Ok, I know what some of you might be wondering . . . are Daddy and Mommy so busy with me that they’ve forgotten each other (hear the beautiful background music I’m playing as I speak)? Today we’re celebrating Daddy and Mommy’s 34th month wedding anniversary! I’m here to tell you that no, even though Daddy and Mommy have a lot of fun with me, they are still enjoying being married. And they tell me that they love each other more than they love me! Gasp! How can this be?!?

Friday night is “date/family night,” and I usually get to attend part of the evening until my bedtime. But last Friday night Josh and Meredith came over to play with me while Daddy and Mommy went out all by themselves. I had a great time playing with Josh and Meredith, and only cried when they put me to bed. As you can see, when I realized that the crying trick was not going to get me any extra awake time, I went to sleep.

Saturday night we had our neighbors, Samir, RJ, and Ahana, over to decorate and hide Easter eggs. Ahana is three and a half and lives in an apartment below us. Ahana and I loved decorating the eggs, and we had a blast finding them twice after our daddies hid them. I wanted to drink the egg dye, but Mommy said no. It looked so delicious that I tried anyway and now we have yellow spots on my chair.

Easter Sunday we had Aaron Countryman, René Rodriguez, and Barry over for dinner. I wasn’t sure what to think of all the men at the dinner table and was glad when Mommy finally sat down next to me. As you can see from the picture above, I’ve grown quite a bit since last Easter. For Easter, Daddy and Mommy bought me a new Bible story book called The Big Picture Story Bible. It’s purpose is to show how Bible stories all point to the big picture of God’s plan. It also has really big illustrations.

In other exciting news, I learned how to drink from a straw just in time to enjoy the free milkshakes Daddy and Mommy got from Chick-Fil-A for turning in their old cell phones. Daddy and Mommy bought me a new cup with a straw and I really like it.

Mommy says a lot of people are asking her what she’s doing with all her free time, now that she’s finished with her dissertation. Since she can never come up with a good answer, I thought I would let you peek into what we do during the week, or at least what I do during the week. (All the exciting stuff happens when I’m the center of attention!)

In the mornings, Mommy and I usually try to spend some time outside walking around campus. I think it’s really fun to sit in the car trunk while Mommy gets the stroller out and I usually ask her to lower the door on me. I’m a great explorer of the campus. I love climbing stairs and picking up sticks. On Mondays we like to visit Daddy at school. I see all sorts of interesting people while we walk to see Daddy. We try go outside in the afternoons too.

Eating is always a fun activity. I can say “eat” and I know what it means. This week I’ve enjoyed eating my sweet potatoes with a real fork. It’s really fun to poke the food and put it in my mouth. I also enjoy drinking out of a big cup. I get lots of practice in the bathtub with my stacking cups, but Mommy says it’s not best to pour water all over my tummy when I drink around the apartment.

During the day we do all sorts of other activities like coloring, lots of reading, playing hide-n-seek, going to the pool, singing, playing chase, and having all sorts of fun adventures. Yes, Mommy makes me take a nap too. But I make sure I’m only away from the excitement for about an hour. This past week, we participated in an apartment event for child abuse awareness. We had our silhouettes traced outside our door. I thought it was great!

By the end of the day, I’m very tried. I usually go to bed before 7PM. I’m not sure what Daddy and Mommy do after I go to sleep. But I think someone comes and cleans up all my toys during the night.

So there’s a little view into what I do all day. Now that I think about it, I’m really not sure what Mommy does with all the free time she has now that she’s finished with her dissertation. I’m too busy to notice.

Oh, this weekend we had Presley and Mary over for dinner. The last time we had them over was before they were married. They are preparing to go to Vietnam where Presley will be a teacher (and teacher-trainer) and Mary will be involved in social work. Presley was a classmate of Daddy’s a few years ago.

Mommy tells me that people are supposed to sleep in on Saturday, I don’t believe her! Usually I’m up early on Saturdays, making sure that if it is a day when Daddy and Mommy were intending to sleep until 7, I keep them from giving in to laziness. Good Morning! (I should add that I usually wake up crying and then smile when I’m rescued from my bed.)

Saturday afternoons Daddy has to do Jarai research, so Mommy and I always find interesting things to keep us entertained. We made a really neat tunnel from the bedroom to our living room. We went swimming in the apartment pool. It was a little chilly, but I enjoyed climbing in and out of the pool. We also read, and as you can see in the picture I sometimes read to Flopsie (which Daddy and Mommy say is really cute).

As you can see on the left, I tend to make a mess on the floor. Mommy let me play with the bread bag. It only had an end in it, but I successfully got it open. So, Mommy let me help her wash the floor last Saturday. It was a blast. I was really surprised when I hugged my rag and got soaking wet. But what was really fun was dumping the bucket of water all over me. Mommy and I laughed a lot and I thought it was fantastic! So, now you have a little idea of what goes on in our home on Saturdays.

A big congratulations to my Uncle Joey. He’s graduating from BJU this May with a degree in accounting and just got a job with “one of the Big Four” – I’m not sure what that means. He’s going to be consulting in Washington, D.C., and I think he’s going to be helping our government. I hope they don’t ask him about the best way to get hazelnuts from a bowl, because he wasn’t very helpful to me in that area. In fact, I think he’s the one who made it hard for me!

Last Thursday afternoon, we got together with Yani and Amaris. We had a fun time together. Mommy and Daddy say I need to learn to share. They tell me that I’m a sinner and need Jesus to rescue me. For now I’m content to go my own way. Please pray that I will learn to love and obey Jesus.

Our precious little girl is growing up so fast. This week she’s discovered the joy of hiding from Mommy. In the past when we’ve played hide-n-seek, I’m the hider and Becca is always the seeker. But this week, Becca learned to hide all by herself. Granted, she always hides in the same place (behind her bed in the closet), but she loves being found. It always catches me off guard when I look around for Becca and realize she’s waiting for me to find her.

We enjoyed celebrating Josh’s birthday last weekend. Friday night we got together with some friends to celebrate. We were limited on who we could invite due to our small apartment. Five extra people made it feel very small! Becca and I are delighted to have Josh as the #1 man in our lives. Josh is keeping busy with his teaching and research. The end of the semester means a break from teaching and additional research. Ph.D. students who are working on dissertations don’t get the summer off.

(Unexplained pictures include a visit to the park, playing on campus near our apartment, having dinner at the Thai House with Yi Ling, and hanging out at home.)

A very happy 30th birthday to my amazing husband and Becca’s wonderful daddy! I am so privileged to be married to you, my darling. Thank you for choosing me to be your wife and for showing me love each day of our marriage. You are the most wonderful man in the world and I adore you!

Josh, you are the man who make us smile many times each day. Thanks for being our favorite man! Happy Birthday!

Love,

~your girls