Frankie is 4!

Frankie turned 4 on Saturday - Happy Birthday to my baby girl! 4 seems so grown up to me, and so much fun! At 4, Frankie is rather independent - she can dress herself (when she wants to), get her own cereal in the morning, and go to the bathroom and wash her hands all by herself. She is helpful, a good conversationalist, and often happy to participate in what we're doing as a family. She loves to cook, read, and dance to ballet music.

Nonnie and Pawpaw came in on Thursday for the weekend, and I put them to work immediately helping me to make 88 cupcakes. We brought 26 in to her school on Friday for a party at school, and while some were um, "lost" before Saturday, we served the rest at her Rainbow party on Saturday. I will share the cupcake recipe, but in another post!







Frankie was greeted on her birthday morning with some presents from my parents - some vintage Polly Pockets that used to belong to my sister, Sarah. She LOVES them.



I can totally understand why - there's something really appealing about a whole little world in a miniature clamshell, right?


Sarah, thanks for taking such meticulously good care of them - we will try and do the same, and pass them down to your little girl if you have one!



The party - we served sandwiches (pb&j, tuna, turkey, brie, and apple), Parmesan Citrus salad (I substituted Quinoa for the Farro, and added craisins and watermelon radish slices), rainbow goldfish, and a rainbow fruit platter. Sorry I don't have more pictures of the food - my camera was acting funny until Janice fixed it for me half-way through the party. Thanks, Janice!



We sing Happy Birthday to Frankie in the following video.



Jennifer and George

Auntie Kiran!

Chris, Rahul, and Jeremy

The Bridesmaids

They were upstairs playing "wedding" for a really long time. The whole time was spent preparing for the wedding - apparently that's the really fun part. Charlie Klauder and Simeon John graciously took turns playing the groom


Micah was apparently preparing for a destination wedding in Thailand

Zippy, the bride

Cece prepared the music

Elsie wasn't quite sure what was going on...

Charlie giving the bride a gift. Apparently there was a lot of giving the bride gifts :)

Dex was downstairs "reading" most of the time

Pawpaw!

Chaeus loves his trains

Lap dog Maisy


After the party, we cleaned up, and put our feet up to watch Milo and Otis for family movie night. It was a hit! For the kids and us - it's totally campy, you need to check it out. If you saw it as a kid, you have no idea how crazy some of it is until you watch it as an adult.




Happy Birthday, Frankie!

Not Percy

Dexter loves his trains.  In classic little-boy-who-loves-trains fashion, he also loves Thomas the Tank Engine.  For Christmas he got 2 engines from the Thomas series: Thomas and Percy.  He also got a little black Melissa and Doug engine we nicknamed Smoky.  He plays with these trains every day, and recently has been taking them to bed with him.  Not only does he take them to bed with him, he likes to have them on his pillow, touching his head.  I know, it doesn't look very comfortable to me either, but the boy loves his trains.



In a way that is SO Dexter, he continues to insist that the green train he has is "Not Percy".  The conversation will go like this:

"Momma, what dis train?"

"Dex, that's Percy."

"No, Momma, dat not Percy! What dat train?"

"Dex, I think that's Percy, it says Percy on the bottom."

"No, Momma. Dat not Percy."

This conversation will tend to repeat itself 5-10 times before I finally give up and beg him just to tell me who he thinks the train is. Frankie, Chris, and I have taken turns trying to convince him that it is indeed Percy.  It says Percy on the bottom of the engine!

(exhibit A)


With a smile and a twinkle in his eye, Dexter now calls the green train "Not Percy". He'll be talking quietly to himself, lining up his trains lovingly, and say "Thomas, Smochie, Not Percy..."



This is SO Dexter because he's not only being incredible stubborn about something that doesn't actually matter, but he thinks it's funny, partly because I think he knows that it is actually Percy, and he thinks it's funny just to have his own opinion on the matter. He doesn't want to actually tell you who he thinks the train is, because then the fun conversation of you trying to guess who he thinks it is will be over.



Fortunately for Dexter, we happen to think this is really funny too. It can be frustrating when he gets argumentative for argument's sake (this already happens so often, I'm really scared of his teen years), but in this case we all just play along and laugh with him.

Two Little Trains

We love Margaret Wise Brown in this house.  Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, Big Red Barn, and now Two Little Trains.  Her sweet near-rhyme poems are a delight to read aloud - I never get tired of reading them, and the kids never seem to tire of hearing them.

