Camerawork Only a Mother Could Love

Last soccer game of the season, Emma sees her friend Libby make two breakaway goals and pouts "I can never do that." I say "imagine you're running down the field, doing what Libby did. You can totally do it!". Then I catch myself praying one of those soccer mom prayers... God, if you're not too swamped today with the famine in Hati and everything, and this isn't too annoying, could you please help my daughter get a goal for the Northaven Kangaroos? So she goes in last quarter and snags the ball from the other team.. goes running down the field with the ball, kicks, and... misses the goal by about an inch. But at that point, hey, who cares?! (And of course I was too busy cheering to actually aim the camera or anything, but if you look really carefully, you can see her skinny little white legs run past, and if you're genetically related to Emma, you'll probably still enjoy the video.



... and the post-game wrap-up:

The Get Well Nana Dance

Aren't You Out of Your Mind??

Emma turned five today. She was extremely excited last night to realize that she would go to sleep four and wake up five. As you can see in this brief video clip, though, the milk and strawberry tart have clearly gone to her head. Party Sunday.

Could You Be More Specific?

"But how do the sperm get from the Daddy to the Mommy? Can they fly?"

Oops!

[said with just the right mix of annoyance and righteous indignation]: "God shouldn't have made mosquitos!" (Anyone have a good comeback for that? I didn't!)

Score One for Grammy

In the car today, we were talking about what it meant for God to bless us and naming things we were grateful for and talking about loving others as the way we can be most like God in the world and how we can be God's arms, ears, legs, etc. Emma said she really wanted to be God's feet. Who knows what metaphysical seeds were planted (or what the eventual therapy bill will be--guess we'd better start the fund now!) but later, Emma wanted to pray before dinner: "God, thank you for all the colors of the world and the green, green grass and the green leaves on the brown trees and that we don't just have white grass and that we don't just have white trees. And thank you for these things we have to drink and oh! I forgot thank you for the food and for clothes to wear and that Grammy knew to do her work and get me all these wonderful clothes. Please bless [insert everyone's names] and everyone in the whole world. Amen."

Who Can Get Me Underwear??

Today Emma said "Who can get me underwear?". I replied "Can't you get your own underwear?". She said it was a new game show. Whoever could get her underwear the quickest wins. I'll take what's behind the curtain, Monty! I wonder if we're just not getting out enough...