August 4, 2011, at 10:18 pm | All my life, my favorite meal has been breakfast. I love plain old cereal and milk. And all through my childhood, I would happily sit at our kitchen table with my bowl and read the backs of cereal boxes. Or the daily comics. Or mail that was sitting nearby. Anything, as long as I could read something mindless while slurping my Cinnamon Toast Crunch and milk. I’ve now graduated to reading the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal on my computer while I wolf down toast or Cheerios, but apparently I’ve passed on my habits to my daughter. I saw Susie sitting at our table the other day and laughed at how much she reminded me of myself.
Although I don’t remember wearing backpacks while eating!
August 3, 2011, at 10:41 pm | One of Becky’s favorite pastimes is making up words. I often catch her flipping through the pages of a book, “reading” the pages in a gibberish known only to her. The other day, she spouted off some nonsensical sentence and I asked her to interpret it for me. “It’s Spanish,” she replied confidently.
I don’t think Dora the Explorer is teaching her very well.
Today, I asked her to share some of her Spanish words with the camera. If you ask me, the language sounds closer to someone wearing lederhosen in the Alps, not a sombrero in the desert. Perhaps she’ll celebrate Oktoberfest during Cinco de Mayo? The possibilities are endless.
August 2, 2011, at 10:34 pm | A few weeks ago, I took Becky and Susie for their three-year check-up at the pediatrician’s office. They were treated like big kids, not babies. The whole process was night and day different than their check-up a year ago. Now, their weight was measured on a standing scale, their height taken against the wall. They had to answer questions about the images on cards for a vision screen (and I had to muzzle one girl at a time so she wouldn’t answer for her sister), and sit for a hearing screen. They had their blood pressure taken with a cuff. They even got to change into gowns while we were waiting for the doctor.
Becky thought the whole process was quite entertaining.
Susie was much more nervous and hesitant about everything, but I do think she took comfort in Becky’s confidence.
As I suspected, the girls are quite big for their age. Becky measured 3 ft. 2.75 in. tall (90th percentile), and Susie measured 3 feet 1.25 in. tall (I think this was closer to 75th percentile). Becky weighed 34 lbs. and Susie came in at 31 lbs., and if I recall correctly, they were between 50th-75th percentile for weight. The doctor was very pleased with all their progress, and even commented that it was hard to believe these little preemies had grown so much. Wasn’t it just yesterday I was praying for them to chunk up in utero? Now I find myself wishing I could squish them down a bit to keep them my little girls!
August 1, 2011, at 10:29 pm | I’ve had lots of help giving Jimmy his baths lately. The bathing process is a bit more drawn-out when the girls are assisting; they use many more washcloths and squirts of soap than I do, and the kitchen counter and floor generally need to be mopped immediately after.
But as a result, Jimmy gets squeaky clean (and so does the kitchen).
And as an added bonus, I think he likes the company.
July 31, 2011, at 10:28 pm | Ten years ago, I met a man who gave me a call.
Eight years ago, he gave me an engagement ring.
Seven years ago today, he gave me his hand in marriage.
Three years ago, he gave me two little girls.
Three months ago, he gave me a little boy.
Happy Anniversary, love. Even if you had never given me anything other than your heart, I would still be eternally thankful God gave you to me.
July 29, 2011, at 10:29 pm | Becky: “Cows eat hay.”
Susie: “Horses eat hay…I don’t know what sheep eat.”
Becky: “Sheep eat…bananas!” (giggle)
Susie (giggling too): “Cows eat bananas!”
Becky (giggling harder): “Monkeys eat bananas!”
Susie (suddenly sober): “Actually, monkeys DO eat bananas.”
Becky (also sober): “Right.”
(pause)
Becky: “Sheep eat sheep.”
July 28, 2011, at 10:46 pm | As of today, both the girls are officially THREE YEARS OLD. That doesn’t seem possible. I wish I could pause time and drink in every ounce of their personalities, their expressions, their mannerisms at this age. They are honestly a delight for me to be around, and I have so much fun talking and laughing with them every day. And even though I can’t capture every aspect of their newly-three-year-old selves in words, I can try to record some of the things I love most about them.
