Christmas Gifts for Friends

Things are busy this time of year it seems, no matter where you are. My mom sent me a large bottle of vanilla extract (not essence, this is the real deal!) and by large, I mean 325mL/11oz large. I got it the latter part of September and with all the baking I've been doing for the holidays, I'm down to the last 75mL/2oz of my vanilla. Em and Coop have loved helping me cut out sugar cookies, or smash candy canes I've been hoarding. We've made frosting, decorated, eaten and then started the whole process over again. We still have the Wilro Park Annual Cookie Exchange and Decorating Day this afternoon (pictures to follow!), but with all the decorating we've been doing, I've found that I ran out of things to decorate with. I went to the shop to get more decorations, but nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price. So I came home and did some google searches, and found a great project for Em, Coop and me to do. A large quantity of sugar later and some food-colored stained fingers, and we were in business. I found a "how to" color your own sugar here but I used a sealed plastic bag instead of a fork and plate. The kids did a great job jumping up and down while holding said bags in order to mix the colors in, and I loved the vibrant colors. We finished by putting some in small glass jars to give to some friends. Our MOPS group recently learned how to decorate cupcakes and I thought this was a rather fitting gift. Always love making things for friends, especially useful things and being able to have the kids help was a wonderful bonus.

Both kids loved blending the colors and watching to see what the combination would make after a few shakes. I really think art teachers should teach the color wheel this way rather than however it is they teach it now.

Em loved the "bright, bright" green and the purple best. We had to let the purple dry out a bit, but all the others were ready to go straight off. Who would have thought?

Standin' Fool

My girl is growing up. Our monkey is so desperate to keep up with her brother and sister, it's just unreal to me. Friday, she officially started to crawl. Like Cooper, she's been mobile through scooting and rolling for a fair while, but this is the real deal. It's odd, since Em crawled for all of 10 minutes and decided it wasn't for her. Cooper, crawled a bit too, but it was winter here and the tile floors were freezing, so he as well thought better of it. I'm wondering how long it will last with this girl. Thankfully, she's not terribly fast (yet) so leaving her in a room by herself and go grab something from the kitchen isn't out of the question, but soon, I know it will be.

I've been working on getting things ready for the holidays and what-not, so the other day I was doing laundry. A LOT of laundry. I left Harper in the living room to fetch a laundry basket and she managed to crawl over to the security gating, pull herself up and was attempting to use the gate to "walk." I honestly could think of only one thing: that my independence is growing even more microscopic with each step she takes!

She was so proud of herself and so stinkin' cute, but SERIOUSLY?!?!?! Come on- can't a mom catch a break and get a kid who is slightly behind the milestone instead of months ahead???

Pretty girl all excited with herself.

Overdue

These last few weeks have been more than a little hectic. I'm sorry to say that at night, I generally collapse with laundry still unfolded. I've been trying to get things ready for Christmas, start the packing/sorting/organizing for our home assignment (which is looming ever closer) and the internet hasn't been loading picture properly for a while now. Needless to say, I've been slacking in the publishing department. So, when I was working knitting a winter hat for Em and Harper was awake, I set her to playing while I kept working. There are few moments when she doesn't have someone harassing her for attention or time, and she absolutely loves her down time now-and-again. I saw her scoot over to my yarn and such, but didn't think too much of it until her happy giggles turned to squeals of delight. What I saw cracked me up, and then caused me to grab the camera. She's like a kitten with this stuff! Even though it took nearly 20 minutes to untangle everything when all was said and done, it was worth it to see her so excited and happy playing by herself.

Mom, I love the fuzzy ones the best.

Cuz she's too cute for just two pictures :D

A Tiger Named Emmerson

I love the age gap between the two girls. I think, despite popular books and psychology and the likes, 3 years between kids is ideal. They love each other, play well together, AND Em is old enough to not accidentally do major damage to Harper in the name of love and attention. One of their favorite games is "Tigress Emme." It's very simple really. Em roars like a tiger/lion and slowly crawls over to Harper who is desperately trying not to fall over laughing. They can do this for upwards of an hour, and it makes me laugh every time.

