Betty

Terrifical Twos

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Click.  The dreadful sound of Betty locking herself in the bathroom.  Again.  It is futile to describe to her how to turn the old-fashioned lock on the other side.  One inch away, yet so very far.  So I don my imaginary cape and slip out Nadine’s bedroom window onto the steeper-than-I-remembered roof.  Again.  I’m sweating profusely in the January air.  I really hope I don’t start to slide.  Carefully, I crawl to the bathroom window, praying it’s not locked.  It’s difficult to open, but not impossible.  There she stands, in her baggy pink panties, yelling at her siblings through the door, oblivious to my presence behind her, climbing very awkwardly through the window.  I think if I had a real cape on, it would have looked more impressive.  I show her (again) how to turn the lock other other way, and we’re out in the hallway again!

Not a bad way to remember her 2nd birthday.  Little miss has been strutting around in panties too big for her, held up by a giant safety-pin.  She wants to sit on the potty all the time, but nothing comes out.  Every few minutes: Mommy!  Potty!  Then nothing.  Finally, about the fifty-third try: success!  That chocolate chip never tasted sweeter.  She loves to talk.  She, like her two siblings preceding her, loves oats.  Opes with bananas!   She loves to help unload the dishwasher with Nadine.  After they’re all finished, they bump the door closed with their bottoms.  She laughs every time.  We just love our Betty Ann.  Happy birthday, darling Betty!

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I’ve never liked the “terrible twos” title.  I think it boxes them in to being a certain way.  She has certainly found her voice and exerts her will, but are those terrible things to learn?  I can’t allow a stereotypical label dictate how I perceive or train her.  She is not trying to frustrate me, and I need to respond to her challenges with love and firmness.  It’s an hourly, sometimes moment-by-moment work.  It’s sweaty, tiring, and sometimes takes me away from my personal to-do’s.

We recently switched bedrooms around, and she is now sharing her little pink room with Elsie.  They are both thrilled with the arrangement.  Now the boys share the attic and Nadine has her own room.  She has been craving her own space, and feeling the age gap between her little sisters very keenly.  Other arrangements throughout the house have been an improvement on our space: switching the dining room table with the kitchen table, adding a shelf here or there, throwing more things away, doing a little tidying every day throughout the day.  Sometimes I feel like I’m growing up.

Maybe one day I’ll get that cape.

My Weeping Shadow

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Every night I look back on my day and wonder at a few of the things I did or did not do.  When all is quiet, it’s hard to truly remember how very trying all the noise really was.  When there are no more voices calling my name, I wonder why I was so irritated at that hundredth call for mommy.  I know there was constant activity all around me all day long, because of the evidence.  An apple core hidden here.  A stuffed animal under the table.  Loads of dishes scrubbed and ready for more carnage tomorrow.  Baskets of folded clothes, indicating they were once mounds of laundry.  The ever-emptying refrigerator.  Not to mention everything in my dustpan at the end of the day.

This morning started off with about a quarter cup of cereal.  Since that doesn’t divide between five children so well, I used some leftover bread dough for a monkey bread breakfast.  Served on my Italy plate, it was a splendid start to our day.  Then all of a sudden all I could think about was how long everyone’s hair was, and we had haircuts all around.  The boys got spiffed up, and Betty lost her baby mullet.  She did a great job, and her whole face looks older.  It matches her just-about-two personality.

Today I called her my weeping shadow.  After the morning cheer, she laid down great for her nap… except she never fell asleep.  A poopy diaper later, and she was not doing the whole nap thing today.  So we battled through many tear-filled moments.  She had her first time-out yesterday.  She is experiencing the “try one bite” at supper ordeal.  She understands every single thing we say, and is sprouting like a little seed in a jar of water.  Between my weepy shadow who couldn’t leave my side, math, geography, and everything else required of us today… supper ended up a last-minute outing where the kids were so enthralled with their surroundings that they didn’t eat.  Then we went to Matthew’s exercise class, and by the time we got home at 8 o’clock, my bearded husband was whipping out the pancake recipe for a late-night-second-supper.  The full moon was wreaking havoc on everyone’s ability to settle down anyway, so why not enjoy a few chocolate-chip pancakes before bed?  We did just that.  Betty relaxed her sweet chubby feet on my warmed up rice bag, and everyone ate their fill.


