Practically Perfect In Every Way

Ashlyn has been very into the movie Mary Poppins lately. While on a trip with my mom to visit cousins out in CA, she was first exposed to this cinematic masterpiece. Then my mom gave Ash the “digitally remastered” DVD for Christmas. I love hearing her sing “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go dowwwwwn, the medicine go dow-own, medicine go down!” and attempt to sing “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. Brings back so many fun memories from my childhood. In a day and age when Hannah Montana, iCarly, Wizards of Waverly Place and the like are so prevalent in the lives of these young girls {I don’t necessarily have anything against these shows, but I just don’t think they’re age-appropriate for Ashlyn, being that she’s only 5 years old!}, it’s refreshing to have her be so enthralled with the classics. One of her other faves is Heidi {you know, an adorable Shirley Temple crying, “Grandfather! Grandfather!”}. That one was one of my mom’s favorites. Turns out, two generations later, it’s still a hit! Ash even cries at the same part {when that evil woman smashes Heidi’s “snow-storm”, sniff-sniff} my mom did.


Kyle and I are working hard at preserving her innocence and teaching her about God in these early, impressionable years of her life. She’s a sweet girl, a rule-follower, with a huge compassionate heart who loves to tell “secrets” about how much she loves you. She takes “love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, strength and mind” very seriously. Her mantra is “love God and love others” and she’s not afraid to tell people!
Today she struck me in a few different ways:
1} The girl has a passion for dance and lives to “dance for Jesus”. It’s a beautiful thing to watch!

{Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.} Jer. 31:13

2} She’s a sensitive girl and, while sometimes it may be trying to my patience {wailing, “Moooommm! He looked at me in a mean waaaaaayyyy!”}, sometimes it’s a result of how deeply and compassionately she feels, usually about other people. For instance, yesterday her friend Emily decided that maybe ballet wasn’t her thing. She was too shy/nervous to be in the class. Ash looked crushed, climbed into my lap and sobbed. She so badly wanted her friend to be in her class and she felt bad that Emily was scared and nervous. Sweet girl…


3} She is getting way too old! After dinner Kyle and Ashlyn sat at the kitchen table and worked on her Bible Club homework together. I took over when he headed up stairs to help Maguire get ready for bed. Something about the way she looked {maybe it was the ponytail?}, the way she was concentrating and holding the pencil made her look so old! After her Bible Club homework, we moved on to her kindergarten homework. I can’t believe that we’re so close to full-blown homework! I hope I can keep up…

{my grown up little girl - she loves to learn!}