The Father-Daughter Duo

Jeremy and Liv are either playing the Stare Game or they’re cuddling. Whatever they’re doing, I’m in favor of it.

Amazed

God put a deep and powerful love for this child in my heart. At the end of a long day, even at the end of the worst day ever, I think about this little face and my heart jumps a bit. Parental love is intense and beautiful—and I praise God for letting it overcome all the crap we’ve been through by the time bedtime rolls around.

I praise him for this love, and I praise him for his love. Someday he’ll redeem even our good things, like my love for my child, and make it perfect. That day will be something to behold.

Livia-isms: The Latest

This morning Livia woke up and wanted to write a Valentine for Haiti. She told me it would say this, “I am sorry your whole family died. I hope you love me. Love, Livia.”

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[Written on another day...]
Liv has just returned from time-out for disobedience. She returns to her kitchen stool and urgently calls me. “Mama! Mom! Mom! You need to come look at this!!”

I put down the soapy dishes and walk to the stove.

Liv points to the rounded pound of ground beef I’m browning, “Is it a brain?” and then she declares, “It’s MASTY.”

I got a good chuckle out of the masty brains, that she then admitted smelled good.

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Livia’s Reminder Note to Self:

Photographers should not take pictures of people when they are naked. It is rude.

Recorded on a piece of newspaper after kid camera incident with mom in the bathroom that morning.

Water Play

Bath time around here is an Event. (And when it can’t be an Event, it becomes a difficult task for everyone involved.) Sometimes there are bubbles and sometimes there is a new, special bath toy, but always there is one little girl, tons of mismatched and somewhat random toys to play with, soap and water.

And by the time the little girl gets out of the tub, she’s usually quite relaxed. She rolls up in a towel and takes a breather. All that fun in the hot water is hard work!

Challenge for the day: take your camera somewhere new. Let me know if you blog about it.

Slips of Encouragement

Livia’s cubby at school had a little note in it today. It read,

Livia got caught being good! Signed, [her teacher]… For helping another student!

I cheered on my daughter and she explained further that a friend’s pants were coming down and she helped her notice it. Liv has issues with falling pants, so it really was a kindness and help to her friend this afternoon.

When you are five years old and you have a hard time focusing and keeping yourself under control, it is a HUGE deal to be noticed for being good. And oh, how I love it that her teacher sees these good qualities and encourages them. I have been brought to tears more than once by the way Liv’s teachers “catch” her doing good and then praise her accordingly. There are just so many “No, don’t do thats” and “Quit touching thats” and “Move fasters” that a young child has to hear. It’s important that kids know what it is they are doing right in the midst of their days. I have to be reminded periodically to verbally rejoice and encourage my child.

In the same vein, I think it’s important that we tell our friends what it is that makes them special. Do you have a friend who listens to you drone on and on about your workday? Do you know someone who is particularly cheery when you’re not? Do you have a mom/sister/best friend who will come wash your dishes when you’re down? (Real life example with my mom last week–thank you, Mom!) Do you appreciate the way your friend sees beauty in the mundane? If so, figure out a way to send them a slip of encouragement.

There is snail mail, which I’ve particularly been craving lately. Anyone else crave a good newsy letter?

And then, there is Valentine’s Day. How cool would it be to send out notes of encouragement on a holiday that celebrates love?

I almost wrote that I’d get off my soapbox now, but ha! Who am I kidding? I’m a blogger. This is my soapbox! And I’m totally not getting off anytime soon.

Friday’s Entertainment

Livia is becoming surprisingly efficient at applying face paint. I’m trying not to plan her future career based on the whims of Liv-at-five, but still. Wouldn’t it be cool if she worked in the movies someday? She could get her mom onto the set to watch the action. She might win an Oscar for makeup. You never know.

These are the ramblings of a tired woman on a Friday night. I can hear car doors slamming for a movie and game night next door (no, not there, a tired woman lives at that house too). I feel very unhip and old and boring at the moment. Blogging on a Friday night. BLOGGING. Oh well. Hope these shots entertain you on a Friday as well.

