Out of the Mouths of Babes

Has anyone else noticed how eager toddlers are to learn about Jesus? Evelyn's second word she spoke after she barely turned one was, "Jesus." How is it, that these young people with an extremely limited attention span have an incredible capacity to learn about the Saviour? My answer: They just came to us from His presence. How else could they recognize pictures of him in all their variety and different renditions, but it's always: "That's Jesus!"

Evelyn is constantly shocking me with her love for Christ. I would like to take credit for this early devotion, but I can't. It's just her own sweet personality. When I put her in bed, I usually sing her some songs and on a certain night I started to sing her old favorite, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." She quickly cut me off by putting her hand over her mouth and stated, "Actuwee, I would like a song about Jesus." The first song she had memorized was "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee."

Once I was having a great old pity party for myself because the doctor said I couldn't take ibuprofen for my arthritis pain anymore because my stomach was getting to weak to handle it. I was really discouraged and not sure what to do, and generally feeling picked on. Evelyn caught on at the dinner table that something was wrong.

"Mommy, are you mad with daddy?"

"Oh, no, Sweetheart! I love your daddy. I'm just a little sad right now."

"Mommy, don't be sad! Jesus gave you a body so you would be happy!"

She was right! I have no idea how she knew what to say at that point.

Today I was preparing my lesson for Relief Society on Sunday. Evelyn started climbing all over me and my chair and chiming, "Play with me, Mommy! Play with me!" I told I was sorry, but I couldn't. I had to prepare my lesson so I could teach people about baptism. Then, I got an urge that I couldn't resist. "Evelyn," I asked, "Why do we get baptized?" I was extremely curious to know what she would say. You never know when she is going to say something profound or whether she's going to talk about how Jesus always washes His hands after using the bathroom.

"So why do we get baptized?"

"Because we love to!" She exclaimed.

"But why does Heavenly Father want us to be baptized?"

She went very still. If you know Evelyn, you know that only happens when she is violently ill or thinking very deeply...sometimes only when she is violently ill.

Then she looked me in the eye and said, "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

I was astounded! She is familiar with the song "God so loved the World" but I didn't know she could quote the scripture exactly! The thing is, later I asked her to say it again, and she couldn't say it.

Here is another favorite scripture of Evelyn's:

Sob or Smile?

Evelyn just got her first real haircut! I was not sure whether to bawl when they cut off her cute little curl. She still looks adorable though.

She surprised me how brave she was. She kept protesting all the way to Cookie Cutters that she didn't want a haircut; "it's too scary!" I just told her it would be fun, and she would watch a movie and get a treat. She was surprisingly brave. The only part she got scared and clingy to me was when they had to blow-dry her hair. She hates the blow dryer. But she did pretty good, considering.

Heaven and ... the Other Place

When Evelyn is mad at me, she screws up her face and says one of two things:


1. "Go back to Heaven, Mommy!"

(This is also the same face she uses while singing in God So Loved the World "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world!"

2. "The Lamanites will KILL you, Mommy!"



Evelyn playing with her dried blueberries at breakfast:

"You want to marry me?! NAAAAH!"

Evelyn can say "Scrumptious" (ie. "Dese pancakes are really scrumptious, Daddy!") but she can't say "Delicious." She pronounces it "Allicious." Why? I suppose we don't use delicious in normal conversations. We use synonyms (or cinnamons) such as scrumptious, yummy, "makes my taste-buds do the hokey-pokey," and if something is REALLY good, it's "scrumptulescent!" Evelyn only knows the word "delicious" because of the "5 Speckled Frogs" song. And if you say "Allicious" it sounds perfectly correct when you say "Most Allicious Bugs, yum yum!"

HALLOWEEN and Fake smiles

We had a Halloween party with Michael's family. It had been a long time since we had entertained anyone, so I decided to go all out. But Michael's poor family had to put up with all my juvenile party games. I'd like to claim that we played them for Evelyn's benefit, but no, I would have subjected his family to them anyway. I am just not sure how to throw a party without playing silly games. Any good ideas?

Anyway, here are our costumes:

Guess Who?

What is it about Evelyn's fake smiles? Will I ever get a natural smile again?!


We played a good game of Pin the Skeleton.....Together. Here is Evelyn's attempt: (we let her do it with her eyes open.)

Still doing a pretty good job!

