Hopey Ham

That first born of ours can sometimes be one of the most enthusiastic kids I've ever known. At least twice a week now I'm hearing an excited bundle of three throwing her backpack in the car while chattering away, "Guess what, Mommy???"

You just never know what might follow that whole grown-up kind of "guess what" business. Maybe she'll share that music is made up of vibrations, that red in Spanish is rojo, that she doesn't think her teacher sleeps at school, that today is Tuesday and she needs to pull over to potty again and so-and-so might have had to go to the think about it chair but it's okay because we all make mistakes. I love it.

In long overdue HAM fashion, that's not all I'm loving these days. Here are just a few of my favorites...

Several weeks back we were having a work day lunch with Joe at a favorite sandwich shop. He and Hope were going back and forth with their usual, "Guess how much I love you?" while outdoing each other's "THIS much/Oh yeah, well, THIS much!" In one smooth move Hope picks up the cookie off his plate, holds it between them, and says with that unmistakable twinkle, "Then how about this much?"

A few days later she casually strolls into the room and tells me, "Mommy, my tummy's sick. I'm pretty sure it's because it's growing up to have a baby!" I think she currently believes she'll be happy with something like ten of her own.

Though it's going to be hard to have babies at all when conversations like these pop up from the back seat, "Umm, excuse me guys. I just don't think I can grow up and go off to college. I'll miss you too much!" :)

At least she's got down some basics of baby-ing. For instance, while I was at a Mom's Night Out last week Alysse started to cry. Hope came running in to save the day, as she often does, and tells Joe the following:
H: Daddy, she's hungry! Feed her.
J: I can't really do that, Hopey.
H: That's right (pulling up her shirt). You don't have big knuckles like Mommy!

Yep, she's very technical in all manner of terminology... banilla (vanilla), overmahauls (overalls), prentzels (pretzels), and Daddy's favorite-- "Wook, Daddy, Wook!" The only word she still pronounces her "l" like a "y" or "w" for. We're not correcting her any time soon.

All that said, it takes little to thrill her... like announcing that it's time for a bubble bath. "Hooray," she exclaims, "It's my favorite time of the year!"

This stage of finding happy, round stick figured people and lopsided letters of the alphabet on scraps of paper the whole house over... this stage of coming home to teach Maddie everything she learns in an exaggerated teachery voice... this stage of Little People, play food, and baby dolls... this stage of sharing wars that almost cause me to throw away Little People, play food, and baby dolls. This stage so often makes me smile from the inside out.

For in it she quotes scripture, very often to be found in places like 5:30 John 18.

She astounds you with out of the blue questions like, "So, Mommy, mercy is forgiving even if someone doesn't deserve it?"

And she challenges you to become a better person. Like happily using the $5 her grandparents sent to buy orange grocery store gerbera daisies for her Daddy, writing love notes when she knows she'll be parted from you, and coming downstairs to ask you pray for her one more time before bed.

In all these things and so much more... love.
~Katrina