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“I hear a voice in my body… it is the Little Ghost.”

Caleb is healthy, having gained 1/2 pound in a week. Recently, Ava contracted a little cold (or maybe allergies?). When the doctor found out, she told Sally to tell the girls that Caleb is “dirty.” She explained that they would stay away. Only telling Grace and Ava he is dirty has had the opposite effect. As if they were flys and Caleb is [insert something that is really dirty here].

An album is below, but I can’t resist commenting on a few of my favorites:

I love how the older sister gene has taken over. “Ava, get your face away from us.” And the other not so subtle slip in this picture.

(Grace just informed me upon coming up to see what I am doing “I do NOT love that dress because it is not beautiful. Do you think it’s pretty? Because I don’t.” Translation: this isn’t a princess dress. Brutally honest, yet innocent opinion: priceless.)

OK, I am a bad dad, but I think Caleb looks like an alien.

He got the scrawny gene. Must be from Sally.

Is this a close enough closeup for you mom?

And now for the album:

This morning, Grace came into our bedroom at seven am on the dot. This is when she is “allowed” to wake us up. She came in holding two of the last three glow sticks.

In the past, I have controlled how many and when she gets to activate them, so as not to have 25 going at once. This time, however, she helped herself to the three remaining sticks (and kindly gave one of the three to Ava).

She said to me “Dada, the tube [holding the sticks] was empty and we needed to throw it away, so I turned these on.” We call the logic Effect and Cause, and it works great when time is going backwards or you are four years old.

At 12:50 PM.

He was 6 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches, but doesn’t have a name yet.

He has nice sized berries to go with his twig.

Let the fun begin.

For primary, Sally made a fishing game with a stick, a string, and a magnet. The fish each have a paperclip attached, to which the magnet at the end of the fishing line attaches when you “catch a fish.” The pool is a laundry basket covered in blue cellophane into which the fish go. Grace was over the moon to fish (especially because she didn’t get called on to fish at church).

We came home and put the fishing pole and pool on the dining room table. While we got something to eat, Grace proceeded to go fishing. Later I noticed that one of the dining room light fixtures was broken.

I thought with girls we would be immune to balls and sticks breaking stuff in our house. Looks like I am mistaken.

This little tidbit of the macabre got left on the cutting room floor. If you listen close, you can hear Ava saying “Dahs” (Dance) in the background.

Dance Party Deleted Scene

****SIGH****

[For a translation, see the comments]

One of the things about having little girls is that “sports” come in different forms. We don’t hit whiffle balls off the tee (I tried, believe me). We have dance parties.

****SIGH****

Dance Party (1 min.)

• During dinner tonight, Grace told Sally that “the bubbles make my mouth funny,” referring to Sally’s Pepsi.
• As I took my shoes off after getting home from work, she sang to me the famous song from the Sound of Music “I am Fourteen Going on Seventeen.”
• Throughout the day, Grace insisted that she was a mermaid and that we call her “Glee” and refused to walk around, instead getting down on the ground and pulling herself along with her arms due to her mermaid fin (i.e., both legs together). After all, you can’t walk on a fin. It was especially interesting when she went up and down her bunkbed ladder with her fin. Later, when she got out of the tub she told Ava not to touch her artificial plastic mermaid fin. Then, when I stood her up to put her pajamas on, she wiggled around like she was balancing on her “fin.”

Let that be a lesson to us. We are the ones that got her the Barbie “Mermaidia” movie.

This morning I was awakened to Ava screaming for Mom at 6:15. The rule for Grace is that she stay in her bed until 7 am. We figure that if she has nothing better to do, she will go back to sleep. This morning, Ava was bugging me and I got up to close our bedroom door to drown out some of the noise.

I got out of bed and to the door only to see the girl’s bedroom door wide open and the blinds open as well. Grrrrrrr…. I stormed down the hall, getting my temper under control and walked into the room to find Grace already with her green church dress on and trying to figure out how to put on her socks. She had pulled out everything she needed for church, including shoes and was getting ready.

I told her she had to get the dress off and go back to bed. I could see in her face that her feelings had been hurt, and she tried to choke back the tears that were destined to come as soon as I left the room or within 20 seconds, whichever came first. Rather than have her bawling in the same room as Ava (because let’s face it: I hadn’t come to my facilities yet and thought there was still hope for Ava to go back to sleep), I told her she could go downstairs and play quietly.

“Ok Dada,” Grace responded with a smile, arms around my neck, and kiss. I went back to bed. It was 6:16 and Sunday is my only day to sleep past 6 am. She went downstairs.

I crawled back into bed and had one of those epiphany/guilt replays in my mind. It occurred to me that the last thing on Grace’s sweet little mind was waking up Ava or being bad (in fact, she had intentionally tried to be really quiet, which translates to pony in the house, not elephant). She was trying do something nice for mom and dad by getting ready for church all by herself, in an effort for our approval.

I felt bad about misreading her motives and knee-jerking to the situation without putting myself in her shoes. Admittedly, it is hard to put yourself in the shoes of a 4 year old: to reason how they reason and to perceive the circumstances and environment they way they perceive and value the environment and circumstances. So often, my perception of the situation is skewed by my personal view of the circumstances and situation that without taking the time to think about why Grace is getting ready for church at 6:15, opening shutters even earlier, and trying to be quiet (after all, Ava wokeher up), that my reaction is inappropriate once her perspective is taken into account.

So, tired as I was, I got myself out of bed, marched down stairs, and apologized to my little girl for misreading the situation:

“You were just trying to make mom and dad proud of you weren’t you.”

“Yes dada.”

“I love you, Grace.”

“I love you too, dada.”

Eating crow at 6:17 am was enough to get that extra fifeteen minutes of sleep I wanted.