As Jilly and I sat at the lunch table yesterday she and I were having what has become a very normal conversation. She is obsessed these day with talking about being a mommy when she “gets bigger”. Yesterday the conversation went like this:
Jilly: when I’m a mommy will I have to drink mountain dew?
Me: Well, you might need to when you’re a mommy.
Jilly: Ewwwwww!
Last night at dinner Brad made a comment to Nate about needing to “watch Jilly like a hawk”. They were being silly as they tried to get Jilly to finish her dinner, but the comment totally perplexed Nate. He was curious, especially since it was animal related, as to what Brad meant by watching her like a hawk. It’s too bad he was at school today, or I could have given him the perfect example.
Two of Laurel’s favorite things are bath time and climbing. She managed to combine them both this morning, but she wasn’t that thrilled with the results. Usually I bathe the girls together because it’s just faster. I decided for separate baths this morning due to Jilly having just gotten over the fever virus. I filled the tub and decided to change her sheets while she had some play time in the tub (the rooms are right next to each other). Laurel was doing her normal and playing alongside the tub as Jilly played in the tub.
Next thing I know, I’m hearing screams of “NO! No LJ! NOOOO!” I head right in the bathroom and find already bathed, fully dressed Laurel sitting in the tub beside Jilly. Guess next time I need to “watch her like a hawk”.
Apparently she didn’t like the fully clothed and soaking wet feel:
Freshly redressed and banned from the bathroom:
Maybe if I gated her out of the bathroom more often, I wouldn’t have to do this every bath time:
And just because she’s so happy to be feeling better:
Dear Jillian,
Today is the day that we celebrated your third birthday. A day that you’ve excitedly exclaimed many times in the past few weeks (and even months) “now it’s my birthday?!?!?!”, sometimes several times throughout a day. Today though was finally the day, and you were so super excited when I told you this was it. Every time you were told “happy birthday” today you would reply “happy birthday!” unless I reminded you to say “thank you” instead. It was adorable.
You have grown up so much, especially in the past 6 months. From 2 1/2 to 3 seems to be such a period of going from baby-ish to kid-ish. You have always been ahead of things in language development so you’re always willing to chat someone’s ear off. You are also super tall for your age, and most people would probably be surprised to find out that you only now just turned three. You are willing to give most anything a go. We have to keep an eye on you at the park as you just the other day climbed up the tall rock climbing wall unassisted. You also can be full of mischief, and usually throw a daily dose of defiance our way, but hey, you were two. That’s a thing of the past now, right? 
Everyday as I pray for you, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by the amount of joy that you bring to this family. I thank God regularly for this joy he as blessed us with. Not a day goes by when you don’t do something, say something, or simply smile in my direction that doesn’t just fill me up with joy. You bring such a healthy dose of laughter into this family, and I am so grateful for it.
You are learning more and more the love that Jesus has for you, and you truly love him with such childlike innocent faith. You have a passion for praying for other who are sick or hurt. Your heart is fully into every prayer you pray in regards to the sick or hurt. Your prayers are heard and answered by your Jesus, Jilly Mae. My prayer is that you never forget this. He loves to listen to you talk to him, and I love to listen to you talk to him too.
I’m sure that the journey to 4 is going to be filled with highs and lows. I pray there are way more highs though. You are beautiful Jillian.
I LOVE YOU!
Mom
stripes with green
curious with green
green with more green
nate was full of all kinds of questions about the point of st. patrick’s day this morning when i told him we had to wear green today. i didn’t have many answers to satisfy his multitude of questions though. in my mind i thought, good thing he has preschool today – they can explain it to him.
our lunch conversation:
me: did you learn about st. patrick’s day at school today bud?
nate: no, we just learn about Jesus at my school.
me: i like that answer naters.
nate: mommy are there roads in heaven?
me: maybe bud, i think the bible tells us that they are paved with gold.
nate: or maybe they used asphalt. (pause) or concrete.
