! :)

And She Lives Happily Ever After

Well - today marked the end of another era for Lydia. This morning, Brian had gotten up about 5:30 a.m. when Lydia said that she needed to go to the bathroom. He took her to the bathroom and then put her back in bed. I am not convinced that she ever went back to sleep.

When I went in to her room to get her about 7:30 a.m., the first thing Lydia said to me was, "Mommy - I don't want to be Goldilocks anymore." I questioned her a little about this, and she proceeded to tell me that she didn't want me to be Mama Bear, or Daddy to be Papa Bear, or Hannah to be Baby Bear either. She said that she was done "playing the Three Bears" (her words - not mine).

I have to admit I was surprised and a little doubtful about her honesty. But she then asked to go into our room to talk to Daddy. I heard her go into our bathroom and apologize to him for calling him Papa Bear instead of Daddy. When I asked Lydia what Brian had said when she apologized, she said, "Daddy said there was no reason to be sorry." How cute!

But I was surprised when Lydia continued to insist all day today that she is done being Goldilocks. I really do think that she is serious. She corrected Brian once when he called her Goldilocks saying "My name isn't Goldilocks anymore - it is Lydia." Actually, Brian is sad about the whole situation. I think it just goes to show how quickly she is growing up. And he told me that he didn't want Lydia to lose her playfulness and imaginative spirit.

Not to worry Daddy. For those of you that are around Lydia, you should know that she thinks she has a sister AND a brother. She has (on more than one occasion) over the past three weeks told other people that she has a sister named Hannah and a brother named Chase. When I have tried to correct her and tell her that she has a cousin named Chase, she immediately says "There are two Chase's - my brother AND my cousin!" And no - there is no announcement forthcoming. She just really thinks that she has a brother! :)

And she also has two make believe cousins. Brian thinks that their names are Buby and Ruby, but I have to admit that their names change frequently. Their names always end in -by, but they can be Ruby and Ruby, Duby and Ruby, Buby and Buby, etc. And she references them frequently. She says that she loves playing with them and going to their house. She also says that their mom makes the BEST food - I guess she doesn't care for my cooking. And in case you were curious, they ARE twins!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that the Goldilocks phase of Lydia's life has apparently ended and now I can't wait to see what the next adventure is that we embark on with her. May Goldilocks live happily ever after (at least until Hannah picks her fairy tale of choice)! :)

Cowgirl Birthday

It is hard to believe that Lydia is officially three years old! We had a wonderful weekend full of birthday fun. We started off the weekend with a trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead for an "almost" birthday party as Lydia referred to it with Lydia's friends. There were 11 kiddos there, and it was a lot of fun. We were able to walk through all of the farm together - stopping to feed the animals, going down the barn slide, playing on the playground, seeing Pippi the cow, and riding the ponies.

 

 

You have to be three years old to ride the ponies so this was Lydia's first opportunity. At first, she seemed a little unsure, but by the end, she was smiling! I hope she doesn't expect to ride a pony every time that we go to the farm! :) We then went back to our corral for cupcakes - the cupcakes were made by Aunt Brooke, and they were wonderful! They even had a red sparkly cowgirl boot on top to match our western cowgirl theme! But I think the highlight of the farm birthday party was the wagon ride that we ended the morning with. Lydia had a lot of fun!



We were also lucky that Aunt Brooke, Uncle Chris, Parker, and Brecken could come up and spend time with us this weekend. They stayed here on Saturday evening so the girls had all of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to play together. It is so much fun to see them interact. My favorite was getting ready for church on Sunday morning and listening to the conversations between Lydia and Parker as they were lying in bed together. They were truly priceless little exchanges!

 

 

Then, on Sunday afternoon, we had another birthday party with just family. We just had it here at our house, and it was very relaxed! Aunt Brooke made an amazing gingerbread house (Lydia's request for the type of cake that she wanted). However, Lydia did not want to eat it at the party. We are planning on digging into the gingerbread house tonight! But we did eat another birthday cake that Aunt Brooke made and opened presents. The kiddos enjoyed playing outside since it was a beautiful day! All in all, the weekend was perfect!

The Stats

Well - I felt as though I needed to update you all on our activities over the past week. Last week was kind of crazy as we were getting everything ready for Lydia's birthday party. We had Lydia's last appointment with our Parents as Teachers representative, Jamie. That was actually a little sad for me - Jamie has been a wonderful resource for me to bounce ideas off of, and she has shared lots of wisdom with me over the last three years. We will definitely miss her!

Then, we had all of our regular activities during the week as well as a trip to Pittsburg, Kansas thrown in for me on Thursday! Needless to say, by Friday I was exhausted! But we also had Lydia's three-year wellness check with Dr. Martin on Friday morning. I had been preparing Lydia for the fact that she would be getting the seasonal flu vaccine at this appointment (i.e., a "shot"). She seemed fairly prepared for this when we went to the appointment.

She did great at the appointment. She followed all of Dr. Martin's instructions and her statistics were as follows:

Height - 38 1/4" (70% percentile)
Weight - 33 1/2 pounds (77% percentile).

