WOW! I love the Thanksgiving Holiday! (And it was really fun to be in the States this year where it is actually a holiday and celebrated with cool things, like time off!) It’s such a good reminder for me to take time to be grateful, not just on that one day, but everyday. I am so blessed and I need to cultivate more and more a heart of thankfulness and an attitude that gives thanks to God often and shares with others the good things He’s done and given.
We spent the day in St. Augustine at Eric’s grandparents’ house. They just moved down from New England for the winter so it was the first time we’ve seen them since being back in America. We also had Aunt Suzanne, Uncle Greg, Uncle Steve, and lots of cousins to celebrate with. It was a very special day.
My girls so enjoy being with all the Mason girls. There was lots of sweet cousin love going all around.
Grandma held Gloria for the first time!
In light of giving thanks, I am committing to blogging A LOT this next week or two in order to catch up on sharing some wonderful gifts God has given us since last summer. I would like to say I’ll blog every day, but I don’t want to disappoint so I will stick to promising A LOT (which means more than usual). Some things that are waiting to be shared: a trip to Tokyo Disneyland, photos from our last several weeks in Japan, special time with family in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, photos of our new home, our sweet time with my mom while she was here, and some other random tidbits here and there. God has been so good to us and I don’t want to forget it or miss the chance to share what He has done. See you soon!
…of her sleeping 8 HOURS STRAIGHT last night, let’s all just take a second to enjoy this five-week-old smiling beauty:
WOW! This girl is growing so much. I just love watching (and wondering) how that mind is working and then realizing all the things she is taking in. I know I say this all the time, but really, it is just so fun watching her learn and figure everything out and then to see what she has figured out through what she says. It’s amazing and I love this stage of her life.
That being said, I have to admit that I have had a rude awakening this last few months. Everyone talks about the terrible twos. But in our situation, parenting the twos was super fun and it’s the threes (this whole month and a half of them so far) that has really thrown us for a loop. Our compliant, easy-going, rule-keeping girl has discovered she has a will (and it’s strong!), the ability to reason with words, and that it’s a struggle for Mom and Dad (well, just Mom really) to be consistent 100% of the time. She tests the limits of obedience a lot more now, and often uses excuses (sometimes “good” ones… she must have learned from me) for why she doesn’t obey. It has been hard, extremely frustrating at times, but has brought me to my knees more than anything else in parenting so far, which is a wonderful thing. It’s also wonderful because I am learning a lot about my own sin (hello, impatience!) and of my heavenly Father’s long-suffering with me. There is something so sweet about being able to tell my daughter that I know it is hard to obey and hard to understand why to obey. It’s sweet to confess my own sins to her and ask her forgiveness. And it’s so sweet to hear her own prayers of confession and requests for the Lord’s help in obedience. It has been a sweet journey, with lots of up and downs, and I wouldn’t trade the Threes for anything.
A big thing that has taken off recently for Noa has been her imagination. She has dabbled in imaginary friends – usually real friends that she was pretending were with her when they weren’t. But she now consistently has a little friend named “Dora” (and she has never watched that show about the explorer… hmmm) who does most things with her. It is pretty cute and we are trying to figure out how appropriately play along and encourage her imagination.
She also imagines a ton of other random things throughout the days and it’s fun to watch. Just yesterday she ran to the door and knocked on it from the inside, and said, “Oh, whose here?”. Looking out the curtain, she exclaimed, “it’s the prince! He’s here”. She quickly opened the door, let the prince in, then said, “and he brought his friend Zacchaeus!”
Speaking of the prince, she has traded in The Sound of Music, Heidi, and Annie for the all-time little girl classic Cinderella. Oh my goodness. Everything is relate-able to Cinderella these days. And we have this sweet little girl to thank:
This is Bella and Noa dressed up for trick-or-treating. Noa was just a “blue princess” until we borrowed the DVD from them on Halloween night. And they have been so sweet to not want it back yet, as that is the only movie the girls want to watch (Martha is under Noa’s persuasive spell… I don’t think she cares, and she doesn’t really watch all that much anyway). I don’t mind. It is a really sweet story and one of the only Disneys we’ll let them see for a few years.
Amazingly, the obsession with babies has died down a bit. I think it has to do with the fact that the real baby in our midst takes a lot of the baby attention so the baby dolls don’t get as much. Still, she loves to use this mini-sling I made her for her birthday, especially when I have Glo in my sling:
(oops, sorry for the poor photo quality…)
I really love these photos… the busy princess-mommy hard at work packing:
Yep, that pretty much summarizes all the play that goes on around here: princesses, babies, and packing to “move to America.”
In other Noa news, I think we are over that little speed bump in potty training that we were having a few weeks ago. She is back to being a quite responsible little toilet-user. In fact, last night was her first night without pull-ups for bed (we ran out) and she was so excited to finally be allowed to sleep in underwear. I have to admit I think I am more excited than she is. We celebrated with a pancake breakfast.
I think that’s it for now. I want to be done writing about her and go get her up from her nap and snuggle her.
NOT.
I will snuggle her but there’s no way I am trading in the last few precious moments of nap time with all three down. In fact, I am going to go get all the chores done that I don’t need (read: want) any little helping hands with 
Poor, sweet Martha. She is growing and changing so much and I have done a terrible job of recording it all. I am NOT, however, doing a terrible job of ENJOYING it. She is such a delight and makes us laugh smile constantly. I love her personality and how different she already is from anyone I know. I’m so thankful for the days we spend together, the laughs and giggles and smiles that we share, and the ways we can already see her tender and compassionate heart show forth. How I PRAY that the Holy Spirit would work in her from a young age and use the many wonderful qualities that he’s given her for his glory and that many would see the love of Jesus in her.
Here are some of words that Martha is saying – in her own special way:
Wa-wa (Noa)
Ho-ju (hold you, meaning, hold me)
Saa-yee (sorry)
Pay (pray and play)
Tat (cat)
Daa-yee (Doggie)
Bebe
Yaya (Gloria, but she usually calls her Bebe)
Dink (drink)
Peeeeeez (please)
De too (thank you)
Ma (more)
Ske-yee (scary)
Ho-yee Ho-yee Ho-yee (Holy Holy Holy, a favorite hymn around here right now)
(And there are so many more. Amazingly, she communicates pretty well and we – especially Noa – understand her most of the time)
Words that she says perfectly:
Mommy
Daddy
Up
No!
Mine
Obey
Amen
Happy
Out
Yes, Mama
Martha to Gloria: “O-tay O-tay sh sh sh. O-tay O-tay sh sh” as she alternates from resting her cheek on Glo’s head to kissing Glo’s little cheek.
Melt my heart!
