Bits of Joy

I’m really not sure who is enjoying this more ;) (Taken with instagram)

How they entertain themselves while I shop at the mall (Taken with instagram)

Bryan and I sometimes just call Joy “the girl.”

“Want me to go get the girl up from her nap?”

“Would you mind getting the girl ready to go while I pack up the food, please?”

Now, I realize that this may sound very impersonal to the passerby. It could come across that we think of her as “just another kid” and we’re not using the name that we very carefully picked out for her.

But at least for me (and I’m quite certain it is the same for Bryan), calling her “the girl” means a lot of things.

She is “the girl”…

- who introduced us to the world of parenthood.

- who has changed our lives forever.

- who has taught me more about being selfless than anyone has in my life.

- that I asked God for…an answer to prayers and longings.

- that I was afraid to hope for (my mom didn’t get a girl until her 5th pregnancy and Bryan’s mom, her 3rd so I didn’t think my chances of having a girl were very high).

- who breaks my heart with her beauty (not because she has Bryan or my looks but because of God’s handiwork in his creation of her).

- as in, the sweetest, funniest and most beautiful little girl we’ve ever known.

- to whom I would give the world to, if I could, but yet simultaneously I pray that she would count all of it as worthless compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as her Lord (Philippians 3:8).

And someday I hope that God gives us a boy to whom we will bestow a very meaningful name but yet still occasionally call him “the boy” with just as much love.

Some things Joy says (and in some cases “has been saying” for many months now):

- “I love you”: sounds like “Ah-la-bbbluu” and her tongue kinda’ hangs out of her mouth in the process of her oh-so-precise pronunciation.

- “Goodnight”: sounds like “Nah-night” and is usually accompanied by a cute cocking of the head to one side while the eyebrows are deeply furrowed.

- “Where did it go?”: sounds like “Ah go?”, accompanied by hands extended, palms up, to her sides and once again, the deeply furrowed eyebrows.

- “All done”: sounds like “Ah gone!” said with much fervor and intensely furrowed eyebrows, as if she is trying to bore holes through me with them.

- “Play!”: sounds like “Pa-way!” with two very defined syllables (I never knew that the word “play” is a two-syllable word until my daughter enlightened me so) and repeated with excitement either as we are approaching church (or specifically the nursery at church) or when a playground is in sight.

- “Basketball!”: version 1 sounds like “Basketball!” and version 2 sounds like “Ba-ball!”

- “Outside”: sounds like “Ow-ssside” with a very slight lisp and some extra emphasis on the “s”…it’s pretty cute. Oh yeah, and her eyebrows are furrowed for this one, too.

- “Iris!!”: sounds like “Eye-yis” and let’s just leave it at…she LOVES this girl and we don’t dare mention her name unless we know that Joy will get to see her shortly thereafter.

- “Anna!!”: usually sounds like “An-nana!!” and is repeated unceasingly as long as our sweet little neighbor girl is in view…and often when she isn’t, too.

- “Goodbye, See ya!”: sounds like “Buh-bye, see ya!” and is followed by a long tirade of, well, monologue with much expression, hand motions and yes, of course, furrowed eyebrows.

Anyone noticing a theme here? This girl knows how to use her eyebrows!

Mother/daughter love (Taken with instagram)

It’s a comfy hoodie kind of day, today.

Yep. Swim diaper on the leg. Only a toddler. :)

I leave her in her room for a few minutes and this is what she does.

Joy’s way of saying “Peek-a-boo” is “Peet-do-weeee.”

I actually had to work through some tangles when I combed Joy’s hair this morning. First time for everything!