I’m forever missing calls and explaining to people why I missed them.
On Saturday night, Mara and I were picking up toys before bedtime. After putting most of the Legos back in their basket, Mara picked up a toy phone and said, “Hi! I missed your call because Mommy and I were picking up Legos! I didn’t mean to, Daddy.”
For some encouragement to those of you who, like me, blog so we can share and remember the simple treasured moments of our family life . . . here’s Shannon, one of my top favorite bloggers (Rocks in My Dryer), blogging today at Parenting.com.
You have to go to the Parenting site and read her post!! What a great encouragement, not to focus on the format or get discouraged by inconsistency! But just to jot down something! It is so true that this is not “one more thing to do” but it’s something relaxing to record the memories, and know they will be preserved as part of our family story!
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So! Now that I’m all inspired (and while I can still remember), here are a few little memories from this week . . .
“Yes,” I said. “We haven’t had her over for awhile.”
“Can Mo come to our house and eat lunch?” she asked.
“I think that’s a good idea!”
So on Sunday at church, Mara saw her and said, “Hi, Mo! Can you come to our house for lunch?” I think that was the first time she asked anyone over. 🙂
Then today, I said, “I need to figure out what we’re having for lunch tomorrow when Mo comes over.”
Mara said, “Tortilla soup.” [That’s what we had the last time she came over–I was surprised Mara remembered because that was about 6 weeks ago!]
Well, those are tonight’s random memories, without regard to format, as Shannon recommended. 🙂
Mara is just beginning to understand relationships between people and to understand that people can be identified by more than one relational descriptor.
For example, she is beginning to understand that Daddy is not only “Daddy,” he is also “Daniel,” Mommy’s “husband,” and Grandmom’s son. This is still a relatively new concept for her, so we continue teaching, as she continues to learn.
On Monday Daniel’s mom was in our back yard with Mara. The neighbor lady was outside, and Grandmom asked, “Is that your neighbor?”
To which Mara replied firmly, “No, it’s not neighbor. It’s Liz!”
We laughed and tried to explain that she is our neighbor and her name is Liz. Liz is always tickled that Mara remembers her name, so she thought it was cute.
Around 9 p.m. after Daniel came home from work, we were out back again, and Mara was lying on her tummy on her little picnic table, with her head propped in her hands, when Liz came out in the yard again.
“Liz?” Mara called out. “Are you our neighbor?”
She wouldn’t take our word for it–she had to go straight to the source!
Each night, before Mara goes to sleep, I lay her down on her tummy (for some reason, she always says, ‘on my back’ as I lay her on her tummy) in her crib and cover her with her favorite “pink binkit.”
Then I ask, “What should we pray about tonight, Mara?”
Here is her reply:
“That we got pink bear with hearts at the dozing wap, pray about that, Mommy.” Months ago we got “pink bear with hearts” at the clothing swap, but she wants to thank God for him almost every night. She will pause and wait for me to pray.
“And that Melissa got dress at the dozing wap. Melissa got dresses at the dozing wap.” Melissa found some dresses at the clothing swap and gave them to Mara. Another pause while I pray.
“And that we could go to Melissa’s house.” We went earlier that day. She pauses and listens.
“And that we could get Mommy med-i-nun.” We got medicine for my sinus infection today. Again, a pause.
“And Bob, Mommy, pray for neighbor Bob.”
Thank you, God, for each of Mara’s blessings, and thank you that you welcome little children and that you care about each of their cares. Not one of them is too small for you.
When the frozen chicken nuggets are on 1/2 price sale at Shoprite, I buy them for nights when Daniel works late and I need something quick and easy to feed Mara. She loves chicken nuggets, and she loves dipping them in ranch dressing. She calls it “chicken and ranch” and often suggests having it for dinner.
Well, tonight was one of those nights. The chicken nuggets were in the toaster oven. But Mara was impatient. “Mommeeeee, I want chicken and rannnnnch!” she whined.
I winced. “Mara, don’t whine.” How many times have I said that today?! But this time, her tone changed instantly.
She smiled her signature super-sweet smile, complete with the head-tilt to the side. “Chicken loves me!” she declared, adding, “and ranch loves me!” with the inflection of a junior higher talking about boys in her class.
“Chicken can’t love you, Mara,” I informed her. “Only people can really love you.”
“Ranches can lovvvvve,” she insisted. “And chickens can love too.”
The only plausible explanation for this statement is that she meant “I love chicken and ranch,” and somehow the communication of that concept was lost in her lack of understanding of English sentence structure. But she’s only 2. So I had a good laugh, despite her protests.
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“Where is the Kitchen Aid, Mommy?” Mara asked, from her high chair.
“It’s right here.” I pointed to it.
“That is not the Kitchen Aid. That is the MIXer!” Mara argued.
“It is a Kitchen Aid mixer,” I tried to help her understand. “See? Right here it says ‘Kitchen Aid.'” I pointed at each letter: “K-I-T-C-H-E-N A-I-D. So sometimes we just call it the ‘Kitchen Aid.'”
She pointed to the same letters I had just showed her. “It says ‘mixer’,” she contradicted emphatically. Then, plaguarizing largely from ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’ and pointing at each letter just as I had done, she “spelled” it out for me: “P-I-P-I-O. Mixer. P-I-P-I-O. Mixer.”
That’s my girl, for those of you who think my two-year-old is smart.