More Esther stories

When Grandma was visiting us, we went out to eat.  Our server introduced himself as Thomas.  Esther's jaw dropped, and in a stunned tone of voice she said something about a train.  Apparently, this was the first time she had met a Thomas other than Thomas the Tank Engine.

At our church's fall dinner, Esther begged to sit next to the director of children's ministries, whom she loves.  At some point during the meal, while this woman was conversing with someone else at the table, Esther decided to be a helper and offer her something else to eat.  I heard her saying, "Hey, woman.  Woman!  WOMAN!!  Do you want this?"  (I told this to a parent of a similar-age child whose son as been known to say things like that and she said, "At least she got the gender right!")

Esther has become quite a backseat driver, taking it upon herself to make sure nobody overlooks a stop sign, or fails to start driving when the light turns green.  But she really demonstrated how much she has been paying attention one day when she first reminded me to bring my driver's license, and then gave me a lecture on how to back out of the driveway (complete with a mimed demonstration of changing gears and looking back over her shoulder).

Shortly after Thanksgiving Esther and Daddy were discussing turkeys.  Daddy asked, "What does a turkey say?"  Esther wasn't sure.  So Daddy told her, "It says, 'gobble, gobble, gobble.'"  "Not anymore!" she pointed out.

Esther was "reading" a folder of information to me.  In her most literary voice, she announced, "By Suzanne Beck.  Pictures by The Cow Jumping Over the Moon."

When Esther and I were putting angel decorations on the Christmas tree, I started singing "Angels We Have Heard on High."  Esther was quite taken with the "Gloria" chorus, and a little while later I overheard her singing, "Gloryluia to the Lord of Jesus!"

We were eating animal crackers when Esther suddenly held one up and exclaimed, "Jesus, Jesus!  Look, Mommy, Jesus!"  It was a mountain goat.  (She was holding it sideways, so maybe it resembled a man in a robe?)

advent

I didn't grow up in a very liturgical church, but have discovered as an adult that celebrating liturgical cycles like Advent and Lent really helps me connect to the true meaning of the celebration that they lead up to.  So a tradition that Tim and I and now Esther have made part of our household is an Advent wreath.  We do it with four candles, and we light a candle or candles each evening and have a reading related to the coming of Christmas.  Tim and I have done rather elaborate readings in the past, but with Esther now old enough to understand (sort of) what we are doing, but not nearly old enough to sit through a lot of words, we decided this year to choose a verse each week and say it every night so that we memorize it as a family.  This past week, the first week of Advent, we lit the candle of Hope each evening and learned the verse "All God's promises are "Yes" in Jesus." (2 Corinthians 1:20, paraphrased).  I also tried to tell Esther Bible stories of God making a promise and then keeping it.  Starting tomorrow (Sunday) we can light two candles each night (for Hope and Peace).  I'll have to start thinking about what verse to learn!  Then the third week we will add the candle of Joy, and the fourth week we will add the candle of Love.  I think Esther's favorite part right now is blowing out the candle when we are done, but it is good to think of this tradition being part of how she experiences Christmas growing up.

It's a small world, after all

This afternoon our family of three, two of European ancestry and one of Chinese ancestry, sat down to enjoy a meal of Thai massaman curry and jasmine rice while watching snowflakes drift down outside the window of our home in North America.  Just an everyday moment (except for the snow), but when I really stop to think about it, it blows my mind!

our family life

We were recently asked to pick out six pictures of us that represent our family life.  Here are the ones we chose.  The last two were actually staged for this project, since we realized in going through our albums that most of our pictures are taken outdoors.  And Esther and I actually spend a lot more time reading that playing board games.  But overall, I thought these pictures give a nice flavor of our family.

Rugga Guggan, RIP

Yesterday Esther and Rugga Guggan got into another spat.  Esther was stomping around the kitchen and the dining room saying, "Stop following me, Rugga Guggan!  STOP IT!!!"  Now, on Friday we had gone to a story hour and one of the girls had been getting after Esther for following her during playtime, and I figured that this argument was Esther's way of processing a social situation that she wasn't sure how to handle.  So when Esther came to me to complain that Rugga Guggan wouldn't stop following her, I told her she should think of what she could say to get her to stop.  She started yelling "No!  NO, NO, NO!!!!"  I asked her if yelling made Rugga Guggan stop.  She paused for a minute to think about that, then stamped hard on the floor several times (remember, Rugga Guggan is very small) and calmly announced, "She's dead."  Not exactly the kind of social skill building I had in mind.

