This week

Nothing too terribly exciting going on this week, but some little moments of wonder from my girls, which always warms my heart. Last night, Emma looked out of the dining room window and saw birds flying around. She pointed to them so I took her over there and held her up so she could see. I said, "Those are birds." And she said "Bird!" She kept pointing and saying "Bird." We stood there for what seemed like quite awhile looking at little birds and big ones come flying in and out of the yard. I loved seeing the look on her face as she observed them and pointed. She was taking it all in and so was I. I wasn't thinking about getting the dishes done or baths or bedtime or anything but standing there with my baby watching birds. Later I looked up and a cock and a hen pheasant had wandered into the yard so we watched them a little bit too. Emma has a few other words she's been saying more these days including Daddy, bubbles and moo. The babysitter said she played with a computer toy for quite awhile yesterday. She said things were really quiet in the house and she went to check on her and she was just playing by herself. I've noticed that Emma does play more with tactic toys that make noise. MJ didn't pay much attention to them. She seemed to do more with her dolls and kitchen. Emma will sit with a toy for a good while pushing all the buttons figuring out what things do. Not sure what that will mean for the future, but it's neat seeing how God made them unique. 

My time of wonderment with Mackenzie has been a little different the last few days. She is a very imaginative little girl and we always tell her it's great to pretend. So, I've been struggling when her pretending has gotten in the way of listening to Mom and Dad. After a rather emotional outburst that put her in her room where she continued to carry on for nearly half an hour, Josh and I were finally able to talk to her about what was going on. As she was explaining herself, I realized "Oh no, she's so emotional, just like me!" I can also see by the way she wants to be really helpful that she's growing up. But, again like myself and her Dad (must be an oldest child thing), I think she likes to do things on her own, for things to be her idea and not be told what to do. So, now I'm trying to figure out how to give her the freedom to make those choices and yet still be respectful of her parents and others in authority. I was proud of her the other day when she told me she'd answered a question about the 10 Commandments during Children's Liturgy. She said "Honor your father and mother and Don't bow down to any other Gods" were two of them. She said she learned them from listening to Adventures in Odyssey.

Well, we're off to the library...