Love

With Valentine's Day fast approaching all the stores look like some pink and red heart fairy has exploded all over! (Not to mention all the Easter stuff that is already out...but that is another post). I actually really do like Valentine's Day, I always thought it was fun to send your friends cute cards and you know any excuse to eat candy is okay by me. But LOVE has gotten so distorted in our society many people loathe Valentine's Day because it represents something they think they should have but don't. Anyway, I recently read this blog post, a response to the Huffington Post article "How to Talk to Little Girls", and I just had to share it with you. If you've read this blog before you know my take on the futility of trying to get joy from worldly things (and also how I feel about Proactive! Curious? Read this!. As a completely random thought- they no longer play those commercials. Thankfully.) However, as a mother (I think this should apply to any mother, not just mothers of girls) I am constantly questioning how I can instill in my daughter the idea that she has worth beyond what the world can give her. One of my 'resolutions' for this year is to be more intentional about modeling my faith to Harper and more intentional about talking with her about it. While she may watch me fail at that again and again, I want her to understand the simplicity of the love of God. He loves you. The end. No "what if..." or "I didn't..". He. Loves. YOU. Below is an excerpt from the blog I referenced before. This is how the author says he will talk to his little girl:
“I love you. I love the way your hair rolls into ringlets and falls into your eyes. I love the way you read yourself books, even though you can’t read. I love the way you dance and twirl around the kitchen. I love the way you wave at cars that pass on our walks. I love the way you scream “Dad” in the middle of the night. I love the way you say “do it again” when we do something fun. I even love the permanent marker custom design you put on my new Mac. But as much as I love you, Jesus loves you more. I sacrifice a lot because I love you, but Jesus sacrificed everything because he loves you. So if somewhere along the way you fail a test or love a boy who does not love you back or have a mastectomy or develop Alzheimers or gain some weight or lose a job, you will still hold infinite value because Jesus loves you. No matter what. You are loved exactly as you are. Always.”

Always.

15 months- a little late

Harper at 15 months (on Christmas Eve):
-I seriously can't even count the number of words this child says. New (ish) ones that I haven't listed on the blog before include: Grandaddy (dadadi), Grandmother (mamama), rock (as in on a horse or in a chair), bed, eat, door, open, close, roar (lion/tiger/dinosaur sound), horse, moo, meow, no maam, no way, good dog, sit, treat, tree, teeth, sign for drink, baby doll, happy (pronounced "Abby"), button, walk, bus, truck, ow/ouch, and go. She probably has more new ones than that but that is all Jason and I can remember. And that is plenty for a 15 month old! She puts together novel two word utterances now, like 'mama button' meaning "mama's button". She also copies us (when she feels like it) doing funny things like finishing the old Tom Jones song...if we say "What's new pussy cat..." she says "whoaaaa". Jason also thinks getting her to repeat the diadochokinetic rate ("puh tuh kuh") is funny. And she does it fairly well. I recently gave Harper a standardized language test. She scored a 128 on her understanding of language (following directions, understanding what certain nouns and verbs mean, etc.) and a 129 on her use of language (number of words she says, social use of language, etc.). Her overall language age was one year, eleven months. That is 9 months ahead of her actual age! Her age equivalency on the language use subtest was 2 years!
- Sassiness. Unfortunately (and fortunately) Harper is learning how to stand up for herself. She tells Toby 'no maam' if he accidentally knocks her down and shakes her finger at him. She also sasses us occasionally and tells US no. We are having to find other ways (NOT using the word 'no') to correct her behavior (i.e. 'feet down', 'be sweet', etc.). Sometimes she tells herself 'no' as she is doing something she shouldn't. I am not sure if she is trying to correct her own behavior or just remembering that she was told 'no' when she did it before!
- Social- she is fitting in well in her now not so new daycare class. She still does not like it if the kids get really rowdy and cries sometimes if it gets too crazy in her room, but overall she has adjusted well and is slowly learning to play with the other kids. She also tries to correct her friends at school sometimes when I pick her up, telling them 'no' if they are doing something she thinks they shouldn't. She thinks she is everyone's little mama. She takes a few minutes to warm up to new situations but once she has she wants to be the center of attention. When we flew to Virginia a few days ago she got the chance to wave to the entire plane and ate it up! She did her queen wave!
-Physical- Harper is quite the climber now. She will declare 'rock rock' and climb in her rocking chair in her room and sit and rock. She can climb on everything now! She also jumps now (in her bed!). She is still very much into dancing. And swinging between us if we each have a hand while we are walking.
Misc.- Harper's pretend play skills are really developing. She loves to feed her babies and makes eating and drinking sounds when she does it! She will also brush the baby's hair and carry it around. Her new play kitchen has been quite a hit, too, and she enjoys stirring things on her stove like mom!
Well, that is Harper lately. I find it hard to believe the difference between this Christmas and last year! Time goes by too fast!