Terrific Two

Our Pearly Girl turned two recently. We can hardly believe she's grown into such a big girl already! Here she is almost a year ago (notice the short locks):

...and here she was this summer. She loves her girly stuff, like having her now LONG hair brushed and accessorizing with shoes and scarves, but she LOVES being outside and getting active (and usually dirty. Even eating dirt)! 

In our first substantial snowfall this fall, she and I ventured out into the white stuff. Even when her hands were freezing (and most of the rest of her was, too), every time I asked if she wanted to go in, she'd say, "No!"

A few weeks before her birthday, I finally took her in for a trim. I've learned to have no expectations when the kids go to the dentist or the hair stylist, and Pearly Girl surprised me even so. She sat very still and wasn't bothered in the least by the scissors close to her head (Sam, who cut her hair, was very nice and gentle, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Thanks, Sam!). Her trim looks great, too!

Her birthday fell the day before our annual open house, so she spent most of the day helping me bake. She's a big helper in that department! We enjoyed a nice chicken dinner later and a Ree Drummond chocolate cake just for her, too, along with some snazzy gifts.

Just a little help from Mommy with the candles
(and her brothers, who were blowing from across the table).

With three little boys in the house, we really cherish our little girl! We look forward to watching her grow even more in the days and months and years ahead. 

Hiccups

When Little Professor was in utero, he often got the hiccups. I'm still mystified by the biological machinations that make this possible, seeing as though he floated in amniotic fluid and received oxygen directly into his bloodstream via God's wondrous creation, the umbilical cord. Yet there he was, maintaining an impressive esophageal rhythm that kept me feeling like my midsection was a strong second-hand on a tightly wound clock. Amazing, yes, but also just plain weird.

Small Dude repeated this feat, and like his oldest brother, has kept up the habit now that he's breathing oxygen through his windpipe. Such a small yet uncomfortable thing. He'll get a bad case that practically lifts him out of the bouncy seat with each hiccup, and I'll simultaneously snicker and sigh in sympathy, thinking of how he's nowhere close to drinking water or standing on his head to remedy his discomfort. But he'll outgrow it, and in the meantime, he'll squirm a little more and scowl and work 'em on out.

We're experiencing hiccups here, too. Some is Normal Family Adaptation to New Baby Mode. This resembles a roller-coaster ride, complete with careening turns, yelling, and a necessity for seat-belts, both literal and emotional. Some of it, though, seems more like a terminal case instead of a momentary change. With the addition of Small Dude, I'm finding the "hiccup" of his transition both routine and predictable as well as precarious and somewhat terrifying. I know the disruptions of newness will fade eventually, as will the sometimes overwhelming events that occur in a household with four children under six years of age. And for now, I'll trust that God will help me embrace all of the changes, their disquieting discomforts with their humorous additions. After all, hiccups often happen after belly-shaking laughter. And He knows our Small Dude--and Little Professor, Superman, and Pearly Girl--are big joy-givers.