Our Little Lady - 25 Months Old

Rebekah is getting so grown up. Having an infant in the house is a reminder of just how big and grown up she really is! Also, I think that having a new baby around is in some ways forcing her to grow up even more. She still has lots of fun in life though. =) She still loves being read to, which is nice because that's something I can do with her even when I'm feeding Daniel! She loves playing with her friends (more her adults friends than child friends at this point in life), especially Grandma. She is curious about everything and wants to know all she can.

One small "toddler triumph" of the past couple of months (perhaps more for Mommy than for Rebekah, but just the same...) is that she has come a long way with toilet training. For the past month or so, she has been staying totally dry all day, almost every day - even during naptime! Night time is still another hurdle, as well as #2. Even so, she and I are both proud of how well she is doing! As I had expected, there has been a small amount of regression with Daniel's arrival. Before he was born, she would say "YES!" and run to the bathroom anytime we asked her if she had to go - whether she actually had to or not! Now she says "no" whether she has to go or not. She is still staying dry most of the time though, so I'm happy about that.

Singing "The wise man built his house upon the rock!"

Hanging out with Daniel - see, she really does consider herself to be a "little lady!"

Here, Rebekah is dissecting grapes! She is such a little organizer. She has a certain way that she wants everything to work, and if it doesn't....well, let's just say that at this point in her life, everyone in this house is happier when things work for her. She can get into a very whiny little attitude at times these days, but we're working on that. Anyway, Rebekah had a bowl full of concord grapes (we can get 1 kg - 2.2 lb - here for about 75 cents!), and was separating the skins from the insides, and then lining them up. She had to do that with ALL of her grapes before she could eat them. Such a goofy little girl! Part of me wanted to stop her and just make her eat the grapes normally. But then I remembered my own mom and all of the strange things she put up with ME doing with food as a kid! I figured that she's not hurting anything - just making the table a bit stickier than it would have been otherwise! She's exploring and learning (although I'm not sure what) even through dissecting her grapes. Thanks, Mom, for that reminder. =)

Rebekah says that she was "praying God for our food" in this picture....even though there was no food on the table at that time! Maybe she was literally praying for food. =) It is neat to see her growing in her understanding and awareness of God. She is learning that we can pray for and about anything. We have power cuts fairly regularly here. One evening as she and I were getting supper ready, the power went off and the house became almost completely dark. She doesn't normally mind the dark, but the suddenness of it scared her that night. We lit a candle and then prayed that God would help the power to come back on when it was time. When the power came back on, she wanted to "thank Jesus" that the power had come back on. Now, almost anytime the power goes off, she tells me that we need to pray for it to come back. =)

Rebekah loves looking up at the moon and stars at night, and reminds me often that God made them. When she gets in trouble, we sometimes tell her that it makes us and Jesus sad when she disobeys. Often after she has been disciplined, she will ask, "That makes Jesus sad when Bekah don't obey?" Not that it changes her behavior much at this point, but she is learning. You can be praying with us that she will continue to learn, and that it will not be long before she understand her own sinfulness and sees her need to accept Christ for herself.