Halloween Things

Tuesday afternoon we went on a leaf hunt... the girls found "special leaves" and we taped them to our special leaf map. It was fun - they like doing scavenger hunt types of things, especially outside.

Last night was Halloween, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 got all dressed up and went looking for "loot" in Aunt Becky's neighborhood, the trick or treating capital of two counties. Josie was really good at saying "Trickertreat!" and "Thank you, Lady!" to people, and Sadie told a couple of people who had one of those outdoor firepit things: "That's a mighty nice fire you got there!" It was fun, but we were so tired by the end (we missed naps yesterday) that when we ran into a couple of teenage Thing 1s and Thing 2s who wanted to take their picture with the girls, Sadie looked at me and deadpanned, "I am NOT getting out of this wagon."

Today when I went to get Josie out of bed, she said, "Mommy, when is Jesus coming back? I want to play with Him!" This caught me a little off guard... I think she pays way more attention to things than we usually give her credit for.

Oooh! Cat!

Yesterday, Josie was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead of silence, I kept hearing singing, talking, and humming coming from her room. I opened the door and went in and she was standing up in her crib, looking toward the bluebirds on the wall behind the crib. I didn't realize that she didn't know I'd come in until I was standing right behind her. I said, "Hey!" She jumped a FOOT off of her mattress STRAIGHT up into the air and yelled, "OOOH! Oooh! Mommy, you scare me." Then we both had a good laugh. :)

This afternoon, Sadie and I worked on her letters for a little while. I wrote "at" down about 10 times, then let her fill in letters in front, like b, c, f, h, etc. As she wrote the letters down, we sounded out the letter sounds and SHE READ THE WORDS TO ME!!! It was the greatest feeling! She was all proud of herself, too, and she called her grandma (a teacher) to give her the good news. I have the feeling she'll be a fairly accomplished reader by age 4 (like yours truly, heehee).

Wake Up

Before bed tonight, I read some of my daily Bible reading to Sadie in her room. When she got into bed, she asked, "Mommy, when is Jesus coming back?" I told her I didn't know... that it is going to be a big surprise, but when He does come back, an angel will blow a giant trumpet and we'll hear it all across the world! She said, "That will be loud! Where will Jesus be when He comes?" I told her that I thought He would step out on the clouds in the sky and we would all see Him and that He would know who she was!!! She got this excited look on her face and a great big smile, and she said, "And He will come down here, and I will sit on His lap and He will tell me stories and it will be great! And all of those angels - lots and lots of them - will be here too!!!" I said, "Do you want to pray and ask for Jesus to please come back soon?" She answered, "No, because He can't hear me... He has nails in His ears." I laughed... I couldn't help it. Then I told her the nails weren't in His ears, but in His hands and feet. She asked if they were still there, but I told her that after God brought Jesus back from being dead, he no longer had nails in His hands and feet... that He's all better now. She said, "Maybe He will come back on Easter! Just like when God brought Him back from being dead! And then maybe Great Grandpa Ralph will wake up too, when the trumpet blows!" She was SO excited, and I was moved to tears.... having a spiritual discussion with a three year old is an amazing and humbling thing.

God and the Moon

Today, when I was trying to get Josie to help clean up her room, she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm God." I was a little taken aback. I laughed and said, "No, you are not God!" She said, "Yes I am, Mommy, I am God." (...and I don't have to clean up my room, in other words. :)

Tonight we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for supper, then we had a pumpkin carving party on the back deck. The kids had lots of fun scooping out "pumpkin guts" with their cousins, and then we made a little pumpkin procession on the rock walk in the back of the house. Their favorite part was FIRE!!! The little pyros. They love "helping" to light the candles and watching their pumpkins come to life.

Sadie spent the night for a girls' slumber party with Grandma and Teagan, and Josie came home with us. On the way, she said, "Hey! Look up dere in the sky! The moon! A honeymoon! I can't reach it! Urrghhh!!! (as she tried to reach it) It's too high!" I asked what she would do if she got the moon, and she said, "I would throw it in the trash can."

