Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't help starting with a few more "Mouse-isms".

*"Look at me flying over the countryside!!!" on the swing in the backyard.

*"Pastor Stephie said her cousin doesn't fold towels right. She showed her how to fold towels the right way. Pastor Stephie knows how to fold towels." This didn't come until the Sunday after Stephanie's sermon on being a woman of God. The point of the towel illustration was that Stephanie wanted her husband's (not cousin's!) help folding towels but then decided he wasn't doing it right and had to be told how to do it correctly. It was a self-effacing illustration to show how women need to let things go at a certain point. I guess it really made a point to Miss Mouse! She thinks "Pastor Stephie" is about the coolest thing, so it's possible any and all illustrations used by Stephanie will make lasting impressions on Miss Mouse.

Actually, I was very impressed that she was holding onto a sermon that she'd heard over a week ago; I'm big into having my children in church with me, not at the nursery, so it's extremely encouraging to realize that she is getting something out of church. I've never questioned that children do "get something out of church", and, in fact, I believe they add a lot to church, as well. However, I'm in a minority with that opinion, it seems, and it was just incredibly reinforcing for me as I continue to sweat my way through services with the three of us spread out in a pew strewn with snacks and "quiet" books and toys. That sentence from Miss Mouse was exactly what I needed, especially as Baby Mouse is entering a more, um, "active" stage of church attending.

*This one isn't a saying, but it was another sweet moment. Again, it involves church, but, so goes our life, eh? As the offering plate was passed last Sunday, Miss Mouse saw other people dropping in their welcome cards (it was the way for people to sign up for participating in the church decorating night next week). As the plate was passed by us, I reached for it, but Miss Mouse put her little hands up, stopped the plate, and popped in her welcome card. She looked at me with a very proud smile.

To explain why the last two incidents above were so incredibly encouraging last Sunday, I should explain more about the day. It happens that we were late to church (well, we followed Mr. T and the other pastors in, so for me, that's late) and had slim pickins as far as seating options. Everyone sits on the edge of the pews (especially when you're the one last in looking for a spot, it seems like everyone is on the edge)! The only place we could sneak in without tripping over anyone was a pew fairly far to the front (which doesn't bother me really) next to a couple that are fairly well-known for not believing children should be in church. That obviously bothers me and, though I really do like the couple an awful lot and have had several great visits with them, I was terribly nervous to sit by them with my pair of Mice. Good thing I remembered deoderant!

There are few words for how proud I was of Miss Mouse for sitting reading her bulletin through most of the service and then having a quiet Cheerio (actually Whole O's, with the dietary restrictions right now) snack during the sermon. It blew me out of the water when she popped in the welcome card. After the service the woman we were sitting next to complimented me on my beautiful girls who were so well-behaved during church; she had nearly fallen off the pew laughing at the welcome card incident; so I'm encouraged to think that she and her husband saw my girls and perhaps saw a glimmer of how important it is to have children in church. Miss Mouse didn't learn how to participate in a church service by playing in a nursery. It's fine for the parents that do take their children there; I don't have a problem with it, but I do have a problem with being such an "odd duck" because I don't take my kids there! My hope and prayer is that the little Mice will soften hearts toward children in worship simply by being there and being their sweet selves.

Last Sunday as a whole was a wonderful day. Not only did Miss Mouse silently preach a sermon on children in church, but we were welcomed by two older women behind us after the service and invited down to coffee!! It was nearing Baby Mouse's naptime which meant we declined, but the ladies helped Miss Mouse with her coat, helped me wrestle Baby Mouse into her carseat, and were really, truly interested in me and the Mice. True interest is something I don't experience a whole lot in a very large area anymore (comparatively anyway), so it is precious and appreciated when it is present. When we got home, Miss Mouse worked on a Thanksgiving project, listing things she is thankful for on a turkey we drew in an outline of her hand. I love these projects! On my turkey I wrote "Mr. T, Baby Mouse, Miss Mouse, Hubert"; on her turkey she had me write "sunglasses, watch, Mickey, outside shoes" - we'll have to work on that a bit in the coming years!

As Thanksgiving rolls around yet again, I find myself increasingly thankful each day for the love of a husband who is pulled in way too many directions and yet strives continually to keep his family at the top of the priority list; the love of a toddler who strokes my hair and sings to me, who nurses her baby doll (and, for that matter, her stuffed kitten), who 'teaches' her doll to wave at plants in the same way I'm teaching her baby sister, and who says "sure (sir!)" way more often than can be expected of a two-year-old; the love of a baby who smiles almost continually, who has no fear - crawling alone into her large, empty carseat box in the living room or into dark rooms to search out adventure, who continues to nurse to sleep at 9.5 months old, who doesn't sleep through the night but who basically just wants either to play and have a good time or to nurse and cuddle if she's up, who grins so wide that her dimple shows, who looks just like my Dad when she's serious (complete with the ears he and I share!) and just like my Grandpa Don and Auntie Linda when she smiles; and the love of family and friends who, incredibly, wound up throwing me two surprise thirtieth birthday parties, who celebrate with me on occasions like that and who have been with and put up with me on other occasions where life was at its worst. It's a very blessed person who can write that paragraph. Blessed and thankful. Happy Thanksgiving.

