Dear Adlee, 18 months

July 10, 2014

Dear Adlee Mae,

Sweet Girl, you are now eighteen months old and a go-getter. You like to do things for yourself. You know how to move the kitchen chairs to get to the table, counter, sink, or hutch. You can open all of the bottom cupboards, and you get yourself snacks or straws as you please. Twice, you have dumped out the cocoa powder and played in it. I store that in a high cupboard now. You are great at holding your silverware (but still use your fingers often) and holding pens or pencils for coloring.

You help me by throwing away garbage, putting your dirty clothes in the dirty clothes pile, and sometimes by helping me put other things away. You are becoming more aware of the way things are supposed to be and you give me a worried, “OH!” when you spill something.

You eat scrambled eggs (normally two of them!) for breakfast. You like yogurt, cheese, and fruit. You also like crackers: Ritz, Gold Fish, and animal crackers. You like eating pizza. You love sweets. Twice since I’ve been writing this you’ve used your chair trick to get to a bag of candy Daddy brought home.

You and Daddy like to go on four-wheeler rides together. Sometimes you tell me, “Da vroom-vroom bbbpphh” which means Daddy took you on the four-wheeler to see the neighbor’s horses. You get very excited when he comes home and try to open the door for him, but you can’t reach very well and end up locking him out.

You love animals. You can make many different animal noises including wolf and bee. You beat your chest when we ask you what a gorilla says. You don’t say neigh for a horse, but you blow through your lips. You don’t say “meow” or “quack.” You call cats and ducks by name.

You say many words. I listed words in your last letter, and you stopped saying some of those and started saying others. You say, “Mom-Mom, Dad, hot, hat, hi, goodbye, eye, DeeDee (Adlee or Baby), don’t touch, this, that, cat (sounds exactly like that), duck, num-num, yeah or yep, jump, fish (sounds like deesh), treats (dog treats), all-done or all-gone.” And, we just bought a rabbit today. You call her, “Thump-Thump.” You have a sound and face for yucky, a face for stinky, and a face to represent the word cry (when we read it at the end of “Little Boy Blue”). You’ve started to just make sounds if you can’t say the right word, and you have the right intonation enough that many times I can tell what you are saying. It’s pretty cute. You still use sign language for more, please, and thank-you. You make me so proud when you say thank-you unprompted.

Your favorite movie is Curious George. When you want to watch it, you point to the TV and say “T-T, Ah Ahh.” You also like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and other Disney Junior shows. They don’t keep your attention for long. P.D. Eastman is your favorite author right now. We read Big Dog, Little Dog, Go, Dog, Go!, and The Alphabet Book quite often. You also love your Baby Einstein books.

I take you to the library for story time many Mondays. You are getting better and better at doing the motions to the songs, and you often stand right in front of the book when the story time lady reads.

You started sleeping in a toddler bed in May. Daddy and I read and sing nursery rhymes to you. You love Daddy to give you a ride when we read “This is the way the ladies ride.” Then, I sit at the end of your bed until you fall asleep.

You are naughty sometimes. You feed the dogs your food, and you are constantly walking around on the table. Most of the time, though, I can tell you not to do something and trust you to obey me (at least for a while). You are very sweet and give great kisses!

A few other things about you: You only have six teeth. You now can remember and quickly become comfortable with people (like grandparents) from visit to visit. You are very shy around strangers or people you haven’t spent much time with. Except for being with new people, you are very brave in new places. You go down all the highest slides at the parks I take you to (and sometimes you climb up to them by yourself too).

I’m sure there are more things I could write, but I think this is most of it. I love you!

Mom-Mom

An Independence Day Post

I recently reread the Little House on the Prarie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was fascinating to read them from an adult perspective, and I highly recommend it.

This passage about Laura's thoughts about DeSmit's Independence Day celebration was one I will never forget. Enjoy.

I'm going to start quoting at the end of an Independence Day speech which was mainly the Declaration of Independence. If you want to skim the beginning part, I understand, but I personally carefully read the Declaration every July and think every American should. (Hopefully, I carefully typed it for you.)

"It's Fourth of July, and on this day somebody's got to read the Declaration of Independence. It looks like I'm elected, so hold your hats, boys; I'm going to read it."

Laura and Carrie knew the Declaration by heart, of course, but it gave them a solemn, glorious feeling to hear the words. They took hold of hands and stood listening in the solemnly listening crowd. The Stars and Stripes were fluttering bright against the thin, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them.

"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impell them to the separation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..."

Then came the long and terrible list of the crimes of the King.

"He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States.

"He has obstructed the administration of Justice.

"He has made Judges dependent on his will alone.

"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and to eat out their substance.

"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people...

"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, destruction and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation...

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,

"That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full right to levy War...

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

No one cheered. It was more like a moment to say, "Amen." But no one quite knew what to do.

Then Pa began to sing. All at once everyone was singing.

    My country, 'tis of thee,
    Sweet land of liberty,
    Of thee I sing...

    Long may our land be bright
   With Freedom's holy light.
    Protect us by Thy might,
    Great God, our King!

The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind and she thought: God is America's king.

She thought: American's won't obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn't anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.

Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. "Our father's God, author of liberty--" The laws of Nature and of Nature's God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God's law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.

The Declaration must be read at every Fourth of July celebration, young people like Laura and Carrie memorized the whole Declaration of Independence. They held hands because to hear it read was glorious. Wow!

God's law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free. Amen, Laura.

Happy Fourth of July!
Jordon