Bubbles!

Norah loves her some bubbles.

She can't quite figure out how to blow them for herself, but thanks to a spill proof container from Grandma she can try!

And try...

And try...

And get distracted by ladybugs.

The God Story

Norah's bedtime routine is the same most nights (the ones when we're home, that is). We change into jammies and then Mark and I help her brush her teeth. Then she chooses one of us to rock her for a few minutes. As soon as the toothbrush comes out of her mouth, she inquires, "Woka minit?" It's a special time for us, and I think for her too. It's the only time during the day that our normally feisty, independent, warrior toddler will cuddle with us. She loves us by making and sharing and talking, not by being still. Most of the time she's just too busy to slow down for that kind of thing. But the rules for Rock a Minute time are clear. She has to put her head down and be still or it's off to bed!

We usually spend a little bit of time talking to her while we're rocking. Saturday night, while Mark rocked her, she made her very first request. She requested the God Story. The fact that she loves it enough to ask to hear it really touched my heart. It made me feel like I needed to share it with you. Whoever you are.

I got the God Story from this sermon, taught at the church we attended before leaving Orange County. The pastor, Mike Erre, fully admits to plagiarizing it from a friend. And now I fully admit to stealing it as well. But it's the good kind of stealing. I promise. These are important words that everyone should hear. The God Story can be changed or edited to fit your life and your relationship with the child you're telling it to. Here's how it goes when I tell it to Norah:

If God took me up to Heaven, and he told me that I could choose any little girl that I wanted to be mine, here's what I would do: I would walk past them all. Big ones, little ones, short ones and tall ones. Girls with dark hair and light hair, brown eyes and blue eyes. I would walk past them all and say, "Nope, not this one. No, she's not the one. Nope not that one either." I would walk past them all. Until I got to you. Then I would stop. I would take one look at you and say, "She's the one. This is my little girl." Because that's how special you are. God knew that, and that's why God made you just for me.

The God Story is simple. It's easily adaptable to any circumstance. Whether your child is biological or adopted, whether you are a parent, grandparent or other relative. Everyone can tell some variation of the God Story to a child.

What struck me most about my little girl's request is that she has a great life. She is surrounded constantly by family, friends and friends who might as well be family. She has Sunday School teachers and pals of all kinds. She is an incredibly secure child. This is a kid who is told by at least five people other than her parents that she is loved every day! Still, there's an innate desire, a need in her to hear, in every precious detail, how special she is. That need is ingrained in all of us. We need to know that we were created the way we are for a reason. We need to hear that from the people around us.

It breaks my heart that there are children who have never heard this. There are children in this world, in this country, in this community, in my own sphere of influence who have never heard that a loving God made them special. That they are the way they are on purpose. There are people out there who have never heard that there exists a love that is unconditional. U-N-C-O-N-D-I-T-I-O-N-A-L.

There's one more thing I tell Norah every night when I put her to bed. I try to use the same words each time. I want it to be so embedded in her that she never thinks to doubt it. I want her to be able to repeat it to herself when she's afraid or lonely and especially when she's about to make an important choice. It goes like this:

No matter what you do, or where you go, you'll always be my baby. No matter how big you get, or how far away you are, I will always, always love you and nothing will change that. No matter who you become, or what choices you make I will always want what's best for you. I will always be on your side.

After I'd been saying that to her for about a month I was rocking my baby girl one night and repeating it again. I heard, as clearly as I've ever heard, the voice of my Heavenly Father say to me, "That's exactly how I feel about you." I won't lie. I cried that night putting my girl to bed. I know that I'm precious in His sight, his word says it over and over in a thousand different ways. Still it's nice to be reminded.

Today I began to pray that God will show me the people in my life who haven't heard, or who need to be reminded of how much they are loved. If that's you, consider this your reminder. Go back and read those words again. That's exactly how God feels about you. For those of you who have kids or who work closely with kids, remember that you may be the only God Story they hear. If my secure, independent, feisty little girl asks for it, you'd better believe that there are a lot of kids out there who are desperate to hear it for the first time.

Kickin' it...

With Grandma.

Mountains!

That's what Norah decided to call the fountains at the mall. We went to Irvine Spectrum which only has four or five fountains. Her favorite was the "Turtle Mountain".

Here's Uncle Matt putting her on the turtle. Notice in front of the movie theatre is yet another fountain.

Here are some more highlights.

Watchin' The Masters...

Norah put up with about 5 minutes of golf before hopping off the couch. She did better than I thought! :-)

Three Generations

Mark's dad wasn't in the picture or it would have been FOUR!

YAY Deebugs

Apparently every ladybug in Orange County chose Mark's parents' yard as a egg incubator, because when we were out for our visit, the back lawn was literally crawling with them. You couldn't walk on the grass without crushing some poor, unsuspecting ladybug. This made for perfect ladybug hunting conditions for Norah.

Watching a ladybug crawling on Aunt Cathie's hand.

"Hunting" in the grass.

I got one!!

Sharing with Daddy.

We know they were a hit because every time she sees grass she exclaims "YAYdeebugs!!" We were out shopping and I let her choose between a butterfly shirt and a ladybug shirt. You guessed it. She picked the yaydeebug.

