Making Homes

This morning we were up early for a servant evangelism project that went really well.  It was chilly though, so we came home right after.  Baby D took a very early nap, which I expected since she woke up at 6 AM this morning.  After nap and lunch, Miss Dainty had the idea of building a home for her bear, and of course Baby D wanted to join in on the fun.  It was such an easy and simple project.  I was tempted to break out the scrapbooking paper and scrap fabric to really decorate them, but knew that would be a little too much for them.  So, we just used markers to draw what they wanted: a bed, tv, couch, and fridge in Baby D's house (apparently that's what she deems most important.) 

It was so cute to watch them play with the makeshift houses.  I cannot wait to give Miss Dainty her birthday present.  I have a dollhouse that I had bought for Christmas, but ended up not giving it to her due to her very last minute letter to Santa asking for a skateboard.  So, I ended up saving the dollhouse.  And now I think her birthday will be the perfect time to give it to her, not just that she will enjoy it more, but also that Baby D understands enough to be able to play with her, I think.  It's amazing how much difference a half a year can make. 

Miss Dainty's birthday party will be delayed anyhow, by her choice.  She told me, "I wish my birthday wasn't in May, I wish it was later."  And when I asked her why, she said, "So Daddy could come to my party."  *my heart broke!*  So we talked about postponing her party until Daddy would be home, and she very excitedly agreed to the plan.  I promised to take her to dinner and make cupcakes for her actual birthday, though.  =)  She's such a sweetheart.

I can't wait to decorate the dollhouse with her, though.  But... guess I'll have to. =)

Sigh....

My little Miss Dainty is growing up.  Wanting to skateboard and making new friends.  Friends that are boys...  Of course it was completely innocent.  They talked about skateboarding and bike tricks and played a fun game of tag.  I couldn't help thinking that this was a glimpse into the future, though...  sigh... 

A Great Weekend

Friday morning, a good friend of mine offered to watch the girls so that I could have a few hours to myself.  It had already been three weeks with no time to myself, so I didn't know what to do with it at first.  I ended up going to a nearby used bookstore and spent the entire two hours browsing... and buying.  Buying too much, probably.  Is there such a thing as buying too many books?

I found some great history books, writing books, and a children's dictionary for Miss Dainty, and a few novels for me (like I need my TBR pile to grow any higher!)

Friday also brought awesome mail!  Yummy spring colored sock yarn I had recently ordered and a care package from my grandma (with more books!)  She's so sweet.

I really, really, really want to try to knit a pair of socks.  I still need to finish my swap package though. 

Saturday was rainy, so we stayed inside and relaxed.  I taught Miss Dainty how to play checkers.  (I'm thinking she is going to want to play everyday now.)  She's wearing one of her daddy's shirts in this picture... she's such a sweetheart.

And Sunday... wow.  Sunday I was blown away by my church.  The sermon was on the church's vision.  They covered where they had come from and where they are going.  It was amazing to see everything Believers church has done up to this point, and so exciting to see what they have planed for the very near future.  I'm hoping to be able to serve more now that Baby D is older and not so much a baby anymore.  Once they post the video, I'll link to it so everyone can check them out.  =)

What's my age again?

I love sharing things Miss Dainty says with family and friends on facebook, hopefully giving them a chuckle.  I realized today, though, that I can't remember some of the things she's said in the past, and I want to put them in a more permanent place.  So, I've decided to post them here as well.  Here's the first.  I'll hopefully remember some things from the past and add them, too.

I made a simple dinner of tomato soup and grilled "cheese" sandwiches, and I told the girls, "I used to love when Grandma would make this for me."  Miss Dainty said, "When you were a kid?! ...  How do you remember so long ago?"
!!!???!!! 
0_o

Christmas & Santa's Big Scramble

Christmas Eve, Mr Hubs had duty. =/ The girls and I went to church in the afternoon for our first ever candle light service. It was beautiful! After coming home and eating dinner, we made cookies for Santa. Miss Dainty chose the chocolate chip mint cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. They were pretty good. I wish I could have taken more pictures of them helping with the baking, but it was hard enough keeping them from eating the non-tasty ingredients, and spilling flour all over the place. They had a blast though.

