La petillante mademoiselle Lucy

Katie got her this little shirt in Paris. It's a memorable purple hippo in a tutu shaking morracas and underneath it says "la petillante mademoiselle Rose,"the sparkling Miss Rose." I thought that was a fitting title for a post about this girlie.

I didn't purposely cut off her head but I loved her smile.

Really? Are you this sweet and wonderful and stunning, and I get to keep you?

This girl has found her tongue and loves to blow raspberries all day now.

Kevin laughs about how accidental it seems when her arms pop into her view as she reaches for something. She seems just as surprised as anyone when they swoop in and she grabs for a toy or an admiring person.

You know that song from "The Sound of Music" where Maria is singing about "somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good"? That was how I was feeling today. (Although, I know the equation doesn't work exactly like that because I know plenty of people who have done lots of somethings good and still aren't being blessed with their worthy and righteous desires. Anyway, this song just came to my head.) It was a brisk day and the kids and I went to playgroup with the kids from preschool. Peter was having a really rough day and wanted me to hold him or walk him everywhere. As we were running from one place to another, I had the overwhelming feeling of "WHOA! Look at this. I am running with Lucy in one arm and Peter holding my hand. I am healthy! And I am so lucky to be a healthy mom that can run and play with her kids." It was a pretty random thought but even in thinking it was random I realize how I often take it for granted to have my body and just be able to play with my sweet kids! I am so lucky. And why me? I don't deserve them, that I realize daily when I mess up and am not patient enough. I pray every day that I can be enough for them. Teach them enough about how wonderful they are. That the positives will outweigh the negatives. That somehow, despite the bad in the world, that they will know of the Good, in their heart of hearts.

Ba-Ba-Ba-Q

Peter loves to learn with his sister. It's pretty cute. He knows a lot more of the alphabet than she did at his age because of this. Jillian really didn't show any interest in the alphabet until this year. (Just in the last few days she seems to have taken off though. I was explaining how the word "I" is really just the letter "I" and she said "I thought it was spelled "me." She also has learned how to spell Mom, and sounded out "Kevin" on her own tonight. There is nothing more awesome then watching your kids catch onto a concept and then realize they DID IT!) Anyway, as she is learning her sounds, Peter has been listening right in. When quizzed about what letter makes what sound he'll say, without fail "Ba-ba-ba-S" or "Ba-ba-ba-J." Occassionally he gets it right with "Ba-ba-ba-B." It's so funny. I think he might be pulling a fast one on us though. A friend watched him for me the other day and she said he knew all the letters and got all the sounds right when she asked him. Haha. He's never done that for me before, but maybe he's just heard Kevin and I chuckle at his "ba-ba-bas."

He also loves to help me cook, which sometimes turns a 1 minute task in to a 30 minute task. It's still cute though. Tonight we were making waffles when Grandma brought Jillian home from a fun day at Marbles with Hunter. I go back in the kitchen to find Peter putting measuring cups of water in the batter. I was able to drain most of it out and they ended up being fine. Maybe that's because he later told me he also added more sugar. That's my boy!

Yesterday as I was doing my hair he told me "You're going to look just like a princess!" Thanks for the confidence booster, bud.

And, one last endearing gem. In Jillian's Fancy Nancy books, Nancy learns the word "adore." Now Jillian and Peter have been going around saying "I adore you." The other night Jillian called after us as we were leaving their room "I adore you, Mom and Dad. I adore my whole family!"

Oh, and if we ever let Lucy cry during the night, Jillian marches right down the stairs to our room and scolds us. "Lucy is CRYING. Go and get her! She wants you!" Then she goes back up to bed, exasperated with her ridiculous parents.

Jillian Day

During January and February, each child in Jillian's class gets to have a day all about them and their favorite things. Jillian was the very last one in her class to have her day. It took us a while to come up with a theme that was original but we finally did. (This was not a requirement but I didn't want to do a repeat of Pajama Day as Jill originally requested because the Mom who did it first made adorable fleece pillows for every child and waffles for snack. Sort of a hard act to follow.) If you know Jillian, you know she loves her doll, Rosie, so we decided to do "Dolly Day." When we got to the school, the classroom was all set up with TONS of dolls for the kids to play with during free play.

