Gingerbread Men

I've always wanted to try making them. And lately, Maya has been quite enamored with the story of The Gingerbread Man. We have two versions of the story right now....one is from the library, and one was mine when I was a little girl.
Maya loves to "read" it...and all books. (No, not like one of those genius babies who can actually read, she just has them memorized). In fact, this morning, the first thing she said to me was "Momma. I Love You Forever isn't dood for me. It's...it's..too hard. I tant...I don't know how to read da words. It's not dood for me." She is so serious sometimes.

So last week, we had a fun afternoon baking, decorating, eating, ....and of course, acting out the story of The Gingerbread Man again and again and again....

Just after we finished our gingerbread men, I caught her with the book, but only managed to
sneak the camera in at the end of the story (when the fox has convinced the gingerbread man to stand on his nose). Most of the time, she is too aware of the camera to capture moments like this....


(Part of the video is hard to understand...when she gets quiet, she says..."Oh no. I'm a quarter gone!" Said the..."gingerbread man.")

Sophie's crawling footage was removed...

...from the earlier post.

However, I recently managed to capture some more crawling footage...as well as a Bengal Tiger. While you admire the skillful crawling of Sophia, you can also observe the beautiful tiger enjoying her captivity in the background.

"...to wash our Sin away..."

Today, while reading one of our favorite library books about Kindergarten, we read about Music time at school. The teacher in the story told the class that she was going to teach them a very old song for Christmas...in Latin. The music for Dona Nobis Pacem was on the next page. As I started singing it, Maya excitedly joined me "Do-na ---(hey! we know diss one!!! Huh! Hm. Yeah. We know it!) -----No-Peace Pah-chem Pah-chem."

At the end of the song, she was upset when I started to turn the page. She didn't think we had sung the "Christmas song" yet. So she began singing HER Christmas song from her class at church... (to the tune of Jingle Bells) "Christmas bells, Christmas bells, ring dem all a day....Ring dah news dat Jesus tame to wash our sins away." She turned to me and corrected my singing, "SinSSSS, Momma. You say SINN. I say SinSSS." I think she was trying to make a theological point? I still say Sin (with a big S) though I think it's both.

We talked a little bit about what sinsss are...disobeying, not being kind, and she added with a very serious face, her mouth twisted and eyes big "...and taughting (talking) lite a mean dirl." Yes, Maya. Talking like a mean girl. That is sin. And we have lots of messy sin.
She looked down at her hands, inspecting them...and nodded. "Yup. I dot sin on-nair. Hm. But...oh well." Lately she's picked up this frightening teenager-like flippant tone. Occasionally she even says "Whatever."

No Maya, it's in your heart. There is sin in your heart.
"OH???!" she said, sounding surprised and casually interested. After a moment she added with disapointment, "But I tant open it up. I tant see inn-nair."

Her unique....and limited? way of understanding big and small concepts about life is always humbling and clarifying for me....and often pretty funny.

But I'm realizing more and more how little she...or I can do about her heart. It isn't mine, and in many ways, I can't really help her with it.
Every day...hour...I pray that her little heart will stay soft. And that she will know more and more how deeply and completely she is loved by Him.

Sophie really crawls!

This was minutes ago. And now she's EVERYWHERE.

This may not be a good thing.