Yesterday, Libby turned 17 months old. Once again I find myself wishing I could slow her down. Don't grow up so fast, Libby!  She's getting so tall, so verbal, so animated, so affectionate. This parenthood thing just keeps getting more lovely. (however, more difficult too!)

I'm not sure how to cover the month of April in this short journal entry. We celebrated Libby's first Easter with us. We traveled several times. One trip was to visit my family in SC. (Okay - right here is where I need to say sorry to all the family and friends I didn't get to see while we were there. We were only home for 4 full days and it was packed with activity. I didn't get to see many people I wanted to. So please forgive me!)   I took 256 pictures this month. So choosing photos for this entry should be interesting too!

Palm Sunday is celebrated at our church as "The Lord of the Nations" Sunday. We all dress up representing different countries/people groups. Scripture is read in all different languages. Libby was dressed in a pale pink Chinese gown and I was dressed in a punjabi (spelling?) - a dress from India. Next was Easter Sunday. We gave Libby a basket with some special gifts in it. One of the gifts was a cross. We plan on giving her a new cross each Easter. We dressed her in a sweet light green dress and she wore it with as much grace as a toddler can display. I can't wait until Libby has some understanding of what Easter is all about. What Jesus suffered to adopt us is far more than what we had to endure to adopt Libby. His love for us brought much suffering on Himself. I look forward to painting that picture for her.

As mentioned earlier, Libby and I traveled to SC to visit my family. My sister, Becky, is pregnant with her 2nd. so it was exciting to see her during this early stage of her pregnancy. We enjoyed all my family so much. Libby really got comfortable with all of them and made herself right at home. We kept her mighty busy that week and she loved every minute of it. The flight home was interesting. Libby was an angel the whole way until suddenly during the last 30 minutes Libby completely and utterly lost it. She screamed and wailed and threw her head back and wiggled for 30 minutes straight. I was in such a sweat! All the moms were looking at me with pity. All the childless were rolling their eyes with NO compassion. I just wanted to disappear.

Libby's favorite sign at the moment is "music". Everytime we're in a vehicle (taxi, bus, van, car, etc) she signs for music and she'll keep signing it until she can hear it.  Sign and Sing class is now over, but today I registered Libby for "Kids Day Out" at CBC starting this September. She'll go 2 days a week and I'll actually have time to do some office work. Hallelujah!

Libby kisses us all on her own - no prompting. She'll run up to Billy or I and hug our legs. She's just so sweet and loving. I melt every time. I never take that for granted!!

 Libby is also testing me at every turn. If she doesn't get her way or if she's frustrated she'll look me straight in the eye and scratch whatever is closest to her - sometimes it's her head, sometimes the carpet, sometimes the couch - and recently, sometimes she scratches me! - UH - THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE!  I've tried ignoring it in hopes that if I didn't react she'd just give it up. That didn't work. Today I started driving the discipline train. She got lots of time outs along with a few other forms of disipline. No one ever explains how hard disiplining is. It really takes some serious effort and consistency. I'm on a learning curve right now, but I'll get the hang of it.

It the midst of her testing me - she continues to be so cute. On the porch this afternoon I was teaching her what "smile" means so I can get more pictures of her smiling. She finally got it and grinned really big. Everytime she saw that picture on my camera she would grin all over again! The picture of her in a red and white shirt with a big smile is my reward for the day! I love it!

Okay - I'll stop there. Blessings on you all!

Cindy