A Random Pattern

Our two-year old, Selah, has been praying this way for probably a year now.  We don’t know why she says “Jesus God” instead of “Dear God” or “Dear Jesus” - probably just got the two confused and decided to cover her bases.  She also ends each prayer the same way - “Jesus God, Amen”.

Last night she caught me by surprise, though.  I asked if both the girls wanted to pray.  Selah said no (sometimes they are too tired or otherwise don’t want to pray, and we’ve never made an issue of it).  However, just after I finished praying (and before Tessa could start), Selah jumped in with this:

“Jesus God, help me ‘cuz I don’t want to pray.”

She then prayed on for a minute or two about a book we read and some other things before asking me for a drink of water.  Not sure where she got that from, but I suppose she has the right idea. 

Today my wife made cupcakes with the kids.  Later, as we were eating dinner, we played a word game.  We would ask each person for a word they like, and then ask them to define the word.

Tessa picked “bug”, and it was quite a challenge for her to “define” the word.  She came up with “tiny”, “animal”, “has legs”, “some of them fly”, and “alive”.

The adults then picked “village”, “ambidextrous”, and “herbivore”.

Selah finally decided on her word: cupcake.  We asked what cupcake means, and she had the answer ready:

“It means when I eat all my dinner”.

We’ve taught them well. 

We’ve got one more day at the hospital, so Aria can stay under the “bily-lights”.  She’s a little jaundiced, so better safe than sorry.

Because of that, I’m going to relieve Grandma of kid-sitting.  She’s probably ready to take back her statement that she wouldn’t mind more kids. 

Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m too tired to think of a clever title. This post is about pictures and sleep - and some of the family meeting the baby.
Contrary to the pictures below, though, we are doing more than sleeping around here. At least that’s the story I’m sticking to. Head over to the gallery for a full selection of pictures from the last two days.

As I walk into the playroom, I hear this exchange:

Tessa: Chicken Ice Cream.

Selah: hehehehehe, chicken ice cream

Tessa: You like Chicken Ice Cream?

This from the girl who won’t eat anything except chicken nuggets, french fries, peanut butter, or ice cream.  Not sure why Selah was laughing either, but it cracked me up.

I guess you had to be there…

Apple should hire these guys - this video is more beautiful than the iPod ads.   Check it out here:

http://www.iphonenewyorkcity.com/

I have never been too interested in “The Big Apple”.  I don’t like cities, but I do like people.  This unofficial ad for the iPhone made me, for the first time, really see the appeal in New York, New York.  It is truly an inspired work of art.

It helps that I want an iPhone also.

Only 18 weeks and she’s already sucking her thumb. Amazing, in’it?

Family and friends, there are more pictures online of the girls and our recent vacation. Contact me if you want to see them.

A friend and I were standing around the grill, watching the burgers cook. You know, if you don’t watch them they don’t get done.

Another friend walks up and comes up with this immensely clever line:

“How many programmers does it take to grill hamburgers?”. (I should mention said friend is a salesman. )

My first reaction is to offer a mocking half-laugh at this ‘joke’ (though admittedly, most of my jokes are worse). However, the programmer in me can’t resist the challenge of providing a technically correct answer.

“1″… Even though there are clearly two of us standing there.

From the salesman I receive a confused look and a “Huh?”. Moments later, my programmer friend starts laughing.

The salesman asks “What, is that some inside joke or something?”

The griller explains. “Let’s say you have an array of 10 numbers. You would expect them to be numbered 1 through 10. But the computer will number them 0 through 9 instead.”

I’m not sure if the next look from my salesman friend was more confusion, disgust, or some potent mixture of both.

Tessa woke us up this morning.  As she was talking with us, trying to get us to wake up and get moving, she noticed something on the covers.

“White shadows” she said excitedly!  (Never mind that she says everything excitedly.)
She was pointing at the bright spots of light where the sun was making its way through and around the shades.  My still sleep-numbed brain tossed about for another word or phrase to describe the sun-dappled scene that had entranced our daughter.  No, it seemed to me that “white shadows” was quite good enough, and a remarkably adroit phrase for a 4 year old.

footnote:  It says something about the world that our children learn first about the dark, scary shadows at night in their rooms, before ever being given a word for the kisses of sunlight in the morning.  Perhaps the latter is so much bigger, so much better, that it is hard to wrap up in a simple word.

Selah only has 2 volumes:

SCREAMING!   and    let’s talk ever so gently.

Unfortunately for us, her normal volume is the first one.   We only recently discovered the second one, and it only appears in the rarest of instances: when she is full enough to stop eating long enough to talk, but hungry enough that her attention is still mainly on her food.  Unfortunately, this coveted period of ear-healing only occurs for a few minutes each night at the dinner table.

Any suggestions (besides ear plugs, I’ve already got those )?

Actually, what I really want to know is if this is normal, or if there’s something we’ve somehow done drastically wrong?  I keep hoping this is a phase, and one day soon Selah will wake up and talk in a normal voice.  Someone out there give me some hope …