WHAT SLOANE SAID....IN APRIL

Carrying Sloane for 10 months, giving birth to her, nursing her - all of those things - is probably one of the biggest and greatest things I've ever done.  But when I see how funny and smart and delightful she is right now as a person developing into her own, it's really hard to imagine that I had anything to do with it. It seems more like magic, some sort of miracle that she is how she is and I often feel like one of my main jobs as a mother is to observe this creature in wonder and just enjoy her as much as I can.

April 5
While watching a short animated video about the story of Easter, we saw a scene where a few days before his crucifixion, Jesus washes his disciple's feet. Later on, we saw a scene where people were running and dancing in the street with joy because they heard that Jesus had risen, and I asked "Sloane why are all these people happy?"
She replied, "Because their feet are clean!"

April 6
"Mom, Are you wearing a tall dress (I was wearing a maxi dress) and a yellow cardigan? I like it!"

April 7
Every morning, "is it warm outside ?"

April 9
"Mom, I saw there was a white truck and it bonked another car! And then it had to put on a bandaid to fix it."

April 10

"I want baby sister to come out now!"

April 13
Every night: "Let's cuddle!"

April 14
"Let's sing together! sing with me mama!"

April 15
"Eyore needs a bandaid..."
"Sloane, I don't think a bandaid will stick to him."
"....Mom can you get a pretend bandaid for him then ?"

April 17
I've introduced lots of different kinds of milk to her so we get a variety - cow's milk, almond, coconut, soy - and one day she asked,
"Mom do we have cows' milk ?"
"No, we just have almond milk and soy milk right now."
"I want soy milk."
"Ok."
"Mom, it's hard to say soy."

April 19
During her bath, "Mom I saw in the book Jesus washed people's feet!  I want to wash your feet."

April 20
And a couple of days later in the bath again, "Mom, Jesus washes our feet !"
"Yes Jesus washed his disciples feet, do you know why he washed feet ?"
"....Because their feet was dirty!"

Then,

"..Why are people's feet dirty mom?"

"Because the people were walking on the streets where there were a lot of mud and dirt."
A few minutes later,
"What about God? Does God wash the people feet too?"

April 24
After I picked her up from daycare one day,
"I'm so happy to see you Sloane!"
"I'm so happy to see you too, mom!"

April 25
She asks me what all sort of words mean - view, out of tune, harvest, trouble, suite, etc... And I'm often laughing at myself for the way I try to explain some of these things to her.

April 26
More tough questions from Sloane:
Why is the head in the middle?
Why do I have two grandmas?
Why does an elephant have a trunk?
Why does a lion not have a trunk ?

April 27
I went into her room one morning to wake her up. She smiled with her eyes closed when she heard me come in but her eyes stayed closed. I crept into bed with her to hold her. After a few minutes, With her eyes still closed, but with an obvious struggle, she said, "mom, I'm trying to open my eyes."

April 28
A few months ago, she started saying, "I'm sorry" of her own accord, and it still surprises me and makes me melt each time. I can't help marvel at the conversations of reconciliation we can have right now. 

One time, she was refusing to put on her clothes so after a few minutes of tears I told her that I was going to go get ready and that she would have to wait until I came back. When I returned a few minutes later, she was sitting quietly on the floor holding the clothes and said, "I'm sorry mommy, I'll put my clothes on now."  "Thank you for obeying mom, Sloane, and I forgive you. Im sorry for getting frustrated, do you forgive me?" "Yes," she replied and we hugged and cuddled for a while before heading into the rest of the morning.

Another time, we were in the dressing room, and I told her not to open the dressing room door several times but she was in one of her silly moods, terribly distracted and proceeded to open the door. She must have realized what she has done because she tried to quickly close the door again and one of her fingers for wedged in the door (not all the way) which must have hurt and snapped her out of her silly mood. She immediately started wailing, and I checked her finger to make sure it was okay and comforted her. When she stopped crying, I asked her, "Sloane did you disobey mom by opening the door?" "Nooo," she said and started crying again. "Did I tell you to not open the door?" "No!" More crying. She was having a hard time calming down so I gathered our things and headed to our car. In the car, we were both quiet, and after a few minutes, I heard her small voice in the back, "I'm sorry mommy." "Why are you sorry Sloane?" "I'm sorry for disobeying." We talked about what happened and I told her that I wasn't angry, and that I just get sad when she disobeys. Her eyes teared up as we talked but she quickly wiped them away and we gave each other big smiles and proclaimed we should move on to the next adventure.