Sweet Memories, Smart and Silly

January 3, 1996: This morning when I was helping Sarah get dressed, I said she was four years old now. She said, "No, I'm not!" "Yes, you are," I assured her. "No, I'm not!" she insisted. "I haven't had cake yet!"

After breakfast we were brushing teeth, and Rebecca told me, "Mommy, I brushed my lungs." "That's great," I said. "I really did," she said, then finished, "Oh, I mean my gums."

January 9, 1996: On Sarah's birthday, Caleb asked, "Where is the three year old?" I said I didn't know, and he said, "The four year old chased her away."   

Caleb has learned up to letter O in braille. The other night at supper, he said excitedly, "Mommy, next week, Mrs. Davis is going to teach us P!"

This morning Rebecca was trying to find some jewelry to wear. She found an old bracelet that was mine when I was a kid. She reminded me that once before it hadn't fit her yet, it was too big, but she said she wanted to try again. She said, "I have faith in Jesus that it will work."

January 10, 1996: Today Rebecca finished her first long book, Bambi, which has 95 pages. She read from page 51 to 95 just today.

January 21, 1996: Rebecca and I were reading a story book today with the story of Jesus' birth in it. When I read the part about the angels coming to the shepherds, Rebecca looked at the picture and said, "There's one angel standing right by them, and then millions flying in the sky, or maybe twenty or ten."

January 22, 1996: Rebecca has been reading Dr. Seuss books to the other kids, sometimes 6 or 8 or 10 repetitions a day, and they are starting to talk like the books. Murray told Sarah to get onto her stool, and she said, "I do not like it, not one bit." (From the Cat in the Hat)

January 24, 1996: Murray was looking at Sarah's eyes tonight, gauging how well they were tracking together. He asked her to follow his finger with her gaze, up and down and right and left. She giggled, remembering how her Ophthalmologist did this, and asked,"Are you pretending your finger is a flashlight?"

January 25, 1996: Sarah has learn very well at school how to stick her tongue out to make a TH sound. She does it so well that when she prays, she always thanks God for "etherything."

January 27, 1996: This morning we were looking for Sarah's missing sock in her bed, and Rebecca said, sounding pleased with herself, "When my socks get dirty, I put them up in my bed." "No you don't,"I said in disbelief. "Yes, I do. There's two pair up there." And there were.

January 28, 1996: This morning Rebecca was making up a story while she turned the pages of a catalog: A duck was talking to a driver, saying he, the duck, wanted all the different things pictured, such as chairs, babies, covers, etc. The duck said, "I want that ring."The driver replied, "No, you won't have any fun with a ring, because you don't have any fingers."

On the way home from church, the kids were trying to explain to Sarah which was her middle finger. Finally she said, "This is a great thing! I have three middle fingers!"

Murray just asked Sarah to put the trash can lid back on the can. After she did she asked if she had done it like we would. We assured her that she'd done it perfectly. She said, "Give myself a hand!"

(These next two from Murray)

January 29, 1996: Sarah brought home her class group picture today. We were looking at it and asking her who people were. I asked her who someone was, and she said, "Mrs. R., holding Sarah so she doesn't wiggle."

January 30, 1996: When Kathy was helping Sarah tonight, she asked,"Mommy, do elephants laugh?"

February 2, 1996: Last night we were trying to think what Caleb could take for show and tell today that started with an R. Finally Caleb said excitedly, "I want to take Rebecca!" He really wanted to; I had a hard time convincing him that the bus people wouldn't want her to ride with him. Murray brought him a rutabaga from the store to take.

February 3, 1996: The other day Rebecca went with Murray somewhere in the white car. Murray took a lot of trash out from where the front seat passenger's feet would go. She asked, "Why are you taking that trash out? So we can put more trash in?"

February 6, 1996: We were talking yesterday about all the things that there will not be in Heaven, like no sickness, no crying, no dying, etc. Caleb said, "No falling down." That was right, I said, we wouldn't do anything like that. Rebecca said we would just be"standing on holy ground."

Murray got a tape from the library last night that had Jimmy Stewart reading some of his poetry on it. He played it in the car and Sarah said, "Sometimes he sounds like he has his finger in his mouth."