Liz

I love Liz. She is my favorite daughter. She is smart, beautiful, kind and so much fun. So you can imagine how I felt when the nursery leader in church today pulled me aside to ask me some questions. "Does Lizzy know how to pray? Does she pray at home?" Of course, I said. "Does she know any primary songs? Does she not like to sing?" Are you kidding? I replied in shock. She sings all day! Apparently she refuses to pray and sing in nursery. No behavior problems, she is great with the kids, but she won't participate in the lessons. As you might imagine, I was MORTIFIED!!! Perhaps (no questions about it) I am a little prideful about my little girl, so in the spirit of making myself feel better, I am going to shamelessly brag about my little girl and tell you all sorts of little factoids about her. Liz is 3, going on 13. She loves to be in charge of everything and loves to boss her little brother around. However, she is also very tender with Jack. She will do whatever it takes to make him laugh or smile. Today that entailed dragging Jack around the living room by his ankles while he laughed uncontrollably. While she has entered the utterly maddening stage of "why?", she is usually very apt to please and obedient.

Liz memorizes scriptures before bed each night. So far she has memorized 6 scriptures: the 1st, 3rd and 4th articles of faith, John 3:16, Moses 1:39, and 1 Nephi 3:7. We are currently reviewing all of the old scriptures before we move onto the next one. She can name each of the 12 apostles, in order and the 1st presidency as well. In fact, she likes to see if she can sing the entire song with their names in the time it takes for her dad to walk from the front room into her bedroom for prayers at night. She often achieves it, but Christofferson and Anderson are a bit hard to understand when she does. Family Home Evening is her favorite day of the week and she tries to con us into doing it every night. One of her favorite activities is to "play nephi" and steal the plates from Laban. She also enjoys going on a bear hunt (get the book, it is amazing!)

Favorite Lizzy quotes:

"Hey dad, I just vanquished mommy."

"Mom, can we go to burpy on the burp?" "Mom, I want to burpy on the burp." (not sure what that means)

"Mom, Jack is bothering me!" (He is across the room, in his crib, sitting quietly)

"I shouldn't fall down, my blood will all come out."

(Upon seeing a friend throw a fit) "What is he doing, mom? Does he think that works?"

(Being attacked by bugs on a hike) "Stop it! Stop it now! Come on guys, are we going to do this or what?"

Liz is also very observant, and you never know when you are being watched. For example, she has a toy dog that she loves to call Max (grandma and grandpa's dog). He will often 'bark' at which time lizzy will pick him up and say "shhhh, shhhh!" and "Relax!" just exactly like grandma does.

She also likes to nurse her baby dolls. What is funny is that whenever she does, she puts on this frowny face (apparently I do that...) and will just sit there quietly. Then, periodically, she will look down at her baby and say "focus!" or "are you going to do this or not?!" apparently I do that too...

The other night her dad was getting her ready for bed and told her to put her clothes in the laundry basket. "This one dad?" she asked. Dad, without looking said "ya, sure". she asked him again, and then a third time. "Ya, whatever liz." he said again. "Because they are white?" she asked incredulously. Only then did Steve look and realize that she was holding her jeans and pink shirt over the 'whites' basket, purposly to show her dad that she knew that mommy sorted the laundry. I am proud on two levels: a) my girl pays attention and b) this proves that I actually sort my laundry!

So, to summarize: I am the most lucky mommy in the world, and I love my little girl. I hope that she outgrows this stage in nursery quickly, but even if she doesn't, I know that she is bright and happy and wonderful.