Over the river and through the woods . . .

We're off to see Grandma and Grandpa Brown and family for lots of Christmas fun in Chicago! We'll be back in the new year with lots of pictures to share, I'm sure.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

A Christmas Blessing

The other day I was busy at the kitchen sink and Hannah was standing on her stool next to me eating one of her new favorite foods--a clementine. We were listening to Christmas music (of course, what else would we be listening to this time of year?) Usually it's the "Muppet's Christmas" or some version of Hannah's current obsession; "Jingle Bells." But this time we had branched out and had on a mix which included carols and hymns. As the words to "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" washed over us, I noticed Hannah pause and quit eating. She stood there quietly, head cocked in her typical concentrating pose, listening to the music and words. When the refrain "Oh, come let us adore Him . . ." filled the kitchen with it's call to worship she surprised me by folding her little hands together and bowing her head. She peeked up at me and stated:

"Prayer."
"Yes," I said. "It is a prayer."

Though Hannah, satisfied that she now understood the song went back to busily eating her clementine, I stood shocked, with tears in my eyes. Hannah is constantly reminding me of the need to pause and wonder and pray. I confess, I am not good at "praying without ceasing." I often have very ambivilant feelings about prayer. I really don't feel like I'm a good model so far to Hannah of taking time to talk to God. But somehow the little that Shawn and I have done has struck a deep chord within her because she often reminds me to pray and whenever we do she has such a smile of sweet satisfaction and contentment. Watching her take these tiny first steps into a relationship with God inspires me so deeply to grow and nuture and commit to my own relationship with our Creator and Father no matter my doubts or fears or questions. God is ACTIVE and he is LOVE and he is LIFE. Of these things I have no doubt when I stop and watch my daughter wonder at the world around her.

May you be touched by a moment of wonder this season and, pausing to adore Him, may you be filled with His true hope of peace and glory.

Merry Christmas!

December Play Dates

We are blessed with such good friends. We get together to play and have all kinds of fun much more than I ever post so I wanted to share just a few pictures from a couple of our most recent play dates. Our times together now include the full array of a toddler's growing social skills and experimentation-- from grabbing, refusing to share, pushing and pouting as well as the glorious sweet moments of hugs and kisses, pats when a friend is sad, and spontaneous sharing. Our play dates are learning and growing experiences for both the kids and us mommies as we all learn together how to negotiate (and parent) gracefully the art of nurturing a friendship.

Here is Hannah and her buddy Ezra pounding out a duet on our piano! Ezra is 10 months older than Hannah. His mommy (my sweet friend), Melissa and I get together every so often for our kids to play and for us mommies to try and catch up between reading books, handing out snacks and comforting boo-boos. Hannah and Ezra's favorite activities include doing art, playing with cars, jumping on beds and cooking up meals in the kitchen!




Elijah came over last week and we decided to try a new sensory experience--playing with shaving cream! They both responded differently to the foamy stuff and enjoyed watching each other work. Elijah and Hannah have been friends from birth, being only 24 hours apart. They're growing repertoire of favorite pastimes includes dancing (especially to Shawn playing guitar), action songs, riding in the car together and singing their own made up song that goes something like "Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah!" while kicking their feet, (did I mention dancing?), playing with cars, cooking in our toy kitchen, and scribbling together-- oh, and dancing. Once again, while facilitating all that toddler activity, Kristen and I try and enjoy a cup of tea and much needed "grown up" conversation.

I am so thankful for these relationships. I learn from both Melissa and Kristen as they parent with patience and love their precious little boys, and I am blessed by the love and friendship that they offer me. I am also so thankful that Hannah is already so blessed with such sweet, true friends!

"Now Christmas is come,

Let's beat up the drum

And call all our neighbors together,

And when they appear,

Let's make them such cheer

As will keep out the wind and the weather!"

Washington Irving

Thanks Duckworths and Normans for adding to our Christmas cheer this December!

What Hannah will do . . . .

Just for a few more inches:

Little does she realize this stretching manuever probably adds very little reach to her view out our window! :) (Though it looks completely dark in the picture it was dusk and Hannah was trying to watch the repairmen replacing our neighbor's windows!)

Bath Tub Art

One of our new adventures in art is painting and using markers in the bath tub! I mix non toxic dish soap with tempera paint and let Hannah go at it. She loves it and it gives her a whole new way to experiment with the paint and markers, as well as a larger "canvas" to work on than just paper. Now when it's bath time she excitedly asks "Bath time? Markers!?" It's great for me too because there is virtually no clean up at the end! :) Washing up, in this case, is all part of the process!

Making looooong strokes and watching the paint drip down the wall is so fascinating!

"Hmm, what happens when I rub it with my hand?"

My serious little artist.

(Notice: It's also fun to paint your belly.)

Hannah Expressions

Here's some fun shots of Hannah's facial expressions--she's getting more and more personality by the day!

So, who does she remind you of? Me, Shawn, our siblings? Just curious!

A Thankful Day

This Thanksgiving the Browns stayed home in Nashville. At first I was a little sad I wasn't going to spend Thanksgiving with my sister's family as we had originally planned. However, I soon replaced the feeling of regret with relief as we got to just relax and enjoy the long weekend with Shawn without having to pack up and drive 12 hours one way! We ended up having a lovely, restful day together. We truly have so much to be thankful for-- the beauty of the fall weather, the abundance of our feast and the overflow of joy and love and peace that we share together as a family all reminded me over and over again of the blessings God has graciously given me.

We spent the morning snuggling, reading, and going for a leisurely walk with Hannah leading the way. Exploring a drainage ditch, balancing on a wall, and greeting the neighbors' cats and dogs delighted all of us.

