A few of my favorite things

Some of my favorite things Aaris has done lately:

1. Learned to make her life a musical. The other day she came in and asked if we would like to come see her "stuff". I do need to let you know that she was wearing her Ariel red hair wig at the time. So Titus and I followed her into our game room where she then proceeded to break out in song "Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?..." I'm sure most of you recognize this is a song from the Little Mermaid movie. She sang the whole thing and acted it out. I love that she loves to sing.

2. Actually uses the bible verses she memorizes. She had learned a new Bible verse a couple of weeks ago from 1 Corinthians 13:4: Love is patient. Then, about a week later the kids and I were playing at the Southpark Meadows playground and Aaris had found another little girl to play with. But, Aaris kept getting stuff in her shoes and stopping to get the stuff out before she continued playing. Well at one point Aaris set down on the bouncy bridge and the other little girl started jumping on it. The next thing I hear is this: "My bible verse says, "Love is patient". Did you hear me? I said my verse says "Love is patient." Stop jumping please."" I was both so proud and so humored at the same time. I love that she knows her verses and even knows how to apply them in different situations. Now, if I could just get her to apply them to herself, that would be great. :)

3. Always prays. At the park today, she hit her head, and well, pretty much her whole body, pretty hard falling off a table. She cried for while while we assessed her and made sure that the bleeding from her head was not serious. After a while, I put her down and asked if she wanted to go play. She said no. But, then she told me what she did want to do. She wanted to pray. So we did pray to ask for her "hurts" to go away. Before we left the park she had asked me at least 2 other times to pray with her. I love that her natural first response in almost any situation is to pray.

4. Always wanting to learn and truly understand. Anyone who is around Aaris for any amount of time knows what her favorite question is: Why? She asks it all day long. But, she really, truly wants to understand everything that is said or going on. Some of the big ones she's asked me lately are: why did Jesus have to die on the cross, why don't girls marry girls or boys marry boys, do you love me no matter what? I must admit that I can get very very weary of answering questions all day, but for the most part, I'm very proud that she is thinking about things so much.

5. She talks about Jesus all the time and truly loves him. She brings up Jesus in conversation at least once every day. And she really loves to talk about heaven as well. Just a couple of days ago she was with me when I was getting ready for the day and she said, "Mommy, I just miss Jesus so much. I wish he would come and get us soon." I responded with an agreeing, "I really do, too, Aaris."

6. Likes to think that she is really strong. If you ever want Aaris to eat her meat, you just remind her that meat is what makes your muscles get bigger and that makes her stronger. She will then start to eat her meat and after every bite "show" you her muscles and make you feel how that bite of meat made them stronger. Also, yesterday we passed my new gym that just opened and I told her that we need to go to mommy's new gym since it just opened. She asked if she could go with me. I said that there were too many heavy weights for her to exercise with me. She then said, "Oh, but Mommy, I wish that I could get healthy, too." I know that was probably just her way of saying she wishes she could be with me, but it made me giggle that she said she wanted to get healthy.

7. And finally, about 2 weeks ago I went into Aaris's room at night expecting to just watch her sleep for a minute, but she woke when the light from the hall hit her face. So, I talked to her and she just got the giggle bug, and then of course I caught the giggle bug, and we just sat there and truly, deeply just laughed for about 5 minutes. She then started telling me over and over again, in one of the most sincere voices that I've ever heard, that she loved me. I of course responded with how much I loved her. All together I spent about 15 minutes in her bed with her that night doing all of this and it will always be one of the most precious memories I will ever have of Aaris and I together.