Mother's Day

This will be my third Mother's Day. Hopefully it won't take us 10 shots to get a good picture this year.

We didn't even take pictures. Oh well.

Songbird

People always tell me how vocal my 2 year old is. Tellers at the bank, checkers at Target, Costco and the grocery store, "Wow. She has such a big vocabulary!" I smile of course and politely say "yes she does" or "Ya, we have a talker" all while thinking, "You don't know the half of it!"

Not only does she TALK a lot, but she sings too. Besides the cute little Boo-esk songs (Monster's Inc reference) that she just makes up, she probably knows a good 20-30 songs and can sing them for you at any moment. She knows the basics like twinkle twinkle, the ABC's, and Jesus Loves Me, etc. She also knows some lesser known diddys like, Where are you Christmas? from the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and "make a mountain, make a move" and "boom Boom Clap" (The Climb and the Hoedown Throwdown from the Hannah Montana Movie). She is also know to sing "Fireflies" by Owl City, "Desert Song" by Hillsong, "I Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, "We Worship You" by Jacob"s Well, "21 Guns" By Green Day, "Reign In Us" by Starfield and many, MANY more. As you can see we have a well rounded child, musically speaking at least.

The last month or so Grace would randomly shout out "Yes Sir!" in the car. It took me a few times to figure out what she was singing. I figured it out. "I may never march in the infantry, ride in the calvary, shoot the artillery, fly over the enemy but I'm in the Lord's army. Yes Sir!" Today she also stared singing "Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Joy joy joy, down in my heart to staaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy. Happy so happy down in my heart." (Gracie Bartlow version)

I wonder what she'll start singing next month...

Prayer

So the other night Gracie and I were sitting at the computer.

Wait.

Pause.

Let me really start by saying Gracie loves all of her aunts and uncles. All of them. She talks about some more than others but she loves everyone and will talk about each one depending on where we are and when she saw them last etc. I say this so I won't hear any whining about how "She loves so and so more!" and "How come she doesn't talk about me?". Understood? Great.

Now we can continue.

We pray for Gracie every night before she goes to bed. She now knows the prayer by heart and says it along with Steve. He had already done so that night and Gracie and I were sitting at the computer before bed. I don't know what I was doing but I heard Gracie say "KariMike, an Makayla, Natalie, Grammie Papa."

I look at her. She has her head bowed and hands folded and is praying for them! Tears instantly come to my eyes... until she keeps going.

"An KariMike (FYI Kari and Mike are almost ALWAYS one word kinda like beardoggiebaby, her sleeping companions) "Makayla, Natalie, an Jesus loves me" At this point she kinda starts to sing. "dis I know, da bible tell me soooooooo" I cover my mouth to stifle the laugh. LOVE it!

First Time for Everything

So today, I was driving around getting papers for houses that are for sale. We are starting to look but have not even applied for a home loan. Do not get excited for us yet. We are waiting for a raise to be given and expect a number any day now. But back to the story at hand. I followed a whim and decided to drive around looking for signs and papers to grab. I found this way cute house and decided to grab a paper. I hopped out of the car, closed my door and went for the grab. Wow. 4 bedroom for under $300,000. Sweet. Came back to my door to find it locked, engine running, wipers going, coffee, phone and child inside. Panic. What do I do? I've never done this before. I don't have my phone. I can't even call for help. OK, there's a car in the driveway. Do I knock? What choice do I have? MY CHILD IS LOCKED IN THE CAR!!!! I start to tear up. Here I go.

*knock knock.

He, yes he, (insert a little more panic here) opens the door a crack. "Hello?"

Me (really crying now): "Hi, um, I locked my keys in my car with my daughter and phone in it."

Him: "Oh, OK" (opens door wider) "Come in" I pause "It's OK. Come in, (reaching for his phone) do you have a (slight pause) husband, (more pause) or?" "Yes. Can I call my husband?"

I'm starting to calm down except for the worry of what Steve will think when I tell him. Steve answers and I tell him what's going on. He asks where I am and tells me he's on his way. The guy and I go back outside to check on Grace and he stands and chats with me till Steve arrives to open the van. He was very nice. Found out his wife is expecting in September and he tells me a story about her going to the mall and having "pregnancy brain" and forgetting where she parked the car and how they had to find it. Steve arrived and opened the van, I thank the guy and away we go.

First time in Gracie's life I've locked my keys in the car.

Things I am thankful for:

Grace had crackers and water and isn't an infant who was ready to nurse.

She only cried a little. Mostly she thought it was fun.

The engine was running so it was warm in the van.

It had been raining 10 minutes earlier and wasn't while I stood outside waiting for Steve.

It is not 2 weeks from now and Steve was at work, not in Georgia.

Steve had his van key on him and didn't have to stop at our house to get it.

The guy was home, and nice.

I wonder if this means we have to buy their house now? :)

White Chocolate Mocha

She forgets the peppermint. It's actually a white chocolate peppermint mocha. But she knows it. "White chocoate mocha" "Yes Grace, momma gets a white chocolate mocha." "I wan some?" She phrases it like a question, like maybe this time I will give her a sip. "No, Gracie. This is mommy's coffee. Coffee's yucky remember?" She even started yelling it while we were waiting in line at a coffee cart in Children's hospital. Over, and over and over. All I could do was smile and say "bet ya'll can't guess what mommy gets at the coffee stand can you?" No matter what I did she wouldn't stop saying it. She has gotten so good at remembering what kind of coffee I get that even if I make a pot at home she thinks I'm making a white chocolate mocha. Maybe I should switch it up a bit and get something else once in awhile.

Maybe not.

Jesus Loves Me

I am now the owner of a two year old. She turned two on Monday. We had Mops on Thursday. For whatever reason I was not prepared for her to move up to the 2's class so soon. I struggled and wined to the kids life workers, fought back tears and put her in class, she screamed. She was on my mind the whole meeting. I knew in my head she'd be fine and if she really needed me they would page me but the mom heart is a hard thing to convince and prone to worry. I'm in charge of setting up and tearing down before the meetings so Grace is typically one of the last to be picked up from class. On my last run to the storage closet I ran into one of her teachers, yes, most teachers even leave before I can pick her up. She reassured me that Gracie had lots of fun and did great! She colored, ate her lunch and had a blast running around and climbing on the toys. Gracie and I were sitting at the breakfast table Friday when she noticed a coloring page she had colored at Mops. She pointed at it and said "my colors!" Nothing new, I've heard that a lot from her in the last few weeks. Everything is "Mine!" or "My turn!" (Can you tell she's two yet?) So I didn't really pay much attention to it. Then she said "My colors. Jesus loves me". *sigh* OK, she can stay in the big kid class.