It was a good month around here with the weather warming up, lots of weekly activities, and Spring upon us. Although some days still feel long with a toddler and baby keeping me on my toes (and knees for prayer and cleaning!), I’m impressed with how precious this time is while they’re still little, and how quickly it’s passing as they grow just a bit more each week. I’m thankful to be with them during the day to catch the sweet moments of sibling tenderness among the many teachable times. Andrew and I have been taking some opportunities for more one-on-one time with the children, and it’s been fun to enjoy those special times with us. Timothy often asks for our entire family to do everything together, but it’s also been great to hear him excitedly recount some of the outings he has with Andrew.
Grace is learning more words and showing avid interest in almost everything, especially new places and foods. Her newest words are “bye-bye”, “yes” (in both English and Cantonese), “baaa” (sheep sound), and “voom” (when playing with vehicles). She makes efforts to sign for more food, and to reach out for hugs now, too. She’s also a very fast crawler and cruiser now, getting into anything her little fingers can reach to shove into her mouth. Grace also enjoys cooking up (or just causing) a storm in their little play kitchen. Meanwhile, Timothy continues to insist on helping in the kitchen, trying veggies as I chop them, and especially likes making cookies with me. His imagination, humor, and communication is growing so much, and it’s especially cute to see how he likes making us laugh with his jokes. I also love he plays getting ready for work by filling his backpack with play food and jumping into the Cozy Coupe or waiting for the bus, just like Papa. We continue to enjoy 
hearing him “read” (memorized) large portions of or entire smaller books. Timothy is continuing to spell a lot, and at time it seems like he really knows how to read words, but then it’s evident he’s actually just recognizing familiar words and logos (like Costco!). He takes many opportunities throughout the day to smooch and hug his baby sister, sometimes even when she really doesn’t want it, though. He’s also pointing out in recent months that she’s not walking yet, and that he wants her get older and start doing it soon – funny! If she’s anything like him, it’ll be a few more months of waiting. I’m willing to hold off on that extra busyness anyway. 😉
We visited the cherry blossoms nearby at UW on a nice warm day and were glad to see Timothy and Grace enjoy themselves. Andrew and I hadn’t seen the blooms in years so it was nice to do a picnic dinner there, take some photos, and watch our little guy run happily around the Quad. Grace tried to eat some of the leaves and fallen blossoms, but that’s about par for the course these days with her exploration. 🙂 Our own fruit trees are blossoming well this year and we look forward to hopefully enjoying the fruit they bear later in the fall. Big brown snowshoe hares have also been appearing around our home lately, to our collective delight, especially since this is our first Spring without a bunny of our own to watch hop around outside.
Holy Week is upon us and it’s been so neat to see Timothy start to recount more of some parts of Jesus’ journey to the cross and the Resurrection. While he seems more obsessed with the little trinkets at this point, I still enjoy using our old set of Resurrection Eggs with him this year as we navigate his Bible together. As we look forward to joyously proclaiming the most important event in history, I’m eager for that hope to penetrate my heart since my due date for the baby we lost has come and gone recently. I’m amazed at how God is bringing comfort, truth and conviction through His word and people. Our heartaches aren’t for naught and they’re ultimately not even about us, which is surprisingly encouraging to my introspective and selfish soul. While I stumble along in learning to treasure Jesus, celebrating the journey to the cross has been especially meaningful this year. I pray that Easter means so much more than candy, baby animals, and cute pastel outfits for you, too! 🙂
Happy Easter!