Swimin' Girls

It has been hot here. Normally, summers are rather mild and there's a cooling rain in the afternoons/evenings but there has been no rain to speak of and the temperature just keeps climbing. Since you normally don't need it, no one has air conditioning either. The last few days, however, called for drastic measures and so, on Saturday, at 10 in the morning, we all headed down to the swimming pool for some reprieve. Em has been diligently working hard and is now able to swim the breadth of just about any pool on her own. Todd hadn't seen this new skill, and so was awed when she showed-off for her daddy. Her favorite thing, though, was to jump into the pool to an awaiting daddy. You know those olympic distance jumpers, the ones who jump into a pit of sand? Picture that, only upper body first with arms flailing out in front, and you'll have a decent picture of our girl's not so graceful entrance to the water. She does give fair warning and always counts before going in... so that people know she's going to be barreling down on top of them.

ONE...

TWO...

THREE...

JUMP!

SPLASH

It was so toasty, that even Harper was fine in the slightly-warmer-than-ice water... until Coop came to "splash" with her. She is apparently not too keen on cold water being whacked in her general direction.

Harvest Party

There are times when the nostalgia nearly chokes me. I'm not sure if it is because I'm living outside the States, but when I look back at my childhood, to the pre-9/11, pre-Columbine, pre-cell phone era... I don't know. Maybe its because I lived in a small town, or that the community seemed even smaller with my mom being a grade school teacher. I can't really put my finger on why I feel like growing up then was so much more innocent, or so much slower, but that's exactly how I feel. I was blessed to live across the street from my church (literally, I tried to throw small stones from my bedroom window and hit the building) for a little while. Our church, in those days, was filled with Sunday night testimonies and hymns, ice cream socials, watermelon seed spitting contests, church picnics and pancake breakfasts. I remember the older generations getting together and any time there was one of these events, there'd be a "quartet" singing, including our pastor, Hal Bonner. Two weeks ago, at a pastors conference here in Johannesburg, our General Superintendent was asked to join in with a local quartet to sing a hymn. It took me back to those long summer days filled with endless bike riding and climbing trees. And I'm so glad for all those times. Now that the kids are getting older, I've been really trying hard to work in some of those "great memory" experiences for my own children. I know the things they look back fondly on will most likely be completely different from the things I treasure, but I don't want to neglect being intentional about building a strong sense of family and community in my kids. So our community here, some South African, some American, missionary and non-missionary, got together for a good ol' fashioned Harvest Party. It seemed a bit odd calling it a "harvest" anything since we just planted our vegetable garden a few weeks ago, but we had fun with it. The kids dressed up (which Em could NOT have been more excited for!) and got a few sweeties along the way, but they experienced something I hold so dear... community.

Last month, Grammy sent the girls these headbands, and Em has talked of nothing but being a flower since. So, here are my purple and pink flowers! Harper LOVED eating her petals.

We had two "sack" races: older kids- who went all the way around the pool, and the little guys, who just tried to jump in a straight line without incurring too many injuries. I haven't eaten enough maize meal from the massive bags to have 10 of them, so the kids used trash bags, which proved interesting when the older guys really started to jump, thus splitting all their trash bags!

Cooper found he was faster by just simply walking IN his bag than trying to jump, which cracked us all up.

They bobbed for apples as well. It took Todd nearly drowning a couple of times for us to realize how much water was "just right," only to have the first kid outsmart the whole process and get the apple by the stem.

Please note the perfectly dry face and hair. Kids these days seem so much smarter... I still almost drown!

As part of the festivities, each family unit brought something in thankfulness for everything they have. The packages of assorted eats (and a bar of laundry soap) were put into packages for the Bible college students, who are preparing for their final exams and then the long, term break coming very soon.

My smallest flower wilted on the vine halfway through the day. She was in a concrete room, on cold tile floors with a multitude of people talking and eating around her. Somehow, I don't think she noticed all of us though- just a guess though.

Harper on the Move... Nearly

I know I should look forward to Harper's milestones, but the truth is, I dread most of them. I wasn't excited to see her rolling over or sitting up, because I knew those two things would, eventually lead to crawling. Crawling is always followed close behind by walking and THAT is when things get really crazy. Yesterday, while Cooper and Em were napping, Harper and I had some down-time. It is so rare to see her playing by herself, uninterrupted. I had the camera out because 1) I love this face and 2) I love those pudgy rolls in those cloth diapers. I'm a sucker for a rolly-polly in nothing nut a diaper. Harper decided to show off since she had her mommy all to herself. And low and behold, she is nearly crawling. I've never seen her get so close to moving where she wanted to go, when she wanted to go there, but I'm praying she has forgotten all those skills already. I'm not ready for my baby to be so big. And I'm not ready to relegate my life back to the realm of kiddie gates again. Not yet.

Gotta love this face.

Wait, I'm coming too!

Mobility here I come!!!