Other Happenings

So, we had a long night the other night after Sally the cat died.  At 10:30, Ada was still awake, and we had tried everything.  She was scared to close her eyes, she said, so we turned off all of the lights in the living room, Scott held her in his lap while he sat on the couch, and she finally, finally fell asleep.  That girl of ours gets attached.

Luckily yesterday morning Ada started ballet with a new teacher in a new class, so that served as a great distraction.  I have a few pictures of beforehand, but that is really all I have to report.  I didn't get any details out of Ada.  She liked her teacher, her partner (for something?  Don't know what?) was really nice.  And she asked me if that was a real ballet room because there was a bar attached to the mirror...and that's all I got.  Also, when we walked into the classroom, the teacher told Ada to find a spot on the floor (there were spots marked with painters tape), and before I could blink, John had plopped right down beside Ada, sitting "criss-cross applesauce", ready to go.  I had to snatch him up fast, and he was not happy about it.  He wants in on whatever Ada is doing.  Luckily there was a waiting room with lots of fun toys, so he was soon distracted.

don't you love that hanger hanging on the basket in the background?  Wouldn't you think I would have noticed that and put it in the closet before I took the picture ;)

From there, Ada began to get more and more mopey, but it turns out, she is sick with a fever and some sort of throat thing--so who knows, sad about the cat?  Sick?  A little bit of both?

In other very exciting news--John tee-teed on the potty tonight.  This is a BIG deal because I HATE potty training after how traumatic it was with Ada.  We have been trying the potty for a while now each night before bath time, but this was the first night that we had success.  I was saying, "Yay, John" very loudly and making a really big deal about it.  At first, I think that made John nervous, but then Scott and Ada came into the bathroom, and John began milking the attention for all it was worth.  At one point, John looked up at us, and when we didn't say anything, he prompted, "yay, John?" and we all had to cheer again.  I hope, oh I hope, that this time around potty training is really simple.  Ha, we'll see...

I also finished reading Give Them Grace by Elyze Fitzpatrick, and I can't recommend it enough.  I will blog more about that later, but let me just say I walk away from the book reminded that my main job is to show my kids Jesus and to show myself Jesus.  I am reminded that, yes, I need to teach my kids to obey and to follow the rules of society, etc. etc, but that when we inevitably fail at those things and fail a lot, I just point them to Jesus.  And, even better news, when I fail even to show them Jesus, which I also inevitably will, his grace covers that too.  When I fail at all of it, He's still Jesus, and the gospel is still the gospel, and the very essence of the gospel it that I am going to get it so wrong and He got it completely, 100% right.  I just want to keep pointing my kids to God, Jesus, the gospel, THE GOOD NEWS.