I did a little research on Margret Wise Brown, because I was surprised to have stumbled upon this book at the library, and love it as much as the other 3 I mentioned above (that we own).  Why was this one buried?  Turns out she wrote a ton of books, that's why.  Well over 100.

This edition was re-released in 2001 with new illustrations from Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon.  I can't express how much these illustrations add to this story.  The first read through, I wasn't that impressed, but by the second I was hooked!

Anyway, this story starts with "Two little trains went down the track, Two little trains went West.  Puff, Puff, Puff and Chug, Chug, Chug, Two little trains to the West."  It chronicles 2 trains: one is a shiny streamlined train, the other is a toy wooden train, going on the same imaginary journey as the big, shiny train.

If your little ones love trains, find this book at the library!  I'm sure it will become one of their favorites too.

Frankie's Profession of Faith

Frankie professed faith and asked forgiveness for her sins today!  I believe she did this with as much sincere understanding as an almost 4-year-old can do, and I believe she is now a professing Christian.  The Holy Spirit was Present, and it was miraculous to watch him work!

Yesterday, while we were eating a snack, I shared the gospel with her (again).  We were talking about sin, and the fact that no one can be good all the time, even when they try really hard.  I explained that Mommy sins every day, all the time, just like she does, but that the Good News of Jesus  is that Jesus died on the cross so that God could forgive our sins.  All we have to do is believe that Jesus came and rose again, and that he will forgive our sins when we ask.  All we have to do is repent and believe!  Once we do, we try our best to love God and do what he commands, because we are grateful children.

We’ve had this conversation in various ways multiple times, but yesterday it seemed  a little different.  Honestly, she seemed interested in what I had to say.  I feel a lot of time I try and tell my kids something about God, or what’s in the Bible and I get blank stares, or active “No thanks, Lady” sighs.  Anyway, she asked lots of follow-up questions, and we stayed on the topic for a while (maybe 15 minutes, which for an almost 4-year-old is a lot!).

This morning, as we were getting read y to go out the door, she asked me if Daddy sins every day too.  “You betcha!” I replied.  She thought about this for a while, and then later told me that she had heard in Sunday School that if she wanted to see Jesus in Heaven after she died, she needed to be born again, but that she didn’t think she could be born again.

This is when I stopped, and got down on the floor with her, and told her excitedly that she could be born again.  All she had to do was pray to Jesus that she understood that he came to earth, and that she knew she was a sinner, and that she needed him to forgive her sins.  And that after that, she would be born again, that Jesus would live in her heart.  I asked if she wanted to pray with me, and she said “Yes!”

So we prayed (she prayed after me): “Jesus, I believe that you are God.  I believe you came to earth and died on the cross to save me from my sins.  I know I sin, and I pray that you will forgive me of my sins.  I want to be born again, and live with you in heaven.”

After we prayed she was so excited – like wow, that was so easy!  She kind of jumped around, and said “Yay!  Now I get to see Jesus when I get to heaven!  Mommy, I can’t wait to get to heaven to see Jesus!”

I wanted to chronicle the events of what happened in detail so that years from now, when the details of this morning’s events have faded from her memory, she will have these details to hold on to.  The details of her initial profession of faith, the moment she asked the holy spirit to come live and reign in her heart.

I am so overwhelmed by these events.  I am crying writing these details, I have cried a couple times already this morning with dear friends as I got to share this story with this morning at Women’s Bible Study.  I am mostly overwhelmed by the greatness of the Holy Spirit’s work in my child’s heart.  I did not lead Frankie to profess her faith this morning. I got to be there, and that was a huge honor, but the Holy Spirit worked in her little heart this morning.

Most days I feel wholly inadequate in my ability and dedication to teaching my children about Jesus and God.  And I am!  It was a huge gift to see the Holy Spirit answer my meager prayers and work in her heart this morning.

Now, is Frankie done?  Is she even converted?  She is certainly not done, any more than I am!  The work and the prayers have only just begun.  I’m not sure if she’s converted – time will tell.  But, in much the same way we set her apart when we baptized her as a baby, something beyond my understanding happened today. Something Holy.  I want to remember today.  This is my pile of stones to remember God’s faithfulness today.

I believe Jesus’s promise: “Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in” (Rev 3:20), “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13), “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Thank you for all the prayers you have prayed for my children, and thank you in advance for all your future prayers.

Snow Removal: A lesson in neighborliness

I have mentioned before how awesome my neighbors are. They look for ways to help each other out, and this is never more apparent than during the snow season.

