The Hazard Chronicles

Being the father of a two-year-old can be a very frustrating and very rewarding experience at the same time. It's amazing how, in the short course of a single day, Evelyn will make me want to smile, laugh, scream, and cry both tears of joy and of exasperation. It is plain that her mind is starting to make connections and that she is learning about the world rather quickly, but that sometimes these connections are not quite what we expected.

To elaborate, I'll share a series of short interactions that took place this week:

The Number Four
Evelyn has known how to count to ten for several months now. A while back, however, she decided to skip over the number 4. It was a sudden development and we thought it would pass quickly. It hasn't. Months later, number 4 is still missing in action. This week in pre-school the number-of-the-week was 4 and we thought that might help, but it didn't. She still skips right over it. Finally, Rachel explained to Evelyn that the number 4 was sad and lonely because it was always skipped. Evelyn agreed, saying "number 4 very sad." Then Rachel asked why Evelyn skipped it all the time. Her response: "I don't like 4."

And there you have it. In Evelyn's world, the number 4 is an outcast.

Getting Married
Earlier this week, Evelyn suddenly announced that she was getting married. What?! Where did this come from? Further probing into our sweet girl's mind (an interesting place, for sure)revealed that not only was she getting married, but she was getting married in a temple in Utah. Ok- I have to say that I am proud of her for setting her standards so high at such an early age, but I have no idea where the whole Utah thing came from. How does she even know what/where Utah is?

Princess
She has decided to be a princess. Her heroes have become Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, and Snow White. You'll notice that Jasmine wasn't mentioned. She doesn't like Jasmine. But the bigger question is how these Disney princesses have worked their way into her mind. I assure you that Rachel and I have not encouraged these thoughts. I think Disney princesses are silly. I don't think Evelyn has ever even seen any of these movies (she lacks the attention span). So where did she suddenly come up with the idea that she was a Disney princess? And why? And how does she know to equate the idea of wearing of a dress with that of being a princess? The answers elude me, but I assume that it somehow relates to her loathing of the number 4. That just seems to be the way her thoughts work.

Halloween
Evelyn is very excited for Halloween. Periodically, throughout the day, she will spontaneously get very excited and announce "Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming!" And then jump around squealing with glee. The triggers for this are unknown, but she sure is cute.

Prayers
I get so happy when I see Evelyn learning about the gospel. Last week, I was carrying her through church when suddenly she started squirming and asking to be put down. When I did, she ran over to a picture of the savior that we had just walked by, and then in a very reverent voice she said "That's Jesus. Jesus loves me. I love Jesus." I had to hug her as I realized how simply profound her statement was. Is there really anything else that needs to be added to her declaration of love for the savior? I think not.

She has also started saying very good prayers. At first we would help, but she will now say them totally unassisted. I want to record the prayer she said last night for it's simple elegance:

Heavenly Father
Thank you Day
Thank you Mommy
Thank you Daddy
Thank you AddyJack. I love AddyJack
Thank you Jesus. I love Jesus.
Thank you Juicy (Juice). I want Juicy. I love Juicy.
Thank you all my friends.
Thank you Food.
Bless Food.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love that girl. I also wonder how Mommy and Daddy somehow weren't quite as loved as her cup of juice. I'll assume it was just an oversight on her part.

Addy and Jack are a little bit sick this week, but they still play happily with one another. It is funny to watch them when they have distinctly different goals to their play. For instance, Jack loves putting things into our little crates. He is very content to just sit and fill up the bins with toys. Adalie, on the other hand, loves being in the crates, so she is usually on the other side, happily taking things out so that she can climb inside. It is best when things work out so that Jack thinks that he put Addy into the crate. This creates a win-win situation for both.

Besides watching the constant stream of entertainment that comes from our children, we have had a pretty good week. We have begun having the missionaries come to our home to meet with some friends and it really is neat to hear them teach the gospel as it is distilled down to the essential concepts. Like Evelyn's statement about loving Jesus, it has helped me to realize once again that a deep understanding of the gospel is not necessarily the same thing as a deep faith in it's precepts, and that both are important traits to develop.

This is what I have been thinking about going into the weekend, which just happens to be General Conference weekend. It has been interesting listening to the talks and realizing how the spirit of the messages can be so strong even though the fundamental principals being taught are things I have heard basically for my entire life.

Between conference talks we also took a field trip to Lake Erie. The wind was blowing, making some good waves for us to watch. For the big ones, Evelyn would loudly exclaim "Whoa," and Addy and Jack would smile. It actually was pretty cool.

Here's Rachel and Jackson about to get very wet. The things we do for a good picture!

Evelyn and I stood a little farther off

OK- Rach wanted me to post this because I guess it's pretty good. Evelyn did this all by herself, including the pink D which is in the middle. She even knows how to color in the lines, although nobody ever taught her that this was the right way to do things. I guess she is just an intuitive artist...or something.