Rats, Teeth, and Pig-Pickins

We left for NC on Wednesday last week and we got home around 2am on Monday morning. It was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun while we were there... the girls got to go to their very first pig-pickin (at Louis & Brenda's house) but Josie was mad that she didn't actually get to PICK the pig. I think she wanted to pick it out herself. Anyway, they got to hang out with their friends Kimmie, Noah, Dalton, and Hailey, eat a lot of BBQ, and swim in the most freezing water I've ever felt in my life. Then we went to my cousin Adam's Honey-Do shower and played with Cameron, Caleb, and Bayleigh. The girls stayed with Papaw and Mamaw while I went to Girls' Night at Melanie's new house, and they had a good old time feeding fish (carp in the Marina) their leftover grilled cheeses (Sadie said Papaw got grumpy when she tried to feed the fish her WHOLE sandwich... he said he didn't buy the sandwich for the fish - he bought it for her!), then Sadie held one of their renters' pet rats. Josie wouldn't touch it, but Sadie thinks she is Steve Irwin, so she thought it was fabulous. They also got to play with Lauren and Sydney, but the baby and I didn't get to go because she was crying for her bed. Josie got launched off the see-saw, landed on her head, and Papaw had to pick her up... later, she got launched off the wagon INTO the garage, but she just jumped up and said, "I'm Okay!" Like mother, like daughter, I guess. :) Adelaide learned to play peek-a-boo by putting her hand over both eyes at once... she was a teeny bit S-P-O-I-L-E-D to her mother, but we don't say that out loud. She didn't want anyone to hold her but Grammie and Amanda, but strangely, if she couldn't see me anywhere, she was fine. I think she's going to be a great actress some day. Talk about your over-reacting. Anyway, Great Grandma spoiled them as usual, but she wasn't feeling as well this time so we had to be careful with her! She was still traipsing around through the garden and bushes with them, though... nothing will keep her down when she wants to be up. The most interesting thing happened when I wasn't even around. Thomas, Elizabeth, and Josh came over to Grandma's to visit and Elizabeth asked Sadie if she could see her loose teeth (she had 2 that were ready to fall out, but she wouldn't let anyone near them). She talked to Sadie the whole time she was "inspecting" her teeth, and Sadie was answering all of her questions, and she didn't even notice when Elizabeth pulled not ONE, but BOTH of those loose teeth! Sadie didn't even know it! Amazing! Sadie said that from now on when she has a loose tooth, we have to go and visit Elizabeth. :)

Wrath of Grandma

Sunday we went over to Grandma Beth's for her birthday celebration. Josie decided to have some alone time outside on the little deck off the front walk (about a foot off the ground). She said, "I think I'll just go have myself a little snack at the red table out there," and out she went. A few minutes later, I heard a little voice call "Mommy!" very softly. I looked all around, and then movement from the window caught my eye. All I could see were Josie's feet sticking up in the air and an upside-down red chair tumbled on top of her. I raced outside to make sure she was okay, but when I got there and asked if she was hurt, all she said was, "Help Mommy... I'm squishing Grandma's flowers!" You have to know Grandma and her love of gardening, but apparently somewhere along the line Grandma put THE FEAR into Josie! Poor Josie. I had to laugh...it was like she was scared to even call for help (loudly, anyway) because horror of horrors! Grandma might come and catch her in the flowerbed!

I Think it was a Moose

Jesse found my "Lowe's List" in the floor of the van, but he wasn't interested in the list. What caught his attention was the "DIE" scrawled on the back of the list in giant 2 inch letters. Hmm. At first, I thought I was getting death threats (not those again! :) then we realized at the same time that the list was written on a piece of paper that Sadie had written her name on... the SA had just been torn off. Thank goodness for her distinctive "i"s...there is no space between the dot and the letter - she just sticks the dot right on top so they look like lollipops.

