My Maren-girl & My Ezra-boy

I am not sure why I have had such a hard time blogging of late, but it has all but fallen off the radar for two months.  No excuses; other things were just higher priority.  Instead of trying to redeem Halloween, Thanksgiving, and half of December, here is a picture of where we are currently.

Maren has three inseparable friends, Baby Emma, named for the newborn sister of one of her friends; Baby Daniel, named for her new cousin; and Baby Cora, named for a friend in nursery.  The first two babies are about the size of an adult's hand, so she carries them around inside her shirt (genius!), which means she still has two free hands to hold a blanket, a purse, a baby bottle, and Baby Cora.  We usually don't go anywhere without at least one of the babies.  She also loves to cook in her play kitchen.  Today she made me beef patty soup, a vegetable medley bowl, and chocolate cake with copious amounts of black pepper.

Hardly a day goes by without some musical performance.  She sings bits of lyrics from "I Know My Savior Loves Me," "I Love to See the Temple," "I Hope They Call Me on A Mission", and "I Am a Child of God".  She absolutely adores her nursery leader Lori, and talks about singing with Lori, doing lessons with Lori, coloring with Lori, etc.

Maren says most words clearly, and can talk a blue streak if anyone will listen.  Just this week she recounted Tigger's sad day when Rabbit banned him from bouncing.  It was complete with the "he said", "she said" of different characters, Tigger facial expressions, and Christopher Robin's response.  Pretty adorable.  She likes to carry around The Book of Mormon and tell me about different characters.  Abinadi, Joseph Smith, and Baby Jesus are her current favorites.  She is a wonderful little praying girl.  She is always first to kneel and fold her arms, and can already say her own simple prayer without help.  Sometimes in church, if she sees someone at the pulpit praying, she will start praying too.  She seems to have come with a special love of prayer. 

Some of her common phrases include:
"Probably yea" (she says this instead of just "yes")
"My Ezra-boy" (her pet name for her brother)
"I'm OK Mom!" (she hollers this as she climbs on counters, pulls random things out of the fridge, removes all my pots from the cupboard, tries to pour her own glass of milk, or starts furiously pushing buttons on my cell phone, etc.  Anytime she thinks she might be doing something she shouldn't, she will first say, "I'm OK Mom!")

Ezra is still enamored with sea creatures.  He wants to talk about what they eat and where they live all the time.  With the aid of the world map on our kitchen wall and the "OK Google" feature, we discuss such things as the migratory route of humpback whales, the eating habits of orcas, and approximate growth patterns of the colossal squid.  Ezra is a curious little guy, who loves to understand his world.  Today he was concerned about our neighborhood squirrels out in the snow, and said, "Mom, quick, ask Google if squirrels have blubber!"

Bear is still his loyal friend, three + years after they first met.  Earlier this month his right leg was hanging by a few tired threads, and in danger of falling off, and after a talk about Bear's future mobility, I finally convinced Ezra that sewing Bear's leg on again was in everyone's best interest.  Happily, with his leg sewn on again, we no longer has Bear fluff in the house.  I was beginning to know where Ezra had been on any given day because he would leave a trail of fluff everywhere.

Ezra's new interest is letters.  He uses scrabble games, my cell phone keypad, a Microsoft word document, chalkboards, notebooks, and alphabet refrigerator magnets to practice his letters.  He likes to try to sound out little words, try to find the letters on a keyboard, and then type them.  His favorite (or most practiced) letters on scrap paper are Q, D, O, A, H, L, and E--the E is drawn with at least ten horizontal lines).  Cute!

Books are Ezra's chosen happy place.  If he is feeling sad or needs some downtime, I often find him on the couch with a stack of books, quiet as a mouse, in deep concentration.  He loves a select few shirts, and will get very motivated to do the laundry, and sort an entire basket of kid clothes by himself in order to find a favorite shirt.  He likes to do art projects with me; recently he has tried watercolor pencils, pastels, and acrylic paints, as well as other cut/paste/glitter type creations.

This month Ezra and I have had a number of deep conversations.  I love his thirst for truth!  Yesterday he asked me, "Mom, can God give wicked people blessings?" and "Why doesn't Coleman (our neighbor) go to church?  Is God mad that he stays home?"  Earlier in the month he wanted to understand why poor kids needed our help at Christmas since Santa should be giving them gifts.  He also was confused about how Santa came into our house without a chimney and without a key.  "Is Santa just a Spirit like the Holy Ghost?"  And, "How does Santa know what I like?--we didn't talk at the Christmas party."  He keeps me on my toes, and I love our talk time!