December 4 - 10 2023

 Monday when Paul got home from work Mary got so excited to see him and ran full speed toward him and yelled "hi!" It made his day. Tuesday, we went to the park, and we ran into Megan and Kynlee, which was a lot of fun because we haven't seen them for a couple of months.

Wednesday, we went to Reno, to the Children's Museum, with the Gochenours. Mary had so much fun playing with Lydia and EverLee. On our way home Megan texted me to see if we wanted to meet them at the park. We met up and Kynlee and Mary played together for a little bit but then it got really stormy all of a sudden, so the play date was cut short. That was probably good though because Mary didn't nap, so she was overtired by the time it was bedtime. She woke up a couple of times and when I went in to comfort her back to sleep she grabbed my arm and said, "goodnight. Sleepy." It was so cute and sad. 

Thursday, we went to our play group and Mary was having a hard time sharing but she got better the longer we were there. Happy birthday to Addie and Gabe on Saturday! We taught with the Sister Missionaries Saturday morning. Their investigator is getting baptized next Sunday; it was fun to be in that lesson. After that we went to the library for Mary to see Santa. She was too nervous to sit on his lap, but she enjoyed frosting cookies and looking at the Christmas tree.

Sunday was super busy. We went for a family walk, then I got dinner in the slow cooker, bathed Mary, I got ready while Paul went to ward council. Then we went back to church to practice a song I was singing in the Sacrament meeting. I was in a group of six women, and we sang Do You Have Room? It went well. 

Then it was the Relief Society Christmas Party for the second hour, and I was in charge of putting the program together. I helped set up and played prelude music. I sat next to the sister's investigator who also brought her nonmember friend! The program went really well, and a lot of sisters came up to me saying it was the best one they've had! And the Relief Society President said twice as many sisters showed up than have come in the past, we filled the whole room! 

Paul had his missionary coordination meeting after church then we went home and had dinner. I practiced my violin while Paul and Mary got on zoom for the Roberts Family Christmas party. Then we went to a Christmas Fireside where I played The First Noel with two missionaries. I was super nervous, but I think it went well. We were exhausted from such a busy day and went to bed as soon as we got home. 

Mary has been talking a lot lately and I keep forgetting to put the funny things she says in my paragraph, so here are some that I wrote down from this week: "Mary, are you coming?" "Here I come!". When we brush our teeth, she will keep saying "two min-utts" because she learned you have to brush your teeth for two minutes. We sing row, row, row your boat and Mary will say "gently down the shreem". 

She will grab my hand when she wants me to do something and say, "stand up! come on, come ON!" Often the thing she wants me to do is dance with her and she will correct my dancing by saying, "No. Thpin! Like dis" then proceed to show me how she wants me to spin. She will also come up to me or Paul and pat us on the back and say "are you okay?" it is so sweet. When I tell her she can't do something she will ask "why?" ten times before reluctantly saying "okayy." Or she will clench her fists and say, "I'm mad!" or "I'm fwustwated!" If we do something she doesn't like, she'll exclaim "hey!" 

She loves playing pretend now. She'll pretend to hold a phone to her ear and say "ring, ring! ring, ring!" She also loved to pretend to be a lion (rawr!), dog (woof), cat (meow), frog (ribbet while jumping), elephant (flails her arm while spitting), or dinosaur (dinathoree, "rawr" while marching). She loves to say "ho, ho, ho!" and pat her tummy to laugh like Santa. 

Sunday, I had several people in the ward tell me Mary looked so beautiful in her pink dress. Another little girl told her mom she sees a beautiful princess.