We got set up and the kids glued their felt bears together first thing.

They always have something to scrub up in this water tray. Today, of course, was dollies.

The poster we made to help everyone get to know Jillian.

This year has been really great for Jillian. I'm sure many kids go through this but it has been neat to watch her grow up a little bit. At the beginning of the school year she would come home a little discouraged because noone wanted to play with her. We would ask if she did play with anyone on the playground or in the morning during free time. She would usually say that she had. We finally figured out that her perception of noone wanting to play with her was not being invited to play with someone, in so many words. "Do you want to play with me?" We've had lots of discussions about being the one to initiate and invite others to play. We've also dialogued asking to join someone else's games and talked about the fact that two other playing together doesn't mean they are purposely excluding you, and they would probably love to have you join them. (Funny how sometimes we still need to learn this lesson as adults:)

She got to be the line leader. You can't see it but she's holding the front loop of the rope. Those ropes are pure genius, by the way.

And she got traced and colored by her friends.

We also read Corduroy, listened to some of her Charlie and Lola CD to showcase her favorites and ate bagels and cream cheese and clementines for snack.

Jillian Day = A great day! What a fun idea to spotlight each of the kids. We love this little school. I have been SO impressed by the teachers, parents and children we've interacted with here. Everyone is so thoughtful, but especially the kids, which I think reflects on the parents and their examples. The other day we were at playgroup and Jillian came over crying to me. She was pretty upset and I could tell it was her hurt feelings cry. She said the other girls were hiding from her. About 30 seconds later one of the other little girls came over asking what had happened and why Jillian was sad. I told she thought maybe they were hiding from her. She said "Oh no, we were just going behind the curtain. We weren't hiding from you. Are you okay Jillian?" It was the sweetest thing! And she had noticed Jillian was upset across a large gymnasium and come over just to check on her! I was very impressed that she would be so aware of another's feelings at 4 years of age. We just found out Peter got in for the two day class for next year. Yeah!

As an aside, one of the sweet girls at school drew her a picture and gave it to her while I was there. She said "It's you, and me, and your doll!" Such a small gesture but so thoughtful. Kids are the best. Anyway, then today Jillian told Lucy it was of her, and Lucy and Lucy's doll, but she was holding Lucy's doll so she didn't get lost. I love that not only was she seeing the scene but putting actions to characters in the drawing.

quotableicious

Today at church Jillian wasn't feeling well so she came to Sunday School and Relief Society with me. She did a really good job being quiet and didn't get too antsy until the end of the three hours. At one point I asked her to hand the notebook that was being passed around to the sister down the row from us. She looked toward her, then back at me and asked, "The one with the brown body?" I thought she was going to ask "The one with the brown shirt?" because the sister did have on a black shirt and sometimes Jillian gets those two colors confused. Her question caught me off guard and I was struggling through the closing song and prayer to keep from laughing aloud.

I love how kids can be so literal, yet have such active imaginations. I love how innocent they are and I love how they sometimes ask things that could be potentially awkward like "The one with the brown body" because to them, there's nothing awkward about it.

Yesterday Peter, Lucy and I were driving in the car. Lucy was cooing for some attention. It worked. I asked her "Lucy, are you talking to us?" She cooed some more. Peter, exasperated, said "No, she doesn't know how to talk. She only knows how to spit!"



Today Jillian said to me in a very distressed voice "Mom! If you don't turn off the lights we can't do fun things!" That's how Kevin helps her remember to turn off the lights. If we don't turn them off, we have to pay for the lights instead of saving our money to pay for fun things. I'd say she's been paying attention.



Lucy has discovered her hands and will now grab anything in her general vicinity. It feels like one minute she was a sleepy newborn, unable to do anything really, and the next she is making purposeful movements, engaging in conversations, and new tiny bits of her personality are coming out daily. She makes this fun throaty noise, almost like a tongue roll, when she gets excited. When she's really happy she throws in a high pitched scream. Not so high that it's painful. Just high enough that it's perfect. Sometimes she'll just sit contently kicking her legs and you don't realize it until you look down at her, but she is starring up at you SO intently, waiting for the tiniest bit of recognition, and when she gets it she rewards you with the biggest, most charming smile.