We decided to go to David’s work cafeteria for lunch. Memories about what we do at David’s workplace apparently stay fresh in the minds of our children. As they entered the lobby and began running to the cafeteria everyone could hear the following statements:
Jubliee: I want a club sandwich!
Angel: I want candy!
The security guard chuckled.
I’ve been seeing Jubilee mature this week as I’ve seen her preparing for Mother’s Day.
Yesterday she quietly stayed in her room during room time. When I came in to put clothes away, she said, “Don’t look at what I’m doing!”
When I pick her up from various activities, she’ll clutch to her arts and crafts and protest, “You can’t see this, Mommy!”
This afternoon, she told me, “Mommy, you’re getting many presents for Mother’s Day.”
“Wheeeeee!” I squealed. “This is going to be better than Christmas!”
Today I was trying to open her closet door, but she had hidden all of her presents…right where the door is suppose to be.
Knowing that we are going to Grammy’s for the weekend, she says, “I have sooooo many things to pack.”
By far the sweetest maturity I’ve seen was yesterday, again during her room time. Looking worn out (I’m not kidding you), she says, “Whew. I am soooo busy. I have lot of work to do.”
This is going to be the best Mother’s Day ever!
I’m sitting on the floor with my JAM girls while they eat a popsicle. I decide it’s a good time to teach a simple worship song to them with the hopes of adding to our small repertoire of “Holy Holy Holy” and “Jesus What a Wonder You Are.”
“I’m going to teach you a new praise song,” I tell them. Of course I still have to come up with a song.
“I know which song,” Jubilee says. “It goes like this.” Then, to my amazement, she begins to sing the chorus to a song. I’m pretty sure I know it, though her lyrics are only about half correct. I’m also impressed that she’s singing on key!
“Where did you learn that song?” I ask her. “Did you hear it today at the Easter Festival?”
“From your class,” she replies, meaning an adult program at church. She further clarifies, “In the sanctuary. I heard it a long time ago.”
So I pull out my iPod and play the song. She’s very happy that I used her suggestion. She even asked that we go to a concert to hear this song. I’m ecstatic that she wanted to sing a song praising Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
What’s the song? “Broken and Beautiful” by Brian Doerkson. You can hear a snippet of it on iTunes Someone also put a slideshow together on YouTube.
Here are the lyrics. In bold is what Jubilee sang. (=
As we break this bread
As we drink this cup
Lord we remember
How You gave Your life on a brutal cross
Lord we remember
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
Broken and beautiful
Extravagant love
Prodigal grace
Broken and beautiful
God’s perfect justice
Mercies embraced
As we break this bread
As we drink this cup
Lord we remember
It was for my sin that Your flesh was torn
Lord we remember
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
Broken and beautiful
Extravagant love
Prodigal grace
Broken and beautiful
God’s perfect justice
Mercies embraced
Broken and beautiful
Broken and beautiful
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
This is the way You’ve chosen to say
This is the way You make all things new
As we break this bread
As we drink this cup
Lord we remember
Jubilee had trouble falling asleep tonight. She called out to me at some point and explained that she’s afraid of the monsters. She knows monsters aren’t real, but her mind was full of some images she remembered from a story, and naturally the emotions were real too. Then she told me, “My brain is a smart brain because it thinks of things even though they were a long time ago.”
All three girls wanted to eat some leftover Shanghai noodles. (They’re thick like udon noodles.) It wasn’t mealtime, so I thought I’d make a game out of it. I sat on a step stool in front of them, then explained that they were the baby birds and I was the mommy bird feeding them worms. They said, “Tweet tweet!”, flapped their arms like wings, and opened their mouths until I gave them a “worm.” It was so much fun!
Growing up, my mom used to often ask herself, “What was I going to say?” Usually I would give the wisecrack response, “I don’t know what you were going to say, Mom.”
As an adult, I find myself asking myself the same question.
And now, Jubilee, at the ripe old age of 4, is already pondering out loud, “What was I going to say?”
Jubilee excitedly told us, “I have a great idea! If you put raisins in water, they will become grapes!” I (David) then proceeded to explain to her how you can’t simply put dried fruit in water in order to return it back to it’s former glory. I tried to give her some semblance of a scientific explanation, but I knew the particulars would be lost on her. “Besides, it will just make a mess,” I concluded.
But she persisted, so we filled a cup with water and put a raisin in it.
I knew that the raisin was just going to sit there, day after day, getting increasingly slimy and gooey. So, it was no surprise that after the first couple days there was little noticeable change. But by the third day, I was shocked! The raisin swelled up and now looked like a brown grape. Sure, it wasn’t really a grape, but as far as Jubilee was concerned, the raisin became a grape again. Amazing! And she was so proud of her discovery she proceeded to eat the “grape” and, I think, pretended to enjoy it.
Our little Jubilee, the scientist.
At 4 years of age, Jubilee is in her prime when it comes to asking “Why?” I try my best to not get fed up and say, “Just because.” Sometimes I say, “Why do you think so?” If she responds with an “I don’t know,” I may or may not be a little mean and say, “Then I won’t tell you.” (Don’t fret, I usually help her come up with an answer.)
I think Maddie is copying Jubilee. She says “Why?” all the time! She easily asks why four times as much as Jubilee. She is more persistent with asking “Why” than Jubilee. And much to our frustration, there is no reasoning with a 2 year old. To top it off, she probably doesn’t even know what “Why?” means!
Today I set aside time specifically to read to all three kids. I had them sit on the living room step. (You know, how many houses have a sunken living room? That’s the step to which I’m referring.) Then I faced them with an open book. It went very well. Of course, they talked most of the time. Sometimes I would shush them, but of course it would only take a few seconds for them to start jabbering again.
At one point, I told them to raise their hand before talking. This always works with Jubilee. But she’s 4! (Sidenote: when Jubilee first started raising her hand, she would raise it just so she could say something, and after being called on would scramble to come up with something to say.) So when I said, “Raise your hand to talk,” I also raised my hand as a demonstration. This of course prompted Maddie to simply follow suit and raise her hand. And Angel was of course watching Maddie, so she too raised her hand. I was cracking up, but I still called on them and they continued to talk my ear off.
My dream career, provided I had the required “mad math skills,” would be a cryptopher. What’s that, you ask? A cryptographer is one who writes or solves codes.
Jubilee likes to ask me to read words that she sees. Most of the time, I am busy doing something, so I can’t look at the word. “I’ll spell it for you,” she says. Then she proceeds to spell it. But she doesn’t use spaces. So I have to visualize the word in my head and determine the word breaks.
Jubilee and I are two cryptographers in a peapod: she makes ‘em; I break ‘em.
Here are some examples from when she’s looking at the calendar:
1) LABORDAY
2) FIRSTDAYOFFALL
3) YOMKIPPUR
4) FIRSTDAYOFSUKKOT (with apologies to my Jewish friends because I didn’t know the Hebrew word.)
While driving yesterday, she stumped me a for a few minutes with TOWAWAY. I kept visualizing “To Wawa Y.”