the Miss Independence-s

Although it's August now, we have two young girls who still insist on celebrating their own personal independence each and every day. It is delightful. (Grins does too, in his own ways, but his sisters seem a bit more adamant about it at times. He is our agreeable peace-maker most of the time!)

Angel, who is 5 and will be entering Kindergarten in just a couple of months, no longer needs help reading at all! During our morning devotionals we help each child read a verse of scripture. It never occurred to us to have Angel do it on her own because we assumed the scriptures would be 'too difficult'. But a couple of weeks ago, Angel just began reading her verse before we could even start. She got through even the longest of words without so much as a second thought, and the Mr. and I looked at one another with tear-filled eyes as we realized how much our baby has grown. Now she's just a regular old reader, as if she's been reading her entire life. She devours every book she can find, and is particularly helpful at reading books to her younger siblings if I need to get dinner on the table. She is often asking "Mommy, why does that sign say ----?" or "What does ----- mean?" I am amazed and proud and a little bit sad all at the same time. Would that I could make time stand still, I love my children so much and am enjoying them and this stage in their lives, so signs of progress are bittersweet. But I'm pleased with her nonetheless.

Aside from the reading, Angel's writing and artistic abilities are flowering as well. Several weeks ago we wrote letters to "Uncle Adam" - our brother/uncle who is busy serving a full time mission for our church. She insisted on writing a letter herself:

For those of you not fluent in Kindergarten-ese, this: "To Umkul Abum Hav u gr8 (clock) techyng at pypels (house)is" read this: "To Uncle Adam, Have a great time teaching at peoples houses." I love her creativity! :)

Wiggles, on the other hand, is busy asserting her independence in other ways. When I try to do anything for her (from helping brush her teeth to getting her dressed to helping her down the stairs) she insists "No! Self!" (meaning: No, I want to do this myself!") I try to allow for her independence but must be more vigilant about keeping my eye on her while doing so; the other day she pulled a big box of crayons off the counter, resulting in crayons all over the floor. I said "(Wiggles), let's clean the crayons up!" and began putting the crayons back in the box. "No! Self!" she demanded, so I left her and the crayons while I went to start breakfast. I didn't give it another thought (you'd think I would have considered the danger of crayons by now, having 2 older children!) until a moment later when I noticed the silence...(silence + an 18 mo old= MESS!) I ran to check on her and this is what I found:

In case you can't tell, that's black crayon ALL over my lovely, new, hardwood floors. And Wiggles eating the crayon. And smiling. And this picture only shows about 1/3 of the damage. Thank goodness crayon rubs off or I would have been crying instead of taking a picture.

I love my girls and I know their independent spirits will serve them well in life!