Just the other day I was thanking God for all the joy and all the laughter and all the giggles we have in our home.
Just a bit of time on the balcony on a gorgeous day… all smiles and grins. These sweet simple moments make my heart burst.
I love my family.
My baby girlie does a funny thing…
No matter where or how I lay her in her crib, I very often find her snuggled in this same way eventually. It’s like her precious head is drawn to this corner like a magnet! She’s so funny.
I don’t know what the deal is, but she makes me laugh.
One of the (millions) of super fun things about parenting is seeing your own characteristics appear in your children. Weeeeell, that is true except when the qualities you see emerging in your children are your own bad ones repeated all over again. Oops. That would fall into the category of one of the (million) challenging things about parenting.
In case of this post, it’s a fun characteristic.
As a kid, I remember making all kinds of preparations for myself. I LOVE preparations. I am a think-aheader. A do-aheader to the core. (Although I have to say that being a busy Mama of three does not always allow this quality to shine these days as much as it has in the past). Anyway, preparation makes me feel so loved and valued. It’s not one of the official five love languages, but it’s way up there for me. And not everyone thinks like that (and I don’t expect them to), so even as a kid, I’d often make preparations for myself. Just brings me joy!
Example 1: I would often choose my outfit for school the day before. That’s kind of normal, right? What was NOT normal is that I rigged up a contraption from my closet to the bed that delivered the clothes to me in the morning. When I’d wake up, I’d yank the string, clothes would slide down the string and arrive bedside where I could dress without even touching my feet to the floor. Talk about preparing for getting dressed in the morning! So convenient, right?
Example 2 : I’d sometimes lay my pajamas out neatly on my bed, pre-toothpaste my toothbrush, set it neatly on the counter and then turn down my covers long before bedtime. That way, when bedtime came and I was tired, I’d already prepared things ahead of time. Pull on pajamas, scrub my teeth and slip into bed. Easy peazy. It was only barely easier than doing each of those jobs actually at bedtime, but it just felt so good to me, even as a child, to have them done ahead of time. Just how God made me.
So, I occasionally try to disciple my children in the value of thinking ahead and doing things now so that it’s easier later cause it’s just part of who I am. But I don’t think I ever specifically demonstrated laying ones pajamas (and little sister’s pajamas, God bless his sweetest little heart!) out neatly on the floor.
It’s apparently just in his DNA.
God love him.
Lil’ A is currently in that stage (that lasts quuuuiiiite awhile, I suppose) where she can get around and so she is getting into everything!
I am constantly looking around the house for where she has gone to now as well as scanning the floor for possible hazards like beads, coins, crayons, anything paper and apparently pumpkin stems (she found it first and chewed on it for at least an hour before we found it in her mouth yesterday…). My boy H also rescued her the other day as she had just found the toilet brush.
Oh my.
So here are approximately twelve hundred photos to really drive my point home…
Exploring at the preschool.
Toys.
Toys.
Curtain?
Amongst the wires. Mama fail.
Toys everywhere.
Cutie.
Left her toys behind for a roll under the table.
Oops. Hit an obstacle.
Playing under the heater. Can you spot her? Not recommended.
Leaving her toys behind again. She loves those heaters.
Toys AND entertainment.
Playin’ in the big kids fort.
Mama’s bag is always interesting.
Little stinker pulled out the Yahtzee game, opened it and ate the scorecards. (?!)
Craving a taste of the recycling bag apparently.
Every baby’s dream. The tupperware cabinet!
That grin.
And today I found that she had climbed her way into the shoe closet (which was actually open because I was planning to return most of the shoes to their rightful home in the bedroom.) You can’t tell, but she was NOT happy in there. Screaming her pretty little head off. Maybe it was too stinky for her liking? Ha!
Baby girl is just SO much fun. What a joy it is to watch them grow.
We believe that God speaks to us in lots of ways. Little ones included!
In preschool the other day the kids had a little time listening to what God was saying to them and then drawing it on a paper before sharing it with the class.
N’s looked like this:
She explained to the teacher and later to me that God has such long arms so He can wrap them around her and give her a big hug and that she specially drew His lips because He gives her kisses! And He told her “I love you” and that He thinks she’s pretty.
She also drew her baby sister and practiced writing her letter and her brother and sister’s letters too.
That’s my girlie. And that’s my God.
Seven months later, my big kiddos have still not stopped doting on my baby. They adore her and I don’t blame them, she is most adorable!
And she gets some quality entertainment throughout the days. She loves watching her brother and sister…
Happy watching the mess as it happens…
A witness to some sort of war it seems?
Giggles and tickles.
Even playing in the hall with friends. Some serious creativity happened that day (and more mess…).
And this looks like she got to attend a personal tumbling performance.
They love each other. They make my heart burst.
We didn’t have long to prepare to leave our African home earlier this year. Eight days. And there was a lot to take care of (understatement?)
But we had some advice from a friend on how we could still try to transition well for the kiddos sake even in such a short amount of time. One suggestion was going around and taking photos at a lot of our favorite places. Places we went a lot. Places that have memories. Places that we may very likely never see again.
So we did that in our last week. I honestly don’t know how we found time, but it was important to us and we made it happen. And I’m so thankful we did. Today is our first installment of The Goodbye Tours… Bambino Ice Cream.
There weren’t a lot of ‘nice’ places to go and eat in our part of the city. But this place was one of the few and we went there regularily. It was not far and it was very close to a few of our friends’ houses, so it made for an easy ‘Hey, wanna meet us for ice cream, like NOW?’ kind of deal.
I’m sure I have many more photos through the years from Bambinos, we went there all seven years we lived there. Their ice cream was delicious and cheap, too!
Four tree stumps sculpted from cement made great perches for four little ones.
Seating was only outside and we generally got a fair amount of attention since it was right next to a big road and we had lots of little white kiddos with us. Through the years our babies were passed around to complete strangers a lot, too. And I have memories of trying to avoid one particular young man known around town for creeping on foreigners.
Oh the memories…
Goodbye Bambinos.
