This past month with Hadleigh Claire was certainly interesting. With the girls I sometimes feel like we have 2 good months and then 1 BAD month. Actually with HC, I think we were on a really good roll of like 3 good months, so I should not complain when things get a little crazy around here. It just always leaves me at somewhat of a loss...what happened tto my sweet girl? Why does she want to make me so angry? Why can she not follow simple instructions? Why is she time after time choosing disobedience when she knows the consequences with be the same?
So, anyway, this last month was a bit rough, but it looks like we have emerged on the other end, so we are all happy and getting along much better.
Here are some positive things that have come out of her using her independence. One day we were in Belize and Annelise had an accident. I rushed her to the bathroom, and when I returned, Hadleigh declared that she had cleaned up the mess. She had pulled a chair over to the counter, grabbed the paper towels, and cleaned up the pee on the floor. What a sweet, caring and helpful little girl! And seemingly she is always willing to help me with whatever task I am doing. She loves doing laundry, putting away the silverware, changing sheets, etc. I think I need to find some more jobs for her, and more creative ways of letting her help me.
While in Belize I certainly saw her cautious nature. She always wanted me to be within an arm's reach, but she also wanted to be in all the action. And I could see within her this real desire to be part of what was going on...she just did not want to do it without me. For example when we went to the church for VBS, she wanted to go play with the other kids, and she just had a huge smile on her face as she watched them play, but she couldn't get up the nerve to go over with them. One of the days I took her into the middle of the action and we started playing with a frisbee. In a matter of seconds there were several other kids around who not only wanted to play frisbee with me, but also with Hadleigh. And she just LOVED that. After a little while I was able to sit down and she continued to play with her new friends. So sweet.
HC loves reading, and I truly LOVE that. One night we went over to some friends house for dinner. They did not have any children, but they had a shelf of children's books. As soon as we walked in, HC went straight for the shelf and literally sat there all night. I could spend hours reading to her. We have read Winnie the Pooh several times, chapter after chapter she will sit and listen. I took her to the library last week and she was in heaven. We picked out several fun new books for her to read. I think next time I want to get Mary Poppins, she loves the movie and I think she would enjoy the book.
Speaking of movies, we have been watching a couple musicals lately. Of course she loves Mary Poppins, and I checked out Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for her last week. The best part was during the big fight scene I asked her what was happening, and she said, "Oh they are just dancing Mama!" OK, if you think so!
Another thing she wants to do a lot is "read about God". We read about God a lot, which is fun. I love reading from her two little storybook Bibles and then reading her the real story from the Bible. She knows which stories are in which book...like we can read about Naaman in the Jesus Storybook Bible, but we can read about Nicodemus in the other one. We continue to work on our verses. She has so many memorized now that I need to start writing them down on 3x5 cards so that I can remember the different ones. This week we started working our way through "Big Truths for Little Kids" which goes through a catechism. At first I thought it was the Westminster Shorter, but then I just realized, it must just be a generic catechism for children (well, I suppose the Shorter Catechism was for children, but in any case). Anyway, we'll see how this goes. My thought is to go through one chapter a week, memorize the questions and answers and memorize the scripture that goes along with it (the scripture is the proof text for the answers). Hadleigh actually knows all the answers from this first chapter, which includes, Who made you, etc, but she doesn't know the verse, Isaiah 40.28, "Do you not know, have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom." I have been looking for a more organized way to teach her things, so this seems to fit it. The hymn that we are singing this week is Father Long Before Creation, whic is a great hymn redone by Andrew Osenga. I also want to become more diligent at teaching her to pray, so I am going to get a little box that has pictures in it, pictures of people that we will pray for. We'll see if that works. I think that since we have been taking this little break from specific ministry at church I have been pouring more effort to organize myself at home and with the girls. This is probably a good thing, and I am enjoying being more intentional with my time with them.
OK, what else can I say about my little girl? She is so big. I love learning more things about her, even though it sometimes pushes me near the edge. Sometimes it is good to be pushed to the edge and to Christ to give me wisdom as a mama. Sometimes I realize her behavior is truly just foolish, and sometimes I realize she just needs me to speak a soft word. It is hard to distinguish...and there are times I have no desire to speak a soft word, or to look to anything outside myself for the answer. But it is good to know that I do not know everything, but there is much wisdom that can come if I spend time praying for her and asking God to show me what to do. Novel idea, I know. I look forward to many more month of being her Mama.
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