Some things just seem so ordinary in life, but too quickly the ordinary changes to something different and what is ordinary is forgotten. These are just a few things and thoughts about our current age of 4 years and 5 months.

Emily is my social kid. She is shy in new situations, but also very likely to pick up a new friend and talk his or her ear off. She learned introductions a while ago and most of the time she introduces herself as “my name is Emily and I am four years old”. She gets a variety of responses from people. Most of the time it breaks the ice and the kids play with her or the adult talks to her.

Emily likes to hear stories. She will ask us to tell her about when she was born, about when we were married, when we lost our power, or when Mommy lost her keys down a storm drain. Remembering events through story telling is fun, at least the first few times we tell the story. She is more reluctant to tell us stories in return, but with coaxing she will sometimes tell us about Cinderella.

The funniest thing she has said lately was at a baseball game we attended with her grandparents. Grammy told Emily that the Tennessee Smokeys were playing the Mississippi Braves. She replied with “why is Miss Sippy playing with the boys”. It took a few seconds for us to figure that one out and then we had a good chuckle as we explained about the state of Mississippi.

Emily is planning her next birthday party. Mama’s favorite part of the party so far is that she wants it to be a surprise party at the bounce house with her friends. I guess she doesn’t grasp the concept of a “surprise party” yet. If you talk with her for a while and she relates her age, she will then tell you of her party, and most likely invite you to it. If she does this, please don’t be offended when you don’t actually get an invitation. She is not keeping a good record of the people she invites to her party.

Emily is learning to plan things out. She informed me this week that she wants Julia to have surgery again. When I asked her why, she informed me of her plan. She wants to go to Elena’s house by herself and play with Ashley, Chris, Elena, and Maeve. I told Emily that if she wants to play with her friends, I would prefer working it out without her sister needing surgery.

Emily’s artistry is improving a lot these days. Whether she turns into an artist or not isn’t important to me. I just love being able to look at the picture and know what it is that she has drawn. She is intentional with the colors she chooses when drawing or coloring. Her favorite canvases right now are greeting cards. Maybe you will get an original piece of art in the mail one day.

Most important to her father and I is the person she is becoming. Lately, she has been talking about Jesus and his life. Yesterday, she told me she wanted her “heart to be good”. While our conversation was brief concerning this topic, what a joy it was to share with her that her heart could be good with Jesus’s help.

Little Julia has been struggling these last couple of days. The inner Julia is trying to come out and she hasn’t figured out how to do that.

Yesterday, we had a lot of crying over everything. The details do not matter, but she cried if you said “Yes” or “No” to the same request. After a while and a little Mommy comfort, it seemed to pass and she was ok. Today, we had a rash of misunderstandings. Julia would hear something and interpret it. Then she was devistated when she realized that it wasn’t happening. For instance, Emily was playing pretend shower and Julia thought she was going to take a bath. She was in hysterics when she did not get a bath.

I guess the hardest part of watching Julia figure all of this out is watching her not be able to communicate what she is thinking. I wonder what she is going to discover as she blossoms through this next stage.

I knew it was going to happen, Julia is growing just as quickly as Emily did. The time has flown, and while I thought I was watching all of the time, she has grown and I didn’t notice. Here she is 8 weeks old and so much bigger.

Her face and other features are filling out. Julia has strong legs and kicks them really well. She also has a lot of control over her arms. She can hit her toy hanging from the car seat handle and I think she is doing it on purpose. She also likes to knock her pacifier out of her mouth. Then she will lick her hand or stick some part of it in her mouth and suck on it. It makes a pretty loud sucking sound. Unfortunately, it is not as satisfying as the pacifier and she fusses after a little while.

She holds her head up well and is looking around. She doesn’t like her tummy time and doesn’t usually do her neck ‘exercises’. She must take after me, I don’t like exercises either. She will turn her head when she hears a familiar voice and when she knows that she is going to eat she gets excited. I still wonder what she is looking at half of the time as she focus on odd things, but she is alert and looking around. She doesn’t like her swing as much as Emily did, but she loves the bouncy seat. This is great because it allows me to get my shower and to keep her happy.

Mommy has a confession. I love for Emily to grow bigger, but I also dislike it. I love to see her develop and grow bigger. I love her new outfits for the next size and am excited to get her in them. But then when I go to move her to her new clothes I’m sad. The problem is that I love all the clothes that she is outgrowing. The clothes are sweet and my memories of her in them are so fresh. With reluctance I am changing over Emily’s closet to her new size. I will resist the urge to keep the outgrown clothes in the drawer and embrace the wonderful new outfits. In just a few weeks the outgrown outfits will be really too small and I will be deep into my love affair with her new size.