Becky: You are my brown-haired, big-eyed “long drink o’ water” (as my grandpa used to say). You make me smile every day with your elaborate explanations, your GPS-like geographic precision, your desire to do everything with your sister, your tender adoration of your brother, your crazy love for toaster waffles and “fishies,” your burgeoning ability to turn everything into a game with rules (just like your father!), your love of books and TV, your excitement whenever we are around other kids, your soft impromptu serenades, your silly eye rolls and gestures you make when you know you’re being a goofball, your hand placed lovingly on my arm when you’re sitting in my lap…I love it all.
Susie: You are my fair-haired, blue-eyed featherweight. You make me smile every day with your impish grin, your bouncy walk, your belly laugh, your amazing ability to color within the lines and draw recognizable figures, your love of making your sister laugh, your announcement anytime you come down the stairs: “I’m COMIN’! I’m COMIN’”, your adorable pronunciations (“Yook at me!” or “I’m too yiddle”), your compliant “Okay, okay,” your love of talking on the phone and cheesing for the camera, your quiet thumb-sucking cuddles, your enthusiastic neck-wrapping hugs…I love it all.
I’m so proud to have you two as my daughters, my little girls…even when you’re no longer so little.
July 27, 2011, at 9:12 pm | The other day, my niece Alli was sitting beside me on the couch, typing away at her laptop. I asked her how she was doing, and she sighed heavily. She had signed up for a summer program to get one class out of the way, but it was requiring more time than she had anticipated. She was working on an assignment about self-esteem, and her frequent groans indicated how juvenile she found the whole exercise to be. Half-jokingly, she turned to me and pleaded, “I need to write down ten good things about myself. Help!!” I only had to stop and think for a millisecond before I could think of oh, fifty good things about her. She’s mature, she thinks of others before herself, she is spiritually-minded, she has a wonderful sense of humor, she is adventurous (especially with watersports – that girl can hang on to a tube with the big boys. And don’t get me started on her love of insanely high rollercoasters), she is a faithful friend, she knows her own mind, she is extremely generous, she is an excellent conversationalist…I could go on and on. Every summer she spends with us in Connecticut leaves me more and more amazed at the Godly woman she is growing into, and I am more and more thankful to have her in my life.
Jim’s and my seven-year anniversary is coming up, and today I was fondly reminiscing about our wedding day. Alli was our flower girl. She was eight-years old, still in elementary school, playing on the monkey bars at recess and carrying a back-pack that looked bigger than she was. It is so hard to believe that that little (well-beloved) whippersnapper is now a fifteen-year-old beauty. In high school. With a learner’s permit to drive.
She flew back home to Arizona today, leaving us with an empty place in our house, but hearts full of great summer memories. Once again, I have to thank her parents for being willing to part with her for our benefit. And for raising such a great kid. Alli’s an answer to prayer in so many ways.
So Alli, I don’t know what you ended up writing about in your self-esteem assignment, but I do know that you are loved from one coast of this country to the other. We miss you already.
July 26, 2011, at 11:13 pm | 
(This is actually a reenactment of their bubble-catching techniques, per my request, since I couldn’t figure out how to blow bubbles and take pictures at the same time. The girls were happy to oblige!)
July 25, 2011, at 10:19 pm |
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ABOUT US I'm blessed to be saved by the grace of God, loved by my wonderful husband Jim, and embraced by my twin girls, Rebecca Faith and Susanna Joy and my sons Jimmy and Danny. I started this blog in May 2008 when I was hospitalized for pre-term labor at 24 weeks gestation. The Lord allowed me to keep the girls inside until they were 34 weeks along, and on July 27th, Rebecca made her debut, followed by Susanna, five minutes later, on July 28th. We ecstatically welcomed Jimmy into our lives on April 25th, 2011, and Danny on August 31, 2012. This blog has been a personal journal of faith and motherhood and the only way I can remember which child did what and when. Thanks for stopping by to share in my Faith and Joy! Feel free to e-mail me at: [email protected]. |
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