We watch a lot of Dora the Explorer in our house. Strangely enough, there are quite a few TV viewing options for our two-year old. And most of them are quite cultural. Right now Gracie's watching a cute little Chinese-American girl called Kai-lan. Her catchphrase is "Ni Hao!", which Gracie has translated to the much easier Meow! Both Dora and Kai-lan subtly introduce their native languages to two-year olds all over the world.
My favorite Dora quote came from our good friend Jeremy: "Ah Dora, converting the world to Spanish one word at a time." Classic!
All this culture however, is not without its side effects. The other night while we were eating dinner, Gracie demanded to have more juice. Her daddy said, "what's the magic word?" because we're really trying for the manners thing... Gracie didn't even have to think about this one; she promptly and quite proudly announced: "abra!"
Abra? It took us a few minutes, but we finally figured it out... Dora has an episode where she has to ask a rock to open it's door. The storyline refers to abra as the magic word to open the doors. Mystery solved.; the magic word really is abra!
The more I think about it, abra really is a magic word. I often catch myself humming that Michael W. Smith standard Open the Eyes of my Heart. I think God would say that abra is a great word: just think back to VBS as a kid and the great Rev 3:20 verse "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
I remember being quite young when I opened that door and my prayer today is that I always obey when God whispers "abra por favor."
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
I wanna be a race car driver
There it is - the veriest of truths! I like - no, wait - I love to drive fast. In fact, I love to drive fast so much that I don't even realize I'm doing it anymore. Case in point: I got to work in 19 minutes this morning. This is not a good thing as it is typically a 45 minute drive with no traffic. When I looked down at the clock and saw the time... Well, shocked was an understatement. I guess when my husband hums the Speed Racer theme beneath his breath as I drive merrily along I ought to get a clue, no?
I think I would be a great race car driver! Never mind that I know next to nothing about building or maintaining a car... Isn't it enough to know that I want to drive fast and am good at it? Hmm...there's a racing school out at Texas Motor Speedway that I need to check out.
Of course, I also wanted to be a secret agent (as in CIA or something like that). I even focused on diplomatic U.S. history in college. Or a rock star! But I gave both of those dreams up when I realized I was not that fond of traveling and that I could not sing (which, apparently, is a critical necessity for a rock star - see Milli Vanilli and Ashley Simpson).
It's interesting that closer to 50 than 20, I still have these dreams. I have a career - one that I'm mostly ecstatic about. I get to work with God's servants every day and help advance the Kingdom in some small measure. How many people can say that? Not too many would be my guess.
So, in the end, I'm very blessed that God made me a writer. I get to do what I'm best at on a regular basis and in my spare time I can create characters that drive fast, practice espionage and subterfuge, or sing as pretty as an angel. So my prayer is that Jeff Gordon never comes to ask me to race on his team - the temptation to change careers might be more than this writer could resist!
I think I would be a great race car driver! Never mind that I know next to nothing about building or maintaining a car... Isn't it enough to know that I want to drive fast and am good at it? Hmm...there's a racing school out at Texas Motor Speedway that I need to check out.
Of course, I also wanted to be a secret agent (as in CIA or something like that). I even focused on diplomatic U.S. history in college. Or a rock star! But I gave both of those dreams up when I realized I was not that fond of traveling and that I could not sing (which, apparently, is a critical necessity for a rock star - see Milli Vanilli and Ashley Simpson).
It's interesting that closer to 50 than 20, I still have these dreams. I have a career - one that I'm mostly ecstatic about. I get to work with God's servants every day and help advance the Kingdom in some small measure. How many people can say that? Not too many would be my guess.
So, in the end, I'm very blessed that God made me a writer. I get to do what I'm best at on a regular basis and in my spare time I can create characters that drive fast, practice espionage and subterfuge, or sing as pretty as an angel. So my prayer is that Jeff Gordon never comes to ask me to race on his team - the temptation to change careers might be more than this writer could resist!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Naked neighbors have too many hands
Ok, before you go getting all excited, it's not what you think. I'm sick to death of trying to blog about work and am back to writing about my life. And the center of my life is my daughter. That hilarious, precious baby keeps me laughing and makes everything worth it.
Being two, she has found that she can talk and talk a lot! My favorite things that she says:
These are perfect memories that I pray I will never forget - particularly when she turns into a teenager and I need some precious memories to bolster my parental self-image!
Being two, she has found that she can talk and talk a lot! My favorite things that she says:
- While running naked through the house "Daddy! I'm a naked neighbor!" or when she and I are getting ready for bed "Mommy, we're naked neighbors!". She's trying to say naked jaybird, but it just doesn't come out that way. :)
- When she is holding something in each hand and you try to give her something else she says "Mommy, I have too many hands!"
These are perfect memories that I pray I will never forget - particularly when she turns into a teenager and I need some precious memories to bolster my parental self-image!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)