On Sunday evening the girls ended this year’s Children’s Choir with a sweet performance at church. It’s the first time I remember Belle not crying because I wasn’t standing with her, and Madelynne being so subdued.
That’s right, I said subdued. Usually she’s jumping off the stage. But you’ll have to wait until Christmas for a post about the flying sheep of Bethlehem.
Check out the full show here. If you increase the timing on the slideshow, it’s like a movie 🙂
This Thursday I am thankful for Madelynne who always keeps us laughing. I haven’t blogged about her a lot lately but just so you know, she’s gotten taller. And wiser. So she thinks.
The other day she was playing hide and seek with her daddy and he ran into the closet in our bedroom and shut the door. Well, I was in there hanging up shirts. Of course she and Belle started pounding on the door and yelling. Finally, Madelynne said, “We better just leave them alone. They’re in there being romantic.”
Then this afternoon she gave me a word problem. “Mommy, if you have two squirrels and 100 more come scurrying up, how many do you have?”
She likes to challenge me, she says. I told her the answer, but apparently she didn’t believe me because at dinner she asked her daddy what 100 plus 2 was. When he told her 102, she replied, “Oh, I guess Mommy was right.”
Nice to know she has a lot of faith in my ability to count!
She also washed these dishes the other night because Joshua was gone and she said since Daddy was gone somebody had to wash the dishes.
What am I going to do with her?
Everyone knows you have to watch what you say around children because they have the most uncanny knack of helping your words come back to haunt you.
Saturday morning we were actually managing to accomplish the task of sleeping late. This was due in part to the rain, in part to the fact that I’d already been up for an hour at the crack of dawn with fussy baby, and due in part to the lovely childhood development of my big girls who are finally old enough to entertain themselves.
Which they did.
So there we were, me, Joshua, Amelia all snuggled up in the bed (this is not a regular occurrence but is the reason we were able to get her back to sleep) when I heard the pitter-pattery stomp of four little feet.
“Mommy!” Very loud whisper. “Me and Annabelle are bleeding!”
What?!?
Giggles. “See?” Holding up a foot covered in red stickers. A way to circumvent Mommy’s don’t-come-out-of-your-room-unless-your-bleeding rule for naptime and early mornings. Ha, ha.
I’m just thankful for the next antidote of wisdom I shared once I recovered from my shock. Wonder how long before this one haunts me?
“Mommy, we’re hungry,” says the girl who cried blood.
My response?
“You know where the cereal is.”
I forgot that when I’m at work all day that only leaves me a precious few hours at home. Before I knew it today I had run errands, gone to Jazzercise, started dinner and realized the girls would be in bed soon and I had barely seen them.
This is why I quit cooking as much last fall and we began to enjoy canned soup and grilled cheese on a weekly basis.
Time just gets away so quickly and I don’t want to waste it. These precious moments are flying by and I feel like I need to grab on and dig in my heels to slow life down.
My six year old has suddenly matured into a post-Christmas kindergartener who’s not so sure Santa is real and thinks she might be too big for baby dolls. When did that happen?
Annabelle only wants to go to school if Hailey’s there but insists they do “nothing” all day.
Then there’s Millie Moo who can walk on her knees and will sit in the high chair for an hour as long as the food keeps coming.
Where did these babies go?
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| Madelynne Grace in February 2005 |
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| Madelynne and Annabelle Faith in March 2006 |
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| Amelia Hope in May 2010 |
Here’s a brief glimpse of what’s been keeping us on our toes the past few days…and this doesn’t even include the participation of the cutest baby angel in the community theatre production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
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| Madelynne teaching Amelia to read. |
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| There’s a reason Joshua’s granddad is wearing this hat… |
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| ..and Annabelle is dressed like a cow. |
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| Ashley’s water broke on Saturday and we’re all waiting to hear the good news that baby Colton is safely here. He’s taking his time…I think he’s scared to meet Big Daddy…or maybe he’s afraid Marmee is going to kidnap him and bring him back to Georgia! |
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| Weekend Wipeout |
Lindsey P. Brackett 