You are Special

Our primary gives a paper plate to a child the Sunday they are spotlighted with a message glued to the back: "You are special. . .as a child of Heavenly Father. . ." which asks family members to each tell the child something special about them as they sit around the dinner table that night, with the plate as their special dinner plate for the evening.



Abrianna was spotlighted today. So, at dinner, we went around telling her why she is special to us. Emma started. "Abri, I think, I mean, I know you are special because you are nice to me and nice to Kayla and pick up things when Mommy and Daddy ask you to when Kayla has gotten them out." [This is true the a lot of the time, though, not suprisingly, not all the time.] My comment: Abri, I love that you love books like Mommy does and that you listen well to your teachers at preschool and church and do what they ask." Todd: "Abri, I love that you tell us such cute stories."



Then, Emma came and whispered to Todd and I individually, "On 1, say, we love Abri, and I'll count". She counted down from 3, and on three (rather, one) we all chimed in. Abri looked rather sheepish, and smiled so sweetly and said, "Guys" rather drawn out, in this tone of, "you sound so silly but I'm so pleased that you said it." It was a funny moment to which I can't do justice.



Additional notes: my friend Rachel told me that Abri's favorite vacation, as shared during spotlight time, was "when my family goes to McDonalds." [We go so rarely now that she probably would consider it a vacation.] Emma related in the car on the way home from church that she and Abri were both standing up for a long time as they narrowed down who the spotlight was because they share so many of the same things. The spotlight hints: she has two sisters; her favorite place to visit was Grandma's; favorite food: macaroni and cheese; favorite activity: movies; favorite colors: pink and purple. We definitely have a houseful of girls.

Family Pictures for First time in 3 years

Emma's Powers of Observation

I wish I could remember and recount all the things she notices that prove this, but one happened this week that I just couldn't help mentioning. We've finished reading the Junie B. Jones books popular with her age group that are funny for almost any age. The last two we had checked out from the library were Junie B Jones First Grader: Toothless Wonder, #20 and Junie B Jones First Grader: Boo and I mean it, #24. Emma was examining the covers side by side. She pointed out, "Mom, This one is no. 20 (Toothless Wonder) and she has no tooth in the picture since she lost her tooth. Then, in no. 24, she's got all her teeth again. It comes after no. 20, so she should still be missing a tooth. They didn't get that right." Trust Emma to notice a difference in the covers, analyze the sequence of the books and realize that the sequence mandated that the covers be different that what they were.

Christmas Memories--Belated

Writing our Christmas Letter stayed on my unfinished Christmas "To Do" List, but I wanted to at least write a few memories from Christmas last year. Some things that made us laugh:

Kayla was the thief of candy canes off the Christmas tree at the library. If I took my eyes off her even briefly, she was always by the tree, grabbing the closest cane that she could get. She was quite proud to show off her accomplishment when she succeeded. She's also really small next to a 7 foot Christmas tree. The contrast always made me smile because she's getting so big now, that I don't think of her as small anymore.

Emma is her class perfectionist. Really, she's probably one of the biggest perfectionists in the whole grade or school. One example from her class Christmas party: the Room Mom had given each child a handful of paper bells and two antlers to color and glue to a red band that went around their head, then the band was stapled together to fit. Most kids didn't bother coloring the bells, just glued them on, in random places on the band, and if they did color them, they were any color of the rainbow. The majority of antlers were just lightly colored with a lot of white paper between streaks. Then there was Emma's: yellow bells meticulously colored, glued equidistant from each other along the band, the antlers a solid brown, on both sides, with deliberate color strokes. She was the last one finished, and when she took her antlers to the Room Mom to staple, the Mom said, twice (with slight variation), "Wow, those are great antlers, Emma." I think it was the equal distance between bells she was most impressed with, but it just goes to show that Emma takes her craft projects and other schoolwork very seriously.

Abrianna: She loved, absolutely loved, wearing her Christmas dress with Candy canes on it. Of course, in typical Abri fashion, it was a dress, and whats even better--it had Candy on it. I only wish the forest green corduroy and red plaid didn't clash so much with her pink boots. (She's in it beside Santa at our Ward Christmas party above.)

Storytime & Abri's Love of Books

Tuesday evening I told Abri we would be going to storytime in the morning. She got this huge grin on her face and excitedly said, "Storytime at the Library? We're going to storytime?" We go weekly to our local library but had missed the last three weeks due to sickness or other conflicts and by her reaction, it was obvious she had missed it. She talked about it a couple more times before going to bed that night.

The next morning, 8:00, she comes downstairs: "Is it storytime yet?" (This from the 3 yr old that has been sleeping in till about 9 lately.)
Todd: No, the library isn't open yet. You'll need to wait for a bit.
Abri: Oh, the library isn't open?
Todd: No, not yet. Go play for a while and we'll let you know.
Abri: Ok
9:00--Abri: Is the library open yet?
Leanne: No, sorry, Abri, not yet. There are still a couple more hours.
Abri: "Oh", very disappointed, again.
10:30 Leanne: Time to get ready to go to the library for storytime.
Abri: Yeah! Storytime!

Yet another miracle: She didn't argue with me about what she would wear because she was that excited about going. When I told her she couldn't wear the green sundress, she accepted that answer with an immediate ok and we settled on a denim skirt. (Of course, I didn't get her to wear pants, but at least it was something different from her usual favorite dresses.)

The simple pleasures of childhood.

The Smell of Joy

Flour, 1/2 lb of butter, 2 1/2 cups sugar, eggs, milk, and cinnamon--aka Cinnamon Rolls with frosting. I baked them today from scratch for the first time. I refuse to think about how many calories they were, or how much fat they had, or how few whole grains they had because it was sheer joy to smell them baking and then to eat them warm out of the oven.

I've baked fresh bread, rolls and pizza crust over the last year and a half (discovering an ability that I'm quite surprised by) but cinnamon rolls had intimidated me and I just couldn't get the nerve up to dedicate the time to try them. Happily, they turned out well despite my late night yeast rising dilemma.

The girls' reactions:
Abri: Yum, I like your cinnamon rolls, Mommy.
Kayla: Didn't even eat a small center piece of bread from one. Sometimes I'm not sure she's my daughter. She just doesn't seem to like bread products much. (Even fresh baked bread! Too weird.)
Emma: (Missed them for breakfast since she had to go to school) As soon as she got home from school, I got this big hug I wasn't expecting, and a "Thank You Mommy!" with an explanation that it was for making the cinnamon rolls.

Book Suggestions

I'm the Book Club Leader for my Relief Society and was wondering--what books have you enjoyed that you think would benefit others? My criteria: I want the reader to feel uplifted after reading, and feel that the time was well-spent. So, all you lurkers out there who haven't posted :) --post a comment, please, with any book that you've read that met this criteria. Thanks so much!!