A Smile for My Day

Ambria continues to melt my heart by the minute.

Her latest addiction is books, books, and more books and either wants to read them by herself or she will hunt me (or Jerry) down, pull on my leg, and give me the cute "read to me" look, until I give in and read to her (not just one book, but multiple books, and she has her favorites).
She has all the animal sounds down and she surprises me each day with new words, the latest are bubble, neigh, and Momo (Elmo)--it is just too darn cute to hear her talk with her soft voice.

Ambria makes me smile. She makes me smile when I see her run to the window, climb on the heater, and look out the window. She makes me smile when she gets all giddy when she gets her pink blankie. She makes me smile when she comes clumsily running to hug my leg when I get home. She makes me smile when she tries on all the shoes in the house and tries to walk in them. She makes me smile when I check on her before I go to bed and she is sound asleep. She just...make me smile.

Thank you, Ambria.

Pink Dirt

Mariah is the ultimate girly-girl who likes to wear dresses that twirl and pink sparkly shoes, whose favorite color is pink, pink, and more pink...

However, Mariah does have a tom-boy side to her as well. She loves to get dirty, play with worms, and hunt for roly-polies .

The other day I went into Mariah's bedroom after she was playing by herself, and this is what I found...
Hmm, Mariah put dresses on her play/plastic bugs. Not in the picture, were bugs in her dollhouse, in all the rooms and sitting at the table.

I guess when all the dirt washes away our little girly-girl appears - here is proof.

Hear Me Roar

Just a quick video of Ambria being cute.

Retro Flashback

Are you kidding me?! This was where it was at!!

An 80's Flashback--an Oldie but Goodie

One of my all-time favorite childhood shows. Ahhh, the memories. Does anyone remember Today's Special?

Lessons from Daddy (one good, one not especially so good)

Lesson #1

I heard Mariah walk into her bedroom and close the door. She was in there for a while and I was curious as to what she was up to (I was thinking she was changing into some dress up clothes, which is often the case). I slowly opened the door and found her sitting on her pink bed reading the Bible. I walked over to her and asked her what she was doing...

"I'm reading the Bible. I would like to be alone. Will you please leave?"

I excused myself and I was so proud of her. Later, I asked her why she was reading the Bible and wanted to be alone. She said

"I want to be like daddy."

Reminder, Mariah is 4.

(True Story. Oh my gosh, my heart just melted!! We are off to a good start with this kid).

Lesson #2

Mariah was coloring peacefully at the table and exclaimed...

"This is how I roll...like a true gangsta' "

(chuckle, chuckle from me)

She looks at me and says,

"I learned that from daddy"

Reminder, Mariah is 4.

(True Story. My heart didn't necessarily melt, but I got a good laugh (and so did Jerry). She might have regressed a little from the first story, so we will focus more on that one to hopefully have lasting effects).

Later, Mariah did stall going to bed and paused the bedtime prayer to "squeeze daddy's muscles." Another chuckle from both me and Jerry. She is just too funny.

A String Around My Finger

God is moving.

And just a reminder to myself...He never has stopped moving!

First Impressions

Mariah and I walked into her preschool classroom for the first time, full of anticipation and excitement. Mariah's first task is to find her name tag on the counter. She pauses, realizes that her name tag is on PURPLE paper.

"I want PINK."

Later, she finds her locker with the same PURPLE name tag and also sees a PINK tag. Her eyes light up, but quickly realizes it is for another girl who is sharing her locker.

"I want PINK."

Second day of school...Mariah has to find her cubby. Yep, it has a PURPLE name tag on it.

"I want PINK."

This might be a long year...

Luckily, the colors did seem to phase her too much and she had a great first week.

You can see the excitement in her eyes.

Oh wait, can you even see her behind that backback?

Look close, her sandals are on the wrong feet--we celebrate that she knows how to get her shoes on, we'll work on the correct feet later.

Tonight we worked on writing Mariah's name. She did it in the correct order for the first time and she also wrote an "R" for the first time. She was pretty proud of herself. Ok, I was proud too. I think this means she already passed preschool with flying colors.

Mariah, mom and dad are so proud of you! It is so wonderful to watch you learn and grow right before our eyes. It is a privilege to be your mom and dad. Thank you for being our daughter. You are a blessing. You are loved.