Sweetest Things

Every stage that the girls hit is my favorite. Every time I think it can't get better, it does. These are some phrases heard around our house lately:
*"Ooohhh! It's a clean baby!" upon seeing Mr. T bring Baby Mouse out after a bath this weekend. Apparently she was extraordinarily dirty before the bath???
*"Where are you? Where are you, Baby?" anytime her sister is not in her line of sight.
*"The newspastor tells us what the weather is like" emphasis on the "p" there.
*"There's a snowflake! And another! And another! And another! And another!" as we drove on a Christmas-light-decorated street Friday night.

The highlight of it all was last night putting her to bed. I always sing three songs of her choice; last night she asked me to lay by her to sing. I complied, and she looked me in the eyes and said "tonight, I will sing to you". Okay, sure. She proceeds to sing, to the best of her ability, I Love to Tell the Story. Then she says, "I will sing the Mama, Mama song." Not being sure what that was, I got curious. Apparently it is "Mama, Mama is beautiful" over and over to the tune of Jesus Loves Me. Life doesn't get much better.

Waving and Other Noteworthy Accomplishments

Showing Mr. Food her clean plate.
Happy Birthday, Mommy. That's right. One of the accomplishments around here has been turning 30....an accomplishment for one of us, anyway.

Pulling herself up for the first time. It was great having the camera ready! Since then she pulls herself up all over the place and then proceeds to flop down. If she flops on her bum, she's okay unless she flops hard which seems to irritate her gums (that's how hard she flops). If she flops on her shoulder or back, we have tears. Learning to crawl and learning to stand are so hard on the body (and on the mommy!).

One of the favorite places to do pull-ups is the front door. Baby Mouse loves spying on Ken and Carroll. I have a feeling this is going to get really entrenched now, too, since I saw Ken putting up his Christmas lights today. There's not much better than pulling-up and looking at Christmas lights!

Baby Mouse crawled her way over to a plant yesterday, looked at it as if to contemplate taking a big bite, and then waved at it. Just like Miss Mouse and I have been teaching her! Oh, what a proud Mommy and what a proud older sister we were! Miss Mouse shrieked, "See's waving, Mommy! See's waving at de plant!!" Fun stuff around these parts!

In other news, Baby Mouse weighs 17 pounds, 5 ounces now at 9 months and is 28.5 inches long. She's on track to be a string bean like her older sister.

Happy Halloween!

The pumpkin on the left is Baby Mouse's. It has teeth to match hers. The pumpkin on the right is the creation of Miss Mouse. She picked the shapes for Daddy to cut into the pumpkin. Hence, the angst-ridden look. The tiny one Miss Mouse is examining was created for yours truly! It has a heart followed by M - O - M. My heart melted.

Winnie the Pooh and our toddler-pumpkin. The poor toddler, for the second year in a row, wound up with a rotten pumpkin. Last year, we just told her that hers was the one we had already carved. At 18 months, she didn't really care, other than that she thought it was pretty funny the pumpkin was "peeewwwy". This year, she insisted that we carve a pumpkin for Baby Mouse first, so we did. When Mr. T cut into Miss Mouse's pumpkin and found it was, again, "peewwwy", he just couldn't take it. Off to the grocery store he drove. Unfortunately, between 3:30, when I bought the two initial pumpkins, and 7:30, when he was after the replacement pumpkin, they had sold out. He called me from way down south at a different grocery store and said if they didn't have one there, he would work his way north and find one. He was one determined Daddy! Thankfully, his second stop had this lop-sided beast, but he picked up the tiny one as backup in case the beast was rotten, too. That's how I ended up getting a pumpkin in my honor. I heard giggles coming from the kitchen as they carved Miss Mouse's shape choices into her beast of a pumpkin (I was feeding Baby Mouse for the night), and then I heard some hushed voices which must have been the carving of the Momkin.

Mmmm.....squishy! From three pumpkins we harvested two cups of seeds. Not great, but it was a fun endeavor!

Our little toothy baby.

The beginning of the top teeth.

This probably shows how funny it is right now to see Baby Mouse with that one big front tooth hanging down! The ones next to it on either side are in as well, but they aren't really visible yet.