If December Was a Triplet...

December was enjoying seeing herself in triple, and I was imagining what life would be like if she had been a triplet. HA! Having three Decembers running around would be tons of fun and alot of work!

December figuring out just how a mirror works.

Giving herself a kiss :o)

December getting upset that I wouldn't let her hold the camera. She likes me to take pictures of her, and then the immediately wants to see the picture. If I don't let her see the camera, this is what happens...

Earlier today, I asked December if she wanted me to take a picture of her. She was quite excited about it and smiled really nicely!

Then she wanted the baby to smile for the picture too, so she's holding the baby's head up to look at the camera

Sorry there's so many pictures of this, but I thought it was cute, especially since December's smiling and looking for all of these pictures!

December and I reading a book. She really enjoys reading these little books -- they're the perfect size for her!

Watching cars out of the window.

How December Plays

Here's December playing -- she likes to get out her stuffed animals and be a Mommy to them. Here are some of the things she likes to do to care for them...

She has given each one of her stuffed animals a cupcake and set it close to their mouths so that they can eat easily.

Here's the grocery cart that December got for Christmas. She likes to push her dolls and stuffed animals around in the cart -- although in this picture she is setting up the dog and the cat...

So that they can kiss each other! She lately is all about giving kisses and making her dolls give kisses, etc. It's cute.

She likes her cat stuffed animals the best, although she likes sheep and dogs, too.

Here she is, organizing her little stuffed animals, the "Baa, Baa" (sheep), the "Meow" (white cat), the "Gay Ditty" (gray kitty...I know, it sounds bad), and the "oggie -- art oggie, art" (doggie -- with hearts, doggie, with hearts! She is learning shapes right now, and her newest one she's learned is the heart).

Here they are, all organized so that each one gets a good look at all of the pictures.

I don't know for sure how little two-year-old boys play, but I am guessing it's not very similar to how December plays. She plays by caring for her dolls and stuffed animals, giving them food, keeping them warm, moving them around, giving them toys to play with, and getting them Kleenex when their noses run. Her newest favorite thing to do is unload my drawer of kitchen towels and cloths, open each towel up, lay it on the floor, and put a separate stuffed animal on each one. She calls the towels "blankies," and the Baa-Baa needs a blankie, the Art-Oggie needs a blankie, the Meow needs a blankie, the Gay-Ditty needs a blankie, etc. December is distraught if even one of her babies is without a blankie to lay on! It really is adorable to watch December go about her playing with such caring and feeling of importance.

Brad has been taking exams this week. He is finishing up his Winter Semester, which began in January with classes ending last week. He has taken three exams in the past two days and has some papers due tomorrow. I can't get over how hard the seminary works him! He has said that his fall semester was his hardest semester of post-secondary education, and I don't think his winter semester has been any easier on him! He has been very diligent with it, though, and he studies hard.

Twirling

Yesterday afternoon, Brad was picking December up, twirling her around, and dropping her on the bed. She thought it was the greatest!! Here they are at the beginning of the twirl...

Spinning...

Almost completed the spin...

Flying high in the air! A great live-action shot.

She's about to be dropped on the bed

Back on safe ground again. She LOVES being tickled!

Got milk?

Last Saturday was a fun day for all of us! I went to the parenting conference (which, by the way, was not by Ted Tripp like I had thought -- it was by his brother Paul Tripp. So confusing!) Paul Tripp did an awesome job, though. There were five separate lessons, with 15-minute breaks in between. The first two lessons were on how to get at the heart of parenting -- how we need to focus on changing our child's heart and not simply changing the outward behavior. Discipline needs to be focused on how we can reveal her heart and show her Christ and her need for Christ. If we just punish her outward behavior, she will learn that she can't do those types of things in our presence. So as long as we're not around to see her, there's not alot stopping her from doing those things. BUT by focusing on her heart, she'll (hopefully) no longer want to do those things anywhere. Then the rest of the lectures were on the various age groups and how to apply these thoughts when your child is at various ages. It was really a wonderful conference!

Brad and December went to the Wild Animal Park with the other husbands and babies. It sounds like they had a great time, too! They went into the Petting Corral and pet various types of African deer. December had so much fun with Daddy that she really wasn't all that excited to see me back again! She was just fine with it being the two of them. I'm glad of that. December loves Brad alot!

December and Daddy

December, hanging out on the couch and watching her new favorite video -- Dora the Explorer


Daddy and December reading books together. I love these pictures of Brad and December together. Brad is such a great father, and he loves December incredibly much!

December loves playing games with her two special blankets. Here they're getting cozy under the blankets and just looking at each other

Then they hide under a blanket and suddenly, they become completely invisible -- Mommy can't find December and Daddy anywhere!

Oh! There they are! Peekaboo

December sitting in a bucket/basket of some sort, as she always loves to do! Here she is holding a green star, which is part of her newest favorite toy (even though we've had this toy for over a year and the batteries are dead on it). You can see the toy in its entirety in the next picture.

She loves this toy! December recognizes herself in pictures now, and whenever she sees a picture of herself, she'll point to it and say her name: "Memer! Memer!" It's pretty cute.

Tomorrow is going to be a December and Daddy day. Brad will be watching December all day while I go up to a conference with my friend Naomi. We'll be attending a parenting conference by Ted Tripp, the author of Shepherding a Child's Heart. I'm really excited about going to the day-long conference! Hopefully I'll learn alot about how to shepherd our beloved strong-willed daughter's heart! :)

I've learned that even California has a cold/flu season. I was not expecting one, since the weather's warm enough for people to be outside still. That means we're not all locked up inside with each other because of the weather, sharing various illnesses with one another. But I was wrong. It seems like everyone around here is sick right now! Brad and I are both losing our voices, and I've had a sore throat for the past three days, and Brad and I are still not completely over the stomach bug that's attacking our digestive systems. December, on the other hand, has completely recovered from her Pink Eye and has finished her eye drop treatment, thankfully! So I'm glad she's healthy, at least.

Yesterday was fun -- we went and found December her birthday plates, napkins, invitations, etc. Her birthday is exactly two weeks from today! I'm excited to get her invitations out. We're going to have her friends and their parents over for dinner and hang out and eat birthday cake. You are invited, too, if you want to fly down here! We'll pick you up from the airport, and you can come to December's birthday party, too! That'd be nice...