Baby Girl, Daddy and I are so proud of you and have loved the last two years of being your parents. We pray that we may continue to help shape your character as a child of God. You are a precious gift and we cannot wait to share this next year with you!
Love, Mama
more...“What doing, Mama?”
She, in the midst of dinner in a high-chair.
I, in the midst of a manicure on the couch.
She climbed out of her high-chair and came to me.
As if she knew instinctively what a manicure was,
she spread her rosy little starfish hands out in front of me.
I painted her nails.
She admired them, as girls do.
Digit by digit, “And this one, and this one….”
She showed me her ring finger, her pinkie, her thumb.
I gave her another coat of pearly pink.
I don’t know how she knew,
how she knew to just stand there and wait for it to dry,
to inspect and admire them.
It’s like she came with a Toolkit of Girly
and was just now getting to use some of the finer implements.
I don’t know how a beautician feels,
giving girls their first manicures.
I only know how I felt tonight,
like all of my most fantastic dreams had come true
in the form of 10 little pearly pink fingernails.
Things I would be doing with this mild and overcast Sunday had I not a child and a husband who worked weekends:
1.) Showering on a schedule not dictated by anyone’s naptime
2.) Reading the Sunday Magazine in its entirety
3.) Watching something vintage or indie at the Brattle Theatre
4.) Surfing etsy for something I shan’t regretsy
5.) Yoga, with poses not compromised by a chimpanzee trying to trapeze off my downfacing dog
6.) Calling many people; even my old man curtailed our convo this week as Baby Girl was being so loud
7.) Painting my nails and not worrying about blighting Baby Girl’s brain with the fumes
8.) Not having a picnic of goldfish crackers and smoothies on my living room floor
9.) Not pretending to “sneak/sneak around/sneak around together” thrice to the Music Together CD
10.) Not reading the same books ad nauseum
11.) Not giving an M&M to the little lady who successfully tinkled on the throne
12.) Not having much fun at all, and mostly feeling lonely and unhugged 
***
I bought a new rolly backpack suitcase this week from the Bean. Multi-purpose for sure.
I ran across this verse the other day, and I’ve been noodling it around ever since.
In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” ~ Colossians 2:3
At first I was impressed, just thinking what a treasure wisdom truly is. With each life experience, we can treasure the wisdom gained, and apply it to future experiences. And further, we can share this treasure. It isn’t ours to hole up in some storehouse. We can share it, both in word and deed.
I used to think that the ultimate goal in life was to collect as many amazing experiences as I could. Whoever got to do the most numerous cool things WINS. I was so full of envy as a child, convinced my life was boring, restrained, and that every other kid was more privileged and indulged.
I eventually realized that I was more than privileged, and that boring translated to “safe” and restrained really meant that I was very much loved.
But I still thought well into my twenties that I should be collecting experiences, that I should be taking trips like they were charms to add to a bracelet. I should be pursuing great and important things that will build my resume, my portfolio, a name for myself. I should be networking and coopting and spending and flirting with my destiny.
BAAAAARRRRRF.
Yeah. But coming to Christ for me has meant in so so many ways the loss of self and the greater love for Him, all that I am able to accomplish in His name, for His sake, for His greater glory.
I need wisdom to do all that. And I’ve been grateful over the past couple of years to actually desire, to have that deep craving for wisdom. I need it to get through a day with a toddler that would prefer to be rolled around a shopping mall in a wheely-suitcase.
Going back to the verse in Colossians, though, I realized that in God, all the wisdom can be gained. That all those fabulous experiences? Cannot guarantee to make one wise. This excites me, it really does. Knowing that He truly is the wellspring of all knowledge and goodness is a comfort to me and quiets my hearts desires to Do Really Cool Stuff, knowing that one day, all that this world can offer will but be a shadow of His glory!
more...My granny always told me that Jesus hears the prayers of children and doubly counts them.
***
When we got home from daycare yesterday, Baby Girl told me she needed to go and pray.
She knelt down in front of a little table and put her hands together like a Precious Moment statue:
“Dear Father…Thank you for Ava and Malcolm and Quinnie…and good morning…and Jesus. AMEN!”
She is still accepting special intentions….
