Nonsense

Rhianwen is enamored with the movie Mary Poppins right now. She's constantly pretending to be Bert (the chimney sweep) and wears her corduroy hat nearly all day long. 2 words she's picked up from the movie are: Nonsense! and Certainly! also, she insists that Michael said "Norbert!" somewhere in the movie and she goes around calling it out. She also calls the Apostle's Creed the Preeds Croostle. This reminds me of my mom who often did such things including "going to the chicken to buy a store".

Such a cute little gymnast. She was so excited to get a leotard it almost replaced the corduroy hat!

Despite the time change and early darkness, we've been enjoying stomping through leaves and sliding into big piles. Rhianwen also likes to pretend to sew them together, which is what she's doing here. I asked her if she thought leaves made good clothes, and she said, "NO!". I guess she's learned something from devotions!

Look mom, we match!

Oh no. Mommy and daddy are definitely NOT ready for this. We were just saying how we don't want another baby until we have at least one of our current ones completely potty trained (ie. capable of successfully initiating and completing the entire process independently every time). This is more than likely a pie-in-the-sky ideal. Alden has already pooped in the toilet at this point per his request, and he's not even 16months old yet!

After putting the lid on for the last time, he says, "Done." He's so confident and happy with the results. I love it.

All this learning tires him out! Don't you just love his jammies?

Be praying for us here as parents. Rhianwen has hit yet another difficult stage. She's been very demanding, argumentative, disrespectful, and refuses to listen even if what I'm saying is what she wants to hear! Many days all I want to do is cry and run away. But I know that God is using this to show her her need for Jesus, to show me my need for Jesus, and to remind me that He controls the outcome in every situation. What He asks of me is to trust and obey in a way that loves God over my own life. But I lack wisdom and patience in most situations. Nothing I try seems to help.