Toddler Appreciation 101+other ramblings

Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

Today I've been pondering again how quickly this season of little piggies will turn into big ones...so I made an effort to sing while physically counting Lainey's still-cute little toes this morning--and she smiled a huge bright-eyed, 2 year old grin that I know will turn to eye-rolling should I try this same event in another 5 years or less.

I have been trying to take an extra moment to kiss Emilyn's sweet little extra creases in her little baby thighs as we finish up diaper changes. They are about to get "less-creasy" as she excercises herself into strength for walking.

Before lunch today, I caught Jaci and Lainey in their dress-up clothes, transform them into professional dancers as they passionately danced to nursery rhymes in the middle of their "kitchen" stage. Jaci sat on a stool with wings on her back with a serious stage actor look as her little sister did a purposeful dance around her to the likes of "Here we go round the mulberry bush." My video camera is out of tape, so I just enjoyed the occasion and recorded the memory on my heart.

A few days ago, Lainey spoke a commentary that "Mister Rogers is a good singer!" as he invited her to be his neighbor once again.

This morning over breakfast, we talked about the nicknames the younger girls had while in-utero. Both older girls remember calling Emilyn "baby baby", while I had to remind them that Lainey's nickname was "bumpette". They giggled hard on that one. They asked me to repeat it again and again...everytime looking at each other and giggling about it. Jaci really enjoyed saying "bumpette" as well. I worried that Jaci may wonder about her nickname when in her birthmother's tummy, but she broke the concern by explaining, "You didn't know my name before when it was Balnur." I told her we didn't, but that her nickname at the babyhouse to all was "Balnurshka".

Next, we moved on to the present nicknames all the girls have...Jaci is "chippy" for the chipped tooth she got last year while running on the sidewalk to catch up with Lainey and give her a kiss. Lainey is "Pippi" because as a baby she squeaked a lot and we called her "pip-squeak" and Emilyn is our little "schnookie". Don't ask why...it is a just a term of endearment that's stuck. Sometimes it gets shortened to "schnook".


I'll close with a conversation that Jaci had with her daddy one weekend morning recently when he got her out of bed...
"Daddy, Jesus was in my room last night."
"What was he doing?"
"Watching over me."

Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.