YAY! I'm 3 months old! 
E' LOVES to talk, baby talk! I wonder what she's trying to say? 
boy is it hard to take the picture you imagine you'll be able to take. They just don't cooperate and stand where ya pose them... that blanket on the floor kept moving (right?), and the sun moved just enough to cast shadows all over, and sweet E' discovered she could grab her shirt and pull it back and forth 
they were all smiling for the camera... then baby E' got all excited about her hands (which she notices from time-to-time throughout the day) and she fell over in the thrill of it all... while B forgot all about me saying "smile for mommy" and stared at the neighbor walking outside the window... and i didn't notice til after I gave up and hit the camera button anyway, that the carpet was peaking out from beneath the blanket on the floor :0) I tried to explain Independence day while dressing the kids for church Sunday morning. We had such a busy week that I somehow managed to miss the opportunity to do an independence day learning unit with them last week. So... when I laid out all red, white, and blue for them to wear and J' noticed and asked why, I found myself trying to give an abbreviated explanation, "Well, today is Independence Day and that means..."
All she caught from my brief comments was the word "free," which in her vocabulary refers to things that don't cost any money. "Why am I free?" she wanted to know - as if that's a bad thing. I loved the opportunity her confusion afforded me to explain freedom in Christ, freedom to worship in our country, and the rights and privileges of living in the USA (all on the level of a 2 to 4 year old audience).
Sadly, her statement reminded me again of the hard units I will have to cover in the future; teaching my children about slavery, civil rights, and the full meaning of freedom as black men and women in the USA. I wish their heritage and history didn't include such ugliness. When they are old enough, we will teach them about those dark and horrible parts of black-american history so they will understand the responses they will receive from some in the world later in life. It will be compounded by the persecution they encounter for their faith in Jesus Christ. But there is one difference: their faith they will choose (boldly and proudly), their skin color (or that of their parents and sibs in the case our fairer-skinned kiddos) they were simply born with.
making squinchy faces (E was DONE with picture posing for the day)[DOUBLE-CLICK ON ANY PIC TO SEE A FULL-SCREEN SIZED VERSION]
