Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Tuesday, Jan. 16 We had an exciting event occur today--Elisabeth wrote her first word. Now, please don't judge me. I wasn't pushing her or leaning over her, correcting her every move. Nor had I said anything about wanting her to write. Well, I guess a little. On Saturday she was doing chalk drawings on the driveway and I asked if she wanted me to label them (pig, spider, cow, goose etc.) So I did. Then she kept drawing, and I was labeling, and I asked if she wanted to write an A. So I showed her an A and she wrote a sort of A. This continued until we did the whole alphabet. Her attention span was longer than mine--I was ready to go inside, but she wanted to do more letters. That brings us to today, when she was coloring and she said she wanted to write something on the calendar. I said I'd rather she didn't (I could just picture a big scribble all over January). Then I said, "What do you want to write?" She changed her tactic and said, "You write Happy Bi...

In December we took Elisabeth to her first ballet, a local production of The Nutcracker. She was very excited about it—getting to wear her purple dress, getting to see the dancers. She loved the first half and watched intently from her father’s lap. The second half, however, had a back drop with a picture of a great big ice cream sundae on it. John whispered to me, “How do they keep the ice cream from melting?” and from then on Elisabeth was asking, “When are we getting ice cream?” (never mind that the day was more on the order of hot cocoa weather). I tried to quiet her down, but she wasn’t as into the dance of the Snow Queen etc etc. as I was. Eventually in her wiggling she hit her head on the arm rest and cried. We were able to reach the exit just as the second wail came, and that was it. A sad ending to a fun performance, but Elisabeth has happy memories. She is forever asking when she can be in the Nutcracker. Douwe is Elisabeth’s best friend. We go to the same church a...

I'm sure every parent has one of these stories, so I'm sure it won't be as funny to you as it was to us. Our pride is a bit injured, but the humor is still there as well. I hope you won't take it as sacrilegious, but rather as a 3 year old's play. Elisabeth has taken to repeating after us as we pray during devotions, and I was so impressed with her desire to pray. Currently we are going through Advent devotionals that have written prayers. Yesterday the topic was the new covenant and God writing his law on our hearts (from Jeremiah). Not a very tangible concept for a 3 year old. But we were trying. When it came time to pray, Elisabeth was in a wiggly mood, but that was nothing new. I tried to get her to hold still and fold her hands and stop playing with toys. She always was very interested in repeating after us phrase by phrase, but she seemed so distracted. I finally decided to begin. Here's how it went: L: Dear God, E: Dear God, L: we ask you to wr...

Getting Elisabeth up from bed seems to be a good time to get some interesting comments from her. One morning I turned the monitor on, trying to decide if she was awake or not, and it seems that I entered in on a little conversation between Elisabeth and her fawn, a stuffed deer. “I like sleeping in my bed too. Oh, said the fawn.” I wish I could’ve heard more of it. Asking her about it brought no further information. A few afternoons later when I went into her bedroom, she sat up in bed and with earnestness in her voice said, “Mommy, I have a plan for Absalom so he wouldn’t get caught in the tree: maybe he could go around the tree.” Elisabeth has often turned to the page in her Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and asked me to read the story of Absalom. It always makes me sad to read it and I tell her that it is a sad story. I didn’t realize that she had been thinking about how to save him. Perhaps if she knew the earlier events in the story she would have a few other solutions for his...

John's good friend Gary married Heather last month. Here is Elisabeth getting ready to be a bride, and us at the wedding. Elisabeth stayed for about half of it. John was best man.

After our long weekend in the Adirondacks we headed back south (just a bit) to Saratoga Springs. Felt like we were back in the city compared to where we’d been. But it was still beautiful. While John attended a conference Elisabeth and I explored some museums. She loved the National Museum of Dance because of its children’s area. She got to dress up to her heart’s content and dance on her very own stage. We also visited the Children’s Museum and the National Museum of Horse Racing. Elisabeth at the hotel: she looked great with all the business men. On the last day I had to get back to the mountains again, so for Elisabeth’s nap we took a 3 hour drive along Lake George. Oh it was beyond words. I tried to get Elisabeth to pose with me for a picture, but she was in a post-nap bad mood and the wind was too much for her (she dislikes even a light breeze sometimes).

It was 2 months ago, but Elisabeth did turn 3 on Sept. 24th. Boy was she excited about this celebration! Because of her new love for music we had a “Musical Jamboree.” She was very excited about her drum cake, which she fortunately recognized as such, although other guests did not. My favorite is the one of her dancing—only John and Elisabeth danced. The other kids (Douwe, Ricky, Timothy and Anneloes) just watched wide-eyed. The most fun was had with the “find the drum” game—we hid a noisy drum in the yard and the kids had to find it. I loved it when Douwe hid it and then showed the kids where it was. Such a nice calm sense of competition! Two months later Elisabeth is still talking about her drum cake. The red tricycle she received that day from Grandma and Grandpa was being used inside until just yesterday. I knew it was time to take it outside when she started knocking the paint off walls. Just a few weeks ago Elisabeth had begun riding a smaller tricycle to the park. Jo...