On Christmas morning, my grandparents drove in.  This actually was a bit of a surprise, because up until the day before, I thought they weren't coming down due to our impending bad weather.  But they decided to drive down and at least stay for a few hours to see the girls open their presents.

When Mr Hubs finally made it home from work, we started on brunch: soy chorizo and potato breakfast burritos.  They were awesome!  I absolutely adored watching my grandma help my girls roll out tortillas.  I remember her helping me when I was younger.  It was so incredibly sweet.  I love it when they get to spend quality time with my grandparents.

After breakfast, we opened presents.  There were plenty of priceless moments, but two will stay in my mind forever.  The first was the look on my grandma's face when she opened the rose scented rosary from (and blessed at) the Vatican in Rome.  (We only recently re-found it after moving back here a year and a half ago!) Her expression was priceless, and the moment was incredible for me.  And second was when Miss Dainty opened her skateboard.  Her eyes lit up when she recognized what it was, and she screamed, "It's a SKATEBOARD!!!  SANTA GOT ME WHAT I ASKED FOR!!!  IT'S A SKATEBOARD!!!"  Now there is an interesting story behind it, too.

Miss Dainty hadn't asked for anything in particular for Christmas throughout the entire Christmas season.  We choose not to have cable and the like, so she never sees all the millions of commercials telling her what she has to have to be the coolest kid on the street.  So, we were just going to get a few fun things and leave it at that, especially since a few family members had sent gifts to them.

Three days before Christmas, Miss Dainty decided to write a very last minute letter to Santa.  She wrote:  "Dear Santa, For Christmas I'd like a skateboard and a Kung Fu Panda set with a red belt and a sword.  And for my sister, can you bring her a new baby doll and a baby bed?"

Immediately, I panicked, only because the things she thoughtfully asked for her sister, I knew her sister was already getting from my grandparents.  What are the chances of that?  How would Miss Dainty feel on Christmas morning, if Santa had brought Baby D what she had asked for her, but not what she had asked for herself?  Oh dear.  What a problem!

And I had figured, up until this point, that Miss Dainty had come to the conclusion that Santa was just for fun.  She had been asking tons of questions about whether or not Santa was real, and how he traveled all over the world in one night, etc. etc.  At one point while running into a "Santa" at a store who would pose for pictures with the kids, she told me, "Mom, I don't think that was Santa.  I think that was just a regular guy."  And then a few minutes later, she said, "Man!  I should have asked him if the reindeer really fly!"  Needless to say, I really didn't know what to say.

So, there I was "mailing" Miss Dainty's letter on the way to the store, wondering what were we going to do?  While at the store, I quickly looked for either of her wishes, and found neither.  I texted Mr Hubs who was at the Nex on base and asked him to look.  He called later and said he had no luck finding the items there either.

After the girls and I got home that afternoon, I started preparing Miss Dainty for the chance that maybe her letter had gotten there too late, or perhaps Santa got her something different.  Mr Hubs called again on his way home from work and said he would stop by Toys R Us and hopefully find something.  They had no Kung Fu Panda products.  (I guess that's the only bad thing when your kids don't watch commercials, they don't even know what's "popular.")  I thought about asking him to stop by a karate school to see if he could buy a uniform, although that would be quite a bit more expensive than a toy costume of some sort.  He later called and said he had found the skateboard!  So, we went with that instead.  We definitely lucked out!  I'm still surprised we were able to find one of her wishes on such late notice.

But when she opened that present (we saved it for the very last,) and had such a great reaction, it made the last minute scramble so completely worth it.

The girls loved everything they got though, and really all of their presents were so awesome: useful, family oriented, and/or creative.  Thanks to everyone who sent them presents, they were really great! 