I present: The Many Faces of Livia.

Oooo. Scary.

And sweet.

Super silly.

And serious.

Snowball Series

We went for a walk in the park. In knee-deep snowdrifts. Hip-deep for Liv. It took an hour to make a very small loop in which I could see my house the whole time. Still, in a desperate moment, I recalled the doomed flight that landed in the Andes Mountains. And I decided Liv and I would eat the dog first before making more, shall we say, difficult decisions. Fortunately I had my cell phone. Even more fortunately, my child chose to be brave when she felt like giving up.

This series is from the more light-hearted moments of our almost ill-fated journey. And even though I wanted so badly to catch a shot of a snowball in the air, I wanted even more badly to keep my camera dry and functioning. : )

Color Me Beautiful

Give my kid a coloring book and a brand new box of Crayolas and… nothing. Girlfriend does not like to color paper.

Give her a mirror and a brand new box of facepaints and… hello, Sweet Cheeks! (Papa calls her “Sweet Cheeks.”) Livia is all about physical art. She’ll pass on the 2-D, but anything with a bit of texture under her fingers excites her.

Part of the challenge of parenting—and I think this is universal—is figuring out your child’s unique, God-given personality. What makes her tick? What excites her, frustrates her, encourages her, pleases her? I could sit and color for hours on end, even as an adult, but when I press my child to do it, it’s a challenging endeavor for both of us. I want Livia to glorify God in all things. I want her to be the very best Livia Tredway she can be. I want her to grow up knowing that I am proud of her, that I enjoy her, that I will stand behind her and encourage her—even if she’s pursuing activities that I have very little natural interest in.

For today, though, Liv is into face paint. And that’s something I can get into.

I’m Too Beat to Write a Decent Title

It’s been a heck of a day with my five year old. Personal apologies go out to the patrons of the Coffee House this evening who were witnesses to, first, the screaming fit of my child, then second, the lugging of the aforementioned child’s body out the door by one p’oed mama.

Apologies also to anyone in the downtown parking garage who may or may not have heard me say something like, “If you don’t start walking now, I will leave you behind.” I wouldn’t have done that, I promise. But only because they, too, wouldn’t have known what to do with a 5 year old tantrum-thrower either. Kidding. I’d never leave her behind and darn it, I shouldn’t have said something like that. Argh.

We get home—finally!—and the behavior improves only marginally. She sits on the antique coffeetable, feeds the dog her prime rib dinner and tells me more than once, “No way, Jose.”

Many time-outs, scoldings, and toy removals later, and it’s bedtime. At one time during the bedtime routine, I have to walk away in order to gather my wits and not lose control of myself. Upon returning to her room, she sees that I am nearly crying in exhaustion and sadness and thus commences a conversation about the softness of one’s heart. She is sensitive. She is sad that mommy is so sad.

She tells me that the top parts of her heart (I imagine she’s envisioning a literal heart shape) are soft, but that the bottom grew hard and broke off. It fell off somewhere inside her, but Jesus went in through her nose, took some snot and put her heart back together. With snot. Then wiped the snot off after her heart was repaired. Problem solved. The whole heart is soft now.

That’s not all.

After I pray my somewhat brief bedtime prayer, I hear this:

Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to go up my nose and fix my heart with snot. Amen.

Now my daughter is asleep. My heart is soft. And I’m still not sure whether I need a stiff drink, a bunch of kleenexes for a hardy cry, or just a good night’s rest. I, too, thank God for sending Jesus to redeem my heart from hardness. I need Him, moment by moment, to fix my brokenness.

December 29

Five going on fifteen.

Liv’s groovin’ to those rad Jesus Sunday School tunes, with fingers in her mouth, during breakfast on December 14.

DPP Reject #3. Category: Makes Her Mama Smile.