5 Cousins at Glacier National Park

Cousin Time!

Mat and Stephanie, Simon, Claire and Baby Penny came to visit! We went swimming at Flathead Lake yesterday and today we are headed to Glacier for a picnic. These are for you, Mom!

Long, beautiful legs.

This morning Mara was sitting on the toilet and said "My thighs are fat". I wanted to throw myself on the floor and kick and scream. I do not talk like that. I would not speak negatively about my body in front of the girls and try not to in general. It makes me so angry that my 4 year old who doesn't hear negative body image messages at home (not from mom and dad, not from TV) uttered these words. ANGRY! Crushed might be more accurate. I have worked way too hard to instill a sense of confidence and knowledge that she was created with this amazing body that can dance, run, climb, stretch and roll in the grass than to hear her utter those words.
I have a neighbor who I really like but I have heard her say her stomach is fat or her thighs are fat (and she has 2 little girls too and she's not at all overweight). I guess that's where I need to start. After Jedd and I responded to Mara's comment by saying she has beautiful, long legs with strong muscles (rather than throwing myself on the ground), I asked her "Where did you hear that? . . . Sasha?" (neighbor) Mara got a smirk on her face. Dear Lord. As if the media doesn't do a bang-up job of making girls and women feel inadequate and so less than beautiful. As a friend and fellow mother of little girls, I need to go next door.

Two Names

After school Mara was writing letters and she wrote "MRM" and said, "Mom, are these your letters?" I said, "No, those are your letters. Myletters are A N N I K A". Mara said, "No, your *different* letters". I said, "OH, you mean M O M for Mom". So sweet.

Washing vehicles

The girls were excited with Jedd's suggestion that they help wash the van. When he returned from getting the soap, Sonna was washing her tricycle and Mara was washing the sidewalk. It's hard to find good help these days. (:

First Day of Preschool

She had a great day! (Same school, same teacher, many of the same classmates).
Enough said.

My Mara Girl

Yesterday we watched the neighbor girls from 4-7PM. Mara, Sonna, Bailey and Blair play really well together. I was interested to see Mara spent more time playing with Bailey this time. Bailey and Mara are both 4. Usually Mara spends all her time with Blair who is 2 years older. She typically gravitates towards the older kids. At any rate, when Randy came to get the girls, they asked for more time to play. The parents declared it was bathtime. After the girls left, Mara said "I'm so tired Mommy; I needed to go to bed already". I commented that it was neat to hear that she can express what she needs. Mara said "When Blair and Bailey were here I told you that I needed to go to bed". I said "No you didn't, but I did hear you and Bailey making plans for a sleepover tonight". Funny. It was like she was struggling with both her needs and her wants and she was caught in the middle. Sleep won out. And not the sleep-over kind.

Emotional Intelligence

We have a very emotionally expressive and perceptive 2 year old and a 4 year old in our home. In mid August when Jedd got the news that his dad was no longer welcome to stay at the memory care unit and had lost 20 lbs. in 15 weeks, he cried a bit as I hugged him. Sonna was nearby but I didn't think she was in ear-shot. Brooke had Sonna and when I joined them Sonna said, "Daddy sad; he want his Daddy". She was right. (I will insert that when Sonna hears a child cry she often says, "She want her Mommy" and that's usually the case).
Yesterday we received a beautiful picture of Joan and Lanny taken recently at the nursing home where he is staying in Minneota, MN. Jedd set it as our screen saver so it's a pretty big picture. When Mara saw it she leaned into the computer screen and curved her arms in such as way as to give them each a hug and said, "Oh, Grandpa Lanny" and "Grandma Joan" in an affectionate tone.
Earlier in the day Mara was intrigued by a combine. As we watched it I reminded her that her daddy grew up on a farm that had a combine and so did Grandma Margaret. Last night when Jedd was talking to Grandma Joan on the phone Mara asked to say something. She spoke to Grandma Joan and said, "Tell Grandpa Lanny that I saw a combine today". Somehow she put it all together that Grandpa Lanny was a farmer and he had driven a combine.
It is pretty amazing to watch our children grow and connect all sorts of dots and make sense of the world. We are blessed.

Family Photo