Happiness

24 Months, 8 Days

Jane Hollywood

I was tired of her "borrowing" mine. "Glasses? Glasses? Glasses?" I bought her these and a bucket and shovel for her sandbox, and you'd think I had given her the best thing possible.

"My bucket! Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy buck-et!"

It was 78 cents. I should've bought her ten of 'em.

Answer to the name game below:
Teresa, Tessa for short, after Teresa of Avila
Aidan, after...well, Aidan, missionary to the Scots

The Cutest Thing You've Ever Seen

23 Months, 5 Days

Water Woes

24 Months, 5 Days

Getting Ready for Some Changes

These pictures are a little over a month old. (They were actually taken on my birthday.) Mommy and I decided to get a little basic craftsmanship practice by making Aletheia's toddler bed ourselves, and when Aletheia saw us working, she wanted to get in on the act. So here are a couple of shots of her sanding one of the boards for her bed (which is not quite finished yet--I still need to add a safety rail.)





23 Months, 5 Days

In other news, it's a good thing that we are getting ready to move Allie out of her crib, because we just found out on Monday that she will become a big sister around next March. Someone else will need that sleeping space.

Because I'm an obsessive advance planner, we are starting to work on names for the next one. There are some ideas we had been bandying about, but after grabbing some baby name books and starting from scratch, a couple of former long-shots have risen to the top. We want our kids' names to have some kind of significant Christian meaning, preferably in a way that connects to us personally, so here's what we are leaning toward now:

If it's a girl, we might give her the name of a 16th century mystic whose books we have been reading as part of our nightly devotionals. She was a woman of prayer and humility, whose chief desire was to know and love God as deeply as possible, and her books reflect that spirit. It used to be a common name but hasn't been popular for a while. There is, however, a cute and trendy five-letter nickname that we would probably call the kid most of the time. This one shouldn't be hard to guess if you are up to speed on your 16th century Christian writers.

If it's a boy, we're looking a little further back in history to a missionary in the British Isles back in the 6th century. This name has a Celtic flavor to it, and is mentioned in a song by one of our favorite musical artists. What we know of this particular saint is a mix of history and legend, but there is no doubt that he was real and had a big impact. The Venerable Bede praised him highly in his Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples. One old story recounts how this missionary, dedicated to poverty and humility, was given a grand, well-trained horse by a king who had befriended him, and who wanted him to have proper transportation. The horse was gratefully received, used for a day or two, and then passed on to a beggar. We both really like the name. The only downside is, so did about five bajillion other American families in the last few years. It's a bit too popular for my taste, but that's not a deal-breaker.

Ladybug Ride

One seldom sees the rare North Carolina Giant Ladybug, and it is even more unusual to get a ride from one. Lucky girl.

Camera Search

Hey, Aletheia Update fans!

I'm trying to get you some new pics. Just as soon as I figure out where I sat the camera. Or who stole it.

With Daddy at the Birthday Party

I need a haircut.

Hanging Around With the Big(ger) Girls

A blurry action pic with Lilliana (left) and Caitlin.

Lilliana and her little sister Hannah are Aletheia's best friends. Every time we go to church she starts the "Lilliana-Hannah-Lilliana-Hannah" chant from her car seat while we're still in the parking lot. She even talks about them when she's on the phone to Grammy or Memaw.

"Lilliana-Hannah friends!"

Which brings me to another interesting point--Aletheia seems to mentally cluster people by who they belong with. So while it's possible for her to talk about individuals, she usually mentions a couple or trio of people:

Memaw-Pawpaw
Mark and Lisa
Grammy-Granddaddy
Uncle Kasey, Tia Mia* and Coben Dan

And often throughout the day she'll say "Mommy, Daddy, A-lay-ee-uh" Everyone is in a relationship cluster. Maybe that's not unusual for kids, but it is striking pronounced in her. And so "Lilliana-Hannah." They're filed together.

Also, I think watching the older girls swing has prompted Aletheia's recent interest in the "big kids' swing." She's trying to graduate out of the toddler swing, and--based on tonight's performance--doing a good job of it. She swung herself for about 10 minutes and then dismounted perfectly. One more step out of babyhood.

*Allie can't quite say "Maria." But "Tia Mia" sounds cute, anyway.

In the Pool, With the Very Beloved Ladybug Ball

One More Slide Before the Party Begins

On Her Playset, Pre-Party

The house we bought here in NC came with an old playset in the back yard. The deck floor was old plywood that was rotting away, and most of the safety rails had come off. There was no longer any slide or swings, and the ladder was rickety and unsafe. But the basic framework for a playset was still intact and sturdy, although there weren't any true right angles and the posts were far from level. Still, I thought we could fix it up.

I've been working on it off and on for a while. It was easy to put in a toddler swing, so we've been using that from the start. I finished rebuilding the deck (out of alternating 1x4's and 1x6's rather than plywood), and I found a good deal on a slide and some other accessories (like the toy telescope you cans see on the left) and ordered them a month or two ago. But then I got bogged down with other projects,and didn't finish it all until the day before the party, when I added the last safety rails (1x6's), connected a ladder I built out of 2x4's, and created a sandbox under the deck.

Aletheia, as you can see, was delighted. She loves scrambling up the ladder and being a whole four feet off the ground. She does this funny kind of skipping dance when she's really happy, and we were treated to about 10 solid minutes of it when she first climbed onto the deck. And then she said "Thank you, Daddy!" and gave me and her Mommy lots and lots of kisses.

So, that was worthwhile.

Monday night we stayed up on the deck for a while after sunset and watched the fireflies.

For the party Tuesday, we had ten kids around between 2 and 5, and the newly rebuilt structures got a lot of use. It was a blast watching them all.

Birthday Party!: The Cake (Candles Blown Out)

Birthday Party!: The Cake