Trying some videos

The first video is of Hannah playing peek-a-boo, you can hear Heidi talking to her imaginary friend, "Gordon" in the background. The second is of Heidi dancing her "Scottish dance". I have no idea where she picked this up, but she does it every so often and it cracks me up!

Mountain Climbing

First you climb the "wary big hill". You stop periodically to let Daddy empty the sand out of your boots.

You say "whee!" and "yee-haw!" and slide down the hill.

And when you're on the very top, you give a shout of victory!

I'm not sure why I'm having such issues uploading photos today - here's all the ones you just saw again, I don't know how to delete them, and the others I wanted to show you didn't show up -oh well!

Walking Weather

We've had some glorious days in the past couple of weeks, so the girls and I have been doing quite a bit of walking. How wonderful to be able to spend long periods of time outside again! Heidi is thrilled to be able to explore (sorry about the sideways pictures, I thought I had fixed them, but I guess not).

Hannah's having fun going for long rides in the wagon

Monday we walked to the church and played on the play structure there. Heidi now thinks this should be a regular part of our daily routine- multiple times a day!

Thank you Lord for sunshine!

Memory Game

I've been wanting to get a memory game for Heidi for a while now, but haven't wanted to spend a lot of time looking for one while in the city, or spend much money on it. I had a burst of inspiration this morning, and this is what I came up with: I cut 2"x2" squares out of a cereal box, glued scraps of fabric to the printed side (so the plain side shows when they're flipped over), then trimed the fabric to fit the cardboard. Ta-Da! We have a game! I used different fabric types, so not only are there different colors, there's different textures too! It felt a little like piecing a scrap quilt, just lots less time intensive.

Little Ears

Since Hannah's arival, Karl has taken over the job of putting Heidi to bed. She looks forward to that special one-on-one time with him every day and he seems to enjoy that time to connect as well. One of my favorite parts of that going to bed ritual is hearing my beloved sing a hymn or two to my little girl every night. Heidi is learning the words to many hymns as a result and it astounds me how much she picks up. Some hymn writers, however, have a vocabulary a bit more advanced than Heidi's. It delighted me to hear Heidi interrupt Karl to ask, "pillows, Daddy?" as he sang, "and the billows cease to roll" from "Blessed quietness" the other night. And a few weeks ago in church, she leaned over in the midst of "Victory in Jesus", just after we sang, "He plunged me to victory..." to ask, "He punched me????!!!!!?????" Needless to say, we have some explaining to do.

"Roots" Girls

There's a Canadian clothing company by the name of "Roots", and as that name holds special signifigance for me, I got my girlies some shirts there last week. Here's some pictures from our day yesterday.

Dr. Heidi

Aunt Summer does not get to visit often, but when we are privileged with her presence, she makes a lasting impression. Last summer she played doctor with Heidi. And played it, and played it, and played it. I think Heidi was trying to store up two years worth of doctor playing with Aunt Summer in the few days she was here.
Doctor is still one of Heidi's favorite games, and I am often requested to lie on the couch so she can listen to my "heartbeep". In fact, I'm frequently told, "I going to be a doctor when I get older. I going to listen to people's heartbeeps and make them feel better. I NOT going to be a nurse, Aunt Eleana a nurse. Heidi a doctor".
Tonight, I saw some of her healing powers in action. Hannah was fussing and she gently placed her hand on Hannah's forehead, "I think Hannah have a fever, Mama." I agreed and she comforted Hannah, saying, "I make you feel better, Hannah" and stroking her forehead. Then, "I going to throw this fever in the trash!" She wiped Hannah's forehead, marched to the garbage can with great flair, and threw the fever away. "There", she pronounced, "Hannah's all better. Fever is GONE!" I think we could all use a doctor with such simple solutions at times!