After our walk, Hannah settled down for her nap and Shawn and I enjoyed visiting and working in the kitchen. When Hannah woke up, after a few last minute preparations we all enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey with a cranberry raisin sauce, sweet potato swirls, green bean casserole, and homemade rolls. We even let Hannah eat off her own china plate-- she felt very special!

The bread was Hannah's favorite part! However she wasn't so sure about the sweet potatoes!

And what Thanksgiving dinner is complete with out the . . . .

Pumpkin Pie! (Made with pumpkin from our Avalon Acres Farm. Mmm, Mmmm good!)

After dinner Hannah and Shawn enjoyed some good books while I cleaned up the dishes.

Then it was time to put up the Christmas tree! Contrary to the picture below, Hannah was delighted and amazed. She immediately broke into dance at the first notes of Christmas music and continued to be in a state of wonder as we withdrew the tree from it's box and set it up. When we turned the lights on she SO happy! We were too enthralled with the process to take pictures so by the time we did-- this is the only one we got.

"Can I really touch this, Mom?"

Yes you can! And there will be lots more Christmas wonder to come!

So, in the end it was a delightful day filled with sweet memories we will all treasure. And as a TCK who often has trouble feeling like I have any sense of belonging to a place or a culture of my own, getting to share the American traditional turkey and green bean casserole with my daughter and husband in my own house somehow made me feel a little more grounded to this place I now call home. I enjoyed creating the beginnings of family culture and traditions for my own daughter.

"Crazies"

Hannah does NOT like her hair washed. It follows that she does NOT like her hair dried either. So, my genius husband came up with fun game one evening that Hannah enthusiastically calls "crazies!" It involves perching on top of the bathroom counter, looking in the mirror and making faces while Daddy dries her hair and messes it up all "crazy!" Hannah giggles and laughs and has the best time, not minding a bit that her hair is getting dried. Of course if Mommy tries to do it, it just doesn't fly. She calls for Daddy every time. :) (Now, whenever Hannah sees her hair even a little bit sticking up, or someone else's hair sticking up, she calls it "crazies.")

My two silly loved ones.

"I love this game!"

Balancing Act

So, you may think I'm crazy but I let my daughter perform a precarious balancing act everyday while I work in the kitchen. She perches on the top bar of her stool, leans against the counter and busily "washes" dishes. She has an amazing sense of balance and has never once fallen--or even almost fallen. Hey, it keeps her happy and I get to cook dinner!

Hannah's passion for climbing comes in handy at the kitchen sink!

I hope this enthusiasm for washing dishes lasts! (I have my doubts.)

The precious feet in action!

Toe Grip!

FYI

For those of you who are interested but might not notice, I've updated the side bar.

Pictures of our time with the Barnacles coming up soon! It always takes me a bit to get back into the swing of things and get caught up after company. Sorry for the wait--but I promise I'll post them soon!

Brown and Barnacle Bash

Whew! What a week! It went by way too fast but it's our own fault for filling up the time with so much fun stuff! So what did we do?

Monday we had fun running and climbing and sliding and swinging at Crockett Park.

We also sang and danced and giggled at Hannah's Music Playhouse Class. (We especially loved dancing with bells to the Can Can by Bach!)

We wiggled our toes and our noses and everything else in between to silly songs in the car.

We decorated pumpkins:

(And experienced a little artist's block as well, I guess.)

Loved on our uncles and aunts.

Wednesday morning we read a great book about fall leaves called Fall Leaves, Fall! then we acted out poems where we were fall leaves or trees. Afterwards we went on an expedition to look for different colored leaves to collect to make some leaf art. We glued contact paper onto poster board and then let the kids stick their leaves all over the paper while we listened to Vivaldi's Autumn. The kids loved it! (Okay, Corban discovered some chocolate and was much more interested in asking to eat some than sticking his leaves on the paper no matter how much we tried to make it look exciting-- but once he'd eaten lunch he had a lot of fun! Moral of the story-- don't try and have your child do art when they're starving! :) )

A sampling of our collections:

The busy artists:

A finished product:

Of course we had to share Walden Farm with Corban so we headed off Thursday afternoon for more farm adventures. Corban LOVED all the animals and especially digging in the corn crib. Hannah was thrilled to be back and even tried out the tire swing this time!

Playing in the "farm truck" together.


The sweet Barnacle family:

We also enjoyed much fellowship over many meals and the kids even had a delightful picnic one day when the weather actually warmed up!

Friday night was Halloween and time to trick or treat! Corban had been telling everyone at home how he was going to go trick or treating with Hannah. He informed anyone who asked that he was going to be an m&m (which he picked out himself from a rack of costumes) and Hannah was going to be a star! I think it was just as exciting for him as he thought it was going to be. It was a beautiful night and the kids both beamed with smiles and loved saying"Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween!" at each door we stopped at. Hannah's favorite part was peering through the glass doors into people's homes and pointing out what she saw-- especially if they had pets. She also loved looking at all the glowing jack-o-lanterns.

Our two excited trick-or-treaters:

A highlight for us adults was drinking tea and laughing till our cheeks hurt after the kids went to bed at a hilarious video series Bryan brought to share with us-- "Flight of the Conchords." Rachel and I also got to go out on a couple outings without the kids while the guys hung out at home with them.

Saturday the Barnacles headed out for home (a long 12 hour drive which Corban actually managed in one day this time!) And us Browns picked up the pieces of all the havoc of our fun filled week and tried not to be too depressed.

I think we've bounced back now and are getting back into the swing of normal everyday life-- just in time to turn around and face the whirlwind of holiday season! :)

We're on the lookout for lots more fun to be had the next time we get together! We love all you Barnacles so much! Thank you for braving a 12 hour drive with a toddler to spend your fall break with us and for all the joy and fun and love you always bring along with you!