We've gotten dumped on this January. We've now had 3 12"+ storms this month, plus several other small snows (3-6") in between those. That's a lot of shoveling! The biggest problem with all this snow in the city is that there becomes no where to put the snow. So not only are you shoveling 12+ inches of heavy snow, you have to walk it to a spot where you can dump it.

We got dumped on again last night. By 10:00 am, when I got to the front after playing with the kids in the back, to my delight I found that my neighbor had already snow-blowed (can that be used as a verb?) my sidewalk. The neighbor across the street (a different neighbor) came over to finish my driveway. I just had to do the steps and walk up to my house! This is after that same neighbor did my driveway a few days ago.

While I grumble about all the shoveling, it does provide an opportunity to get out and see my neighbors. Everyone is out, shoveling, and there is a camaraderie in this that's good for relationships. If it weren't for this snow, I probably wouldn't really see my neighbors in the winter! We see them lots in the summer, but in the winter everyone tends to hole up since it's so cold and dark.

In case you were wondering what 3 blizzards in less than a month look like in terms of volume of snow, here are some pictures!



Maisy's not sure she wants to go out in this...

The brown house across the street belongs to Peter and Warren, two of my snow-blower elves.






Some really cool frost that formed on the windows in the kids' room:










Oof, Rebecca's car - still gotta dig that one out!






My trusty steel-cored stead:

Transitions

We've been going through some transition as a family, and the most significant one is that Grazi has completed her year with us, and moved 2 weeks ago to be the au pair with a new family in the Back Bay. We really enjoyed her year with us, and are sad to see her go! The best part about her being so close though, is that we still get to see her. She's already been over once for family movie night. As soon as I find the great little video montage she made for us recapping her year here, I will post it!

The other significant difference in our household is that Rebecca has also moved out, temporarily. She's taken a 3-4 month assignment in Toronto, so she and MacGyver are off having grand adventures in the far-away land of Canada.

So yes, for the first time in over 2.5 years, we are living just the 4 of us. Actually I guess this is the first time ever that the 4 of us have lived just us in this house! And the results are in: this house is way too large for the 4 of us.

I'm not doing much work outside the home these days, which is exactly what I'd hoped for by this time of the year. Frankie's still at Ashmont Nursery School 3 days/week, and Dex has started at Mrs. Cynthia's, an in-home child care provider a few blocks away that some of you may remember Frankie went to way back in the day. Dex is doing the same 3 days as Frankie, and he's doing great there!

We have yet to actually live the new schedule, though. In the last 2.5 weeks, the 7 days that they should have both been at school, 3 of them have been snow days, 1 has been a sick day (today, for Frankie), 1 I spent parent-teaching at Frankie' school, and 1 I spent cooking dinner for Frankie's preschool. And it looks like tomorrow will be a snow day again. Sigh. Is this where I insert my lame excuse for not blogging?

Oh, and my birthday came and went in a sea of the stomach flu. I turned 32 to the tune of "Splat!" "Momma! Dex throwed up again!". Chris declared it Happy Barf-day, and we decided to reschedule celebrating as a family for when we all thought cupcakes look appetizing again. Maybe tomorrow?

Christmas in review

Time to get back to the blog!  I realize that posting about what happened to us in December in January is just like having January lights, but hey, we have those too. Chris swears he'll take them down before February. Really, he promises.

Our December was mostly spent in South Carolina.  We were there for Matthew and Grace's wedding, and Grazi and the kids and I stayed on until Christmas.  It was colder than expected, but we had a great time playing with Mimi and Grandpapa, Aunt Masha, Uncle Michael, Aunt Grace and Uncle Matthew.



We also got to visit Pam, Patrick, and Maggie Warren.

We made Christmas cookies!

It took us all day with two toddlers and a preschooler, but boy was it fun

Turns out Grazi was a real pro at decorating cookies!


Frank Jones, the cat, was extremely popular with my two. My two were not quite as popular with Frank Jones.

Back in Columbia, Mimi treated the girls to an afternoon at the Nutcracker. I'm so thankful I have a girl who loves ballet so I can take her to the Nutcracker. I just love the Nutcracker at Christmas.




After the show, Frankie's in the pink coat, staring at Clara:



We also got to meet the brand new Wilkes baby! Here is Abigail Cecilia Wilkes, and her proud momma:


I somehow missed getting a picture of my kids with Alecia's two older kids, but did manage to get this picture of Daniel:

I guess Alecia and I were just too busy catching up to take many pictures! Congratulations, dear friend!