My Sweet Kids

Newborn Alisa

Current Alisa

Alisa at 20 months (almost):

• She sings right along with us for I am a Child of God, I Love to See the Temple, Silent Night, and Away in a Manger. She does really well with first and last words, and vowel sounds in between. The whole time she has a cheesy grin on her face. She's beautiful! Especially without the rash.
• She says "pears" for prayers and folds her arms, sometimes randomly. So we stop what we're doing to have a little prayer. Pray always, right? She repeats when prompted and is so sweet about the Jesus Christ, Amen! part, throwing her arms out all proud-like.
• She LOVES to dance and sing. She is amazingly on key. Her favorites to sing during the day are the Darth Vader theme song (of course), A Happy Family, Old McDonald.
• She gets her feelings hurt. If we speak strongly to her (when she's about to burn herself or is in some danger) she just gets sad. It's sad. She's sensitive. 
• She smiles. All day long. 
• She wants to be exactly like Jake. She copies whatever he does. 
• She loves her blankets, and insists on taking at least one out of the crib every time she wakes up. She's not attached to just one, or to any one stuffed animal or doll. 

Newborn Jake

Recent Jake (what's with the expression?!)

Jake (3 years, 9 months):

• He is starting to play with his sister, mostly. Today he kept referring to her as "the baby" --as in, the baby can't play this game, etc.
• When he wants Alisa to do something, he will talk in a very high, squeaky voice. He loves helping her say the prayer and tries to be a good example for her (with constant reminders from us!)
• He can count to 40, only getting confused after 29 or 39. 
• He knows all his upper case letters and their sounds, and is learning his lower case, too.
• He has started writing his name. As of last week. Before that he had no interest whatsoever.
• He started drawing eyes, nose, mouth. Before, it was just scribbles. He is not very interested in art--coloring, cutting out things, gluing. He likes free play. He's great at puzzles.
• He is good at letting pregnant mommy take a nap. Don't worry, he can't unlock the front door! 
• He comes in every morning around six. Once he goes to the bathroom, we let him crawl into bed and I attempt to go back to sleep. Scott sleeps on. He is a sweet cuddle bug then. A lot of times he goes to the fridge, gets a yogurt, and gets back in our bed to eat it. I just try to keep my eyes closed and hope he doesn't spill. He loves yogurt.
• He loves juice and movies (we don't have tv). He would live off a liquid diet of apple juice. I count the day a success if we have avoided juice and a movie all day long. I'm a bit stingy about it.
• He is musical. He knows a TON of primary songs from church, Christmas songs, preschool songs. He really wants a little violin. 

Tonight we were singing "I Lived in Heaven" which talks about how Heavenly Father's created a Plan for us, and how Jesus came to earth, etc. All of a sudden, Jake asks, "Who wanted all the glory?" So we talked about Satan, how he was the bad guy, how he wanted everyone to worship him and not God. I tried to keep it simple. He kept asking "why" about everything. So curious! It made me so grateful for my faith and for the simple truths Jesus taught. I feel so blessed to know why we are here and where we came from and where we are going after this life. And I'm happy to be able to teach my children!

One of the "whys" was why is Heavenly Father so powerful. I told Jake it's because he knows us and loves us and wants us to be good. Jake's answer: "I can be good! I won't push Alisa! And I won't bite. And I will obey (yesterday we had a lesson on obedience). I will be good!" 

Classic Alisa moment. I was singing, to myself, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today. Suddenly, Alisa looks up from where she is playing and says, "Stop!" I stop. Jake says, "You can sing, mama." So I start again. She looks right at me and yells, "Stop!" Yep, she loves my voice!