Cause and Effect

This is Addie completely ignoring me... I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't acknowledge me - I had just come out of the bathroom and was all too unaware...


...of what she had been doing. This is why she wouldn't look at me....



I made the mistake of leaving the milk on the counter while I ran to the bathroom. The bigger mistake was failing to take into account my daughters monkey arms and crazy long legs!

I love the attempt she made at wiping it up...with a pile of about 50 wipes!

Think she knew she was in trouble?!?!?

Potty, slush, and a blue tongue

We are not pushing the potty-training issue at this point, but we let Addie sit on her potty and try to go to the bathroom whenever she wants to. Tonight she had been dry for four and a half hours while we were at the AWANA banquet at church, so we had her sit and try to go. She has yet to actually go to the bathroom on the potty, but she's content to sit on it!

Hopefully, when she starts going in the potty she'll keep her hands and feet out of it!


There's nothing like a good slush to help things along...



Blue coconut tongue!!!

Behind closed doors

Addie has been fighting bedtime for a couple of weeks now. She either cries, bangs her head on the wall or just plays. Usually it's a combination of the three and it has been 10 o'clock or later before she is finally giving in and going to sleep. Wednesday night this is what we found once the chatter in her room finally stopped!



She learned how to undo zippers earlier in the week and apparently decided she didn't want those jammies on! It's funny to me that she still sleeps in the fetal position.

There was no way I was waking her up to put pajamas back on...I got her out from under the pillow and blankets, situated her back into a normal tummy sleeping position and covered her with the blankets. Then I cranked the heat a few degrees and went to bed myself. She never made a peep!

These are NOT some of my favorite things...

...Marshmallows that is!



This bowl of marshmallows along with crayons and a coloring book kept Addie busy for an hour while I taught. She didn't eat any marshmallows...she was too busy building with them!




Paper, box, crayons, marshmallows, bowl = one great tower!

These are a few of my favorite things...

...crayons and be-bos that is! FYI a "be-bo" is a belly button in case you didn't know!

Tell me what YOU think...

This picture is from Christmas - Addie was going through a phase of smiling funny and squinting her eyes anytime we tried to take a picture.



As for the title of this post...I'd love to know your thoughts on my thoughts...

I heard an interesting sermon yesterday on suffering. We watched a video during Sunday School and while I agreed with most everything the speaker said, there was one thing that I'm not sure about. The speaker was talking about how it is during times of suffering that our lives magnify Christ the most. I agree. He repeated a few times the statement that if we could go back to times of suffering in our lives and change them we would. Not sure I agree.

Each circumstance and each person is different, so it is hard to make a general statement regarding this sentiment, I can only speak for myself. I would not change the last six months. If you had asked me three months ago if I would have changed the circumstances of the previous months I would have quickly said yes. But as I come further from the early days of shock and grief, I see things with a different clarity. This is not to say that I understand all of God's purposes in allowing us to experience the loss of a child. But I can say that I am thankful for the experience. Radical, I know. I find it hard to believe that I can say that. The thing is, I don't think I could have learned the lessons God has been teaching me any other way. I know, love and trust my God so much more today then I did before we lost the baby. Would I change that? No. Do I wish I could have learned a different way? Yes. I guess in that regard I can understand the speaker's sentiment. If there had been any other way I would have taken it. Didn't Christ also express this feeling in the garden before He was crucified? Yet, as Christ taught us, not my will but Yours, Father, be done. Suffering is a difficult, strange, trying experience, but it works so many good things in our lives. I don't wish for additional suffering, but I also don't loathe that which I've experienced. Christ has and is working good in our life through the means of suffering. I can't say that I would change that.

What do you think?

Starting her young...

Addie LOVES to line things up...cans of food, bottles of nail polish, shoes, music theory flashcards... She spent hours this winter sitting at the piano and situating these flashcards "just so". Then she would point and jabber at them. Who knows what she was saying, but it was fun to watch! It will be interesting to see as she gets older if the lining things up is just a phase or if it will exhibit itself some other way in her personality. I love seeing her grow and change and learning more about who she is!

Where to start?

I'm having a hard time deciding where to start with Addie's many adventures since fall. I'll probably throw some older pictures in amidst newer happenings. These are from her second birthday on January 9th. Where have two years gone?



Notice the candle on Addie's cake is NOT lit...she's terrified of them. Seriously. Screaming hysterics and all...



She really got the hang of opening presents this year! I had to speed her along a little bit, though, because she tears little strips of paper off at a time and will not tear another strip until the first one is in the garbage. (Or someone gives her the appearance of throwing it away.) Generally I don't discourage neatness :), but opening presents was becoming a bit tedious!



We had a great time celebrating with lots of family and friends. There wasn't much cake left over at the end of the night!

What a blessing our little girl is! She lights up our life and we praise God for her!