Life is so creative

Wow, I'm actually having a pretty good time in life right now. My new nephew (Isaiah) is very healthy at 6 weeks and just too, too cute. My in-laws are so super-terrific, my husband loves me, even though I can be pretty unlikable sometimes. My sister, her kids, my BIL Smith and my mom all live not 20 minutes away from me, both sets of grandparents are less than 5 miles away in either direction, Hubby's 40+ cousins are close and they're more incredible to watch every day. My dad is a terrific cheerleader for me and helps me so much just in every day things. Props to him for marrying one of the best gals in the world! Love you, Gugu. OH, and my sister and I are starting a Bible study together. (Such a long story that I can't get into it here, but trust me, we went from wanting to kill each other most our lives, to her leading me to Christ in 1996, and now we are closer than ever.) God is so good.

On a whole other level, I have started working on the new commissioned piece for a girl that Andrea works with at Lifeline Children's Services. I am really excited about this piece because it is something I personally am drawn to artistically. It is a painting of a wrought-iron cross with blues and browns in the background and the cross itself is a dark brown. Here is the background without any accents or elaborate detail.

And here is about 45 minutes later as my husband takes pics of me working. He's really good at that and I'm thankful he takes such interest in my creative side. He's a great supporter. It's a wonderful thing.

So, there you have it. Not much else to report, but I'll blog more tomorrow and hopefully I will have this painting finished.

Help! My daughter's turned into a parrot!

Welp, whoever said that teaching little ones Sign Language impedes their speech must not have been doing it right. Or at least, they've never met my daughter.

I can say just about anything and Ham will repeat it...or try. Which makes for very funny moments. All of which I wish I could get on tape, but alas, it's just so spontaneous that I would have to install cameras all over the place to capture her humor.

This morning I said we needed to get a diaper and a wipey and Ham crowed, "Di-uhn 'n eye-pee. Di-uhn 'n eye-pee." I love the variations of words she uses. It makes the English language so much more interesting.

However, there are downfalls.

Most of the time, Husband and I call each other "mommy" and "daddy." But sometimes we do call each other by our names. So, I don't know in what situation Ham deems it necessary to use my real name, but sometimes she will just start calling, "Amy! Ammmeeeee!" She doesn't do it to my husband, though. I don't know why.

This brings us to making sure we think about everything we say. I use, "Ah, man," when I do something unexpected, like dropping some food on the floor. And Ham might be in the other room and I hear her croon, "Aaa, meen." And one day I said something about a bomb and as she was innocently eating in her booster seat, she off-handedly mimicked me and said, "bauuum." Hubby and I just eyed each other warily.

I have to say that I'm glad I don't use swear words in everyday language. Now, I'm not perfect by any means and I have been known to let a nasty word slip when I am overcome with anger. (I don't like it, so I have worked to not do that at all.) I only say that to let you know I don't judge those who use curse words because I, myself have struggled with it. However, I don't want my daughter exposed to it. I don't think it's cute when kids cuss. I just don't. Sorry. I have laughed at it before, but since becoming a mother, I wouldn't ever want to hear dirty words rolling easily off her tongue. OK, that being said, let's move on.

Ham is also trying to sing songs she's heard. Most recently it's "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and I gotta say, she's just the cutest thing. The first part is a lot of, "Ayeyeyaya ooooayaya" and then it's a very pronounced, "Neee aaannnn tow." Love it.

So, that's the main event going on right now. SO much fun.