Happy Birthday Eliza!

Today our baby girl turns 4 years old! She's VERY excited about turning 4, and is pretty sure she is taller today. Eliza has been such a joy, and a challenge, since God blessed us with her 4 years ago. She's thrown more temper tantrums than I can count, but I keep thinking that God has given her this strong will to use in an amazing way one day. For now, we just pray that He will give us the wisdom to guide her as she learns to find her way, as I'm pretty sure she is smarter than both her parents. But however difficult she may be sometimes, she just as often crawls up into my lap with an "I love you, Mommy" or "Can we just cuddle and rock-rock?" that just melts my heart.

She's her mama's girl, who loves to do crafts and color, and right now would rather sit at the kitchen table doing workbook pages and practicing writing her letters than playing with toys (I'm sure one day she'll be like me, who couldn't wait for school to start in the fall so I could have some homework to do). She also has her daddy's goofy side, and loves to make us laugh. She soaks in everything she can, and I love to watch her learn and discover new things. I love to watch her when she doesn't know I'm there, as she colors and sings her own made-up songs. My heart is just so full when I think of all the ways she has brought joy in to our lives, and I'm not eloquent enough to put it all into words. Just know that we love you, Lizey-Lou, and we are so grateful that our heavenly Father has given you to us!

This is classic Eliza: last night she came creeping down the stairs about 9:30, as she had taken a nap earlier and wasn't sleepy. She cuddled up with me on the couch and this was our conversation:

Me: "Eliza, did you know that 4 years ago tonight, Mommy's belly was THIS big because you were inside getting ready to come out?" I should have know what was coming next.
Eliza: "But Mommy, how did I come out?"
Me: I briefly explained in as few words as possible.
Eliza: (Cutting her eyes and looking at me as if to say "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Willis?") "Are you kidding me?"
Me: "That's right, sweetie. See, God made our bodies very special--"
Eliza: "Sshhh, Mommy. The show is back on."

Whew. Saved by "I survived a Japanese Game Show".

Here is a little slide show of our little princess, who entered the world looking more like a sumo wrestler.

Yesterday

I've been behind on my blogging lately, we've just been really busy and I've gotten a ton of stationery orders lately, which is great. Yesterday we headed downtown for the photo shoot for the new Rosie Posie spring 2009 collection, which is just heading off to market and will be in stores around next March, so keep a lookout then. This season is soooooo cute! Suzanne has done a fantastic job designing the fabrics herself and I think it's the cutest yet. Here is a little sneak peak at my favorite.

I took that picture, but the actual pictures were taken by Jadie Thomas, a local mom who goes to church with Suzanne and does beautiful stuff. (check out the Rosie Posie site in a couple of weeks for the real pictures!)She suggested we do them in front of the courthouse downtown which has lots of fun fountains and splash pools and kept the kids cool. After the pictures were done, the temptation to run through the big fountains was just too great for the kiddos, so I let down my guard and let Eliza play. Of course we hadn't brought swimsuits, so we had to improvise. It was really great to sit and relax and watch the kids play on a beautiful summer night. And I hadn't been downtown in so long, so it was great to see all the new buildings popping up in the city.

Vintage Children's Books

I've said in a former post that I love vintage children's sewing patterns, mainly for the illustrations, and that same love applies to vintage children's books. HUGE thanks to Stephen's parents, who saved several of his books from when he was a child and gave them to us a while back. What a treasure---not just for the books themselves but for the nuggets of fun Stephen left inside some of them (see pictures below). Eliza loves them, as she loves all books, and I love to read them to her. I'm going to really try to be good about taking care of her favorite books now and saving them for her kids. Whoa, what an incredible thought---Eliza having her own kids!!!

Here are a few of my favorites for the illustrations:

I think this Cinderella confused Eliza a little bit because she's not the Disney version she's used to. But adorable still!

This was one of my FAVES when I was a little girl. I remember my dad reading it to me!

This cracks me up. Inside this Uncle Wiggily book we found this little gem. (Amy is Stephen's older sister). I'm guess he came along after Amy had written her name in the books and claimed them as his own??

