Growing

We realized today, or at least verbalized it, that Sarah Kate is a little girl all of a sudden. She talks, sings, answers questions, fights with her sister, colors, makes requests. She's so meek and mild. I was unprepared for her to transition from baby to child. Some of my favs:

• When I got home from work today: "Momma!" then "doat" (coat) and she starts to pull it off of me. "doat off." When I drop my coat on the floor: "uh-oh! dop doat down!" I decided she was ready for me to be home so the coat had to come off. You only wear a coat when you go "bye-bye."
• Her favorite part of "Jesus Loves Me" is "the Bible tells me so." When you sing the other parts, she puts her finger to her mouth and says, "shhhh!"
• "Sarah, what is your name?" Sarah Kate responds, "name!"
• Our family favorite is at our meal time prayer. She enthusiastically sings along while holding at least one of our hands. She gets a few sounds right and ends with "a-men." God smiles along with us, I'm sure!

Claire is becoming a grown-up girl. She is, of course, excited about school on Monday. She has a crazy imagination. She imagines scenarios and gives you specific instruction on how you fit into her plot, including what you are to say. "When I knock on the door, you say, 'is that my baby?' then chase me and tickle me because you are the monster." She vascillates between being Sarah's hero and her nemesis. She loves to tickle her, make her giggle with funny sounds and faces. She equally loves to hide her own toys and jerk the toy-de-jour from her hands. She asks insightful questions like, "when I'm a grown up, who will be the kid?" and "how does Paw-Paw pay for his house if he doesn't work?" Her eyes sparkle with mischief and joy. This picture doesn't do her justice!