 I’m thankful for my messy life.  For the hair which shows growth.  Our daily bread, especially cinnamon and sugar-covered bread.  The beauty of a full moon.  Tears to show a heart alive, filled with emotion and the ability to feel.  I’m thankful for strength to do more than I feel physically able to do sometimes.  For creativity to color the mundane.  For chattering which makes silence more precious.  For grace upon grace upon grace.  For little shadows that need me to scoop them up and feel cherished as they are.

Thrilling Tapioca

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Today I’m thankful for the tapioca pearls someone gave us awhile back.  They’ve been sitting in my cupboard, and I pulled them out this week for some sensory play!  Betty was immediately pleased with herself that she was cooking alongside mommy, and set to work scooping, pouring, and taking handfuls of the fun little spheres.  Soon all the kids wanted in on the game, and there were tiny white balls all over the kitchen floor.  They roll and bounce very easily, by the way.  Every day now, Betty goes to the big drawer under the oven, pulls out the muffin tins and a spoon and looks up at me with those baby browns, expectantly waiting for me to fetch the tapioca.  I’m thankful for imaginations, the grace when messes happen, and the joy on my children’s faces from simple things.  Who needs toys when you have tapioca?

Yeah!

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Every time you ask Betty a question she will always answer, “Yeah!”  I love it.

Betty, are you hungry?  YEAH!  Betty, are those your shoes?  YEAH!  Betty, do you love Elijah?  YEAH!

She sometimes pulls out the cheerio box and grabs a handful.  Doesn’t happen a lot, but if you asked her if she likes cheerios, she would say, YEAH!

Betty, do you love your daddy?  YEAH!  Betty, are  you finished your banana?  YEAH!  Betty, do you need to get dressed?  YEAH!

Betty, do you love your bunny?  YEAH!  Betty, does Jesus love you?  YEAH! 


She is our major key lift when life feels minor.  She reminds me of how I need to approach life every day: with an enthusiastic, yeah!

Growing Betty

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Sometimes I just sit on the ground and watch Elsie and Betty play their games.  This particular day involved a cowboy hat and a load of towels hanging on the clothesline.  In and out they went, laughing and chattering.  Betty’s personality is quickly emerging as she approaches the big two.


She loves to play.  She just discovered that she loves apples, so now she fits in with the rest of her siblings when they each are chomping on an apple.  In fact, the other day Jack was eating a huge apple and his loose tooth came out and he swallowed it with the apple!  Oops!  He was very nonplussed about it and kept eating his apple.


Her pants are starting to look like flood-water pants, and her shoes barely squeeze on her little feet.  She’s been in size 3 for a long time!

When I asked Nadine what her favorite thing about  Betty is right now, she said, I love it when she puts her hands behind her back and just stands there.  It’s true.  Super cute!  Her favorite song is “Ten Men”, where we act out the story of the ten men that Jesus healed and only one man came back.  Then she brings one hand out and puts up her pointer finger and waves it around while we sing, “Thank you, thank you, Jesus…”  So cute.


When we ask her a question and it’s a yes, she excitedly says, “Da!”  When it’s a no, she shakes her head very fast, tilts her head down, and looks up with no expression on her face, except whatever her big brown eyes say.

A typical afternoon with Betty includes a few changes of shoes, running around with something on her head, and lots of giggling.  She also seems to leave a whirlwind of messes wherever she goes.  I think the main reason she makes messes is so she can clean them up.  She loves to help pick things up, sweep the floor, unload the dishwasher, and put things away.   It’s hard to get upset when I turn around and she’s smiling at me.

Funny Freeze-Frame Moments

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Betty just makes me chuckle.  Her accessories now include fuzzy hello kitty slippers.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 90 degrees with 99 percent humidity outside, she loves to wear them.

The other thing she loves to do is be with her big sisters.

 

My first attempt at shooting a picture with all three girls in their matching dresses that Grandma made.  Betty kept walking towards me, and I don’t realize how very tall Nadine is, until trying to stage all three of them together.  Every time she would kneel down, so would the other two, which still made for an awkward angle.  I love how Betty gives her cheesiest grin whenever a camera, or a phone, or anything resembling either of those things, is pointed in her direction.

On Sunday, we had a fun family picnic with the Weldons and my sister-in-law’s parents.  It was so much fun!  Betty loved the pool, and actually swam in just swimmies and without me holding her!  She doesn’t mind water in her face.  My all-time favorite moment of the day was putting her into this get-up.  Thanks to Capri for shooting this picture with her camera while I was in the water.  I couldn’t stop laughing!  The swimmies kept her little body from slipping down through the tube, and she just floated around the pool, jabbering away and loving it.

