kindness

I am often touched by seeing others show kindness. It doesn't even have to be directed toward me or my family. I've seen neighbors shovel some one else's sidewalk and had neighbors secretly shovel ours. I've seen people care for or help out with another's children...and had so many friends and neighbors that have watched ours when we've been in a pinch. We've had neighbors help us with home repairs and with carrying in large appliances.

It seems since Gabrielle was born that someone is always asking if I need help getting my kids out to the car or something (I am going to just assume they are being kind...and not that I constantly look like I need help! :) Heehee.) I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and neighbors that I know I can turn to when I need help...or that are there helping without even being asked.

But the kindness of complete strangers can be just as touching, even if it is just in little things.

Today I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from Gabrielle's 4 month old doctor visit. I bought a few items that we needed and was heading out to my car. Ella had fallen asleep in the grocery cart and Gabrielle was in her car seat in the front of the cart and it had started to snow and was windy and cold. A woman came up as I reached my car and said, "Here, let me help you." I grabbed Ella and put her in the car. She grabbed Gabrielle and handed her to me to put in the car. Then she opened the car trunk and started loading my groceries in the trunk of our van. It only took a minute of her time to help me, and I really could have done it by myself, but it brought tears to my eyes to have someone, a stranger, go out of her way to help me. That, to me, is what Christmas is all about.

Then this afternoon I had promised to pick Michelle up when school ended rather than her going to after school program. I needed to stop for gas and that took forever...the pumps were all taking forever to authorize for some reason, not just mine but all of them. Then I hit EVERY SINGLE red light. So I ended up being about 5 minutes late to get Michelle. I knew she would be crying and worried and cold and upset. I felt terrible...and since I don't have a cell phone there was no way I could let her or her school know that I would be late. When I arrived, she was crying and cold and worried and upset. But a parent of one of her friends in kinder, a parent I've talked to a few times who is really nice, was standing there comforting Michelle and trying to call me. She had promised Michelle that I would come and that she would stay there until I did come. She didn't have to do that, but she wanted to make sure Michelle would be okay and try to make her feel better. I am so grateful for the kindness of others and hope that I, too, will notice when others have a need and will do what I can to help them.

letters to Santa

These pictures have nothing to do with the post but are cute photos of my girls.

Today we ran a bunch of errands. We decided to have dinner at the mall because the meal I had planned would take an hour or longer to bake and it was already almost 5. We walked in through Macy's and they had a little table with postcards for Santa. You wrote the postcard and put it in a mailbox right there in the store. They mail the letter and donate money to a cause for each letter sent (which one has slipped my mind at the moment.) So my girls both wanted to write letters. I wish I had my camera with me to take a picture of their letters. I wrote Ella's for her although she wrote her name by herself (a skill she has acquired in the past 2 or 3 weeks) and she wrote "leapfrog" with me spelling it to her. Not bad for 3 years old. Michelle wrote the first half of her letter and then got tired and asked me to write the rest. She asked me to help her sound out some of the words (just say the sounds... she then knew the letters) but she wrote this on her own: "I want a dress with betterflies (butterflies) and a bo (bow). I want a skirt and a shirt." Her writing is adorable. I wish I had a camera to remember this letter.

4 months old

My sweet Gabrielle is now 4 months old (on Thursday, but we had Alfredo's work party at The Roof that night and I didn't have any time to blog). She continues to be so sweet and delightful. She has now rolled over a couple of time from tummy to back and from back to tummy. She still isn't good at it but it's exciting to see her learning. Although it is actually with very mixed feelings that I watch her get bigger and learn new things. She will probably be our last baby, and I want her to stay little as long as possible.

Isn't she beautiful!?! She brings a smile to my face every time I look at her.

She can now sit up in her Bumbo chair and tries to sit up when she is in her car seat. She is also great at pulling her toes into her mouth to suck on them. She is getting pretty good at reaching for toys and holding onto them. She continues to sleep well (she generally goes to bed about 9 and wakes about 4 AM, eats, then sleeps again until about 7...8 on weekends). She eats well, sleeps well and rarely cries. Her sisters adore her and we all love to hear her laugh.

