"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

Aslynn. Yes Aslynn. She gets a bad reputation sometimes. Not to say that some of it isn't warranted. But we consistently hear from our own mouths and others, "Where's my shoe? Aslynn must've walked off with it," or, "I knew I set it down right here. Aslynn must have moved it," and my favorite most recent one, "Mark, did you eat the rest of my chocolate-covered fruit? Aslynn must have gotten it." (The fruit was in a cupboard above the stove. She may have had a co-conspirator, or no accomplice at all since she may not have perpetrated the crime.) All of these things often turn up right where WE have left them and forgotten, but she makes a darling of a scapegoat.

Ah, Aslynn. You are a real gem. A sweetheart. She was nibbling on her soother the other day and it came apart. "Mommy, my sooder! It broken." So she proceeds to throw it in the garbage. Then she gets her spare soother and chucks it too in the garbage! It was defective as well, this we knew. I don't think she quite understands what happens to the garbage. Yesterday for nap she asked Faith to get her soother from the garbage and 'clean it, wash it' so she could just suck on whatever was left. Does she sound desperate to you? She's been swiping Judah's soother for more than a couple of weeks now at the most inopportune moments.









She is such a good kid though. She prays for us. No prompting. Each meal, the food isn't that important, her family is. Throw in a Grandpa and Grandma here or there, and Uncle or an Aunt, she prays for us all. It's precious. She freely gives puckered up kisses and hugs and comes to see "What you doin'?" constantly. She would like to help, or at least be involved somehow. She laughs and laughs at Micah's antics, and he plays to an audience of only Aslynn many times. I caught him not eating his breakfast and making faces and his excuse was, "Aslynn is laughing." I don't blame him. She has a great laugh.

All this to say, our little darling is everything we make her out to be, but SO much more. So very much more. I couldn't imagine life without her (or any of our kids for that matter).

Mark