5 Years and Counting

I can't believe that I am now the mother of a 5 year old. It always seemed to me that FIVE seemed like such a big number... like it was a milestone that was so far away for us. But now, as of around 10:00 this morning, Sadie is five years old. Sigh. I have mixed feelings, as usual. She acts so grown up, sometimes, that I forget she's so young. Being such a tall little bean-pole doesn't help matters, either. Tonight before bed she said, "Oh well. I don't think I've grown ANY since I was four. I am exactly as tall right now when I'm five as I was yesterday when I was four!"

Today she got to go up to the birthday box at church, and I just watched her, smiling and proud that she's my daughter (she was so cute and ladylike in her special black & white birthday dress with the red rose pinned on the skirt), but also a little teary-eyed... knowing how fast the past five years have flown by and knowing how fast the next five will. Sometimes I hug her so tight - not wanting to let go, but knowing that one day I will have to. I have to remind myself that she's on loan to me from God - that she's really His and not mine at all, but He certainly knew what He was doing when He created this whole mother-bonding thing. It's like the saying "Being a mother means to forever have your heart walking around outside your body." When I have time to actually sit and ponder the meaning of life, sometimes I think about how I am HIS child, just like Sadie is MY child. And if God loves me even more than I love her... how much must that be! It isn't even fathomable to my fragile, limited mind. We are so undeserving... especially me. Undeserving of His love, undeserving of these precious babies and these precious years. Undeserving, but incredibly grateful.

Alert the Media

A funny thing about kids is that they like to keep you in the loop. They want you to know what's going on in their lives. For instance, you might be standing in the kitchen, minding your own business, when a four year old zooms in and yells, "Mommy! I gotta go poop!" then runs back down the hall in a blur. I love how no matter where I am or what I'm doing (or what they're doing, for that matter), they BOTH have to let me know about their bathroom activities. Sometimes I tell them that I'll alert the media, but usually I just say, "Okay! Thanks for telling me!"


Another thing that I love is that when they have a sudden feeling of love, they just HAVE to let you know. I love sudden hugs for no reason, slobbery kisses when I've just fixed my hair or put on make-up, and (most of all) when someone comes in and yells, "You are the best Mommy in the woild!" "Mommy! I love you so much as the stars!"

Missing Tooth

On Wednesday afternoon, Sadie said, "Mommy, my tooth is wiggly." When I went to look at it, I yelled, "Holy cow!" and immediately called the dentist because it was REALLY LOOSE. I didn't think you were supposed to start losing your teeth until you were 7 or 8 years old! The dentist set me straight, though, and said that it was perfectly normal to be 5 (in 2 weeks), suck your thumb, and lose your bottom teeth first. Whew. I was seriously scared at first. Sadie climbed on my lap to cuddle and said, "I don't think I want to lose my tooth! I want to stay a little girl." She seemed a bit sad, so we snuggled and I told her that even though she's growing up, she will be a little girl for a long, long time... and she will ALWAYS be MY little girl.

She walked around messing with her tooth for 2 days, and it looked so funny - it was literally just hanging by a thread in her mouth. She was kind of snaggle-toothed and it was hard not to laugh because it was almost sideways in her mouth. We made a special trip to the library to get books about losing teeth, and she talked to her grandparents about it - Papaw said to look out for the Tooth Fairy, because she's a sneaky one; Grammie tried and tried to get Sadie to let her pull it, but Sadie said NO THANK YOU!; Grandpa said, "Hold everything! Turn off the TV! I have to see this!"; Grandma said she knew a story about Mole and Troll and a string and a doorknob - Sadie said, "Well, I am NOT going to do THAT!" and Grampie said, "Poop? Foot? WHAT is loose? Your what?" Sadie yelled, "My TOOTH! My TOOTH! IN MY MOUTH!" (Grampie can't hear on the phone).

So Friday night, tooth barely hanging on, we brushed teeth and went to bed. Saturday morning came and Jesse asked Sadie where her tooth was. She said it was in her mouth - but it wasn't. They tore her bed all to pieces, searching for the missing tooth, but they couldn't find it anywhere! Sadie decided to write a note to the Tooth Fairy. It said: Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth and I can't find it. I looked everywhere but it is gone. From Sadie.

