a faith observed: Little Miss Smarty Pants

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Little Miss Smarty Pants

Gracie is such a delight these days. When she smiles her big twelve tooth smile it lights up the whole room.

People have always commented on how bright Grace seems to be, the way she observes and absorbs everything around her. This morning she discovered our shape sorter toy and within a few minutes she'd mastered putting the shapes into the right holes. Later I put Simon and Gracie into the bathtub because they'd gotten muddy outside playing, and I brought out some different shape toys and right away, she was putting the circles, triangles, squares and diamonds into their proper places. Amazing.

The other cute thing Gracie does is insist on sitting in the time out "monkey" chair. As soon as she gets into it, she motions emphatically for the timer and isn't happy until you've given her the timer and it's ticking away.

Whenever Grace hears or sees an airplane she makes a certain face, sound, and crawls over to the screen to look outside.

And she's a big fan of the ABC song. We have this leap frog magnet on our fridge that helps to teach reading and phonics. Well, it's one of Gracie's favourite toys and she constantly plays with it (she likes to hide the magnets under the fridge). She likes pushing the ABC button on it and then sings along in baby language. Then this morning, another ABC song came on and she got a huge smile and right away started singing, and it sounded like the same baby song she usually sings with the magnet.

Today I was nursing Grace and I started biting my fingernails (I know a terrible habit I still haven't broken). Grace looks at me, grins her huge grin, and sticks a finger in her mouth and giggles. I love it when she smiles and her eyes get this kind of cheeky, mischievous look in them at the same time and they dance around and they are just so BIG.

Grace is beautiful. I see a mixture of Andrew, Andrew's cousin Laura, my Grandma Pierce, and my cousin Beth in her looks. I love her little tummy and she just loves looking at her belly button. But one thing I have noticed that belongs to me is the way she curls her toes in and under - just like me. I think that is what they must have picked up on the ultrasound scan when they thought she had a club foot.

1 comment:

Judith said...: So when Grace is naughty, for correction will you tell her she absolutely CAN'T sit in that chair and "don't you even think about hearing a timer, young lady!!"; February 23, 2011 at 7:51 AM

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This is me, a faith observed.

C.S. Lewis writes about the pain of losing his beloved wife, Joy, in his book, "A Grief Observed". In some ways this is my attempt to share my journey through grief and back into life, as the past nine months have been characterized by an immeasurable longing for my beloved father, who died suddenly this past January.

After months of hibernation from the internet, I unexpectedly find myself able to re-begin this blog and connect with my larger community of family and friends. This blog will likely reflect less of the intensity and depth of my pain and more of the simplicity and ordinary joy that keeps my life full - namely days running after our little boy, Simon Pierre. But it is because of the incredible love and presence that defined my relationship with my father, that I feel I can will myself to not just survive each day but to pour that same kind of love and attention onto Simon.

My father was an endless source of strength to me, a pillar of faith. His last words, spoken to my mother as he passed into that which is unseen, "God is good - good all the time", have remained with me through this dark cloud of grief. And when God seems hidden, when justice seems to be losing out, when life is unfair, and when death swallows up the one I most love, I remember my father's words and breathe in this promise, that the God of love is in the process of restoring that which has been destroyed.

And as my father told me in dream I've had since his death, "Look to Jesus. As a father, to point you towards Him is the best gift I can give to you." So here I am, this is me, a faith to be observed.

I hold onto that which is not always seen- the promise of God's goodness, the hope that one day in the promised new heavens and earth- on a grassy hill or a sand covered beach- the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side and I, too, will lie down side by side, next to my father, and we will laugh and laugh until there are no more tears left to cry.