Reese and Julie: Lord, Grant Us Patience

My brother-in-law used to love to start prayer before a meal with, "Lord, grant us patience.........." (insert very long pause). I've been finding myself repeating this prayer a lot lately. Well, without the pause. After weeks of broken sleep, piles of work and housework, loads of laundry that may never make it out of the basement, and lugging a baby-filled carseat everywhere I go, I'm exhausted and my patience is wearing thin. And Reese can be great at testing it, As I've mentioned before, she loves to ask questions. This has gotten much worse lately so that during lunch, we had the following conversation:

R: What are those?

Me: Seeds.

R: Are they to eat?

Me: No.

R: Why?

Me: They are dirty,

R: Why are they dirty?

Me: Because people touched them.

R: Why did they touch them?

Me: It was for a prayer service.

R: Who touched them?

Me: My students.

R: What are their names?

(and yes, I did start listing names....)

During this same lunch Reese managed to spill her milk. Twice. And then she spilled her water. Twice. And then she spilled a bowl full of shredded cheese. I'm not making this up - it's 100% true. Reese also loves to repeat the same idea over and over, like everytime I drive her in my car she likes to tell me, "Mom, don't use your left foot when you drive because you don't have a clutch." Yes, thanks Therese, I would have never noticed. At least we've hit the "J-curve" of humor - you know, something's funny at first, but after hearing a few times it isn't funny anymore until (after more repetition) it becomes funny again because of the repetition. Anyhow, Reese is as active and silly as ever and has so much fun. She loves school and screams, "NOOOOO!" when she spots my arrival to pick her up. Ok, she doesn't always do that - only 50% of the time. Her teacher told me that Reese used one of the toys in the classroom to make an ABAB pattern and then proceded to tell all the teachers, "I am making an ABAB patt-er-en." Nice to hear that she's picking up the lingo :-).

As for Julie, she is now 12 weeks old. She's getting so much bigger and so much older. I had to put away some of her newborn clothes already which made my heart break a little inside. She's as smiley and talkative as ever. When she smiles, she shows off her gums and the smile reaches all the way to her eyes. She now prefers being held upright instead of being cradled so she can see what is going on. She's started really swatting at her toys so that the blue elephant dangling in front of her bouncy chair has seen quite a few flights across the room. Julie also drools a lot and started sucking on her fist (not her thumb or her fingers, her fist), but I'm happy to say we've had a major breakthrough in this department. Julie, as sweet as she is, has been incredibly picky with her binky. There is only one that she would ever take. Not one brand or one type - one binky. And she doesn't even like that one very much. Well last week I finally stumbled across a kind of pacifier that she likes. Not only is she much more content, but so are we as we don't have to fear losing the ONE binky. Life is good :-).