singing crippets

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile...Arden's fascination with crickets continues. When she hears them, we have a conversation that usually goes something like this...
A: Crippets!
me: Do you hear the crickets?
A: Singing.
me: Are they singing?
A: 'bout Jesus!
me: Well, sure, they're praising God.
A: No praise God.
me: Yes, they're praising God with their singing. We give praise to God when we sing.
At this point, Arden usually gives me a look like, "Well, if you say so," and runs off.

On a side note, the way Arden says "Jesus" just makes me smile. She has somewhat of a southern accent and it makes me think of a tape I heard one time in a d-group. It was one of Billy Graham's daughters, Anne, I think. In her wonderful southern drawl, she kept saying, "just give me Je-sus." Many of you may have no idea what I'm talking about, but for some reason, every time Arden says "Jesus," I think about this!

why eat when you can sleep

We were in the middle of eating lunch today and I looked over and saw this...Esther completely wiped out! She hasn't been sleeping well in the mornings lately and I really am not ready to drop her morning nap! This morning was one of those that instead of sleeping, she cried...after getting her up, we went to the park. Obviously she played hard and so when we came home for lunch, she decided it was time to snooze, not eat.

oh my goodness

I thought I'd fill you in on some of our favorite "Arden sayings" as of late...

• We're in the midst of potty training...when we hear the words, "oh my goodness," from Arden, we know she's gone tee-tee in her panties and NOT in the potty.
• She'll pretend that she's going somewhere and come up to you and say, "Goodbye...see you later...have fun!" And she always says all three in the same order.
• Arden and Esther are really having a lot of fun playing together...they've become quite fond of one another...as if they weren't already :). In the midst of playing every now and then, Arden will sit on the floor, clap her hands and then stretch her arms out and say, "Co (come) see me, Esther, co see me."
• And if Esther makes even a hint of crying or being upset, Arden immediately runs to her, hugs her or pats her on the back and says, "It's okay, Esther, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay." And the more "it's okay" she says, the faster she gets and the higher her voice goes!
• And finally, our new favorite word of Arden's is "crippets." She's tuned into the crickets chirping? outside or whatever you call the noise they make! Whenever she hears them, she'll say, "listen crippets, crippets outside."

Great is His faithfulness

We found out this week that Arden will not be needing speech therapy-Praise the Lord! She was evaluated a third time and is right where she needs to be as a 32-month-old. Almost 4 months ago, we were told she was at the level of a 16-18 month old. The Lord has graciously answered our prayers and we are so thrilled at this news and the progress she has made over these last few months! Thank you for your prayers and support of our family during this time. Great is His faithfulness!

2 new teeth

Esther has finally gotten 2 more teeth, giving her a grand total of 4! Slowly, but surely they're coming in and sadly, her sweet gummy smile is gone. Also this week, she finally had her 12 month check up-it had gotten postponed due to tropical storm Fay. She got a great report..."petite, but that's okay"...let's just say it'll be awhile before she's able to join the rest of us front-facing passengers in the car! And the sweet thing got four shots, but did incredibly well, especially considering we had to wait over an hour in the waiting room before being called back!! I'm sorry, I just had to add that last part...we had a day...thankfully Arden was with Woody and did not have to partake of the doctor's office this time.

part 2 big girl bed (sort of)

Okay, I know it's been a while...going back to the day we took the rail off of Arden's crib...She went to sleep fine that night and we thought, hey, this isn't so bad after all. Well, at 3:45 am, we woke up to Arden crying-Woody found her in the middle of the floor. Apparently, she rolled over, out of the bed, onto the pillows and woke up once she was on the floor. It took quite a while to get her back to sleep...the next day or two, Arden would ask to be put in her big girl bed, but then when you would actually try to put her in it, she would cry. When we talked about putting the rail back on, she would cry for her big girl bed. It seemed to be a vicious cycle with no end! She also finally realized she could get out of the bed on her own and open up her door and come find us. And so we spent a few days continually putting her back to bed and enduring her crying. A couple of times she mentioned falling out, so we decided she was scared of the new openness of her crib. All that to say, we decided to put the rail back on her bed and she's sleeping soundly again and going down easily. We're not in a rush to get her in a big girl bed...she's not trying to climb out of the crib or anything, so we're going to wait a little longer. And we think it will be an easier transition when we're able to put a bed rail, some "protection," on a bigger bed for her. We're all sleeping well again and able to focus on bigger and better things like potty training!!