Miss Mali

I haven't updated personally about Mali in a little while, and actually have some time and am feeling well enough to blog. Mali is doing really great. She has gotten really tall and her feet have grown too. I had to pack up almost all of her shoes after she got blisters on her little heels from too small of shoes. Mali loves being active, dancing ballet around the house and making up songs. Most of the time, she is really happy. Lately though, we've revisited whining and are really working on curbing that right now. That is pretty much what makes up our day, teaching Mali that whining is not okay and enforcing that. We are also working on curbing lying. I just can not believe it has started this early, and it is so silly, but I guess that is easier to work with than serious lies. Today, for example, she showed me her owey on her thumb. I kissed it and she said "Snowflake (her doll) bit my fingernail off and did that." It is hard not to laugh sometimes, but we are teaching her that the truth is always better than the lies. Another major area we are working on is teaching her to clean her room, a must for her to learn, because I already spend an incredible amount of time and energy on this task with her daily and will not be able to do this once a new baby is around. I bought shelving/cubbies and baskets for her to put all of her toys in. I'm in the process of printing photos of the contents of each basket and sticking that to the outside, so that it is as easy as possible for her to clean up herself. So far, it is no miracle worker, but stick-to-it-tiveness (on mine and Eric's part) and perserverance (thank you Jesus for offering this to me through your power and strength) should get us there.
On the fun side, Mali and I have spent the summer going to the free family movie. Her favorite so far has been the Water Horse. She did cry during much of the movie. I tried to get her to calm down, it was really just her tender heart coming through (a dog was chasing the water horse and it was a funny scene to the rest of theatre). I asked her why she was crying, her response "My body told me I needed to cry." Eric is a little worried about her "girlyness":). We've also spent time at story time at Brush with Art painting and listening to Mrs. Lillie read. We've only made it to the pool a few times mainly because of my work and pregnancy interfering some what, but she has had a blast when we go and has even gone underwater and I've helped her float on her back. Mali and I've been to the park a few times, but she mainly likes to just swing so we try to stick around the backyard for that. However, Mali has begun to slide down the slides all by herself. We spent this morning swinging outside and then Mali painted with sidewalk paint and got naked and played in the muddy mess her sandbox had been. They were fun childhood moments, that won't last long. A few weeks ago, Mali had a visit from her best friends, Zachey and Calyn, she really had a great time with them, and still a year later, talks about them as if she sees them every day. Mali has also gotten a lot of "daddy time" while I've been working. He's taken us to the movies (Wall-E has to be her favorite right now) and to the golf course. Mali loves to dress herself. It is usually in dress up clothes or fancy dresses. I really feel okay with letting her be a kid and express her individually within reason. I'm not sure her dad is as big of a fan of this stage though!:)

Mali talks about the baby a lot, and is STILL calling it a baby sister, we'll have to just wait and see. The cutest thing that she does is talk to the baby. I showed her how to talk to the baby in my tummy, but she thought it was better to talk to the baby through my mouth. So here is a short video of her doing it. It is pretty cute, especially because it was her own idea.