My girl

My sweet girl is just one month shy of being two-and-a-half. That blows my mind. She is a delightful girl a majority of the time, but watch out for that minority. She can be quite the handful. A friend who wrote a reference letter for adoption said in her letter something to the effect of Haven requiring a strong hand. I thought that was a brilliant way to put it.

One of the reason I started writing this blog was to document our life. I do that well with some things, but feel like I've been remiss in keeping a good record of what Haven's been doing lately. So if you don't care about all the funny things Haven says or does, then stop reading here. If not, prepare for a sappy mama sharing about her girl.

The girl talks non-stop. She goes on and on and on, full paragraphs, barely stopping for breath. Honestly, it wears me out. But she's also funny. Here are a few of the funny and or common things that we hear around here:

-Come here, Baby Mommy
-I have di-a-rhees (thankfully this isn't all that common, but has been of late!)
-I do it myself
-Scue me, pease
-Is that a little bit yucky? (always in reference to an animal and asking you if you like that animal)
-Wanna read?
-Last night- refers to anything that happened in the past. As in, "I went to the zoo last night" (she went 4 months ago!)
-Where'd ya buy dat? (She asks this about everything and then follows up with...)
-How much did you pay for dat? Was it 45?
-At the grocery store- Mama, is that too spensive?
-Hang-a-burger (hamburgers)
-Plaper lips (paper clips)
-And every night before bed she says, "Zeebee and BunBun are scared!" and then I ask her what to tell them and she says, "Jesus is with us!"

Haven never seems to amaze me at what she understands and can do. She knows her ABC's and recognizes about 10 letters by sight. She can count to 13 (and then it becomes sixteen, eleventeen, sixteen- we're working on it!). Haven's getting pretty good at dressing and undressing herself. Those shirts can be tricky sometimes, but she is persistent.

She can sing Jesus Loves Me all by herself as well as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. We're also teaching her the doxology and it's very fun to hear her pipe up at "Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." We have been working on some very basic Bible memorization and she is picking it up so quickly it blows me away. She loves to pray and her prayers are becoming much more than just repeating us, but really what is on her mind. Last night we had finished praying and I was singing a song when she asked me to stop because she needed to pray more. It makes me so glad to just see glimpses of her heart!

I love being Haven's mom and am daily reminded and amazed at what a gift she is to me. Part of the inspiration for this post is that I'm getting a little weepy because she's leaving me on Sunday for a few days for some time at Nana's house. We'll go up to my mom's on Thursday to spend a long weekend. As much as I'm looking forward to being alone! In my own house! I'm going to miss her. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with all my time without having her company. I'm sure I'll figure it out quickly, but tonight I'm sad thinking about her being gone. She's just growing and changing so much and is so her own person and I love who that person is becoming. I love watching it develop and unfold and getting to be part of that development. Seriously, I need to just stop here or I will keep going on and on and on. I just love this girl!