Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam!

Eliza's first week as a Sunbeam was last week. Wow, when did she (and I!) get so old?! I am in the nursery right now and was pretty sad to see her go. I keep asking her what she learned, and she says things like, "They asked us to stand up once." I wish I could be a fly on the wall and just watch her in there. After church last week she had a bath and played church in the bath. I heard her making up a hymn in there and saying a prayer as well. What a sweetie!

Her sister received an Aquadoodle for Christmas that she has completely taken over. (Although, Miriam plays with her toys a lot, so it is still fair.) She drew a self-portrait the other day that I thought was so funny. It really is the best toy ever though. I realize I haven't heard her for a while and go find her sitting on the couch drawing quietly. Awesome!

I have been trying to jot down on the calendar the funny things that Ellie says. So here is a list of the funny things she has said. Some may not sound funny out of the moment, but she seriously makes me laugh. For example she has picked up on the word “Bik.” (She says it ends with a ‘k.’) It evolved from the word silly. Silly Billy, Billy bik, etc. So now she calls me and other people ‘You bik.’ It sounds so vulgar, but is just funny when you think about how she is just saying “You’re silly.” She is definitely the silly one though. She’ll say things like “I don’t like fruit.” or “I don’t like toys.” when she is feeling grumpy. The other day Mom and I were talking about the things we needed to get at Costco. Ellie piped up with, “I need to get new toys at Costco.” She is so funny. Today I accidentally ate off of one of the smaller forks and I asked her if it would be okay if she ate off the fork that we had set for me, she replied with, “I would prefer a kid fork.” So funny! Earlier this week John had to get his blood drawn and Ellie had to add her two cents, "There was brown chocolate in Daddy's blood. That is not healthy for his body, but he thinks it is. Silly Daddy." She also ranked her favorite things recently so here it goes: first, Mommy (Wahoo!); second, princesses; third, Daddy; and fourth, lemon curd. Glad we all know our places. :)  Although, she has told me this week that “Hotdogs are the best meal ever.” Glad to know that she is so gourmet.

Ellie really is so funny. She really likes to be the last one to finish food. She gets really upset if it looks like John or I are going to take the rest of whatever dish. I feel bad that I think she has a real fear that she isn’t going to get all of the food that she wants. 

Miriam is pretty hilarious as well. For example, She is pretty obsessed with dirty clothes, specifically, Ellie’s dirty panties. She LOVES them. She really likes to wear them on her wrists like bracelets.

Miriam has gone on sleeping strike this last week. She wouldn't go to sleep in her crib without screaming for a few minutes to an hour or two first. Yeah, that was not fun. I took these pictures of her sleeping a day or two before the strike. 

She was sleeping this way--completely under the blanket. During the strike I just looked at these pictures with longing. Fortunately the striker is slowly softening her resistance. There just might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

From my journal:  Our beautiful little Miriam is one extreme or the other. She is fearless and can be so loving. I joke with John that no one has ever felt that passionate about me as Miriam does. I was kind of on the verge of weaning her when she got sick and grumpy and wants to nurse all of the time now. Breast milk was one of the only things that she wouldn’t throw up. Now, she has a word for nursing, “Noi, noi, noi” while grabbing at my shirt. It is so cute and funny, but does make me think that she is getting too old for it. It is fun to hear her learn how to say a few things. She has held on to the word “mama” consistently, but other words have come and gone (as well as tricks she has learned too). Recently she has picked up on the words, “Bath”  “Up” “Off” and “Dada.” She also says, “Bump” “Ball” “Shoes” and “Cheese.” It is so fun! She is still very much a screamer—unbelievably loud! She has recently discovered growling which she does when ever she gets angry. She doesn’t share. At. All. Thankfully she and Ellie are learning how to play together sometimes. Miriam also likes to read books and take baths. Miriam still doesn’t eat very well at all. If she decides she likes something she eats it really well right then, but it doesn’t mean that she will eat it at a later time. There is really no rhyme or reason to when she likes something and when she doesn’t.

Ellie is getting so big. She has been working on learning to read. We have been working with her on goals. She got some Cinderella gloves after she read 10 short vowel stories. It was quite the project! She is working on another goal now but I am going to incorporate long vowels soon, probably this week. Ellie is the sweetest little girl. She does tell me regularly that she is prettier than me, which although true, isn’t very nice. We have been working on lying and being kind, which I am sure will be a never-ending goal. She gets smarter everyday, it feels like. Her true love right now is dressing up. She is a good eater in that she will eat almost everything we put in front of her, but the bad thing is that we still have to feed her regularly.

I just got called to be in the nursery. It was fun to have Miriam and Ellie in there. This next week though Ellie is going to be in sunbeams! Crazy! Sometimes I feel like I am getting so old.