Thursday, September 29, 2011

birthday prayer

"Jesus love me
Jesus love me
Jesus love me.  Yes.
Thank you for Poppy's birthday.
Thank you for Lisa and Uncle Adam
who are coming to Lily's house at Christmas
to bring me lots of presents.
Thank you.
And candy.  Lots of candy.
Thank you for Mommy, Poppy, Sofie,
Grandpa, Grammy, Poppop,
and lots of candy.
Jesus loves me.
A-MEN!"

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

thanksgiving tattle

Lily's tear-filled bedtime prayer tonight:

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for Grammy and PopPop.
And thank you, Jesus,
because Poppy took my new Barbie computer
and I was playing with it, and
thank you Jesus, he took it, and it made me SO SAD
and I am crying.  He was mean.
Thank you Jesus (BIG SNIFF)
Amen.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

grandparents




Lily is becoming the craft QUEEN.  She loves it, and does really well, actually.  loves it.

Birthday's continue to be Lily's favorite, though she continues to complain that we have no b-day hats!  Daddy's birthday is Thursday!

 The girls are SO fantastically sleeping at the same time together each afternoon...blessed time for my devotions!  My whole life, I never tried to do my devotional time in the middle of the day, but the last few months I have been while they sleep, and have found it to be the PERFECT way to re-focus and re-commit to the Lord right in the middle.  I'm loving it...
 Matt calls this Sofie's "worried about Ninjas" face
 Don't get me wrong, Barb looks VERY young.  But people keep asking if Sofie is HERS, and I just don't know what to say :)
welcome to Lily's life, being stared at ALL the time :)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

job hazards

Last night, Lily was decked out for the fourth time that day in full princess garb, heels, the works.

Lily: "Poppy, come princess dance with me!"

Matt, laughing: "Ok, babe.  Lily, do you want to be a princess when you grow up?"

Lily: "Nope!"

Matt, surprised:  "Really?  I thought you loved being a princess!  Why don't you want to be a princess when you get big?"

Lily: "The clothes are too itchy.  Let's dance!"

Saturday, September 17, 2011

lizard butts, teeth and castles

Gertha's last day was Friday, and she really wanted a good photo of her with the girls.
 So to make Lily smile, I sang lots of songs she knows, but replaced every fifth word with "lizard butt."  
...which she thought was HILARIOUS.

Sofie's VERY favorite time of the day is bath time, but before I put her in the tub, she ADORES grinning at herself in the mirror and stomping her feet.
Meanwhile, Lily is REALLY into drawing circles right now, and is drawing them everywhere.  BUT, they are NOT circles, and do not call them circles.  They are all rocks.  Lots and lots of rocks.  

I keep telling myself that she is too young, but this girl has to be teething.  She is constantly gnawing on her fist, on her dresses, and now, on a teether.



 Lily loves gingersnaps.  But if she's gonna eat gingersnaps, she MUST have "her coffee" and then she dips and eats until you cut her off. It's a very serious thing.

Our newest "Lily says".

Yesterday Lily and I went out to visit a few friends, and I changed into a clean shirt before we left that hasn't fit for a while :)  It has a flower design on it, but the lines of the flower are all actually words.  I came out of the bedroom, and said, "Lil!  Ready to go?"

She stared at my shirt for a minute and then announced "Hey, your shirt is talking!"

Then this afternoon, she ran to Matt wanting to play one of her favorite games: sick.

"Poppy, Poppy, I broke my leg!  Please, take me to Mommy's bed, be the doctor, and put a castle on it."

"Castle?" Matt said.

"YEAH, Poppy.  Common, I broke it, I need a castle on it!"

Didn't have the heart to tell her that "cast" was what she was looking for.  Too much "Tangled" :)

I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

So-So

It started with Janiel's wife Peninah calling Sofie "So So".  The next day, Granny called her the same thing, and suddenly, no one is calling her anything else.  We now have a Li-Li (lee-lee) and a So-So.  

It suits her.  
 So-So  hates lying down.  Hates it.  Lay her on the couch, and she starts crying.  She wants to be sitting up or standing up all the time, wants to be facing out so she can see everything, and does not want snuggled unless she is really tired.  She is so upset that she can't sit up yet, and she's just now being able to sit in Lily's bumbo for a few minutes at a time before her "abs" get tired.
 She will crane her neck all around the room to find her sister, who is always trying to get her to be able to do stuff...soon!
 I think she's looking less like Lily at this age and more and more like Matt and Aunt Lisa.
Lily at the same age, below.

