Opening presents with the Leon family. While tearing off the wrapping paper or removing the tissue paper, before she even sees the gift, Jubilee will excitedly coo ?¢‚Ǩ?ìOooooh.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù My family loved it.
Archive for December, 2006
Wow! (when something is really cool!)
Oooooh! (when she sees a new toy)
Whoa! (when you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re on the verge of losing your balance!)
For example: Jubilee was digging through a basket of toys. She found a baggie of tiddly winks. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìOpen?¢‚Ǩ¬ù she asked me. I opened the bag and poured the tiddly winks on the table. Her response? ?¢‚Ǩ?ìOooooh!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
Today we put Jubilee down for her nap. She signed ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpray?¢‚Ǩ¬ù on her own. She remembered that we pray with her before she goes to sleep. Usually this is only before bedtime, but it was a joy to do so before naptime as well.
(The title of this post is a reference to an old song:
Whisper a prayer in the morning
Whisper a prayer at noon
Whisper a prayer in the evening
To keep your heart in tune
Merry Christmas! Last year, Jubilee did not take to the joy of opening presents. This year, she quickly learned that ripping paper leads to a gift. She enjoyed finding the taped seam and tearing the paper. She also enjoyed emptying her stocking. Before we opened presents, I explained to her that opening presents is one way of expressing love. Sadly, we all know that children are pretty tunnel-visioned when it comes to the Season of Gimme. But each year we hope to point her to the Birth of Jesus.
For Christmas break, we?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re visiting Poppa and Grammy. It was Sunday and I was in the church lobby getting a drink of water. I was about to walk into the sanctuary when I heard ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDaphne!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I turned to see Grammy holding Jubilee.
I walked toward them as Grammy told me something. Then, to my surprise, Jubilee exclaimed ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDaphwe!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I went up to Jubilee, pointed to myself and asked, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWho am I??¢‚Ǩ¬ù ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDaphwe!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù she gleefully called out again.
When I opened my last present from Grammy and Poppa, I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful children?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s tea set. You know, the kind of tea set that people buy for children that cost a fortune when the child only needs plastic. (=
No, I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not making fun of Jubilee?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s grandparents. They told me they purchased it at a garage sale and it was completely tarnished (possibly proving my point about a child not using it) until they cleaned it. They gave it to me because they figured Jubilee wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t be interested in it until she was older.
Anyway, it included a teapot, a creamer, a sugar bowl, and a platter. It was simply gorgeous.
?¢‚Ǩ?ìLook, Jubilee!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I showed her the tea set. I began to pretend play, showing her how to pour the tea into the creamer (because there aren?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t any cups), add some sugar, and drink the tea.
Jubilee is completely taken with the tea set. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s by far her favorite Christmas gift. Several times each day she serves us tea. Because of my initial example, she continues to use the creamer and sugar bowl for serving tea. She sometimes also take a spoon and stirs the tea contents before serving it. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s totally adorable!
And to think Grammy and Poppa gave it to us on a lark!
David left for church early to do sound. When I arrived, Gaun-Gaun had also just gotten to church. He carried Jubilee into the sanctuary to say hello to Ba-Ba before going to the nursery. Immediately, Jubilee saw the lit Christmas tree and exclaimed (at the top of her lungs) ?¢‚Ǩ?ìYites!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
Here’s a story fom Pau-Pau:
Pau-Pau and Gaun-Gaun took Jubilee to one of her favorite restaurants, Top Cafe. Jubilee loves their fried rice. It’s always a good time there. But tonight, Jubilee was not her usual self. She kept insisting on drinking Pau-Pau?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s hot water. When Pau-Pau would hand her the cup of hot water (carefully, given the temperature), Jubilee would look at it and then adamantly push it away. But she would keep asking for the cup. What was going on?
Even more unusual, when the fried rice arrived, Jubilee didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want it!
Pau-Pau then recalled that the last time they were at Top Cafe, she had ordered Jubilee a cup of Horlicks (similar to hot Ovaltine.) So Pau-Pau quickly called the waiter and asked for the drink to come immediately. After receiving her Horlicks, Jubilee happily drank it and digged into her fried race.
Pau-Pau was amazed: Jubilee remembered the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìroutine?¢‚Ǩ¬ù from the last time they were at Top Caf?ɬ© and wanted to repeat it!
Uri who? He’s the guy known for bending spoons. Jubilee started bending spoons too. Okay, not bend, but break. At dinner yesterday, she accidentally broke her spoon. (We give her plastic utensils from cafeterias.) We gave her another spoon. Immediately, she put the spoon on tray and began pressing on the middle section, eventually breaking this one too. We gave her a third spoon, then quickly took it away when we realized her desire to eat with the spoon was long gone.
While gathering up the trash to take it out to the street tonight, I opened the diaper pail and was shocked to see that it was empty. Jubilee produced no stinky diapers this week because she used the toilet each time! (We only put the poopy diapers in the diaper pail.) That’s a first!