Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

If you wake the baby, we're through!

Love,

Me

Love, Joy, Peace

Hope you are resting this season!

Pre-Dibs Jeans

So, I have these jeans from well over five years ago before I met Dibs.

They are threadbare because they have been washed a million times. Which is also why they are incredibly soft and broken in.

I just love broken-in jeans, don't you?

They have have rips in both knees.


They have seen me through some of the best of times and the worst of times.


They look skin-tight, I have to lie on the bed to zip them up, and I have the muffintop from Hades but I can fit squeeze into my pre-baby, pre-Dibs jeans. Go me.

All I Want for Christmas

My Two Front Teeth!

(Mama wants a Silent Night.)

"Dear God, thank You for food 

and fam-ee-lee 

and Mama

and Leslie 

and Daddee... 

(pause) 

and BREAAAAaaaadddd. 

A-men!"

 

That's my girl.

She Will Be Doing This for the Rest of Her Life

 

We knew when we named her that Arden would go through life spelling her name for people. Anything out of the norm is just like that. But I didn't think she'd learn quite this early. 

We haven't coached her in any way, other than to read and talk about the alphabet and show her the letter when we write her name on paper or with sidewalk chalk. She also has one of those programmable dogs that sings and spells her name. So when she stared repeating that song and then pointing out the letters she knew, we thought she might pick it up. Dibs got out the foam bath letters and she did the rest. We've been having a blast.

 It boggles my mind that my helpless little firstborn is now a little girl. She can count to twelve, spell her name, pray, and when we go to tuck her in at night, she's in her wee bed with her head on the pillow and (usually) her body under the covers.

31 Observations and Epiphanies

For those of you who have been reading along with this month-long challenge, it has been a fun adventure. I hope you enjoyed it, too.

I don't know if I've offered anything here this month that terribly informative - it's been as typically self-centered as any other blog - but I have learned a lot. I thought I would wrap up with a little list of things I have either observed over the past month or epiphanies I have had over the past few years that came to mind this month. I'll leave it to you to guess which is which.

1. Tabasco is hotter than "hot sauce."
2. People in the church are still just people.
3. I get more done by getting up early than by staying up late.
4. It's better to be loving than to be right (most of the time).
5. Ignore the opinions of those who won't follow their own advice.
6. If you need the medicine, take it. No one will give you a medal for toughing it out.
7. After childhood, no one will make you take a nap. Do it anyway.
8. Everyone struggles with something.
9. Order what you really want.
10. Don't fail to plan; just know sometimes plans fail.
11. Enthusiasm and warm sincerity are the most attractive qualities anyone can have.
12. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want doesn't mean they don't love you.
13. Give the world your best. Not for the world's sake - but for yours.
14. It's called faith for a reason.
15. Debt-free feels good.
16. Be there.
17. I want to be the kind of woman who prays about things more than she talks about them.
18. Your audience is always pulling for you.
19. Nothing wins a crowd over like humor.
20. Marry the person you can go through valleys with. If he can make you laugh even in the bleakest times, so much the better. (I did and he does. We've been through some dark days together.)
21. I would have missed many beautiful sunrises were it not for my children.
22. Nobody cares how much you know unless it's a job interview (or your mother).
23. If something ever happened to me, I'd hate for my friends to come through my house and think, "Man, she was a lousy housekeeper." But that's better than being a lousy wife or mother. 
24. It never hurts to ask.
25. Comparison truly is the thief of joy.
26. It's really tough not to compare yourself with other parents and your child's abilities and achievements with their peers. Better to realize it and stop now than to hurt your child later.
27. There's a fine line between toddler inquisitiveness and naughty mischief.
28. When we talk about the "gift of cooking," some people are referring to a talent. But actually, cooking is a gift of time, effort, and taste to the one being fed. It's an opportunity to be creative, to try new things, and to have fun, so in that way, it's a gift to the cook as well. 
29. There are things a lady just should not find funny.
30. You can pitch a fit or get the job done but not both at the same time.
31. To learn a new behavior or unlearn an undesired one, take the 30-day challenge. I did!