She's insanely drooly and chewing on everything, so maybe she's teething already...Anyone who makes eye contact and starts talking to her can make her break out a big smile.  She's also rolling over already, which is WAY earlier than Lily was able to (but as you can also see above, Lily had a lot more chub to roll over :)

However, Lily was sleeping through the night at 2 months, and Sof is no where close to sleeping through the night yet!  Oh well.  As Granny keeps telling me, "Li-li was Li-li and So-so is So-so and you  gave them different names for a reason!"

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

and there was.

the ladies sent the "best parts" for Lily.

 who enjoyed them thoroughly (though I did NOT let her eat the neck or hearts.  I just couldn't.

Monday, September 12, 2011

chicken tomorrow!

Today Lily reminded me that while her parents may be American, she's got a Haitian worldview.

We headed up to the office around 4:30 because she was asking for her Daddy.  On our way up, Giselaine intercepted us and asked me to please come to the kitchen to see something.  Lily, Sofie and I head over and walk in, and I immediately freeze upon entering because there were blood, feathers and very dead, very close-up chickens EVERYWHERE.

I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing, with a whole flock of dead chickens laying in a bucket of blood, the women mechanically chopping their heads off, and then attacking each headless body (all surrounded by hundreds of flies) and ripping all the feathers off.

Giselaine picked up a stiff plucked chicken body by it's sharp feet and shook it at me, showing me how they were too skinny.

I was not only fighting not to throw up (I've been really sick the last few days and this was REALLY overwhelming), but I was also fighting to shield Lily and fighting feeling really sad for the poor chickens.  American, non-farmer Stacey was so shook up that all those poor chickens lost their lives, and they all had mothers, and their lives had ended so unexpectedly...you know.

Trying to play it all off and protect Lily, I chocked out, "Lily, hunnie, it's ok!  They're just cooking chickens."

Looking down, I realized Lily, standing over this HUGE tub of blood with dead chickens laying in it, is beaming.

"Look mom!  Lots of blood and those are feathers!  Hah!  Mona is getting the feathers out.  We're going to eat chicken!  I LOVE chicken!  When can I eat chicken?  Chicken tomorrow?  Let's go tell Poppy we're gonna eat chicken!"

Animals are just animals to Lily, not pets...and everyone else in Haiti :)

Saturday, September 10, 2011

ice cream

...after watching a bunch of videos of Lily when she was a baby on the computer, EVERY time she now sees a picture on the computer or camera:

"MAKE IT TALK!  I want it to talk."


...watching me put diaper rash cream on Sofie's butt...

"What is that?"

"It's cream."

"Oh.  You puttin' ice cream on her butt?"


At Jane and Bud's 40 year wedding anniversary party tonight.

"Where are our point hats?"

Friday, September 9, 2011

 Lily's made it a habit once dad comes home from work to put on her "soccer shoes, soccer socks and my soccer hat" and heads out the door to "play soccer with the guys."  She loves watching them and kicking a ball around with the guys on the sidelines from 5-5:30, but will NOT leave until she has on this uniform.

 She had a wonderful afternoon today with "Miss Mary," and quickly climbed onto her lap and asked her to read her stories.  It kind of broke my heart...I HATE that Lily doesn't have this, and just seeing her love Mary and Harold so much this afternoon (and knowing Mary and Harold are only here for 2 weeks) ...ah.

Why is Lily scrapbooking in the kitchen naked at bedtime?

yeah, I don't know.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

sorry

after knocking her plate and muffin on the tile floor,
sending shards of Corelle toupatou (everywhere).

"Hunnie, I know you didn't break Mommy's plate on purpose,
but what do you need to say?"

"Ummmmm.  I guess I need a new plate and a new muffin.  Umm.  Please?"

Lily insisted in being in Micheline's family photo, and sitting next to "the kids".

Monday, September 5, 2011

maybe

Sofia looks
most like
Aunt Lisa
?

Sunday, September 4, 2011

twa mwa

 Hard to believe Sofie is 3 months.  Even harder to believe that Lily is going to be 3 before too long.  These two couldn't be more different, but there is already a lot of love on both ends.
We love how her little ears stick out...
and how her eyes light up when she smiles.


 One day, Lily will stop sucking her thumb.  One day, Sofie will stop looking so worried all time :)

 She's a bit bi-polar, to tell you the truth.



 Bipolar and beautiful...and getting bigger every day with more personality!
It's a joy to be parents to these two!!