Don't you remember the Sweet Pickles riding around in their van?? Another one Stephen staked his claim on.

Sing it Mandisa

Wow, MANY thanks to my singin' sista Tiffany for making me a CD today (I was in desperate need of some new tunes). I haven't even gotten past #5 yet because I keep hitting the back button every time this song by Mandisa is over. If you've ever felt like God couldn't love you or wasn't present in your life (haven't we all felt that way at some point???) please listen to this. The video is awesome---be sure to watch it all the way through. And grab the tissues. Wow, God REALLY loves us.

The whale in our front yard

We went ahead and got Eliza her birthday present early, this inflatable waterslide, so we could get more use out of it this summer. I will say, it was a big hit. Amy, Cliff, Ellis, and Owen came for a fun weekend and luckily the slide got here for their visit. They had a big time. And yes, we had to put the gargantuan thing in our front yard as the back didn't have a large enough flat place. We had some neighbors over on Sunday to slide as well. We were quite the spectacle out there!


My little redneck baby. Yes, I actually let him play in the front yard looking like this.

Is Big Bird real or pretend?

So this is the question Eliza posed as we were eating dinner the other night. I just looked at Stephen and shrugged my shoulders, implying "You take this one." Here is how the conversation went:

Stephen: "Ehrr, Big Bird is a real person dressed up in a costume." (whew, good answer).
Eliza: (sits quietly for a moment, pondering this). "Well, what about Elmo? Is he a person in a costume?"
Stephen: "Well, um, Elmo is a puppet."
Eliza:"Well, what about Cookie Monster, Zoe, Rosita, Snuffalupagus, and Abby Cadabby?"
Stephen: "Puppet, puppet, puppet, costume, puppet."

Eliza then just sat there for the rest of dinner, contemplating all of this new information. I mean, really, is Big Bird real or pretend? Obviously I know it's not a REAL big bird, but he walks and talks and you can touch and feel him. Will this change her entire perception of Sesame Street, her favorite show???

I thought this was the end of this particular stream of her consciousness, until this happened this morning as I was fixing her hair:

Eliza: "Mommy, is Handy Manny real or pretend?" (it's a cartoon, for those of you without preschoolers)
Me: "Well, all cartoons are pretend." I should have stopped here, but I was feeling rather smug, so I went on to say "Just like characters in most of your story books are pretend."

Even as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. I knew what was coming next.

Eliza:"But mommy, I have books about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Does that mean they are just pretend, too?"

And so there, in one slip of the tongue, I felt like I had taken all the magic out of the most magical place on earth. And we haven't even taken her there yet. Does this mean that when we do spend thousands of dollars to go to Disneyworld, she'll just look at all the characters like they are pathetic fakers in costumes instead of the beautiful princesses she USED to think they were?? Have I taken away years of childhood fantasy and innocence?

So I just did what all stellar parents do in these situations: I acted like I didn't hear her and started talking up how much fun she will have at her soccer clinic tonight. Maybe she'll forget the entire conversation. Somehow I doubt it.

I'm sure the Santa question will be next.

Fun with the fam

Whew, VBS has totally rendered me useless this week as I come home EXHAUSTED every day. I wonder how I ever taught school all day when 3 hours of Bible school has me totally whooped. It was great, but I'm a little glad it's over; I need some rest!!!

Last weekend we went with my brother and his family to visit our sister and her family in North Carolina at her new house. Yes, we had 6 adults and 5 children 3 and under staying in 1 house for 3 days. Did you catch all those numbers?? It was chaotic, but lots of fun. Eliza got to see fireworks for the first time, which she had been literally counting down the days on the calender to see. She loved them, of course. Thanks so much to Heather and Danny for having our rowdy bunch as guests---it was a blast!

Here are all the cousins. I mean, do we have cute-baby genes in our family or what?

Betsy Hart (ooh, I could just eat her up!) and Howell after playing in the dirt.

Cooper---so precious and always smiling!!