My little Sleeping Beauty. I just had to snap a shot of her asleep today. Often she curls her little fist right next to her face...something I still tend to do as an adult.

holiday fun (so far)

Finally, I am getting into the holiday spirit. We decorated our house the day after Thanksgiving, but that didn't really get me into the spirit somehow. But this weekend it finally came. On Saturday we went to Zoo lights and on Sunday we decorated gingerbread houses. I bought two gingerbread house kits (2 different ones) and Alfredo helped Ella and I helped Michelle. We should have done it the other way around. Alfredo is much more skilled at creating gingerbread houses than I am and Michelle is much more particular about how hers looks. She kept saying, "Do it like Daddy. Daddy's is better." And Alfredo wanted Ella to put her candies on perfectly when she just wanted to plop them all over. So from now on, Ella and I do projects like this together and Michelle and Alfredo. But we had fun.

Zoolights was amazing! We've never been before. Alfredo stayed home with Gabrielle and I took Michelle and Ella. It was cold, but not too bad. We dressed warmly and we really stayed fairly comfortable. The girls rode the carousel and we loved all the lights. Most of the animals were asleep although a leopard was out pacing around and so were the mountain lions. We also saw the monkeys and penguins and a couple of other animals. But most had gone to bed.

Michelle's house (with help from me)

Alfredo's house (with help from Ella)

new calling

Two weeks ago I was released from young women's. It is a bittersweet release. I LOVE the young women. But it is a time consuming calling with the midweek activities. So it will be nice to be home with my family more. But I will miss working with the girls. And they are great examples for my own girls.

Today Alfredo and I were called to be primary teachers (together). We will also be on the activities committee. I liked teaching primary in the couple of months I did it two years ago. I'm sure I will like it. I hope Alfredo will as well. I'm hoping it will be good for him.

dead dog

Our dear Chester is lucky to be alive tonight. Alfredo came home from work and found that he had chewed through the wood on part of our deck. He loves wood and has chewed his way through a lot of our wood pile. We've given him rawhide bones to chew but they don't seem to hold his interest. But Alfredo built our deck (he tore out the old one) a year ago and Chester chewed a huge hole in one of the side walls. I'll post a photo tomorrow, but he is seriously lucky that Alfredo didn't kill him. Alfredo spent untold hours (plus a healthy amount of money) to build the deck. Darn dog. He really is smart and sweet and he is learning things quite quickly. But he is a chewer. Aargh!!!

funny things my kids have said

12/3: On the ride home from school, Michelle was telling me about her day. She got a treat from her Spanish teacher and she told me she ate it at the beginning of after school program. She was jabbering away about her treat and how good it was. Then she said, "Rivka (spelling?) was jealous. What does jealous mean?"

12/3: After getting home tonight, Michelle said, "What day did we do FHE?" I told her it was Monday. She asked when we'd do it again. I told her next Monday. She begged, "Please, oh please, can we do it again tonight?"

12/1: In Michelle's prayer to begin FHE tonight, she said, "Thank you for us to be nice so Santa will bring us lots of presents."

12/1: Alfredo told Ella to sit. She responded, "I'm not a dog.... Grumpy old man." (He did say it a lot like he was talking to our dog.)

11/23: Ella was cleaning up her toys. She was tired and didn't want to clean up. She said, "I can't. I don't have a lot of arms."

11/11 Today I stayed home with Ella. She seems to be feeling much better, but I don't feel great. She looked at me at one point and said, "Maybe you're going to blow up."

11/10: Ella is sick today. She was sitting in my lap and looked up and with her lips in a pout and her big brown eyes on me, she asked, "Is I going to die?" (I, of course, assured her that she would not.)

11/5: Janene was watching Ella and Gabrielle while I was at work. Janene had just finished feeding Gabrielle. Ella said, "Now you have to pet her!" (Of course she meant pat, to burp her.)