To remember: Emmeline at age 3

Little Emmie B. You are three and have been for a bit.  But three really is a marvel. You make us laugh. You make us cry. You are an incredible little person and I want to remember these days.  As you grow, your awareness of the world around you, of your Creator, of yourself begins to fit together as pieces in a  puzzle. This Advent you have really begun to understand the Nativity and have been re-enacting it every day. You have begun to pray and sometimes the list of those you pray for (and love) can go on for 10 minutes.  You understand death, birth, sorrow and joy, fear and hope.  You are learning self-control, patience and last night you told me "I want to pray to Jesus to help me not hurt people on their ears because that hurts a lot".  Wise people have told me that we should teach you while your heart is tender, about Jesus, and how true it is that your heart is ripe and ready, full of belief in a Savior. Last night you told me that you can't see Jesus now, but it's ok because He is still here and Someday, in tomorrow, you'll see Him for real with Grandmom. You revel in the simple beauties of the day- you thanked Jesus for sparkles, for candles, for snow. You love the color yellow with a passion. You are enraptured with the way you can draw many different shapes and identify the first letters of words or names of people you know. We love you dearly.

Nineteen Months

Lena. You are 19 months old today! You are precisely the age your sister was when you were born and though she felt so grown up because you were so small, you still feel like our baby.  You are 21 pounds and 34 inches tall. Your eyes are now what I would call hazel grey and your hair a tad lighter than Emmie's but growing in fine wisps and fluffs. Our poor girlie, you are just getting over a double ear/sinus infection where you spiked a fever of 105 and had seizures. You're a brave little thing in spite of feeling just plain rotten.  Your most favorite thing to do is read books with pictures of children or animals. You're starting to pretend play and love babies. Recently you and Emmeline have been playing the Nativity. You are always Joseph. You adore your sister with a passion she sometimes can't fathom and want to do everything she is doing. You love being given tasks. In fact Emmie likes to give you her trash to throw away or shoes to put away.  I see how it is. But you willingly go and do. You are tender hearted and sensitive and bawl your eyes out if you think you've offended or if your feelings are hurt.  But oh, you are strong willed too. You are so smart and are a could "talk the hind leg off a mule" though sometimes we can't translate all the words.  Your favorite things to say right now are "I'm hungry", "Read a book", "See ya", "What's that", "Here I am", "Bye Bye", "I want......", "Please".  You are hungry for ideas.  You are so busy and can't sit still long. You still don't sleep well, especially the last few weeks". You love the outside, Papa, Grandparents, smoothies, and dogs.  You are our gift, little one. We treasure you. 

Winter Sunlight

There's something wonderful about winter afternoon sunlight. It is warm and golden and white and peaceful.  Though it doesn't feel much like winter (who's complaining?) we're seizing these late Autumn/Winter afternoons by romps through the parks, dancing after our shadows, stomping with boots through mud, gathering acorns and leaves and plants.  These pictures document our attempt to cultivate joy and thankful hearts even though teeth and ear infections and grumpies make us rather upside down at times. The outside is a wonderful gift for those sort of days.  We even got some Christmas photos done.  

Getting Cozy

 Our days are turning inward as the days get cool.  But every opportunity we get we go outside because oh, we have a lot of energy.  We enjoyed some special cousin time while visiting with Great-grandma (Nana), we went for a lovely walk on the Perkiomen Trail on Thanksgiving day, and even went to Ikea in jammies and cowboy boots because we'd been inside far too long and the troups were restless. We made a thankful tree, which has since become our Advent Jesse Tree. You can download my Mom's Advent Devotional here:  http://www.flutesonline.com/classic/res/the_jesse_tree.pdf. Suddenly I have two cooking helpers who love to mix and stir and taste.  Now we're busy building Jesus's Nativity barn (a lot more epic than I'd ever imagined), learning Christmas carols and preparing our hearts to make Him room we reflect on His light in these darker days. Post tenebras....lux.