Later, we all went to a good friend's house for a potluck dinner.  (I was bummed I forgot to take pictures.)  It was nice to hang out and chat while all of the kids played together.  And then, (thanks to Mr Hubs fixing my laptop's webcam... he's my HERO!!)  we were able to skype with family in Texas!!  It was so awesome!  It was such a great Christmas for us: quality family and friend time, and priceless moments.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Garden of Lights

Last night we took the girls to a surprise.  It took a bit of driving, and on the way Miss Dainty kept asking where we were going and what the surprise was.  Of course we kept telling her, "We're not telling you, it's a surprise!" 

Meanwhile, Baby D just sat in her carseat staring out the window because, really, what could a 2 year old do except just wait and see what it was we were doing.

Then Miss Dainty started asking questions like, "Are we going to get out of the car soon?  I'm kind of getting tired of being in here."

To which we answered, "No, we have to stay in the car."  She was a bit disappointed.

After a while, as we were getting closer to our destination, Mr Hubs asked Miss Dainty, "Are you pumped up?"  She asked what that meant, and I told her it meant if she was excited.

She said, "Well, I can't really say I'm pumped up, because I'm not that excited about staying in the car.  I don't know what's so exciting about staying in the car the whole time. So, no I'm not pumped up."

Oh, I couldn't stop laughing.  Ever the practical one.  We eventually did pull up to the surprise:  Garden of Lights at Norfolk Botanical Garden.  At first we had to wait in line for a while, and Miss Dainty was not impressed with the lights they had set up around the entry line.  But after seeing the more detailed scenes she indeed got "pumped up." 

My favorite scenes were the underwater scene (so cool to drive through,) the pink woodland scene (so adorable,) and a small section that looked like rain falling (couldn't capture on camera, but it was really neat.)  In the end, the girls loved it.

Tantrums... and knitting

I used to fight Miss Dainty's tantrums.  I did.  I tried everything.  Then for a short time, about the time when I was 7-9 months pregnant with Baby D, I quit fighting them.  There was really nothing I could do, honestly.  And so I would let Miss Dainty (who was about 3 1/2 then,) feel her emotions, uncontrollable or not, deal with them, and when she had calmed down enough we would talk it through.  She survived.  I survived.

So, tell me, why did I go back to fighting them?  I remember after we had just returned to the States, she went through a long tantrum phase.  And I didn't know what to do.  Mr. Hubs was still in Sicily and I had a 6 month old baby and an every single night tantrum throwing 4 year old.  I tried every single thing that had been given in advice to me.  Every single thing.  I was exhausted.  I was frustrated.  I cried.

After we moved into our current home, she would still throw them, just not as often.  The nights she did were insane.  Mr. Hubs would go to work exhausted in the morning after no rest.  We would all be so tired from fighting the tantrums.  Nothing would calm her down.  She would listen to no one.  It would be hours before she stopped.  We prayed every single time she threw one that it would be the last.  She phased out of it, though, thankfully.  Well, for the most part.  Every once in a while she still throws them.

Like tonight.  Oh, boy did Mr. Hubs miss a fun night tonight!  Two hours.  sigh....

Two.  Hours.  After.  Bedtime.

But guess what I did? 

I didn't fight it.  I didn't know what was causing the emotional outburst.  It could have been because I was busy all day cleaning and doing a ton of extra laundry (it's bedding day.)  Or it could be because Mr. Hubs had duty today.  Or perhaps because our schedule is out of whack due to holiday stuff.  Who knows.  I figured if she had some crazy emotions right then, then she had a right to feel them.  I also decided I wasn't going to let her behavior steal my relaxing time.  So, I picked up my current project, and I started to knit.  I knitted through the screams.  I knitted through the stomped feet.  I knitted through everything.  I would try to talk to her when I thought she was calming down, and if she wouldn't listen, I told her I'd wait.  And I did, and thanks to focusing on every single stitch, I was able to do so patiently.

She eventually calmed down and we talked it through.  She apologized and accepted her punishment (she is losing a LOT of stuff tomorrow.)  We cuddled for a few minutes and then she went to bed. 