There were other really funny moments, which we’ll leave out of print.  But I’d love to know what you think we’re laughing about.

 

If at least twenty people comment about what they think is so funny, I will tell you.  Those of you who were there, are not allowed to say!

Beach Memories and a Little Lesson in French

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Today we drove into Philly to pick up Matthew’s race packet.  Twenty-seven is my new favorite number, for my favorite guy who will be sporting bib number 27 for 24 hours.  My butterflies are still in full flight, but he’s calm as a cucumber, reading on the couch across from me.  The two little girls are at Grandpa & Grandma’s, and the older three are here with us at the Weldon’s.

I finally went through my fourth of July pictures when we were at the shore.  There weren’t very many to choose from, since we were sick and my camera spent a lot of time in its bag.  But these are my favorites:

I had so much fun clicking pictures of my little sneaker-stomper this week.  Betty proudly walks around and our latest game has been to practice saying words together.  Her favorite is when I say, “Diaper,” the way she says it.  She laughs a belly laugh then mimics “diapur!”  Try to imagine saying diaper with a French accent.  Betty has the perfect French accent.  “One, twooo,” with the sweetest French “U” sound.  If you are wondering what I mean, try these six steps to make a perfect French “u” sound:

  • Open your mouth.
  • Say O.
  • Draw out the O until your lips are where they would be to make a W sound.
  • Purse your lips as tightly as you can.
  • Keeping your lips pursed, say E.
  • Voilà the French U!

Ma petite fille douce!

Stay tuned for post-race news next week!  Thanks so much for praying for us!

Now I Can Enjoy Life

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There was a moment today when I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to pull myself together and go into public again.  These days happen.  Gut-wrenching, slobbery-faced tears that soak a handkerchief in a minute.  Disappointment, anger, delayed hopes, all melded together to form a huge pot of emotion that bubbled over onto my poor unsuspecting husband.

The Lord takes care of those who are as helpless as children. When I was in great need, he saved me. 

There really is nothing to be said for the comfort that God provides.  He binds up our wounds.  He wraps us in His love.

I said to myself, “Be calm.  The Lord has been good to me.”

Sometimes I get so consumed by the here and now, the disappointments or drudgery of the moment and I forget all He has done for me.

 Lord, you have saved me from death. You have dried the tears from my eyes.  You have kept me from tripping and falling.  So now I can enjoy life here with you while I’m still living. 

While I’m still living.  I’m alive and I can enjoy life here, not just despite my circumstances or surroundings, but because of them.

Some sweet Betty time today.  Verses in italics from Psalm 116.

Dreaming in Horse-Colored Glasses

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So, when the boys play outside, they get their imagination helmets on… or goggles; whichever you prefer.  They have a fort in the backyard, tucked between the alley way fence and the pine trees.  They have it decked out with old car mats (trash-picked from a neighbor) and other special treasures.

Here they stand, on either side of the fence, working on the burglar trap.  Not sure how it works, but Jack is testing its effectiveness.

There is so much to consider and laugh about when building a fort.

Nadine has been taking horseback riding lessons for a few weeks now.  She is in her element while touching any animal, especially horses.  Her teacher is terrific, and Nadine loves to tell us everything she has learned.

Last week we had so much fun watching her in the ring.  Elsie entertained herself by doing things like jumping from heights and picking dandelions.

Betty was thrilled to have her Daddy close-by.

There is nothing cuter than a father-daughter conversation on a bench.  It is exciting to watch them imagine, learn, and enjoy doing what they love to do.  It is so satisfying to do what you have been created to do.  Speaking of, in the near future we have many changes coming to our family… no, I’m not pregnant, and I will share more soon.  For now I must go and do something I’ve been created to do: fold laundry!

Bits for Betty

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This idea has been floating around in my head.  I’ve seen versions of projects like this and wanted to give it a shot!  So, out came the sewing machine last night, and I painfully made the first cut into Betty’s old clothes.  Each thing on this hanging is from a favorite baby outfit of hers, and the backing is one of the fluffy blankets Grandma gave her.  Now, instead of a useless pile of favorite outfits cluttering up a bin in our basement, we can see them!  When she’s older, we can giggle together about how cute her bottom looked when the big flower was on those brown pants she wore.