Wedding Blues

The past couple of weeks have been all-consumed by my mom's wedding. Thank goodness it is finally over and we got home from NC late last night. We went down last week, and ALL of us got some kind of horribly croupy cold/cough combination that we STILL haven't gotten rid of. I had to sing in the wedding, and though I ended up doing it after a 2 day stretch of laryngitis, I was NOT at the top of my game. But I think Mama was happy that I tried to croak it out. Sadie and Josie looked gorgeous that day - and Sadie stole the show as the flower girl because she started clapping and dancing along to all the songs, waving at her daddy and her grandpa, and plopping down in the floor in the front of the church. It was a fun wedding, and they both danced with Grammy and played with their cousins and had a good time. I had fun, too, but I think I was high on relief more than anything else :) One of the cutest parts was when Sadie and Cameron were getting their pictures made before the wedding started and Sadie held his arm, all smiles, and said, "Oh boy! This is going to be GREAT!"

Since we were all sick and SUPER GRUMPY, we left quickly on Tuesday without really saying goodbye to anyone, which we've never done before. I didn't like it, but we had to get out of there and get home!

There is definitely some adjusting to be done since Mama will no longer be living here. Sadie is taking it the hardest... I felt so sorry for her the other night... she had been really mean and crabby and I was trying to put her to bed and she was just hateful. I asked her why she was being that way: "Are you mad?" "NO!" "Are you sad?" And her little face just crumpled and she started crying and saying, "I don't want Grammy to go live with Don! I want her to stay at our house! I miss her!" It broke my heart, and I didn't know what to say, really, so I just held her and cried, too. It was pitiful.


Some quotes from the past few days:
"Mother! I need you to help me fix my owl and attach it back together! Because it is ripped! And it was an accident! I need the tape! I need to cut something and then I need to tape it! I'm having a problem here and I can't make up my mind!" (Sadie)


"Mommy, my mommy, will you come into my room and play with me? Want to do a puzzle with me? Okay, here you go! Let's do it, Mommy!" (Josie)

"Lydia, I'm sorry I didn't call you for the past few days. I've been in North Carolina." (Sadie)

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, LISTEN TO ME! I LOVE YOU!" (Josie)

Bad day, Sadie's Out of a Job

Oh my goodness...what a day. I am pooped. Josie had, shall we say, a very TWO day today. She screamed (shrill, bloody murder screams), popped Sadie on top of the head with a broom (on purpose), yelled, "NO! NO! NO!" at me (and Daddy AND Grammy), and shoved Sadie down on the kitchen floor. She also screamed, "I!!!!!!!!! I!!!! I!!!!!" at the top of her lungs every time she saw something that she wanted to do. She is so incredibly hard-headed. If she weren't so ridiculously cute, I think I would seriously have to smack her around. :) I think that's why God makes our children so cute in our eyes... so we won't spend the day spanking them over and over. Anyway, she was just MEAN all day. Even right up to bedtime. I went to put her in her crib and she kicked me as hard as she could. What do you do? Say, "You're in time-out!" and turn out the light? Sheesh.

Funny things that happened:
I was discussing the importance of CEASING thumb-sucking to Sadie. (Keep in mind that she doesn't do it unless she has Snoopy). She said, "I just can't stop doing it, Mommy. That's just the way that I am." I tried not to laugh, and then I told her a little bit about habits and how hard it is to change them. I told her how she's been sucking her thumb for a long time, ever since she was in Mommy's tummy - we could see her sucking her thumb even in the ultrasound picture. She thought about that for a minute, then said, "But how did Snoopy get into your tummy?!"

Sadie quotes Frances the badger quite frequently these days, singing, "I am poor and hungry here, eating prunes and rice...." but tonight when I was tucking her in, she went even further. I said, "I want you to stay in bed tonight, Sadie. Do you know what will happen if you get out of bed tonight?" She said, without a blink, "I will be out of a job?"

Good news:
The girls both love Frog and Toad. I LOVED Frog and Toad, so we finally have some bedtime stories that both of us like. I am so Toad. :)