A Crandall Update from Miriam

Hello Everyone!

We hope and pray that you are having a blessed Christmas season! We are enjoying the season around here. Abigail was thrilled when we put up our Christmas tree and lights outside. She loves to look at them, but she reminds us that, “we just look, we never touch.” It’s always a bit sobering to hear your own words come out of your two year old’s mouth. We often hear her singing familiar songs to her babies as she nurses and rocks them and she prays with them before they “eat” when she puts them in their highchair. She loves to read them her favorite stories.

As you probably guessed, Abby is doing very well, I often need to remind myself that she is only 2 and not 5. She talks and acts like she is much older than her two years. She loves to undress her baby brother, the other day while I was cooking dinner, she and Luke were playing in the living room. Abby came running into the kitchen and cried, “look at me, mommy, I have Wukie’s pants on!” She was thrilled that she had stripped him down and swapped pants with him. She was quite a site to see with his 6-9 month pants on; tight high-waters would describe her look well. Meanwhile, Luke was rolling all over the place in the living room, happy as can be, with no pants on. Luke is quite a content, peaceful little man. He loves to roll all around and play with his toys. He’s at the stage now where he is pushing his torso, from the waist up off the ground (female push-up style). He’s such a blessing. And it is such a joy for us to see Abby play with him, and his round little face light up as he giggles and kicks with glee. They sure love each other, and we hope that continues for the rest of their lives.

I wanted to share another Abby issue I encounter frequently with her. It involves shopping, which is not very fun with two little ones. Abby insists upon walking while we shop (she shops too), and I thought I would share with you a few of the things I have said to her, based upon the things I have found in our cart…”Abby, please put the Vienna sausages back, no we don’t need corned beef hash either.” “Why do we have these?” Abby—“I want them, mommy.” “No, Abby, we don’t need Doggy Temptations.” (apparently some type of doggy treat for a dog that we don’t own). Or, my embarrassment at having to dump 27 packages of socks of assorted sizes on the floor by the sock racks at Target, because I was too tired and too frustrated to sit there and sort them and put them back while she proceeded to pull more down. The one advantage of having her walking next to me, is that she is a talking Christmas wish list, it makes shopping for her quite easy!

Speaking of Christmas, last night I had the fabulous idea to make Christmas sugar cookies for Abby to “paint” with icing. Even though I followed the recipe perfectly, and even refrigerated the dough to cut down on gooeyness while rolling, it was still sticky and nearly impossible to roll out and a disaster to use cookie cutters with. So, while I am fuming inside, trying to roll out this impossible dough, Abby is standing next to me on a stool with a mound of cookie cutters in front of her. She would quickly grab one and jam it into the dough while I wasn’t looking, ruining that portion of dough, and requiring me to re-roll it, which only worsens the sticky problem. I was getting really frustrated, and she could tell (perhaps because I said, “gosh-darnit” after another one of her swipes at the dough). She looked up at me with a sugary sweet smile (the kind she uses when she knows she’s done something wrong) and said, “Are you happy mommy?” While thinking about how to answer that question, she added, “Do you love God?” and proceeded to ask those two questions over and over. Nothing like being reminded by your young daughter about the reason for the season; I encourage you in this season of busyness and (and sometimes even frustration) to, from the mouth of my 2 year old, “Be happy and love God!”

Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,

Corey, Miriam, Abby and Luke