The cutest kitty-cat on the block

Was Halloween this big of a holiday when I was a kid?  If it was, I don't remember it.  I remember, of course, trick-or-treating on Halloween night, and rejoicing in my loot.  But now, in addition to trick-or-treating, you can go trunk-or-treating (which is conveniently on a different night, so they don't interfere with each other).  And then there are all the Halloween- or harvest-themed events that your child can attend around town, all of which seem to have sugar as a key component.  I mean, really.  Does one child really need that much candy?  We skipped the trunk-or-treats, despite being earnestly invited to at least three, but Esther still got a bag full of treats at each of four different events (a church harvest festival, a trick-or-treat on Monday night sponsored by one of the dorms at Tim's university, AWANA, and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Saturday night), and I don't think I will need to buy her any more until Easter.

Anyway, Esther got to wear her costume for the two trick-or-treating events, and she enjoyed it as much as I remember enjoying costumes when I was a kid.  I don't think I ever had a "bought" costume, but I have fond childhood memories of envisioning what I wanted and pulling it together from what we had, and I wanted to recreate that for her.  So for this Halloween, Esther was a kitty-cat.  It was appropriate for several reasons.  First, it's an easy costume to make, and I had some idea of how to make it because I was a kitty-cat myself the year I was four.  Second, one of Esther's favorite pretends lately has been to be a kitty-cat.  She will meow and crawl around and rub her head against our legs and instruct us to say, "Nice kitty-cat!"  Then when we have acted appropriately besotted with her, she will suddenly turn around and roar at us and we will pretend to be afraid.  This, apparently, is hilarious.  I probably spent as much on the costume as I would have on buying one, but most of the components (like black fleece pants and a black turtleneck) are things she can wear for everyday as well.  For a tail we used one of Tim's black socks, stuffed with plastic bags and safety-pinned to the hem of her shirt.  For ears, I bought some black twill iron-on patches, cut them into the shape of kitty-cat ears, and clipped them on with black hairclips.  Black face-paint for whiskers and nose completed the look.  Soooo cute!  I expected her to meow at people and be really social, but she went shy on me and would say neither "meow" nor "trick-or-treat" but only (while hiding behind my pant leg) "You say it, Mommy!"  (I did not meow, but I did say thank-you on her behalf!)

Unfortunately, our camera battery died on us Halloween week, and we did not have a replacement yet by Halloween night.  So we only have a couple of grainy pictures of her from the Monday-night trick-or-treat.  But they do give an idea of how cute she looked!  In the second picture she is eating a hot-dog.  I think the hot-dogs (she ate two, despite having recently had supper!) were her most favorite part of the trick-or-treat experience, although she was also quite taken with a glow bracelet that she got in her bucket.

For Halloween night (which was officially Saturday the 30th in our town), I decided to just go up and down our street.  She really didn't need more candy, and several of our neighbors were clearly ready to roll out the red carpet for any trick-or-treaters who strayed into the neighborhood, so I thought they would enjoy seeing Esther.  After two stops we had to ferry stuff back to our house--both those neighbors not only gave her candy but had gotten her gifts!!  The rest of the street was a little less eventful, but fun.  We got to officially meet one set of neighbors that we've been wanting to.  Then we came back home and gave out our own candy.  I think there were a grand total of nine trick-or-treaters on our street, counting Esther.  So now Mommy has some Halloween treats in the cupboard, too!  :-)

Later I pulled out my old photo albums and let Esther see my kitty-cat costume.  It was really fun looking at pictures together.  Her favorite two were baby pictures: one of me with my security blanket, and one of me apparently whining after getting water poured over my head in the bath.  She thinks it's funny that Mommy used to do some of the things she does.

daylight savings

Tim reminded me today that tonight is daylight savings, and I rejoiced.  Esther asked me what it meant, and I explained that we get an extra hour of sleep!!  At first her face mirrored my excitement, but as she processed what I had said it fell ludicrously.  An extra hour of sleep?!  What's good about that?  Well, Esther...it's hard to explain, but you'll understand when you're a grown-up!  :-)