Look how much I got done on my second mitten (when I picked it up, I was only a few rows into the first brown section:)

I honestly don't know why I didn't think of this before!

Miss Dainty's Answered Prayer

Back in July, Miss Dainty found a caterpillar in our basil box.  She desperately wanted to keep it so we could watch it turn into a butterfly.  The next day, after searching high and low for a jar of some sort, I went outside to get it and couldn't find it anywhere.  A few days later, I was adding a cilantro plant to the planter, and what did I happen to dig up?  A maroon pupae.  So, Miss Dainty was very excited.

We put a little bit of dirt into the jar, and buried it in there, just like it was in the basil box.  A few weeks went by, and eventually a moth made it's appearance into the world.  It was after bedtime when it happened, so I took the jar upstairs to show Miss Dainty.  I let her watch it flit around the jar for a few minutes, and then told her I was going to have to let it go, because we didn't have any food for it.  She was a little upset because she didn't get to see it hatch, and also because she just wanted to keep it.  But I convinced her it wasn't fair to the moth. 

"Do you think we'll find another caterpillar?" she asked me.

"Well, I don't know, maybe," I answered.

"Can I pray for one?" she asked sweetly.

I smiled, "Sure, you can pray for one."  And so she did, very sweetly asking God for another caterpillar.

The summer continued to pass by, and Mr. Hubs and I did find a few caterpillars while doing yard work once, but I wasn't sure which plant they were eating from, so I left them alone.  We eventually went to Botanical Gardens with a homeschool group, and Miss Dainty had her fill of caterpillar and butterfly watching at the butterfly house. After that, we didn't see anymore, and it seemed she forgot about them, especially with Fall approaching to distract her.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.  I went outside to cut some basil to cook with.  I really haphazardly chopped four stalks down with scissors, not paying attention to which ones I was choosing, not being careful at all.  In fact, I shook them off before taking them inside.  Once inside, I grabbed one stalk at a time to pull the leaves off and rinsed them off.  I used 3 of the stalks in dinner that night.  While cleaning up, I grabbed the last stalk and as I was about to throw it away, I figured I might as well put it in a jar of water and use it later.  Didn't think twice about it.

Another week went by, and I started noticing some of the leaves were being chewed away.  I figured my cat must have been getting up there to gnaw on them.  Although, I did think it strange, since she's never gone after my basil before.  She's never liked it.  But I dismissed it, and didn't think about it again.

Then last week, I looked over again and realized the leaves were almost gone!  I assumed, again, that my cat must have suddenly acquired the taste for basil, but as I looked I noticed something I hadn't before: black dots on the counter.  What is that? I thought.

I got closer to take a better look and thought, is that poop?  I looked the plant over more thoroughly, and sure enough, I found a little green caterpillar munching away on one of the last few leaves.  I couldn't believe that it was there, and had been there the whole time! 

Some might say it was coincidence, but I personally don't believe in coincidences.  I cannot believe that 1) he was one of the stalks I just happened to grab, 2) stayed on after the basil was shaken, 3) was on the only stalk I didn't use that night to cook, 4) for some reason I didn't throw that stalk away (even though I had a ton more outside!) and 5) that it didn't fall into the jar of water.

I called Miss Dainty over and after she saw it, she got so incredibly excited.  We placed it in a safer environment, using a smaller jar for water and placing paper towels in it just in case he fell.  I asked Miss Dainty if she remembered what she asked for last time we had a caterpillar.  She thought about it for a second, and her eyes lit up.  "I prayed for another caterpillar!" she exclaimed, "God answered my prayer!"  It was such an awesome moment for her, a wonderful faith building block.  I'm so glad Mr. Hubs and I didn't bring the caterpillars that we had found inside.  I'm so glad I did not interfere, or try to arrange something myself.  This was so not my doing, and it encouraged me as well. 

So this past week, he has been very content in his personal basil buffet.  He's been constantly eating, and the girls have been happily watching him do so.