Aunt Brite came through in a big way. We have lots of stories from the last few weeks and pictures too. Without further ado, I leave you in her hands.
Several months ago I signed up to teach Vacation Bible School. I really enjoy teaching young kids and many of the expected attendees where ones I already have a relationship with through teaching Sunday school. As the time grew closer however, Squeaker entered into a stage of separation anxiety. Instead of being excited to go play in the nursery during the sermon at church, she sobbed and cried when I left her. This happened for the three Sundays heading into VBS. Needless to say, I was
very concerned about leaving her for 2 1/2 hours. Not only for her, but for the poor person holding her! We had many "baby conversations" about it and and she would always say, "church, sing Jesus, play nursery, Brite come back", and yet I was still apprehensive. A very sweet friend of ours came to help in the nursery specifically to help with Squeaker and that certainly alleviated some of my anxiety.
The morning arrived and she cried as usual and she held on very tight to me. We decided it would be nice for her to have something familiar, so she held Little Froggy as I walked out the door. Her loud sobs echoing down the hall after me. It was a really challenging moment for me, because I just wanted to run back in and comfort her. But it is more important for her to learn that other people can comfort her. My sweet friend slipped a note under my door about a half hour alter saying, she stopped crying almost immediately!. Every day following got better and better. When I came to pick her up on Wednesday, I said "Were you sad today?" And she smiled and said. "No sad, Happy!" One of the most important aspects of this change was these two young girls, Rachel & Libby, in the picture above. She very quickly learned their names and wanted to have them over for lunch. I am so grateful for their willingness to give up some of their summer to help this little one.
This past week, Squeaker and another friend of ours went to the County fair. We watched a pet parade where these little kids competed for the cutest pet. She really liked the little girl and dog wearing matching tutus! She went on the moon bounce for the first time. She wnet in with several little girls she didn't know and mostly watched them bounce. She stood up a couple times and then tried to bounce. After about 2 minutes she said. "Brite, out please. All done" (The picture above was taken right after she got out.) She adored seeing all the animals. She came home and kept talking about the moo moos, neigh neighs, sheep, pigs and most of all the llamas. It is so neat to watch her excitement over seeing them up close instead of just in books. She was so tired when she got home, but we still needed to eat a little lunch. While she was sitting there, she put her hands on her ears and rocked her head from side to side singing, "Llamas, llamas, llamas." This would have to be her first songwriting venture. Our final fun on the way to the car was for Squeaker and her friend to try driving the John Deere Cart. It was a great day!
Yesterday, we had a wonderful time at a family reunion nearby. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures because sometime she can be a handful. She really enjoyed seeing her cousins, Aunt Wanda, and her Uncle Keith. She also took Granddaddy to the playground for a long time where they played peek a boo through the holes in the tunnel. Momzie brought the red wagon from the farm and gave her some rides. I wish I had the camera when her Uncle Mack took her to play disc golf. (This is his favorite sport...it's like golf only instead of a ball you use small, dense frisbees and throw them into metal baskets) She was in the red wagon with his bag of discs and he was pulling her up a significant hill. He would throw his disc from the tee and she would sit watching intently from the wagon. When they got to the basket, she got to have a "fri-bees" (squeaker speak)and put it into the basket. She tried to throw it sometimes and seemed to have more fun yelling THROW than actually doing it.
As you can tell, she is exhausted from the excursion and taking a nice long nap, which gave me to time to write this up. We will try to get some video up this next week, so you can see her in action:)
Sentence of the Week
"Ohh... pretty shirt. Momzie bought shirt for you. Put on? Help Brite Help" As a bit of translation, Squeaker is still working on pronouns. She uses them confidently, but backwards, so you mostly means her and me mostly means us. Have a good week. We will do our best to get some good video of her at play.