She put the note under her pillow and this morning, she had 5 whole dollars under her pillow! Wow! The Tooth Fairy must be trying to keep up with inflation. I only used to get $1. She woke me up and said, "Hey! Mommy! Do you want to see what the Tooth Fairy gave me? A note! And a TON of money!" She showed it to her daddy and to Josie, and then, without any coercion on our part at all... she said, "I'm going to give part of this to God at church today. And here, Josie - you can have one too." We were so proud of her!

Baby Fonz

Adelaide officially started crawling on Saturday while we were in NC. She was trying to get Josie, who had a hat with a ball in it, and suddenly everything came together for her! Now she's getting faster by the day! My favorite thing that she does these days is "tweedle" her OWN ear while she's nursing, much like Sadie tweedles Snoopy's ear when she's sucking her thumb. I wonder if she learned it by watching her big sister.... I also love how she waves her hand in the air and chirps, "HEY!" like the Fonz. Yesterday I went to get her up from her nap and she was sitting up in her bed, looking at her elephant book (Mommy Loves Me) and having a good old time all by herself. I guess even babies need some privacy, but in this house, that is a rare treasure.

The Longest Name Ever

Josie said when she grows up, she's going to name her baby Rainbow Child Necklace Beauty Flower Jewelry Bracelet Snowflake Hairclip Heartbeat. My only question is that with TEN names, can't just one of them be Mommy?

The other day Josie asked me (quite logically, I thought) if since God can hear everything we say all the time, "Does God have really big ears?"

As we were driving to town, Josie informed me that she did NOT want to take the highway. She wanted to take the low way.

Yesterday, she said, "Mommy, do you remember that time a long time ago when we snuggled with Daddy on the couch and we had a blanket and it was night and Daddy made a fire in the fireplace and we watched the Crocodile Hunter and it was cozy? (Sigh) That was a wonderful special time."

If You Axe Me...

Highlights from our trip to NC in March:

"What the? This is the cook on the table place Papaw and Mamaw always take us to, but where's the cook on the table?" We ended up staying there anyway, but only because Papaw said we could go to the playground afterward.

"Where's Scotty? Dag-gone! We want to ride on the 4-wheeler!" I had never heard the expression "Dag-gone" from Sadie before... she must've picked it up on this particular trip.

Sadie lost her shoes in the sandbox while she was playing with Noah and Dalton... it was so nice to be where it was warm enough to TAKE your shoes off.

They both had their first lesson in football with Adam - hopefully they will improve as they get older - heehee! I was later informed that Adam is a FUN older cousin to have.

"Tiny pancakes, Grammie! We want tiny pancakes!"

We played at Heather's house one afternoon, and before we could turn around, Sadie, Josie, and Sydney were all naked and heading for the dress-up clothes.

Great Grandma Genevieve stayed up with Josie just about all night one night when she was having an earache. Grandma excels at over-nurturing and being a GREAT great-grandma. :)

They loved climbing trees this time... especially Sadie, who must be part monkey. Once when they were pretending to be woodcutters, I heard Josie say, "You axe this side and I'll axe that one."

When Amanda came over, Sadie said, "I like Amanda. She's nice. And pretty. AND pretty cool!"

Josie informed Uncle Thomas that "Our family's baby has SIX teeth." I think she was feeling competetive with Bayleigh, who can already stand, but has less teeth than OUR family's baby. :)

There was lots of holding hands with Caleb (Josie) and wrestling with Cameron (Sadie) and Bayleigh kept trying to get Adelaide to stand up like her, to which Adelaide replied, "BLAH blah ble blah!"

Baby Days

I know that Adelaide is still a baby (she's 9 months now), but she's SO close to crawling; she's eating finger foods; she's singing little squeaky songs to herself; she's growing every day! And that makes me kind of wishful for the little tee-tiny baby days again. You know, the snuggly soft sweet whispery cuddly baby days, when she would just lay in my arms and stare at me for hours (or until she drifted off to sleep).
Now she's just busy, busy, busy. So am I! But it just goes to show you that no matter how busy mommies get, there is still room in their for hearts snuggling a newborn. Adelaide is already older than Sadie was when we got pregnant with Josie... this saddish feeling just makes me wonder if we should have one more, or if I would feel this way about my youngest no matter HOW MANY babies I had. I'm obsessed with watching "Kids by the Dozen" and the Duggars these days - don't get me wrong... I would never have a dozen children, but I can kind of see where they're coming from now!