Jesse's Girl

Lately, Sadie has been asking some really good questions. Like, "When Jesus comes back, will He be the king of the earth or will GOD be the king?" She also wants to know about levers, pulleys, how plants grow, if fish sleep, what kind of foods bats eat, why do teeth chatter, how many minutes are in a day, if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, etc., etc. But, she's still her father's daughter: last night, she came upstairs where I was working in the office and passed some STINKY gas. Instead of saying, "I Tooted!" and laughing like she usually does, she turned around, walked out, and said, "I'm gonna leave that one for you to enjoy, Mommy."

Bad Morning to You

Adelaide has had an unexplained high fever for the past several days. At first, I thought it was because she was teething, but then the fever kept getting higher and higher. When it went up to 104, I gave up and took her in to the doctor on Saturday morning. After checking her out, he said the good news was that her ears looked great (we assumed a fever meant an ear infection; it usually does with our kids), but the bad news was he had no idea why she'd had such a high fever for so long. Since girls are more apt to get UTIs, he thought that was a possibility... unfortunately, the only way to get a sterile sample to check for it is to catheterize. I fought him on it, because I had to go through that once with Josie and I knew it was awful... but he finally talked me into it, because I didn't want her pain to persist if it really WAS a UTI. Anyway, it was torturous. I had to hold her little arms down while she screamed and cried and looked at me like, "Why are you letting them do this to me, Mommy?" I cried and cried. THEN, I had to take her to the lab for bloodwork (the ladies were super nice there and let us go in front of everyone because they felt so sorry for Adelaide) and I had to hold her while they dug around in her little arm with a needle to try to find a vein. THEN, we had to go BACK to the doctor's office and they gave her two shots full of this gluey-like high powered antibiotic (which they said really hurts as it goes in) in her chubby little thighs. Needless to say, it was NOT a good morning. The only redeeming thing about having a sick little one is the thankfulness that you get when you realize that some parents have to go through things like this on a daily basis - God help those people. That, and the pitiful snuggling of their heads into your shoulder because that's all they feel like doing. The snuggling is not so bad.

When You Talk to Little Girls...

This is what you might hear:

From Adelaide: "Foof. Goog! FFFFfffff.... baboo! Gi! Gi!"

A few weeks ago after their baths, Sadie put a toy in her mouth and dropped it in front of Adelaide, who thought it was SO FUNNY that she laughed until she THREW UP in the bathroom floor.

From Josie: "Daddy took us to McDonald's to play on the playground, but he took some vegetables to eat while we were in there." - Which was NOT TRUE. She just didn't want Daddy to get in trouble for feeding them fast food!

When we were eating lunch the other day, Josie said, "Is this supper? Dinner? Lunch? I get infused."

After we read "The Little Bitty Raindrop," Sadie informed me that when rain goes back up into the sky, that means it "EVAPORATES," which she learned at the Natural History Museum last week. I asked her what it's called when it falls back down. I was looking for condensation, but Josie surprised me when she piped up, "That's called GRAVITY!"

From Sadie: "A bad stranger that's a GIRL? I guess you'd kick her in the ...!"

When we saw a little girl at the store who still had a pacifier (and she was probably 5 years old), Sadie and Josie both laughed. I asked them why they were laughing, and they said, "because she's a BIG girl, not a baby!" Later that day, Sadie, after some deep thought, said, "I think it might be time to stop sucking my thumb, because I don't want people laughing at ME."

When talking about praying to idols, I showed them Adelaide's "snozzler," just because it was sitting there on the table and it was handy. I said, "Can you imagine praying to something that isn't even alive? Like this thing?" They both said, "Ha hah! That's just crazy! Oh great and powerful snozzler...!"

The girls locked me in the bedroom and set a "trap" for me. I heard Sadie yelling outside the closed door: "BEHOLD! The hamster is trapped!" I guess I've graduated from "mean old witch" to "hamster."

When we were watercoloring at the kitchen table, Sadie said, "Huh! Well, look at that! The paint is being insorbed!"

Sweethearts

I love how when Adelaide is nursing, she'll grab on to the strap of my nightgown and yank on it like it's her lifeline, or rip cord, or air horn (if she was a truck driver). I also love how sometimes she'll see something she thinks is funny (while she's eating) and she'll laugh these explosive little laughs, WITH her mouth full. I can't believe how much I love this whole breast-feeding thing - especially with my past history of giving up! I almost gave up with her, too... thank goodness I didn't.

Last night we had our first annual Sweetheart Supper for church (which I coordinated). It seemed to be a resounding success - especially the "Not So Newlywed Game. The girls stayed home with some teens from church (Keylah, Alissa, and Chloe) along with 4 other little ones. They had their own Valentine party while we were having ours. Sadie said they had a good time playing hide and seek AND they got to watch Bambi. Josie loves having people over, though usually she forgets their names and just calls them "That Girl" or "That Boy." Today, Jesse gave them their little Valentine surprises - heart socks, little stamps, and tiny flowerpots with seeds - lavendar for Sadie and strawberries for Josie. He told them it was because they are his sweethearts and they just lit up... they thought it was great. So do I. My daddy always gave me a Valentine's gift or sent me flowers to school, and it really made me feel special as I was growing up. I'm glad Jesse's decided to continue that tradition.

Thunk

There I was, minding my own business, trying to get the girls ready for preschool this morning, when I heard it -- the dreaded THUNK, followed by crying and screaming. The crying? Adelaide and Josie. The screaming? Me. Adelaide rolled off the bed and landed with the back of her little head up against the dresser. She was fine, but it scared her - and Josie, who was playing with her when it happened - to death. Poor Josie was all to pieces and couldn't stop crying about it; later she told me that God came down and gave her a hug and that made her feel much better - but she was still sad that Adelaide "got hurted."

I'm kind of relieved that it happened, honestly, since all babies are supposed to hit their heads before they're a year old (an old wives' tale, I know), and I was responsible for both Sadie's (the awful car seat incident) and Josie's (the phone dropped on the head trick) thunkings. At least Adelaide's is over with!

Josephine-y Jellybean-y

Today, Josie and I had special "Mommy/Josie" time. We went to the Christian bookstore, and she picked out a tiny little Bible that she carried around in her pocket and showed to everyone who would look at it. She also made up lots of stories that she "read" to me in the car on the way home. She's so funny and personable, but she worries about talking to strangers. I tried to explain to her that it's okay to talk to strangers if Mommy or Daddy is around, just not when she's by herself. She asks me what's okay to do ALL the time, like she's constantly trying to figure out boundaries and rules in her little head. I'm glad she's always trying to do the right thing, although she still tries to get out of any wrongdoing by saying, "Sadie did it!"

The other day, I was trying to tell her that she needs to be still and quiet sometimes (she had talked without ceasing ALL DAY LONG) and I said, "Even the Bible says to be still and know that I am God." Of course, she replied, "YOU? YOU are God?"

She's been using some awfully big words lately, but my favorite things that she says are: "As a fatter-a-mattley," and "A-wah-men, I said A-WAH-men!" closely followed by "It goed away" ie, "my knee hurt, but it goed away."

Josie and her "Monkey-phone."