First Prayers

Danya just laid down for her nap, and asked if she could pray. We told her that she could...her prayer touched our hearts. We hope this is the start of a life-long conversation between her and God:

"Dear Jesus, thank you for Papa Dave. Thank you for mom and dad and Shea and Danya. Help me to obey. I love you. Amen"

Simple Pleasures

Every morning, once the girls' get up, the three of us go outside to the back porch to enjoy the cool morning. We sit at the table, read, eat, drink our drinks (coffee for me and milk or water for Danya), and wake up slowly. Shea, for now, sits in her exersaucer, but soon she will be old enough to join us at the table. After we have had our "quiet time", we stay outside and play while it is still cool. We play with bubbles, play dough, markers, and crayons. We slide and swing. We make "dinner" out of rocks, sticks and weeds. Who could ask for a better way to greet the day? I love it, and I know the girls do to.

Shea's growing up so fast

Here is my baby, Shea, and yet she's not much of a baby any more. She's just passed her 8th month birthday, and she's changing and growing every day. She's sitting up on her own (only throwing herself back randomly every once in a while), scooting on her belly, log rolling to get across the room, eating big-girl food and beginning to interact with her sister (who is her rock-star!). I love this age. Everything is exciting and fun for her. She's eager to try new things, anxious to be mobile like her sister, and getting more and more chatty each day.

Every day I am becoming more and more aware that time moves so fast! I'm trying to pay attention to each moment and cherish every step along the way. Before I know it, she's going to be crawling and walking and talking! So, today, I am just going to go enjoy my chubby, happy, rolly-polly girl.

I hope this post lets you enjoy her, too!

Mean Mommy - Pacifier Update

Well, after the initial shock of Danya's pacifier getting broken, the transition to a life of non-dependence on plastic and latex went very smoothly. She tried a few times to actually suck on the broken (end cut off) pacifier, but that was unsatisfying. So, she resorted to laying down and then placing it under her back. Why? I have no idea, but it seemed to work. After about 2 weeks, she didn't even ask for it or seem to recognize that it was needed. We did have a few close calls, however...

First one, we went to Target during this transitional phase and happened to go down the pacifier isle. Bad idea! Danya saw her pacifier and said "Danya's THATS!". I quickly told her that those were another kid's pacifiers and that hers were at home and broken. Thankfully, she took this explanation without much protest.

The other sticky situation was just recently. I had to get Shea the next size up of pacifiers. Danya was with me and thought one package was for Shea and one was for her. After talking it through with her, though, she understood and has amazed me with her grown-up acceptance of the fact that her "thats broke". She really is such a doll and a joy to raise. I continue to remind myself that this really was for her good. One major disappointment down....many more to come, I'm sure!

Who is that masked girl?

I went to get Danya out of her "room time" a while ago (I've meant to post about this for some time) and found what you see before you. She had put on "makeup" and "lotion". She was very proud of herself, despite the fact that she got the Desitin diaper rash cream in hair and even on her eye ball. It didn't seem to bother her one bit. This goes down as one of those training opportunities that you don't think about until they happen. I never thought to teach her not to rub the diaper cream on her face. Silly me! Now she knows, and hopefully, she will refrain from this beauty treatment from now on.