....And the finished product. Beautiful, eh? (And another fake smile!) Here is the adults' attempt:



Next we went on a Witch Hunt: a gag pinata (I have no idea how to get that little squiggle over the "n"). How was it a gag? Well, we had to choose our weapons out of a hat. There were little poems assign your weapon to you. For instance,

"The Boomerang of Wonder,

Will likely never blunder,

'Cuz our witch comes from

Way down...

...in Australia."


We had all sorts of weapons from toothpicks to an oven mitt; from a pen to a needle nose pliers.

Here is a picture of Cory biting the witch like a dinosaur:

And Carl using the rolling pin:

Evelyn with a rolled-up newspaper:

The toothpicks' destruction:

Finally, once we ran out of weapons, we passed out the last poem;

"I have a clue that will make you sick:

The living room, You, and the Candlestick!"

That brass candlestick sealed the witch's doom.

Next we painted pumpkins. Evelyn was so excited! She almost took longer than anyone else painting hers, and she definitely used more colors. I actually got a blister on my thumb from opening all the different paints she wanted!

And here are the finished products!

Kitty Obituary

Star Kitty

June 2009-Sept 2010

Our little kitty princess has been taken from us;

Taken from us in the prime of life

At church (of all places!)

She only had semi-raggedy fur,

And there was no more stuffing in her tail

Because some little girl liked to have her

Swing and Twirl.

Star Kitty occupied an honored position

In the Adams' household;

That of best friend, companion, and comforter

Playmate, snuggler, and projectile.

The paint from the star on her paw was quite faded

from being rubbed on tired eyes and lips.

She is survived by her best friend Evelyn,

and her co-kitty Tabby.

"Both of us are sad!"

Remarks little Evelyn.

Michael has been shopping all day for a replacement Star Kitty. Of course all the stores just sold their last one. I knew we should have bought a backup long ago! But we are determined to replace her, because there is only so much of Evelyn moping around and discarding all her other toys in disgust that I can take.

Our last experience with Star Kitty, recorded right before church on that fateful day:

Star Kitty Opera

Starring Michael Adams as the Prince

Star Kitty as the Princess

Jane Evelyn Adams as the Dragon

This was a game Daddy and Evelyn were playing all morning before church. It was so cute I finally had to record it. Evelyn was camera shy though, screaming "MINE!" instead of singing back to Daddy like she did before. ("You cannot have my Star Kitty, She is mine! No!" "Yes!" "no!" "Yeeeesssss!" "Noooooooooo!: etc.) Michael even had to kiss the sleeping princess kitty to wake her up and find the right princess that fit the ring ("Does the ring fit on the puppy? no...Does it fit on the doornob? Nope, can't marry the doorknob. Does it fit on daddy's toe? No...". Then Evelyn would turn Daddy into a monster by spanking him and he'd sing "I'm going to eat the Star Kitty! And grind her bones!" Then Evelyn or Mommy would kiss Daddy and turn him into a prince again.

Nativity in September

I have been trying to teach Evelyn more about Jesus because she just loves to hear about him. So I watched the nativity movie released by the church with her, and I explained about how Jesus was born. I was pretty sure she wasn't catching on though. There I was: bawling my eyes out and all Evelyn can find to say is: "Where did the sheep go?" (there was a sheep in one part of the movie and that is what she hyper focused on.)

But after the movie, she decided she wanted to play Mary. And she got out a baby doll to be Jesus. She asked me to put a blanket on her head.

I love that sweet girl!

Eya the Flying Monkey

First parents are typically neurotic. First parents whose first child knocks out her front tooth at age two are comparably more neurotic, bordering on paranoid. But parents whose child refuses to be cautious and performs death-defying acts as a normal routine become calloused and start yawning when their children taunt death and dismemberment.

This has become me. (Michael is still in the paranoid category.) There is only so many gasps allotted to mothers and Evelyn has used my quota for her lifetime. I do feel at times somewhat guilty when I'm at the playground and Evelyn's leading a bunch of children four times her age in a game of "Hey, I can do that!" The parents of these 8 to 12 years old glare at me as I shrug my shoulders and allow my two-year-old to be a bad example. They may wonder why I don't stop my kid; don't I see that she's likely to kill herself?! My answer is it is more healthy for my heart to look the other direction. Besides, she doesn't stop. If I pick her up and pull her away, she starts using ME as her jungle gym. No thank you.

But in a few more months we will be enrolling Evelyn in a tumbling class so she can at least learn how to fall without hurting herself. (Actually, she's already become quite good at it.)