Haley Jane:  Age 3 Haley:  "Daddy, are there flying horses in this world?" Dad:  "No, honey...not in this world.  Only in our imagination." Haley:  "Ohhhhh......Wow.  So, how do we get to our-imagination?" Read More

Haley Jane:  age 3 We had a youth worker's meeting after church today.  Haley loves it because she gets to spend quality time with some older kids, have "kitty club", and watch a movie in the church nursery while we have our meeting. When I went to get her after the meeting was over, she shooed me away frantically, "Noooo....Mommy, can you just go PRAISE THE LORD some more?  Please.  I want you to go PRAISE THE LORD a loooooooong time so I can watch The Little Mermaid." Read More

Haley Jane: Age 2 Haley:  "Mommy.... I.  want.  some.  Peanuts." Me:  "Haley Jane, what you need right now is PATIENCE." Haley:  "No, I NO LIKE Patience.  I. want.  peanuts." Read More

Haley: Age 2 Location:  Reykjavik, Iceland She's really just repeating what she's heard, not being egocentric.  But when the first words out of her mouth one morning were "Good morning, mommy! Good morning, Iceland church bells!  I so pretty.  I so beautiful," I knew it was time to teach her this verse:  "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Proverbs 27:2. Apparently I didn't communicate this concept successfully because the next day she Read More

Haley Jane:  Age 2 Location:  Reykjavik, Iceland I just took Haley Jane to the playground behind our apartment even though it's cold and windy outside.  She went down the slide, got a few pushes on the swing, then found a wooden bus to sit in and pretend to ride. After a few minutes, she looked unimpressed, got out and said, "That thing needs new batteries." Read More

Haley Jane: Age 2 Location:  Reykjavik, Iceland Haley is starting to regress with potty-training and is starting to have lots of accidents in her plastic panties. The other day to help reinforce this skill my husband said, "Oh NO, HALEY!!!  I have to go potty!  What should I DO?!" Haley looked up from the book she was flipping through,  calmly responded, "Rubber panties," proceeded to go find some in her room, handed them to him, and went right back to her book. Teachable moment: fail. Read More

Haley Jane: Age 2 Setting:  Sitting on a lava rock looking out into the Atlantic Ocean in Iceland with Haley at my side and her 7-month-old sister, Darcy, in my lap. "Mommy, may I please..." I start to smile as I hear my two year old perfectly articulate a request just like she had been taught to do, feeling all my hard work starting to pay off "...throw Darcy into the Ocean?"    Read More

Haley Jane:  Age 2 I let Haley carry a little green, Gideon pocket New Testament to church yesterday. It must have made an impression. Today she waddled up to me and asked, "Where my Holy Green Bible at?" Read More

Haley Jane:  Age 2 Yesterday we read the Christmas story and set up our nativity with Haley.  She listened intently to the part about the angel that had come to Mary and Joseph saying, "DO NOT BE AFRAID!" Today, after breakfast, little Haley proved that she comprehended the previous night's lesson.  We watched as she marched right up to the porcelain angel, stared it right in the eyes, and with hands on her hips and pampered butt sticking out, she confidently remarked, "I NOT SCARED." Read More

Haley Jane: 20 months old We went to Lake Lunga to watch fireworks with our friends, the Fauth family, this Fourth of July.  It was Haley's first (fully cognitive) Fourth of July and it was like nothing she had ever experienced before.  The loud booms, the festive cackling of the fireworks.  She was wide-eyed, just taking it in the whole night. The next day, she must have still been processing the events of the evening.  After letting out a disturbingly loud amount of  flatulence, her eyes got Read More