And here are Eliza and Davis's other most handsome cousins, Ellis and Owen, Amy's boys. She is an incredible photographer and took these photos a couple of months ago.

(Ellis was on the Regis and Kelly show as a toddler for being in the top 5 of their Most Beautiful Baby Contest!)

Mr. Spaghetti Face

Davis has always loved spaghetti, but last night he took it to a new level. Eeww.



Monkey see, monkey do.

Books

I've always been kind of a bookworm, but the last few years with having Eliza and Davis, I don't have as much free time to read as I would like (but they are worth it, of course :). And it seems like for a while I kept picking books to read that I really didn't enjoy and would put down out of boredom. I used to never not finish a book regardless of how much I disliked, but now my time is too precious to waste on something I don't enjoy. I've recently read some books, though, that have renewed my love of books. Here are some books I've read over the past few years that I've really liked: (thanks to my friend Susan for keeping a list of all the books we read for bookclub to help me out with this list!).

Fiction
A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander, an author who actually lives in a neighborhood very close to me. It's good, suspensful, historical fiction.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I LOVE THIS BOOK SOOOO MUCH. Does that get the point across? Probably one of the best-written books I've ever read, and definitely on my list of favorites. And it's coming out as a movie this fall.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arther Golden. Ooh, so good.
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan. I've read and loved everything by Amy Tan, but this one is probably my favorite.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Keeping with the Asian fiction, this describes Japanese foot-binding in nauseating detail. But the story is really good if you like that kind of thing.
Three Junes by Julia Glass. Heart-wrenching drama about a Scottish family and their prodigal son who lives in New York in the 80's when AIDS was first appearing.
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini. "The Kite Runner" is fantastic, but I liked the second one better. It's about women living during the Taliban in Afghanistan. Unbearably brutal at times, but a redeeming end, which I always enjoy.
Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. I've read everything by her and really love it all.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory. Book is much better than the movie. As usual.
We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg. Based on a true story about a girl raised by her single mother who was paralyzed from the waist down from polio.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Fascinating semi-true tale of Dina, daughter of Leah and Jacob. Very interesting info about the culture of early Biblical times.
Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons by Lorna Landvik. Just plain fun. I've read almost everything by Landvik and enjoyed all of it.
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy. Again, it's hard to pick a favorite by Binchy. I'm a sucker for Ireland.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Poignant tale told from the perspective of a boy with autism.
Cane River by Lalita Tademy. Well-written family saga that covers 4 generations of women born into slavery.

Ok, I know there are so many more, but those are the ones that are sticking out to me as wonderful reads. Please comment me if you have some to add to my list or recommend!

While I'm at it, here are some books that I really disliked:

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. This was a huge disappointment after I loved her "Secret Life of Bees." But I just can't enjoy any book that glorifies adultry, a la "The Horse Whisperer" and "Bridges of Madison County". Especially with a monk.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I liked the first of this book, but it went on WAY too long and the premise just got ridiculous.
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Although he went on Oprah saying this was a true story, it came out later that he had made up a lot of it and exaggerated the rest. I read this after I found that out, and I just thought it was stupid and he came off as a real jerk. Sorry to be so blunt.
The Memory's Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I know this was popular and made in to a Lifetime movie and all, but I just didn't buy the story line.

Whew, that's a lot. I think I'll have to save non-fiction for another post!

Sidewalk Paint

I saw this idea in a recent issue of Family Fun magazine, which I love love love. And their website is great, too. I like the idea of sidewalk chalk, but for some reason chalk of any kind has always given me the heebie jeebies. Something about the dust it leaves on my hands. Ooh, I'm getting the chills just thinking about it. Thank goodness I always had dry erase boards in my classroom when I was teaching. Anyway, you just mix equal parts cornstarch and water (I used 1/2 cup of each for these batches); mix with a fork as it gets a little clumpy at first. Then add some food coloring and you're done. It can make for a good little lesson in what colors mix to make what, which Eliza still has trouble with. Here are some pictures of our outing today. I think I enjoy it more than she does!

My rendering of Eliza. Sadly, that's the extent of my artistic ability.