August

Doughnut girl

I feel like this whole summer has been a blur. It went by at what seems like twice the speed of a normal month, which made me want to scream at time to stop as I watched Zooey grow into an almost-four-year-old and I felt Tennyson grow to full-term. How does it go so fast!? I'm sure a big part of it is our schedules getting full for the school year: swim lessons ended, but speech changed to two different places in the week, BSF kicked off with some leaders' training, and - OH.MY. GOODNESS - Zooey started preschool! Add to that the remodel on our home and prepping things for a baby, and I feel like I wake up, blink and then it's time for bed. Seriously, it's crazy. So, let's see...what's been going on?

Zooey is doing fabulous at her speech therapy! She talks all the time. She makes up stories, tells us about her day, asks us more questions than she was a month ago and is still saying funny things to make us laugh. Her SLP she had for the summer (and we're continuing to see because she's wonderful) is really proud of how far she's come in the three months she's seen her.

Zooey has really begun to take off with a love for learning. She knows most of her letters by sight and the sound they make, she can count up to 20 (most of the time without assistance) - which I actually found out the first time tonight when she was looking at the calendar.  She loves books and being read to and enjoys reading to herself and her dolls or animals. She likes puzzles and can most often figure out a new one all on her own. She has a new love for tea parties. She loves to wear dresses and picks one out almost daily to wear; she always wants to wear her "pretty shoes" (dress shoes) with them. Zooey also got a haircut this month. She wanted short hair like "Mommy and RaRa's." It is adorable, and she loves her hair!

This little girl is FULL of energy, life, happiness and joy. She is compassionate and sensitive, and she forgives very easily. She has a growing love for Jesus that is shown by her love for her Bibles, singing praise songs to Him and praying. Zooey is super sweet and is very loving with babies and other children. She continues to be a daddy's girl, loving to spend every moment she can with him when he is home at night or on the weekends.

As I mentioned, she started preschool late this month. She loves it! She is always very excited to go. Her favorite thing so far has been the class library; she gets to pick out a book every school day. She also talks a lot about snack and what she played outside. The first day of school was a child's birthday, and the class got cupcakes. When I have asked her since then what she's had for snack, she always prefaces it by saying she did not eat cupcakes. :)

Playing at Open House

So excited for her first day!

Ready to go in

She remembered just what to do

Some funny things she's said:
- "Me open you tummy, see baby Tennyson"
- Her expressions are adorable! "Ah man!" "Oh well!" "Oopsie" "Oh silly me."
- I'm trying to get my comments when driving (which are not terrible!) under control, because little ears are listening... "Come on car - go!" "Scoot car scoot scoot!"
- My leg fell asleep the other day, and she said, "Me kiss you leg, Mommy. Good night leg!"

One thing I've really been praying for enabling to impress God's Word on my children's hearts and to talk about it during our days (Deut. 6:6-9). I am reading an excellent book right now called Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus. God has been working on some sin-habits in my own life big time lately, and one of the things my pastor keeps saying is that we must preach the Gospel to ourselves regularly. That really hit me. I think all too often I find myself in a place where I compromise with sin and take advantage of God's grace, or I fail to think of the greatness of grace and the ugliness of my sin and my deep need for Him. I really want Zooey to be in the habit of preaching the Gospel to herself on a regular basis. I don't want her to be addicted to human compliments and adoration; I want her to know the freedom that she is good because God's Son's sacrifice made her good - and she doesn't have to earn it. And I want her to know that no one can be good or obedient without it. Social obedience is not godliness; walking in obedience to Him can only come from falling deeply in love with Him and the outpouring of obedience that naturally comes from that love and from the help of the Holy Spirit. It's actually very cool to see how God is giving me wisdom and discernment (which I pray for all.the.time as a mom) to help shape her character and at the same time, through many avenues, He's taking me (sometimes painfully) down a road to deeper sanctification.

Hm - a future triathlete?

Making a "campfire" from rocks and sticks in the driveway

First Pedicure

a day at the zoo

after her hair cut

looking through her binoculars for Daddy who was hard at work at home