Five on Friday

I (along with the rest of the world) am (not so) patiently waiting for Spring to actually come, and come to stay. While it's definitely been nice to have less snow, warmer temperatures, and sunnier days overall, Mother Nature has not been consistent. It may say April on the calendar, but I still need a bit more convincing. :-)

Here are the random thoughts and things in my heart and head this week...

**ONE**
It's Easter on Sunday, and I'm super excited! As I get older, I enjoy Easter more and more. When I was a kid, I was all about Christmas (and still am), but Easter is definitely climbing the ranks of my most favorite holidays.

I love that Easter is in Spring (at least according to the calendar) - the season of new life and new beginnings. And that's what Easter's all about too! I love the brass and drums at church. I love proclaiming "Christ is Risen!!" and realizing fully what that phrase means.

When Linnea started talking excitedly about the Easter Bunny this week, I realized I haven't done a great job preparing Linnea for the true reason for THIS season. For Christmas, I think we did a good job. For every mention of Santa, there was at least one conversation about Jesus. And I think she really got it. She knew it was Jesus' birthday. Of course, she knew that Santa was a part of it all too, but she knew he wasn't the biggest part (at least I hope she did).

Explaining that it was "Baby Jesus' Happy Birthday" was pretty easy. Linnea understands birthdays. We get a year older. We celebrate. It's a special day for that person. But Easter is harder. How do you make crucifixion and resurrection understandable for a 2-year-old? So as the week has progressed, I've talked about why we celebrate Easter. I've also taught her, "Christ is Risen!" I hope these little steps help her remember the importance of Easter. And of course, the Easter Bunny will be visiting too...

**TWO**
Some of my best moments this week were in the dark and quiet as I was putting Linnea to bed. Our days are sometimes crazier than I'd like. A lot of rush, rush, less play time and fun than I would like, and some crabbiness on both of our parts thrown in. But in those moments as we snuggle, read, and sing together before bedtime, all of that goes away. Linnea has become SO expressive. I used to sing the songs to her, but now she usually sings with me. I die a little each time she moves her hands and arms to the music or wiggles her little head or puts her lips just so to say the words. Ahhhh. Love her. She helps me slow down and savor those moments. Side note: One song that's regularly requested is "Jesus Loves Me." Lately she's wanted to add everything in sight to the song. It got to "Jesus Loves Linnea, Mama, Daddy, Luther, teddy, Murphy (her stuffed dog), blankies, Frozen, special book (her photo book she likes), bed, signs, lotion, soap, and light" before I enforced the rule that we just keep it to four. So now it's usually "Linnea, Mama, Daddy, and Luther," although earlier in the week "Elsa and Anna" got their chance too.

**THREE**
Have you seen this? I saw it (and then posted it) on Facebook this week, and it's sticking with me.


I love to think about what the world would be like if we could all look at things through these eyes.

**FOUR**
I've realized I'm a bit sappy and deep in the post... so just to mix things up, I'll share that Linnea sneezed a huge, messy sneeze yesterday and immediately wiped it away with her arm, getting snot EVERYWHERE before I could even do a darn thing about it. Afterwards, she had this shocked and surprised look on her face like, "what have I done?" All either one of us could do was laugh about it. Ahhh...the glamorous life. :-)

**FIVE**
While we're on bodily functions, Linnea started going on the potty at daycare this week!! This has been a VERY long time coming, which is crazy considering she's been going on the potty (although not potty trained) for pretty close to a year! I don't know quite what the block was for her - too busy, nervous? I have no idea, but I was honestly starting to get concerned. I was planning on connecting with our daycare provider to see what we might do to move forward, when I got the e-mail at work from her, saying Linnea went! That was Wednesday, and she did it again Thursday! Hooray! Hopefully this is the start of a good trend!

Happy Friday, friends!!