Yesterday on the way to school, we were talking about death (again). We heard about the Indians wearing loincloths on our Little House on the Prairie CD, and this sparked a long conversation. "What are loincloths? Why were they wearing them? Was Tarzan an Indian? Who else wore loincloths? Adam and Eve wore loincloths, but why did God kill animals to make them? Why didn't He just give them some clothes? (I thought this was incredibly insightful and a great opportunity to talk about blood sacrifice... had I not been talking to 2 preschoolers). And what kind of skin was it? Was it a moose? I think it was a moose. How did God kill those animals? I think He just zapped them." Josie asked when she was going to die, and I told them that maybe we'll be lucky enough to still be alive when Jesus comes back and then they won't ever have to die. Sadie said, "Hey, we would really have everlasting life! Just like John 3:16!" Then she proceeded to spout off the entire verse AND give me a lecture on the word perish, which means "to die, you know, like in Esther when she says 'if I perish, I perish.'" Sometimes I am seriously overwhelmed at what these children absorb. I pray that I keep giving them the right things to fill their little brains, because they are SO SMART and they remember EVERYTHING. It's such a responsibility.

Cuteness

Adelaide just seems to get cuter and chubbier by the minute. I've started calling her my little linebacker. :) I know that once she starts walking, some of the chubbiness will come off, but I don't want it to! I love how squishy and soft and yummy she is, with her poochy little belly and her jelly rolls on her legs. She is so cute that I can hardly stand it! Today she tried to climb into the bathtub - and she would've made it, too - but Sadie and Josie sounded the alarm just in time. She's pulling up on everything now, and she's practicing climbing up and down the stair into the kitchen...thank goodness we only have one step up there into the family room or I'd be a nervous wreck. Every day I am reminded of how wonderful and fleeting these baby days really are. I thank God that I'm able to be here for every minute of hers.

Sucker!

Josie's version of a classic:

"Get outta the way, Old Dan Tucker! You're too late to get your sucker!"

Sunday after church, Sadie said she was thirsty, but the only thing we had in the car was a bottle of blue Gatorade that Jesse brought with him. I passed it back to her so she could have a sip, but apparently the blue dye in it somehow reacted with her skin - she's had a Gatorade mustache for almost 4 days now. It's funny, though -it's so perfectly symmetrical that she kind of looks like Fred Flintstone or Homer Simpson with stubble. She's taken to talking with her hand over her upper lip when she thinks about it, because I can't stop giggling.

What'll it Bee?

Yesterday, Sadie went on a field trip with James and Aunt Becky to learn about baby animals and bees. Today, we wrote a story chronicling her trip. She learned quite a bit about milk, lambs, plowing, etc., but when we got to the "bee" portion of the story, I began to wonder if maybe the teacher was just making stuff up (or maybe Sadie was :)...

"We learned about bee pupa - eggs of bees. Beekeepers spray smoke on the bees so they will gobble up the honey fast so it won't get burned up and they'll get a tummyache." Interesting.

Safety Troll

The other night Josie asked me if I would read her "the book about Choke-a-pontas. I mean, Hocus-pontas. Um, Poca-chantas. You know, that Indian."

She has also decided that her role in the family is that of Chief Safety Officer. Her main job is to police who is or who is not wearing their seat belt in the car. One day I mentioned that she was the Safety Patrol; yesterday, she said, "Daddy! Put on your seat belt! I am the Safety Troll!"

Jesse taught Adelaide to nod her head on Saturday. I know that doesn't seem like a big accomplishment, but it is SO STINKING CUTE to watch her nod her little head in response to you nodding YOUR head. I'm loving it. She's also pulling up on everything and feeling all proud of herself for standing there, seeing the world from a whole new angle. I confess that I am not very encouraging at this point... I want her to stay a baby just a little bit longer. :)

Yesterday, we (and by we I mean Jesse, Sadie, and Josie while Adelaide and I watched) planted 4 trees in our front yard. Hooray! I love getting new trees, and these are the same kind that are at my Daddy's house in NC, so they make me feel at home, too. :) Anyway, Sadie is beginning to have what I always called a "smart mouth." She doesn't really understand what this means, though, and I have tried to explain in vain. I think she's too smart to NOT say "smart" things, but I don't think she really gets the connotation that it sends to people... she doesn't want to be "sassy," but sometimes she says things without really meaning for it to be sassy and it just IS! So back to the tree planting thing... she hit the tree with her shovel, and Jesse told her to stop because it was a baby tree and she might hurt it. He said, "Would you hit a baby with a shovel?" Later, as he was shoveling dirt back into the hole around the tree, Sadie looked at him and said, "Daddy, would you throw dirt on a baby?" Sigh. I'm in for it.