Growing up...its complicated

The past week Marielle has begun talking incessantly about when she grows up....

"When I grow up to be a mommy, I can sit in the front seat, JUST LIKE YOU, MOMMY!"

"When I grow up to be a woman, I can walk down the aisle in a wedding dress!"

"When I grow up to be a baby, I can sleep in a crib whenever I want."

(You might infer here what is the constant conflict in this girl's heart--do I want to be an independent big-girl, or a baby who gets cuddled by mommy all the time. We are straddling that line on any given day.)

"When I grow up to be a woman, I can get married. The sun will be beautiful and I will walk down the aisle, and it won't be scary!"

"When I grow up to be a woman, I can wear lacing beads like a necklace whenever I want!"

"A brown tree grows up to be a purple tree! And then I'll climb up the tree to the top with my markers, color the tree, and fly away in a helpicopter!" . . . This is no joke here, friends. Either this girl has an imagination, or her father is telling her some crazy bed-time stories (both very likely).

But the real highlight of the week was when our neighbor told Marielle in her very neighborly southern-drawl,"My, what a big girl you're becoming!"; to which Marielle promptly answered in a solemn whisper, "I'm growing up to be a woman." It was all I could do to not blush, and promise said-neighbor that this was not something that we were emphasizing at home. :-)

This chronicles one of our most peaceful mornings (i.e. this is rare)....Sister bonding over oatmeal. Sigh...It was very sweet. Marielle has taken an interest in feeding Genevieve her breakfast, since Genevieve still basically refuses to take this on for herself. :-) Marielle is surprisingly adept at getting the spoon gently into Genevieve's mouth. This is a great blessing to her mother, since I can be cleaning up the kitchen or get dressed while Genevieve is still happily being fed.

I know the soft morning light filtering in is giving this quite an angelic-looking aroma, so just in the spirit of keeping things real, below is a picture that was taken just hours later during lunch!

Youre probably wondering what happened to my happy little baby!? Well, you'll just have to read that in the next post. :-)