Success!

Listening to music with Adara today:

First she asked to listen to some songs from the movie, "Tangled."

Then, she asked to listen to Weird Al Yankovic's song, "White and Nerdy."

I have faith that the princess phase will end someday. But a childhood appreciation for Weird Al Yankovic, I know from experience, is something that will last a lifetime. :)

(Below is a recent picture of Adara. Sorry it's out of focus. It's the best I was able to capture.)

Homonyms

I'm lovin the four year old learning process. Today Adara said, "I know. . . . I know. Why does it say "know" when it has the word "no" in it?"

Skunk Award

Well now, this is different. I've been chosen to receive an award. And a most appropriate one, I might add. It is, apparently, for people who make us feel (and smell) better. Now I am supposed to pass it on. And while I'm not sure that much can be done about my smell (or rather, the smell of people (a.k.a., babies) and things (a.k.a., smelly diapers) with which I am surrounded), there are plenty of people who make me feel better, and who also have blogs. I think my friend nathalia at Me and Ma Vie is my top choice.

Now to name one thing about myself that I like. I like that I am sympathetic. In my sunday school classes when I was a kid, I was taught to seek out people who seemed lonely or different and to be their friend. Since I moved all the time and had a hard time making new friends, I could identify with the feeling of being left out or just new and unknown. So I have always made an effort to look at how someone must be feeling and then make an effort to be a friend.

Ok, Ms. Nathalia. Your turn. (If you dare!)

Granddaddy

My granddad passed away this morning. It's hard to lose a grandparent, even when you feel like you didn't know them that well.

Of course, I did stop and visit my grandparents as I was traveling from Georgia to California. That was only two weeks ago. So there is a small comfort in that. And I got to spend a few weeks with him and my grandmother almost 10 years ago when all three of us serendipitously ended up in Germany at the same time.

Before my visit two weeks ago, though, it's been years since I last saw my granddad. He and grandma went to Utah for several visits, and I actually made it to one or two of those visits. But I still never knew what to really talk about. Even for those two weeks in Germany. Don't get me wrong; granddad is an extraordinary man. He rose from shop sweeper to airline pilot to retirement all with the same company.

So -- that picture at the top of this post is pretty much the only picture I have ever personally taken of my granddad. His holding Adara, who was a little less than one month old in this picture.

Spiritual Benchmarks

I found a great picture for this post, but it is copyrighted. You can see it here. (You might have to right click on the link to open it.)

Paraphrasing and expounding on a point made in the Relief Society lesson the week before Christmas: There are spiritual benchmarks that we reach. [Another word for benchmark is milestone.] Often, as we are approaching the pinnacle of our efforts, we begin to doubt our abilities. We get discouraged when we look at others and feel that they are "higher up" on their peaks than we are. We wonder why we haven't met the benchmark that others seem to have already mastered. "Perhaps there is something wrong with me," we might think to ourselves.

But there is nothing wrong. Everyone has to experience the pain of growth as we approach our individual spiritual benchmarks. None of us is allowed to fly over the obstacles on the mountain. The pain we are feeling is evidence that we are on the right path.

Deer Near Miss

Tonight as I was driving the baby sitter home, I almost hit a deer. A short time earlier, I had a distinct thought that I should slow down. Even though I was having an energetic conversation with Heather, I remember that thought very clearly, and I automatically slowed down as soon as the thought occurred to me.

I would like to believe that this was the Spirit whispering to my spirit, though nothing in my emotional experience of the situation would indicate a supernatural force at work. Except perhaps that lucid thought about slowing down, amidst the turmoil which is my mind when I am driving and trying to hold a conversation at the same time.

But then I saw an ornament similar to this one:

And I wondered what the deer I almost hit would think of this golden, glowing creature. Does a deer have a sense of the supernatural? Or does it regard these statues as freakish abnormalities that should be avoided at all costs? Or, does it not even recognize the abstract visual representation of a foreign species?

Conversation with the 2 year old

Naomi: I want a pantsess.

Me: A what?

N: A pants-ess.

M: I don't understand what you're saying.

Naomi (louder): A PAN-CESS.

Me: Did you say a pantsess?

Naomi: I don't understand what you're saying.

Update: The conversation above occurred at bedtime. This morning, I asked Naomi what she was talking about. She took me to the medicine cabinet and repeated: "pancess." She wanted a bandaid on the owie on her chin. (We call bandaids "bandages" in our house.)