Mabel Molanphy

Mama did­n’t real­ly cry, but I do miss her. It’s much hard­er than I had thought, but I have such a peace­ful feel­ing which is for­tu­nate­ly so much stronger! 🙂 But, away she is. After Mama hemmed her uni­form (2 1/2 inch­es) so she could at least wear it, she ran to show Dad­dy how she looked. The pic­tures rep­re­sent her moments with dad­dy before leav­ing for her first day of school. 

I’ve already peeked at her and she was wear­ing the neck­hole of her apron around her waist. HA. I’m sure her Direc­tress helped her soon. A par­ent who was leav­ing told me that Mabel had put a stick­er on her fin­ger and announced it was a band-aid. Yes, that’s my daughter. 

She will do won­der­ful­ly in her new preschool, and I am so excit­ed to see how she grows. Even though I miss her. 

[jour­nal note] It was such a mirac­u­lous bless­ing for us to have found this. Mabel gets to attend Hand-in-Hand Chris­t­ian Montes­sori. We began with the Fam­i­ly Preschool on Wednes­day of each week, which Mama and Mabel get to attend togeth­er, with some sep­a­ra­tion time for her to do her work. As she will be 3 on Sun­day, she is of age to go to the Chil­dren’s House, which is 2 or 3 days a week. No mat­ter how much I want­ed to reg­is­ter her, it just nev­er felt right (which was hard for me). And then, as a mir­a­cle ensues, I received an email from the Direc­tor that Mabel could attend one of the days (Fri­days) and not the oth­er, as a split-tuition with anoth­er child who is attend­ing only on Thurs­day. It was such a bless­ing and I’m so grate­ful for it. And, here we are!

It’s been a while since I’ve made a note here for Mabel. Unfortunately,the old adage that the best cam­era you own is the one with you has come true. My phone has been out of com­mis­sion of a month now, so every pho­to I *have* tak­en has been erased each time. *sigh* Although, I have a vague mem­o­ry of tak­ing some with my point-and-shoot…I’ll have to upload those and see what I have! In the mean­time, here have been some fun moments this last month. The last month of my two year old. Wah!

Dad­dy pre­sid­ing at FHE

I found my tights!

a BYU icon, appar­ent­ly, found at Aun­tie Beck­y’s house

“David, can you watch Mabel for a few min­utes?” Ten sec­onds lat­er, “Mama, I found your make-up!”

Dress­ing up and read­ing books

Sit­ting at the table, eat­ing her “last meal” of Pop­si­cles, apple juice gelatin and agua de coco (before her surgery), she announces “Rem­brandt was a good painter!” As I stared blankly at her, think­ing there’s no way she just said that…she repeats her­self, adding“remember? At the muse­um!” Of course I do. Except that it was five months ago. How does she do that??

Poor Mabel has­n’t been sleep­ing so well late­ly, and has in turn had a few impul­sive mis­di­rec­tions. When gen­tly being guid­ed back to the task at hand, she will often ask “does mama love you?” It has called me to the atten­tion what a sweet spir­it she is and her imme­di­ate recog­ni­tion that she has made a mis­take. To real­ize her need to feel loved at these times helps me to real­ize as a par­ent that she is very, very aware of her emo­tion­al surroundings.

On anoth­er note…we went to the cir­cus today. Dad­dy should be post­ing pho­tos, soon. 🙂

We’ve post­ed a few sound clips and videos in the past of Mabel singing her songs, but until recent­ly, I did­n’t real­ize just how much she enjoys express­ing her­self through songs. Now, when­ev­er she is awake when dad­dy gets home from work, she busts out in full cho­rus, “I’m so glad when Dad­dy comes home!” (the LDS pri­ma­ry song). Of course, David’s but­tons are bust­ing, he’s just so proud! 

Ear­li­er this week, we did a lit­tle Face­Time, and as soon as she saw him, she made up her *own* lyrics and tune to sign a song about how much she loved her dad­dy. As the week pro­gressed, she sang a song about her quinoa (hot break­fast cere­al) and her chipati (Indi­an-style tor­tillas). It’s just so fun­ny to see her wheels turn­ing as she shares her thoughts in words. 

I think my favorite, thus far, was this afternoon…her dol­lies (“pink dol­lie” and “pur­ple dol­lie”) have seen bet­ter days, and they are rather drool-stained. I ordered some basic, sol­id-col­ored fab­ric (pink and pur­ple, of course) to sew “new paja­mas.” She kept announc­ing all week to any­one who would lis­ten that mama was sewing new paja­mas. Today, as I fin­ished her pink dol­lie and hand­ed it to her, she wrapped her arms around her and began singing “Fam­i­lies can be Togeth­er For­ev­er!” To me, it rep­re­sent­ed how much she loves her dol­lies and how much she appre­ci­at­ed my effort to keep her dol­lies pret­ty. It real­ly warmed my heart.

On that note…for two Sun­days in a row, Mabel has sung “Fam­i­lies Can be Togeth­er For­ev­er!” in the mid­dle of some­one’s talk at church. HAH. It’s always as a result of look­ing at pic­tures in her nurs­ery manual…whenever she sees a pic­ture of a fam­i­ly, it’s what she sings. She real­ly has such a ten­der heart.