*********************************
jilly: more apple!!!!!
me: where is the apple that you were eating?
jilly: in my mouth!
me: including the core and stem?????
jilly: in my mouth!
before i talk about what was going on here let me just comment about jilly’s hair. i had just gotten each kid dressed and had not made it to fixing hair yet. i’m sure if you could see nate’s it too would be going in every direction.
when jilly was a baby she absolutely loathed being on her tummy. she couldn’t spend 2 seconds on her tummy without a huge screaming fit. i hardly put her on her tummy because the screaming was too much. she took forever to roll over, but it doesn’t seem to have had any long term negative effects.
i’ve had the hardest time remembering to do tummy time with laurel. i can’t do it right after she eats because her tummy is way to sensitive. usually by the time i think we’re safe from spit up, she’s passed out. my goal is to have her do tummy time during both of her “longer” awake times each day. Truthfully though, we usually do it once every 3 to 4 days.
the other day i asked nate if he would help me. as usual he was more than willing to help since it had to do with laurel. i asked if he would help her with her tummy time. he was super cute about it. he kept encouraging her and telling her things like, “see laurel. do this. just lift your head like me. it’s not hard. you can do it!” so precious.
nate: (jumping off ottoman) huh?!?!?
me: what’s wrong, bud?
nate: (climbing back onto ottoman) well, i know super heroes can fly. but, i just didn’t.
what is it that is just so adorable about your kids putting on their lovely blankets to pretend to be super heroes????
(unfortunately though, this was yesterday. today i have a green-caped super hero that has been sick to his stomach since the middle of the night. neither he or i have had any sleep since then, and we’re both feeling the effects of exhaustion. hopefully he can fall asleep soon and brad’s coming home from work as soon as he can today so i can get some rest.)
we’ve had a couple of conversations with nate lately which have led to stifled laughs and reassuring him of his correctness in his very literal mindset.
example?
i’ll share.
setting: me in van with both kids while brad ran into the grocery store. the kids were playing with the stars they had just made at the gym.
nate: twinkle, twinkle little star (continues on with wrong lyrics which were amusing but i can’t remember.)
me: (after he finishes, i try to get him going with the correct lyrics) twinkle, twinkle little star, how i wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the
nate: mom! a star isn’t a diamond! (laughing at me) it’s a . . . star.
me: yeah nate, i guess you’re right. it’s not a diamond shape is it. (really, there’s no use trying to explain such things at this point.)
nate’s specialty recently has been persistence. although “special” is not exactly how brad and i feel about it; we’re leaning more towards “annoying”, “frustrating”.
we were leaving someplace last week when nate was going on and on about something which we had said no to. which is what led to the following conversation:
brad or i (can’t remember): we don’t shout.
nate: we have to shout to jesus, shout to the north and the east because he’s lord of heaven and earth
b/i: where did you learn that song?
n: i don’t know. (grinning from ear to ear)
b/i: can’t really argue with that one . . .
last summer i started to get anxious for nate to begin to write his name and other letters. he’d recognized all his letters since about 2 (he wanted to learn then so i taught him), and i was ready for more. as i began to research techniques for teaching 3-year-olds to write their letters, i came across an overwhelming number of sites which stated research regarding it being too young for them to taught and to be patient and wait a little longer. i was shocked and disappointed, but figured he’d learn eventually and i would trust the time and energy which went into the research. in the meantime we’ve learned the sounds of most all of our letters (because he asked to learn), but i had never asked him or attempted to teach him to write a single letter.
then came today.
we bought cute christmas letter paper from target which was like a coloring sheet around the edges and at the bottom. we wrote our thank yous in the center, and then had the kids color them before sealing and sending them. today we were working on one for a family of one of my small group girls. nate asked where his name was on the note, and i showed him. i then told him who the thank you was for. he then asked where faith’s name (small group girl) was also. before i could show him, he turned the paper over and said, “we need to put faith’s name on here.” he then asked, “how do you spell ‘faith’?” i started spelling, “f”. i looked down, and he had written an “f”! i decided to see what would happen if i kept spelling, “a, i, t, h.” he did each letter with absolutely no help and from his memory of what each letter looked like. i was so proud!!
maybe he’ll be signing his name to all his valentine’s this year after all. . .
obviously, not what i had intended to blog about yet again today, but it was too big to not blog about. tomorrow, cleaning routines.