Dr. Martin said that she looked great, and she was happy to hear that Lydia is a good eater (as though she couldn't tell from her statistics)! :) But when it came time for the flu shot, things changed a little. Hannah was scheduled to get her flu shot as well. Lydia went first. When the nurse gave her the shot, she immediately tried to pull away and then started crying. Then, it was Hannah's turn. The nurse gave Hannah the shot, and she didn't make a sound. She just sat there as though that was no big deal! When Lydia saw that, she definitely stopped crying! :)

Another funny Lydia story from last week. We were sitting at dinner on Thursday night, and I made the comment that I thought I was going crazy. I mean really - I had a crazy week! Well, Lydia immediately responded with "Is Mommy loco?" Loco means crazy in Spanish - I don't think they teach that word on Dora, but she had obviously heard it somewhere. When we realized that she understood what I was saying, Brian asked her if Mommy was crazy. She said no. Then, he asked her if he was crazy. Again, she said no. Finally, he asked her if Hannah was crazy. Once again, she said no. Then, he asked her if she knew anyone who was crazy. She immediately said yes. When Brian asked her who that was, she smiled brightly and said "Copper." Amen to that one! She definitely has our family dynamics figured out!

Like Mother Like Daughter

You might be surprised about who this blog post is actually about. Ever since Lydia was small, we saw those personality traits that seem to define everything that the birth order books define - the firstborn! In many ways, Lydia certainly takes after me. She tends to be a bit of a perfectionist and fiercely independent. She thrives on routine and likes to know what is coming next.

When Hannah was born, I knew that we had a completely different package on our hands. As a baby, she was very laid back. In fact, her personality seemed to be much more in line with Brian's. However, as Hannah has gotten older, and her personality has emerged even more, she has started portraying some new traits that have surprised both Brian and I. As I have described before, Hannah can make a mess out of absolutely anything in a matter of seconds. But, what I have rarely blogged about is how persistent she is with cleaning everything up.

 

When I ask Lydia to help pick up her toys, she will usually help, but I can also tell that she is definitely dragging her feet about helping. When I say pick up now, Hannah will usually make a bee line for whatever the task at hand is and dig right in. She loves order and having everything in its place (much like her Mommy)!

In fact, the other day, Hannah had a couple of her play pieces of food in her hand as we were leaving one of our bedrooms. I picked Hannah up and told her that we had to put the food away before we left the room. She quickly shook her head no so I carried her over to the plastic tubs where we store the food and asked her to drop the food into them. The first piece went into the tub without an issue. The second piece however, didn't actually make it into the tub. It landed on the floor outside. At that point, I didn't care, and I began to carry Hannah out of the room. But before we even made it to the door, Hannah said her word for down, and she was very insistent about it. She immediately walked back over to the tub, picked up the piece of food outside of it, and put it into the tub. Then, she picked up the plastic lid and put it on top. Once she was satisfied that everything was appropriately in its place, she followed me back to the door. I have to admit that I was surprised!

 

But we got the biggest laugh about Hannah on Friday night. Brian had taken both girls outside while I finished some preparations for dinner. He came back into the house and told me that I had to come back outside. Our neighbors have a large cottonwood tree whose branches hang over our fence. Thus, during this time of year, we have a lot of leaves to rake. Well, Hannah had found the many leaves and had made up her mind that they belonged back on our neighbor's side of the fence. She began putting them back through the slats of the fence by the handfuls. She is quite a character! And honestly, I think she would have put every single leaf back over had we let her!

I guess it just goes to show that actions of the people that you spend time with really do influence what you do and don't do. I just didn't think about that when it came to my kiddos! :)

 

Gift of the Tongue

We are studying the book of Genesis this year in my Community Bible Study group. So far, I have really enjoyed this study, and I am already anticipating getting to know the women in my core group even better. We have only completed our in-depth study of the first three chapters of Genesis, but one of the items that has really impacted me is the power and majesty of our Creator!

One of the most powerful aspects for me is how God literally spoke our entire universe into being. At the beginning of Genesis, the six days of creation begin by stating, "And God said..." I had never before thought of the powerfulness of this statement. God spoke everything into creation - isn't that amazing?

But the other item that has really resonated with me are the attributes that God has given to each of us. Obviously, I knew that God had formed each of us "in His own image." So, I knew about our physical similarities with God. However, I had never spent a lot of time considering the attributes that God had given us. The biggest attribute that has been on my mind has been the power of our tongue. Just as God created everything with His words, He has also given us the power of the tongue. Although other animals have tongues, none has the ability to communicate like we do.

That fact has definitely given me reason to ponder our gift of the tongue. God has also given us the ability to create and/or destroy with our spoken words. My prayer over the past two weeks has been for God to increase my awareness of my words. I really want to be known for my ability to encourage others and to build others up. I know how quickly I tend to open my mouth and speak (especially during those especially long silences when things tend to get uncomfortable). And usually, I end up saying something that I regret.

May we each remember the power of our words and commit to using them to encourage others. If God used His words to create our universe, can I not honor Him with the words that I use?