If Juan won a wand

“Hey,” he asked Remi, “Did you and Mommy get some pretzels at the store?”

Eyes wide, she asked, “HOW did you know that?”

He smiled, obviously enjoying her reaction. “Does it seem like I’m magic?”

“Of course not, Daddy. You can’t be magic.”

Surprised (and maybe just a little deflated), he asked, “Why not?”

“Because you’re not a ballerina!”

Now he was just confused. “What makes ballerinas magic?”

“Because they have a ‘WON’ [wand].”

(This, said in that “duh” voice you often hear from toddlers who are sure they know everything, was in reference to the scepter-type wands ballerina princesses carry. But duh, you knew that, right?)

She went on to add,

“There was a kid at PTP, and his parents named him ‘WON’ [Juan].”

There was silence, while she thought about that, followed by this conclusion:

[shrugging shoulders] “I guess they thought he was magic.”

Remi with her magic “won”

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The scroll that made me smile

“Hey, Mommy,” she said, “look at my new scroll!” And she proudly held up the roll of black lawn trash bags and unrolled it for me to see. (Yes, you read that right. Trash bags.)

“What do you have there?” I asked.

She explained that it was her “scroll,” and that she was right in the middle of reading the Old Testament—specifically, the book of New Corinthians. She laid it down on the dining room table and unrolled it more, exclaiming, “Boy, I sure have a lot to read! Look, it goes all the way to this piece of cereal!” (This was said while pointing to a piece of cereal still sitting randomly on the table, long after breakfast was over. Sigh. At least it let her know just how much reading she had ahead of her.)

Throughout the day she continued reading from her scroll, occasionally stopping to struggle over “a hard word” she was reading. Although she was mainly “reading” to herself, and therefore softly, I picked up a few tidbits now and then:

“You shall not praise the Lord as a guest of Egypt.”

“[something about] members of the faith”

“Always be thankful for healthy food, and for everything you want . . . like hands.”

Eventually she decided the strain on her eyes was just too great, since the words on the scroll were written “this small” (said holding her thumb and pointer finger so close together they were almost touching). She went for her glasses, and with a sigh of relief, was able to continue reading.

I love the way this little girl’s mind works. It makes me smile! I hope you are smiling today, too.

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Helpful?

“Mommy! Remi is shaving her legs with her chicken strip!”

It probably should have surprised me, but it didn’t. Remington is in that stage. She wants to do the things big people do, and will attempt to accomplish that by whatever means possible.

Lately, she’s been especially anxious to “help out” around the house…if you can call it helping!

I recently caught her diligently scrubbing the bumper of our SUV…with her toothbrush.

Not long after that I found her carefully cleaning up the milk she had spilled…with her tongue.

Honestly, it’s impossible to get mad when she is so determined to help out! And of course, it makes me think, What if I were that determined to help?

In fact, what if we all wanted to help so badly that we just DID? No excuses, no “I don’t know how to fix it.” What if we just TRIED and did the best we could do, with what we have, like Remi? After all, even if the results weren’t really that helpful (like Remi’s!) to the people we wanted to help, maybe it would be good for US to have tried.

In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35)

Who could you help out today?

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She’s planning her wedding

The first thing my four-year-old daughter did upon waking this morning was start planning her wedding, and I thought I’d share with you what she came up with:

Remington: the bride-to-be

She will be wearing a pink and purple wedding gown, and carrying purple roses.

She’ll also have on shiny, purple “glip gloss.”

She will be 69 years old.

Her groom will act like a gentleman, and after their kiss, he, too, will be wearing shiny, purple “glip gloss.”

Her flower girls will be her big sister (who at that time would be over 75 years old!) and Jensen, who is just a few months younger than Remi.

At her reception, olives, fish sticks, and grape cake will be served.

As she and her groom leave, wedding guests will throw flowers at the departing couple.

She will not be taking a honeymoon, because “that only happens on Dick Van Dyke.”

However, if she were to take a honeymoon, it would be to Chick-fil-A.  (But she wouldn’t go into the play area; only her children would do that.)

At this point, I asked her, “How many children do you plan to have?”

Her reply:

“A LOT! Like YOU! You love ALL your kids!”

At least she got that part right.

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Recycled backyard fun

You know the phenomenon:

You spend time and money buying your one- or two-year-old child a special gift that YOU think is fantastic, and all the child is really interested in is the box it came in, or perhaps the wrapping paper itself. We’ve all been there, right?

After yesterday, I’m starting to think the same principle applies to those expensive backyard play sets. Who needs ’em, as long as your child has a healthy imagination?

