Saturday, May 7, 2011

Reading Buddies


Hannah Cate has always loved books. Since the early days, she would sit contently and look at books. She loved (still loves) to sit in your lap and listen to a book -even at six months old she would sit through multiple books at once. Now she likes to pick out books at night to read before bed - some favorites at the moment are "The Lion Book" (Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever)and The Jesus Storybook Bible. Now that she's in her big girl bed, I love to crawl up in there with her and snuggle and read for a few minutes before bed.

Maddie has also always shown an interest in books, but in an entirely different way. It's rare that you can get her to sit still long enough to make it through even just two pages - let alone an entire book. She does love books though, she loves to look at them and point and jabber at the pictures. She loves to bring them to you, as though she would like for you to read it to her, though she has no intention of actually sitting to listen. She can pull every single book off the shelf in about two seconds.


I love these pictures of them, sitting so sweetly together. If I could bottle them up and keep them just as they are - I'm pretty sure that I would!

*Side note - do you have Carl's Afternoon in the Park or any of the other "Carl" books by Alexandra Day? We received it as a gift before Hannah Cate was born, from my cousin who has two children that are older than mine. It's such a sweet little book - mostly pictures and few words. If I'm honest, it was never one of my favorites because I'm not great at making up stories as I go - but both girls absolutely love it! If it's anywhere in Hannah Cate's eyesight, she always picks it up to "read". I should have known that a Mom who has gone before me would know exactly what she's doing! I have the other "Carl" books on my list to pick up for the girls. I highly recommend them!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

A Tale of Two Sisters

One of the things that I have loved the most about the last few months with Hannah Cate and Maddie is watching their personalities develop and evolve. They are so different and unique.

Take this picture for example:

This is such a great representation of their personalities. Maddie has absolutely no fear and she knows no boundaries. While Hannah Cate is much more content to stand back and observe, she's much more cautious and reserved.

In many ways, Hannah Cate is so much more like me and Maddie is so much more like Matt.

It's hard to not compare them at every turn - especially because they are so close in age and as we hit these new milestones with Maddie it's pretty easy to remember back to what Hannah Cate was like at that age.

However, especially now with a third sweet girl coming, I want to remind myself to celebrate their differences. Encourage them to embrace the unique gifts and talents the Lord has given them.


The reality of having three girls is starting to hit me. Soon there will be three little heads in that picture!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Miss Manners



I have been working on manners with Hannah Cate lately - really honing in on please, thank you, no/yes ma'am and no/yes sir.

Yesterday we were talking and she asked me a question - to which I replied back to her with a simple "no". Quickly - she came back with, "Say No Ma'am, Mommy".

A few days ago I was asking her to do something, so I said, "Hannah Cate, will you please.....". She came back with, "Thank you for saying please, Mommy".

I didn't know I was getting manner lessons too!

None-the-less, I think she's catching on!