three from three

David, So hard to believe that you are only three short months from being three years old! Here is a list of tidbits from this month.

• You still absolutely love music. Almost every naptime (and bedtime) finds you playing your singing fish (meet Big Mouth Billy Bass) and dancing and singing along. He sings two songs (Be Happy and Take Me to the River). One day in Walmart, totally out of the blue, you started singing, "Put me in the water. Put me in the water. Put me in the water." I had to keep myself from laughing out loud! You also love to perform with a microphone. I am not sure where you learned how to use one, but as you have found a couple lying around this month, you naturally start singing into them.
• You are eating better this month but have really shown a love for odd-ball things like olives. PB&J still the favorite of all time!
• You have begun showing your oldest sibling tendancy toward bossiness. You order around the cats (and have for months) and have begun ordering around your parents. (no worries, you are strictly warned and have received a spanking or two from this).
• On the flip side, you are very polite. You regularly say "thank you. You're welcome." This even applies to cars next to us in traffic that block your view that move in the course of normal driving. You have also started saying "Yes, sir" to us regularly. (I have had to remind you that you say "yes, ma'am" to Mommy. I am not sure where you picked this one up since we have not ever taught that to you.
• You have all sorts of funny phrases--some have been around for months, some are new this month. You say "See you later, alligator." You always say "all gone" (for "all done"). You are quite content with time schedules, even when Mommy says "later" (thus a new favorite word of yours--pronounced "way-er").
• You are quite fascinated with dark vs. light still. Every morning/naptime, I find all the lights on in your room.
• You are also fascinated by fuzzies. You don't like getting dirty with fuzzies.
• I often think this has prompted the spitting that seems to be a common occurence now (despite frequent rebukes). I find you often spitting and saying "fuzzy" as if you think you have a fuzzy in your mouth. You also have begun hissing at the cat proactively; she hisses at you too, after all.
• It appears we may have hit the terrible twos with you (at almost three), but it is not so very terrible after all. Instead of tantrums (which you do have rarely), you will often go into crying (sometimes whining) fits. Haven't you noticed we don't soften up with the tears? You also seem to regularly cover your mouth with your hand while crying. Odd but incredibly polite. :)
• You still say "no cheese" for most pictures, unless you can be bribed with candy, a new favorite! (I still absolutely chuckle when I think of the time that you refused all dinner, received a spanking or two over your attitude, told us you were ready to go to bed vs. eating, got down from your chair and then cheerfully and expectantly looked at us and said, "more candy?")
• For whatever reason, you are also very concerned with broken things etc...You point out every tree that has fallen down ("tree fall down"), every broken toy, every torn page. Then, you either say "Daddy fix it" (everyone knows Daddy can fix everything) or "man fix it." Every other person around whom you do not know the name to is "man."
• You are still moderately helpful with your sister, but you also often seem to get irritated by her constant fussing or when you are in a particularly impish mood, I have to referee as you try to tickle E's sleeping face or pull her arm etc...You do seem to really like her most of the time though.

What changes will the next three months bring on your way to the "big 3?"

New life

even as I speak, we are getting the first rain in many months. Yeah! While Houston has been in severe drought, we see the Mississippi valley severely flooded--much setting records of all time water highs. This news now overshadows the massive tornados of the south from two weeks ago. I heard today that there were just two record-breaking earthquakes in Spain today. How about the earthquakes in Japan two months ago? We are definitely having birth pains. Seem to be much closer together. How far are we from the birth???

Time with Daddy

Natural Beauty

The best job in the world!

What's in a name?

The importance of a name. It was here that was going to explain how the name of the person is so important because people often grow into their name's meaning...or how Biblically God renames many people as He gives them new traits and a new life. Instead, I will let my mom do the explaining as I read her blog post this week; it so well describes the importance in choosing a name and how God uses that name to grow the person.

How did we get the name Elizabeth Holland? Michael and I mulled over names for months, and as many know, we did not decide on a first name until about two weeks before she was born. The middle name was decided at the hospital after she was born.

Elizabeth had always been on the list; we both like the fact that it is an old-fashioned Bible name that has not become "faddish" recently, unlike some of our other choices. Elizabeth means "God's promise. Oath of God." I love the fact that this reminds us of all of HIS promises and His faithfulness to them. God is Faithful!

When we decided on Elizabeth, we then mulled over middle names. I had always liked the middle name of "Holland" since that is my middle name (and a family name). Michael David is named after Michael. I like my middle name and thought that would be a nice thing to give my daughter. Michael was unsure of it since it is not the "typical" first name and rather unusual. After he did some research on Margaret Holland though (the ancestor for whom I was named), he was more willing. I think the thing that sealed the deal though was the fact that I recalled having received a namesake piece years ago. When I searched out the prayer book that I had been given, it was monogrammed with the name Isabella Holland (instead of the Margaret Holland, I had expected). Isabella had been another choice for first name, and is a variation of the name Elizabeth. What a sweet confirmation for Miss Elizabeth's middle name!

for E's reference-- other names we almost used: Abigail, Hannah, Isabelle(a), Deborah, Katherine. And the middle name was almost Grace. This still holds significance as that is an area that God had/has been growing both M and I over the past many months.

Life with two

Time to get back to working out...

It was a weird sensation to drop off two kiddos in the nursery! I waited until E was shy of 6 weeks by only a day and then enjoyed the solitude of time without children.