Letters, Sleep, and Memorization

Here are some fun things I want to remember:

1. I have been working with Clara on letters and numbers lately. Whenever she gets put in timeout, she has to count to ten before she can get out. We count literally everything - coins, toys, scoops of flour, bathtub bubbles...you name it. We work on letters on a daily basis, one letter at a time. Whenever we work on a letter we post it on the fridge so she can look at it for a couple weeks. A few weeks ago she went up the "A" picture and pointed at it and said, "Alligator." Yes! I thought, it's probably working! "Good job Clara!" I praised. "That is the letter A." "A?" she asked a little bit confused. "Yep the letter 'A'," I confirmed. She thought about it for a second, looked at the picture again, and then it was like a lightbulb went off in her little brain. She then turned to me proudly and said, "Mama, A, nine, ten!" When I laughed, she just looked at me like, "Why aren't you telling me I'm awesome?" Wow, how I love that little girl.

2. Abigail has been sleeping in her own room now for a few weeks. For the first little while I wasn't sure if it was good thing or a bad thing. There were certain periods of the night when she just wasn't tired, or the binky would fall out every few minutes. When this happened, either Joe or I would get out of bed, walk down the hall, put it back in her mouth, walk back and by the time we'd gotten back in bed it'd fallen out again. Desperately praying for a way to get her to sleep so that we could get some normal sleep again, I suddenly was impressed with the idea to start putting her on a schedule. DUH! I thought to myself. With Clara I'd been so good about getting her on a sleeping schedule during the day so that she would be tired enough at night to sleep through the night. And if you are wondering, yes, the Lord even listens to the prayers of a frazzled, sleep deprived mother. When she started sleeping through the night after just a couple days of the new schedule I was ready to scream "Hallelujah!" Sleep is good.

3. After listening to Elder Scott's talk from Conference we decided that we need to do better at memorizing important passages of scripture so that they can be "recalled" to our memory in times when we need them. We decided to start with the Articles of Faith. I was a little embarrassed at how many I'd forgotten. I started working on the first Article with Clara. She has it memorized, but she likes it when I say it with her. Whenever we finish saying it, she looks at me and says, "Again Mama?" So we say it again and again, until I try and work on the second Article with her, by then she is usually ready to stop. There are some much harder words in the second one too. It is amazing to see how much so loves and cherishes those fundamental truths and doctrines of the Gospel - that we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

Abigail is her father's daughter

Does anyone see why this pose would make her Joe's child? Way to show of those guns! The girl loves to flex.

Clara's Impeccable Taste

This was Clara's ensemble of choice the other day. You've got to admit - the child's got style.

Look at those Cheeks!

 MMm mmmm....don't you just want to kiss em? Delicious!

Clara's new expression

This has got to be one of my favorite new faces that Clara makes. The girl is so expressive, and she constantly makes us laugh with the new expressions she comes up with.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a two-year-old named Clara. Clara loved to wash the dishes.

Even though she was small she would pull up a chair to the sink whenever there was work to be done and eagerly get to work.

She was very good at rinsing all the dishes and piling them up near the dishwasher so they could be loaded.

Occasionally, she would even be brave enough to try and wash a pan.

The reason Clara was so good at doing the dishes was because she had a magic dish-washing wand. Everything she touched with it just magically became clean.

Then one day, as Clara was washing the dishes, she decided it would be a good idea to give herself a bath as well so that she wouldn't need to take one later. It would save a lot of time.

So, she took her magic dish-washing wand, waved it over the top of her head, and wallah!

Too bad this story ends with Clara needing a real bath. Her magic dish-washing wand just hadn't quite done the trick.

A Tender Mercy

A few days after Abigail was born she started projectile vomiting everything she ate. It'd been almost 12 hours since she'd kept anything down so I called the doctor. They said if a few things didn't change in the next little bit I was supposed to take her to the ER. This was on a Sunday so Joe and Clara were at church. When they got home at 4:00PM Joe gave her a blessing. It'd now been almost 15 hours since she'd kept milk down. In the blessing Joe said that even though Abigail was small she had a faith in Christ that would heal her. The Spirit was overwhelming and I am so grateful that Joe honors his priesthood. By 5:00PM Abigail nursed again and kept down everything she ate. Since the blessing there have been no issues with her eating and she has actually gained an incredible amount of weight. It is truly humbling to look at this little person and know how strong her faith is - a great reminder of the truths found in Moroni 9.