The Mind of a Three Year Old

Three year olds are so full of funny conversations, funny pronunciations, and funny sayings.  I should always carry around a pen and paper to jot these things down. Here is a bit of the conversation from last night I had with Peyton.

Peyton:  Mommy, Do cows love Jesus?  Do rabbits love Jesus?

Me:  (thinking to myself)  How in the heck do you answer this question? 



A few minutes later, as we're praying:

Peyton: Jesus, Please be with Keri (my sister) and... and...
  (Looks up at me, quizzically) Does Keri have a husband?

Me: No she has a boyfriend.

Peyton: What's his name?

Me: Adam.

Peyton:  Please be with Adam, Jesus. And Belle, and Cinderella, and Sleeping Booty(that's no typo).  (And she frequently prays for the Disney princesses that she sees on her wall.)



After the prayer, a few minutes later.

Me:  Peyton, what did you do today?

Peyton:  Well, well, Daddy gave us a snack and I had juice and Newtons (Fig Newtons). 



At the park last week, we met a little four year old girl who, throughout the course of our time with her, explained to us that her Mom had had surgery on her belly for her sister (C-section).  Kids volunteer the most interesting information, by the way.  I'm sure this Mom would have loved the fact that her daughter was telling strangers about her surgeries.

So every night, Peyton prays for "Daphnee's mom who had surgery on her belly".



Everything is just so cute and precious from their little perspective.  I love it!

I Should Have Known

So Saturday morning, Arnold went to a prayer breakfast at church and I was left alone with the girls. I hopped into the shower about 10am and left the door wide open so that I could keep an ear out for the girls. They were downstairs playing. I would call out to Peyton every few minutes to make sure she was still downstairs. She answered me every time, but they were unusually quite. I thought it was a little unlike them to be so quite (usually there would be some screaming, crying, and unkind behavior going on between the two of them). Well, lo and behold, I should have known. They were crouched down under the table and had gotten into the little chocolate bunnies, eggs, and coins. From counting the wrappers, I came up with the number 13. They had eaten 13 pieces all together. I'm suprised they weren't sick! Below are some pictures.

Warp Speed

Man, I am such a bad blogger, and I hate that!  I would like to post something every day, but that is not going to happen, so my goal is to at least post something every other day.  That clearly has not happened either, as it's been 8 days since my last post!  Where in the heck does the time go to?  I feel like my life is whizzing by at 100 mph.  I'm zooming down the interstate, not on some pokey country road. 
Do you remember when you were young and time seemed to go in slow motion?  I remember that feeling if there was a vacation to the beach or a trip to Carowinds (for those not in SC or NC, it's an amusement park like Six Flags) planned.  It would seem like an eternity before the day would finally arrive.  Now if there's a trip planned, I'm always needing more time to pack or to rest or to get this or that done before the big trip. I guess more responsiblity is a time sucker.  I feel like I wake up in the morning and the next thing I know, I'm back home getting ready to go to bed and do the same thing all over again.  Mr. Time, Could you please slow down so that I can catch my breath?  I prefer to walk not run. 

"Yes, There is a Reason to Trust"

I ran across this article in the InTouch magazine and thought that I would post it on the blog today.  This article is so timely for me, and I thought maybe it would be timely for some of you blog readers as well. 

"There is plenty of reason for confidence these days.  That's not the message we hear on the news every morning, but it's true.  Yes, the economy is in a slump, unemployment is up, and unrest in the Middle East continues.  But these things are nothing new.  The world has always experienced some kind of turmoil, and that hasn't stopped God from blessing His people and giving us reason to trust Him.

Many Christians profess belief in God and in His promises yet focus more on the continuous barrage of negative information that confronts them each day through televeision and the Internet.  Their lives are overshadowed by feelings of doubt, worry and, most of all, fear over what the future may hold.

If ever there was a time for believers to worry, it would have been when Christ was crucified.  On several occasions, Jesus reassured His disciples that He was doing God's perfect will--even when things seemed unbearably bleak.  He promised them their grief would turn to joy (John 16:20).  But their faith faltered.
After Jesus' death, the terrified disciples, certain they would meet the same fate as their Lord (John 20:19), went into hiding.  Fear gripped their hearts, and their minds raced to make sense of all that had happened.  They fogot Christ's words: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful" (John 14:27-28). 

Some events in life seem to cause more pain than we can bear.  For the disciples, the crucifixion was such an occasion.  Instead of believing that Jesus would never leave them, the disciples were convinced He was gone forever.  And with Him went their hopes for the future.  But they were wrong: three days later the risen Savior stepped into their presence and proclaimed, "Peace be with you!" (John 20:19).

He is always at work--engineering the circumstances of your life to bring good from even the deepest loss.  Whatever your situation, God is aware of it.  And He has a plan in mind especially for you, just as He had a plan for the resurrection.  Yes, there is good reason to trust Him!"

--by Dr. Charles Stanley

Patrick

This is Patrick.  Apparently he is a friend of Sponge Bob's.  Patrick came from Burger King in a kid's meal.  And we don't know why Raegan is terrified of him.  It all started the other night when I tried to give Peyton and Raegan a bath.  Normally Raegan loves a bath and will quickly throw off her clothes in a mad dash to get in the tub as soon as possible.  But on this particular night, she started pitching a fit and having a meltdown.  I knew something was wrong with her and that it just wasn't bathtime rebellion.  I scanned her body to see if she was hurt in any way but couldn't find anything wrong.  I finally gave up.  She went to bed dirty that night.  It wasn't until the next day that Arnold somehow figured out that she was terrified of Patrick.  And the reason she didn't want to take a bath that particular night was because he was standing on the side of the tub.  It's so strange, funny, and fascinating what kids are afraid of.  Peyton is scared of bugs now and any type of cartoon that she deems scary.  Raegan is afraid of Patrick and the little train at the mall. I am afraid of/loathe/abhor roaches.  What are you afraid of? 

The Kids

You would think I didn't feed this poor little child.  Look at her little bony arm.  We went to the doctor the other day, we had not been in six months.  I have to say that I was getting a little concerned about her weight.  Yep, she's only 20 pounds.  She's 19 months old, and in the 3% for weight.  10-25% for height.  The doctor didn't seem very concerned though, saying, "Well, I'm not concerned because she's not off of the chart yet."  That makes me feel better.  There's not much we can do though, this child eats like a horse.  She would drink a gallon of whole milk if I let her.  She eats everything on her plate and is not picky.  She's healthy though, and for that we're grateful.   

This child pitched such a fit at the doctor's office because she was dying to have the doctor "look at her throat" that I finally begged the nurse to "just pretend look" at her throat. Peyton used to be a holy terror to take to the doctor.  Now she's excited to go and begging to be looked at.  What a change!

Did I mention that Peyton has been praying that "God would heal her broken heart"?  We think she may have heard this from the 700 club that Arnold watched a few times.  It's so hilarious because what in the world would Peyton have a broken heart for?  The fact that she gets to play all day and has her parents' love and affection maybe?  That little girl doesn't even know how good she has it!  It's cute though.