Simple Things

Sometimes I pick up my camera a lot.  Sometimes I forget that I have one in the house for days on end.  Sometimes I capture things that I think only I would be interested in years from now.  But I put them here so that I'll have a record of them.  They are the simple things.  And they are...

Bedtime routines. I tell Scott that one day we will miss this. He's not so sure but I know I will.





And bedtime flashcards. I love the way she really shouts out the answers. I guess shouting them give a greater chance they'll be right. (daddy does the math in the house... I'd rather cuddle and read to them)



Her thinking face.



Afternoon sun and I've got to share this book with you another time.



Short legs that don't touch the ground.



Cardinal out my kitchen window (sorry Billie Jo... I know birds creep you out)



Practicing in the morning. But I really took this one because I love this sweater. Anna wore it too.



Concentration



Okay, so this ones just for me so I can remember the whale pants.



Hours later after dinner... discipline. Not sure what daddy was talking to her about but I do remember I missed the puppy dog "i'm sorry" eyes she had.



Cuddling.  Anna has from the beginning had such trouble falling asleep. It's agonizing for her. She won't go to a sleepover because being in another house just seems to make it worse. So after she's tucked in and has tried for a good long time she comes in to snuggle with us. It usually does the trick. And we do this little kids bible study together. A blessing in disguise... she needs that little bit of one on one time.  This song I 've been thinking about a lot lately.  There are so many things I'd change if I could go back with our Anna.  Things from when she was a baby.  Mostly just a confidence and more of a standing firm to what we were doing as different as it was from the "normal" toddlers I was surrounded with in my life back then.  I knew waaay back then that our toddler shouldn't be where the other toddlers were.  That boding with her and her bonding with just us was the most important thing in the world.   I lost a friend waaaay back when Anna was a baby because I wouldn't leave Anna and during play dates I "sat on the floor and wouldn't stop touching her" I'm actually so grateful that old friend told me that because it felt like God was whispering to me, "see, you did do so many things right with Anna."  I cuddled, I played, I touched, I bonded.  I was her one and only.  attachment, attachment, attachment... So almost ten years later I don't care what others think.  I know and am confident that Anna still needs to be raised in a different way than others her age.  And I'm oh so happy to do that.



This weekend we are looking forward to Abigail's Irish Step Recital, teaching church school to my little first graders, mass, and goodness that might be just it.  Let's pretend that I already looked at the calendar and didn't see anything else.  Happy weekend friends...

"For it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all..." Laura Ingalls Wilder.