Stubborn

I finally have a calling again! (It was really weird to not have one.) I am teaching the Valiant 8 class, which is children who are 8, turning 9 this year. It's a small class of mostly girls. Hopefully it will go well.

We just finished Allan's last 8 day work week. I am so glad we don't have to do that again for a while, hopefully never again. Little A hates it as much as I do. By the end of the 8 days she is super clingy and wants nothing to do with Allan; I think because she thinks he's just going to leave again. It always takes a few days for her to warm up again.

We had a lot of dance parties this week because dancing makes A and I happy.

We had a fun impromptu play date with our neighbor and her little girls this week. We were out pushing the stroller around when she came to send her oldest daughter on the bus to kindergarten. We went on a walk and then played at their home for a while afterward (she has two other daughters and A is right in between them age wise). It was nice to talk to her and a nice distraction. We hope we can do it again soon!

I went to take a nap one evening and Allan was really tired so he turned on some football highlights and started watching them with little A. She watched for a couple of minutes and then started to leave. Allan knew she would come to find me so he told her to stay with him. She sighed and grumbled and then watched for a minute. She tried to leave again so he told her to stay and she sighed and grumbled again. Ha! That happened a few more times. Little A is not impressed with football.

We have been working with A for a while to get her to fold her arms during prayers. This has proven difficult since she hates to have her hands touched. But this week she finally got it! Whenever we say pray or prayer she folds her arms! She isn't pleased about it though so she folds them with a really annoyed look on her face. It's pretty adorable! She'll go through the prayer alternately folding her arms, unfolding them, yelling in frustration because she knows she should be folding them, and then folding them again. It cracks me up.

At church today she kept folding her arms randomly through Sacrament Meeting. I think she felt the Spirit and reverence of the meeting and related it to the reverence of praying. I have been praying a lot that she will feel the reverence of the meeting, and that it will help her to be reverent. Today she seemed to get it. 

Little A is a very obedient girl except when it comes to two things: walking on her own, and throwing her food on the floor. A couple of days ago she was brushing her food across the table onto the floor. Allan had told her repeatedly to stop, and she would look at him with a stubborn expression on her face and just do it again. We took her food away. Allan commented that she was very stubborn. She said in her little girl voice "stubborn" and smiled. We laughed, but Allan did wonder what he was ever going to do with his girls.

We made a trip to the nearest city to stock up on food. It was a long day, but little A did a really good job. She had a blast at the restaurant we ate at. She waved and squealed at all the people who came through the door. Allan had to leave that night to go on a scout camp out. A was SO upset that he was leaving. She cried and cried, poor girl. She was so upset that she didn't sleep well, so it was a long night. It's always a long night when Allan is gone.

The following day A and I went to the Parade of Homes with K3. We had a lot of fun looking at all of the houses. The homes my mom and K3 designed turned out really good, and they have gotten a lot of really good feedback on them. A did fairly well. She was not happy about being in the car all day again, but she loved seeing all the people, and I let her play in the rocks a couple of times and that just made her day. On the way to my mom's house for dinner A got upset because I had turned the radio off. She yelled at me for a second and then I asked her what she wanted. She said, "A song". She has really started to use her words more and more. We went to my mom's house for dinner afterward and got to talk to K3 and C, and K5 and CW for a while. A was a little trooper, but she was sure exhausted.

She slept in this morning and cried a lot today because she was so tired. She also yelled at the primary president for talking to me about my calling (and delaying us from going home to take a nap), and took one look at the 1st counselor in our Bishopric and shouted angrily at him. He hadn't even looked at her yet, lol! He's a Dentist. Maybe she could tell...

Today Allan and A and I were having a family snuggle and she reached over and patted Allan's face and said "I love you". Aww.

The last couple of weeks she has been choosing a picture of someone and will carry it around the house and give it hugs and kisses. It is so darling. For the three days before SB left on his mission she carried his picture around. She has also given hugs and kisses to Grandad and Grandma H, Gram, Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Pops, her birth family, K5 and CW, and B and C and their boys. This girl really loves her family.