Tidings

 We have been enjoying our new house so much. Our days are spent playing outside and pulling straws out of the box in the kitchen.

The other day Claire was "bored' but apparently there was an easy solution...
Claire: What can I do, Mom?
Me: I have an activity we can do, but you need to pick up your blocks first.
Claire: Oh, I have a great idea! You clean up this house, and I will eat cereal!

Averi Kate is not walking proficiently yet (although she has been taking a couple of steps at a time since her birthday), but she can climb like a pro. We have a little trampoline and she can even stand on it and bounce without falling off!

Do it girl.

While putting Claire to bed, I was singing a song that mentioned "seeing God's face," and Claire interrupted...
Claire: How do we see God? Do we see Him like this? (proceeds to stare very intently at the ceiling)
Me: No, we can't see Him with our eyes. We see Him with our heart, when we trust in Him.

I then glanced back over at Claire and saw that she had her shirt pulled all the way up and was sticking her chest out at the ceiling. "I'm looking at God," she said.

 
Averi Kate is starting to talk more. She says "baby" and "mammy". (That would be me.) She is as expressive as ever and will answer any question with an enthusiastic head/body nod, or a furrowed brow/shake of the head/"no". She lets me know exactly when she is ready for bed at night. Sometime between 7:00 and 7:30 every night, she flips a switch and announces, "Nye-nye." And she means it. She knows when she is ready.

Claire does not like to hear about negative things. She rewrites stories to make them happy all the time. She skips over parts that are at all sad. We have been working on memory verses together as a family at supper. Last week we were discussing Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise knowledge and instruction." Claire's request..."Let's just say the first piece. The second part is sad." Tonight we were singing "Old MacDonald" in the car and Claire was choosing the animal. One verse she chose "bear". A little unorthodox for the farm, but I went with it and gave a "roar-roar" here and a "roar-roar" there...until Claire interrupted and informed me that it was not a mean bear, it was a friendly bear. "What does a friendly bear say?" I asked. Claire thought and then said, "He says, 'I love everybody.'" It doesn't quite fit in the rhythm of the song but we did it anyway.


This might be one of my favorite pictures of the coolest kids ever.