Although it’s been several months since we moved, our trampoline never did get set up in our new backyard. At first there was no grass, and then when there was we had to let that grass get good and healthy, and by then it was too hot….You know how it goes.

It doesn’t seem to have been a problem for the kids, though; especially for Addy, who is pretty good at making her own fun.

Recently, she was helped along by the mysterious appearance of a construction spool in our backyard. (I guess it wasn’t TOO mysterious, considering that our whole neighborhood is still one big construction zone and that my husband loves checking the discard piles for little treasures…or in this case, big treasures!) I’m guessing the spool was to be used as a work table of some kind, but Addy had other plans.

Yesterday, she decided to use it as her own rolling balance beam.

Remi was interested but I wasn’t ready for her to get up there, so I laid a board down flat for a balance beam for her. Of course it was too easy, so we had to change her challenge to hopping down the beam.

Then Addy had the idea to combine both girls’ equipment to make a seesaw. It was hilarious to watch their faces! (Click the picture for a better view.)

I should probably mention a couple of things here:

One, I do realize it is January. But while much of the world is huddling inside to stay warm this time of year, we in South Texas are heading outdoors to finally enjoy some nice, cool weather.

Two, my youngest daughter is in that stage….you know, the one where it is important to dress as a princess at all times, even when playing on boards in the backyard. (Addy did put down a towel for her to sit on so she wouldn’t mess up her dress.)

Once Remi had had enough of their homemade seesaw, Addy used the board to make an incline for another type of balance beam.

Before I knew it, she had created an entire obstacle course for herself.

The towel (?) was the starting point, and from there she had to go up the plank…

…and across the next board…

…and then walk off onto the spool and roll as far as she could.

I should note here that all these ideas were Addy’s. Of course, once Remi saw how much fun Addison was having, she wanted to get in on that action, too, and Addy was so sweet to help her all along the way.

I love seeing siblings helping each other out and having fun together!

Next Addy made a slide, and taught Remi how to climb up the spool and cross the plank to get to it.

Now for the sliding fun…

Addy needed to take it a step further—of course—so she started going down backwards!

By this time the sun was starting to go down, but the girls weren’t ready to go inside just yet. So they added some more layers of clothes and brought out their blankets, then laid the porch swing down flat to make themselves a comfy little bed on the back patio.

As it got cooler, they decided to make the whole thing into a tent. Look closely…

Did you notice their custom “tie-downs?” Cutest weights ever, huh?

Addy added some more layers, both inside and outside the tent, to make it warmer, then proclaimed it ready to spend the night in. (I’ll just assume you know what my answer to that was.)

Again, if you looked very closely, you saw that she used Troy’s tools, and even my hair accessories, to hold the covers on. (Click on the picture below for a closer view.)

I love that about Addy—she is the queen of “use-what-ya-got!” She never asked for help; just figured out what would work and made it happen.

Remi, meanwhile, was rounding up the babies who would be “spending the night in the tent, too.”

So here’s my advice, friends:

Next time you’re tempted to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on some play equipment for your kiddos, I recommend taking a step back and letting them use their imaginations for a while, instead. It just might end up being even more fun!

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Remi speaks

Our youngest daughter only watches one TV show. (She doesn’t even watch it on TV. She watches it on Hulu on a computer, and only a couple of times a month. But she ASKS to watch it every day.)

The show is called Martha Speaks. For those not familiar with it, it’s a cartoon about a talking dog, and it was designed to address the vocabulary deficit among young children. I certainly don’t think Remi has a vocabulary deficit, but if she’s going to sit and watch anything for 30 minutes I would prefer she actually learn something, so we chose Martha Speaks.

And she loves it.

She also loves to sing the theme song…but one vocabulary word they have NOT taught on the show is “average,” so she continues to sing, “Martha was an alfidge dog…”

The storyline goes like this: Martha, who started out an alfidge (average) dog, loves to eat alphabet soup. One day, the letters from the soup accidentally went the wrong way. Instead of ending up in her stomach, they all went up to her brain, and now she can talk just like a human. (Only she uses bigger words than many humans do. At least in our society.)

So why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to know why Remi was so excited when she walked into the kitchen where I was about to prepare lunch and saw these sitting out on the counter:

She started jumping up and down and screaming, “Are we getting a new dog?!”

I assured her that we were not, and for just a second she seemed disappointed. Then, her eyes lit up again as she asked, “Are those for Freckles?”  (Freckles is our dog. And no. The soup was for us.)

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