Pray, Praise, and Give Thanks

Leading by example works especially on a toddler who soaks in everything so easily. For the last couple of months I have been saying a prayer at all Isabelle's meal times. She has now joined in occasionally saying some of the words and always folding her hands. Isabelle has learned that before she starts to eat to fold her hands and wait for me to say, "Thank you Jesus for my food. Amen.".

Listen carefully in this video for her saying, "Thank you Jesus.". One time she actually did say "Thank you Jesus food." but I guess I didn't get that recorded.

Thought this was a cute clip too. Since Isabelle generally starts eating before we do, when daddy and I say our prayer for our meal she often joins in again.

Isabelle also has a bed time prayer that daddy and I usually say together before we lay her down for the night. Many should recognize at least a variation of this, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Angels watch me through the night, and keep me safe 'til morning light. Amen.".

Though not often displayed by visual example, Isabelle also will fold her hands occasionally throughout the day praying as well. If I notice I will say, "Thank you Jesus." again because there is so much more to be thankful for beyond our food. Sometimes I have noticed that those moments indicate that she is ready to eat or ready to go to sleep. She will also fold her hands when daddy or I are folding our hands when we are relaxing. Daddy and I discussed that we must have been taught to fold our hands when we were sitting perhaps to keep us from fighting with our siblings or to keep out of other trouble.

We are still working on folding her hands during church but those prayers tend to be too long for her toddler attention span.

These are all good reasons to pray and I hope we can continue to lead by example.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) -- "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Mamma Mia

Isabelle loves pasta! We usually do other shapes of pasta but this night we finally had spaghetti again. So Isabelle got to experience spaghetti noodles for the first time. She seemed quite confused and at times frustrated on how to eat them but did eventually manage to eat some.


Sorry the video doesn't show her eating any but her playing with the noddles is amusing.

Even with all that crazy hand movement, there was no spaghetti on the ceiling, walls, or floor. Glad I didn't put any sauce with it though! I think Isabelle would prefer I stick to giving her the other shapes of pasta for now.

Shoes Fetcher

When it is time to go somewhere, someone just needs to say "shoes" and Isabelle will retrieve her shoes saying "shs" repeatedly on the way to the front door where they are located. This works most of the time for her to get the correct everyday shoes and not her dressier shoes. She'll plop down on the ground, either trying to put them on herself or waiting as patiently as a toddler can to have someone else put them on her. Isabelle has also learned that the only way she is going to be able to go outside is if I have my shoes too. Once she has her shoes on, she proceeds to get mine. This works when they are a matching pair and not two lefties or two righties of different pairs.

There are other times that Isabelle will displace the shoes around the house possibly trying to tell us she would like to go somewhere.

Isabelle knows when we come back inside that she needs her shoes off as well and plops down again waiting for them to be removed.

Shoes are currently so interesting to Isabelle that going down a shoe aisle at a store gets her quite excited. She motions for her current shoes to be taken off and wants to try on the new ones. Maybe there should be a new catch phrase. Instead of "like a kid in a candy store" it should be "like Isabelle in a shoe aisle".

Little Stinker

Though Isabelle resembles a boy, I just had to buy this shirt and she just had to wear it this day when she was sporting a curly mohawk.


Sometimes the smell is coming from daddy, but usually it is Isabelle.

Snuggle Animals

Since we removed Isabelle's bedtime bottle quite a while ago now, I thought it was a good time to replace that comfort item with a stuffed animal. I chose the hypoallergenic, washable Eeyore she got from my awesome friend, Joshua. I like that she can take it anywhere and I can still get it clean afterward. Isabelle also chose a puppy from daddy's collected Ty Beanie Babies named Scooter. And the latest addition is a horse from mommy and daddy's Medieval Times outing that is named Prince, more on this outing in another post to come. She is nearly inseparable with these buddies now especially at bedtime and naps.


Isabelle will even let us know when it is time to sleep by calling for "Scoo-ter, Eyoeyo, Prs", finding them, and heading for her bed. I will work on getting a video to hear her calling them. With her imagination ever developing she also plays "nigh nigh". Having a multitude of choices with the ginormous Care Bear collection and many other random ones, I foresee Isabelle choosing more snuggle animals in the future.

DinoAlive

Once again the zoo has not disappointed us. DinoAlive is the latest exhibit that was available free for early viewing to members at the beginning of the month. Isabelle and I headed out one early evening just for that hoping to make it out of the zoo in about 30 minutes as we had Bible study that night too. I knew the exhibit was at the far back of the zoo but I didn't know many other members would be in the line to get in as well. On top of that it took 15 minutes to see the first two dinosaurs. The rest of the way had a wider path that we were able to get through a little more quickly but still had to power walk out of the zoo to book it to church. The exhibit was quite impressively live like with these animatronics moving and sound effects. Contrary to the pictures below, thankfully Isabelle was not scared, unlike some of the other kids. She seemed to enjoy herself pointing when they moved and saying her "see", "oh", and "wow wow".

I do like Isabelle's faces. Maybe she's thinking, "are you sure he only eats plants?" and "I'm more concerned about those dinosaurs behind you, mommy, with their sharp claws!". At the end of the exhibit there were those tiny dinosaurs appropriately tearing up Barney.

Of course there was the infamous T-Rex and babies in the nest. Again Isabelle shows a face of concern of "why are we standing within chomping distance?".

We enjoyed the free DinoAlive exhibit and would gladly pay next time if anyone in the area cares to join us for the fun adventure!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

While Isabelle plays outside in the patio, I try to get caught up in what's happening in the real world by reading the headline stories of interest. Of course the comics are a must as well. On one occasion Isabelle decided she needed to sit in a chair and look through the newspaper too. Either she was reading up about our local elections or searching for the comics unsuccessfully.

No harm in an early start at keeping up with the current world news.