Happy Birthday, Anna Frances Martin!

Oh may His light fill all you are 

And the jewel of wisdom crown your heart; 

This is my prayer for you. 

Hold my hand; 

I'll teach you the Way to go. 

Through the joys, through the tears, 

The journey of these years, 

May you trust Him ‘til the end. 

May you trust Him in the end. *

Anna Frances, 

you daily brighten us with your smiles, 

warm us with your snuggles

wow us (and keep us on our toes) with your exploits, 

and melt our hearts with your joy and affection. 

Your name means grace, favor from God.

Your life is a mark of His grace toward us.

At one year:

You love playing in the grass and splashing in the water. 

You love speed and flying and spinning. 

You love animal toys and legos and paper. 

You eat everything, and lots of it. 

You LOVE your brother, and Mama and Dada. You're a family girl. 

You say Mama (first time on Mother's Day--thanks for that!) and Dada, and some variations of a few other words. You are starting to understand a lot!

You wave and high-five and sign "all done" and clap for yourself.

You stand up by yourself and balance for a while. You've taken a few steps, but still prefer your speedy crawl. 

You climb up everything. You are up the stairs in a flash if we forget to block them. One of your latest tricks is using the kid-sized chair to climb up on top of the drawing table. I often find you on boxes, or using boxes to get up on higher things. A couple times now I've walked in to find you casually leafing through books up on the sofa. 

Your hair is wispy and so blond, long over your eyes if not pulled back. Your eyes are a beautiful blue. 

You are still pretty attached to Mama, and don't care to be left. We're working on that. As long as I stay where you left me, you are a bold little explorer who comes back periodically to check in with a snuggle.

And now that Peter has a big boy bed, we can't keep you out of it. 

How this year with you has flown. I love you so much and am SO VERY happy to be your Mama.

Happy First Birthday, Wondrous Girl.

*Keith and Kristyn Getty, A Mother's Prayer

Date Night: Ice Cream and Fire Trucks

"We goin' on a date!" he's chanting here.

Yep. Me and my boy. Our long-awaited Mommy-Peter date last Thursday. Not sure which of us was more excited for Thursday to come. 

And though Thursday proved to be cold and rainy in an otherwise gorgeous week, Peter and I had prayed about it and decided to trust that God would give us a marvelous time anyway.  And he did. We had quite a lineup of treats. 

First stop: Chick Fil A

Anticipation (and conversation) builds as we await our chikn. 

Mmmmm. Chicken, fruit, and waffle fries. What's not to love?

Oh, but then there was the ice cream. 

I should have been taking video. At first sight of all the ice creams, he danced around, pointing at each one in amazement. "Ice creeeeam! I want that one! That one! That ice cream! Peter eat THAAAT one!

Making the final selection

It was some mighty fine ice cream.
Some little snippets I want to remember:
He chose the "oreo cookie cream" flavor. Not sure why, since I don't think he understood what it was and it certainly wasn't the most interesting. I had them make that half/half with chocolate.
A couple times, he did "cheers" with our spoons.
I fed him a sample of mine and he insisted on reciprocating, spooning some of his into my mouth.
After the initial voracious zeal, he ate surprisingly slowly, savoring it and people-watching.
And when I finished mine first, he said, "Your ice cream all gone, Mommy?" and offered me a spoonful of his. Oh my heart. One of my favorite dining times ever with my sweet boy.

And finally, all sugared up, we went to the fire station.

Our friend Julisa volunteers with the Germantown Volunteer Fire Department on Thursday nights. She awesomely invited Peter to visit before her shift starts. Needless to say, his head was on a swivel and he bounced from one emergency vehicle to another. 

What a great night. These 1-on-1 times with my boy are extra precious to me (and important) as life gets fuller and he's not the only Martin kid around anymore. Grateful to God for this time, to Tom for taking off early and hanging with Anna, and to Julisa for being excited to host a 2-year-old on sugar high in her place of service and for loving our boy. 

Cherry Blossoms

Many thanks to our church for having the latest-peaking cherry blossoms around! I thought we'd missed them, but after church a couple weeks ago we pulled over at the grounds on the way off the property and reveled, and took some pictures. 

 Oh how I love these three people. 

 

And here's something. In the grassy background of these shots, there once lay a picnic blanket where a handsome young follower of Jesus asked his best friend to become his wife. And she said yes. Five years ago, today. And now here we are. Here they are. Oblivious to all that; loving this patch of land as I always did.

Spice and Snow

Oops--just found this one saved as a draft from a few months ago. Now that it's all nice and springy, here's...

Snowmen and snow-munching. 

And here's a little story. I was mixing a bunch of spices for a recipe including cumin, turmeric, garlic powder, and lots of chili powder. Peter had taken an interest, so I was keeping a wary eye on him. 

Sure enough, as soon as my back was turned, he made his move and shoveled in a big mouthful. I turned around to this face:

Yes, compassionate mother that I am, my first instinct was to snap a shot as he began to appreciate the error of his judgment.

Videos

Here are a couple little home video bits from cleaning out my iPhone: Anna at about 8 months with Tom, and a couple weeks ago at the playground behind our house.

Seizing an Early Spring Day

A couple weeks ago, seizing a warmish day

 Some aquatic exploration

and swinging!

My wind-blown, merry Martinlings

Some video footage, telling a similar tale, is forthcoming...