Another First - By Norah

This is

my

first

dunk!

New Trick

On our vacation, Norah's new friend Claire taught her the best trick since the high five. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fist bump!

We couldn't get Claire to do it sitting up. I think she thought she couldn't reach. Still. Best. Trick. Ever.

First Beach Trip - By Norah

We went to the beach.

I couldn't stop staring at the ocean.

There was splashing,

and swinging,

and sand between our toes.

I was so excited, I couldn't even look at the camera.

The Hunter

As it turns out, Norah was totally ready for Easter Egg hunting this year. I was worried that he might lose interest, but she was very focused. The engineer in her came out a little bit. She would search one room, in a generally clockwise direction until she was confident that she'd found all the eggs, then she moved on to the next room. We would sneak eggs out of her basket and re-hide them in areas where she'd already looked. She was visibly confused as to how eggs kept turning up in places that she'd already searched. Also, she kept wanting us to re-hide them but cried when we took them out of her basket to do so. Such is the life of a toddler. Anyway, here are the pics!

See mom? It's not so hard. You've just gotta know where to look.

Wait. Are my earrings still on? Ok, good.

I wonder if I can get one more into my arms before dropping them all into the basket...

Let's just take another inventory...

Wait. Are my earrings still on? Ok, good.

And We're Back

I've always wanted to say that. You know, like on the news?

Anyway, I promised Easter Egg hunt pictures and they're coming. But first this breaking news: My child does not like to sleep when there are new and exciting things going on! Shocking right? Case in point, our recent trip to California.

She awoke bright and early at 3am (CA time) to make it to the airport. I left her in her jammies assuming she'd fall asleep as soon as we got into the car. No such luck. She knew we were going on an airplane and she was NOT going to miss anything! My dad dropped us off at the airport and we took a short hop to Denver, then a 2 hour flight to OC. She slept exactly zero minutes on both flights. She didn't even nod off on the 1 3/4 hour layover in the airport! When we arrived in OC Mark's parents picked us up. She dropped off for almost half an hour in the car while we were eating our delicious In-N-Out Burger lunch. (No, I am not compensated by INO for advertising, but I would gladly take any free product they might offer. Their food is AMAZING!) She woke up a little mad and positive that she'd missed something fun. She had but we didn't tell. Then she stayed awake for the whole rest of the TWO HOUR drive to San Diego County to visit some friends. She didn't fall asleep in the stroller at the outlet mall or at dinner. She didn't fall asleep at all until 7:30pm, about an hour into the drive back home.

She had lots and lots of firsts on this trip. Pictures are coming soon. But needless to say, on that first day in town, our little cowgirl was plum tuckered out!

In Your Easter Bonnet

Ok, so I was shocked and amazed to learn that there were no little girls' Easter hats at our local Wal Mart. None. Zero. Not one. So, like any resourceful mother, I did the best with what I had. She may not have had a new hat, but this was her egg hunting uniform all afternoon yesterday.

She *may* have been slightly excited about it.

And after she took a moment to make sure her tiara was straight...

The little princess took a pre egg hunt visit to her throne!

Stay tuned for egg hunting photos!!

Dive Right In!

Once again proving she's fearless, here's my sweet baby's latest swim-time antics.

As usual, she came up smiling and laughing. That's my little fishy girl!

¿ǝǝs ı ʞuıɥʇ ı ʇɐɥʍ ǝǝs ı op

¡ǝɹǝɥ oƃ ʇsnɾ ¿sıɥʇ pıp ı ʍoɥ ʍouʞ oʇ ʇuɐʍ

¡sןooɟ ןıɹdɐ uo „uǝʇʇoƃ„ ƃuıʇʇǝƃ ɯoɹɟ ɟןǝs ɹnoʎ dǝǝʞ ןן,noʎ ʎɐʍ ʎןuo ǝɥʇ s,ʇı ˙xɐןǝɹ puɐ ɥʇɐǝɹq dǝǝp ɐ ǝʞɐʇ 'ןןǝʍ ¿noʎ oʇ ƃuıʇʇǝƃ ʎןןɐuıɟ sı ssǝɹʇs ǝɥʇ ןןɐ ʇɐɥʇ pǝıɹɹoʍ ¿noʎ uo sʞɔıɹʇ ƃuıʎɐןd sǝʎǝ ¿pǝsnɟuoɔ ƃuıןǝǝɟ ¿noʎ ʇnoqɐ ʇɐɥʍ

„¿ʎןןɐǝɹ 'ǝq ʇı pןnoɔ pɐq ʍoɥ„ 'ʞuıɥʇ ı puɐ ǝɔɐɟ sıɥʇ ǝǝs ı uǝɥʇ ˙ʇɥƃıu ɹǝʌo ǝɯ uo uʍop ǝpısdn pǝuɹnʇ ʇoƃ ƃuıɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ ǝʞıן ןǝǝɟ ı ¿noʎ ʇ,uop ˙ʎdooן ǝןʇʇıן ɐ ןǝǝɟ ʇsnɾ ı sʎɐp ǝɯos