She likes praise.

Felicity was fussing in her high chair, so I pulled her out, set her on the floor, and gave her a sippy cup.

From the other room, Ariel ran in, gave Felicity her favorite stuffed bear, and ran back as quickly as she'd come.

"That was so nice of you Ariel!" I praised. "You gave Felicity her bear!"

"Huh?" Ariel called.

"You brought Felicity her bear! That was so nice! You made her happy!"

"What, Mommy?"

"I said that was so nice of you to bring Felicity her bear! You made her happy!"

"Huh?"

"Never mind!"

It was quiet for a moment. Then:

"More, Mommy?"

"More?"

"More, Mommy?"

"More what, Ariel?"

"More 'make her happy'?"


That little booger could hear me all along!

our version of bronzed baby shoes

For Ariel, we got her handprint and footprint put into ceramic professionally - 3 times, at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year. We didn't want 6 ceramics lying around, but we didn't want to only spend money to preserve Ariel's precious babyness, and not Felicity's, so Dan came up with this idea:


This beautiful pastel was drawn by artist Li Tie in a mere 20 minutes. Amazingly, it was done from a live, very squirmy and uncooperative subject, rather than a photograph. I am so happy with the results.

Time to buy a frame!

A Big Step