Josh Renaud

Changing the lyrics

A story from Yoli:

A few days ago, the girls were listening to Christmas music, when the song "Happy Holidays" began playing.

Ludi heard the word "happy." She lifted her head and opened her eyes wide and began saying "appy appy appy," which is her way of telling us she wants to sing "Happy, happy" (a Christian preschool song).

Yoli began singing the song and changed the lyrics to include Ludi's name: "Happy, happy, happy happy happy. Happy is my Ludi, my Ludi, Lu Luuuuu..."

Then Jadzia asked Yoli to sing the song with HER name, too. Yoli complied.
"Happy, happy, happy happy happy. Happy is Jadzia, Jadziiiia Marieeeee..."

Jadzia began screaming.

"No, you're doing it wrong! I'm not happy! I'm sad!" she exclaimed. "Sing it with 'sad!'"

Yoli asked "Why are you sad?"

"Because somebody pushed me."

"Who pushed you?"

"I don't know. Somebody!"

A 3-year-old with a political future

Jadzia likes to employ her powers of suggestion throughout the day. Her requests usually run something like this: "I think you can take us to the Whistle Stop for ice cream."

It doesn't matter how many times her dreams are denied. The requests will keep coming. And coming.

Yoli thinks Jadzia is destined for a future career as a lobbyist.

Sick Sunday

The last few days Jadzia has been getting sick. She's had trouble sleeping, calling us at various times through the night. She isn't really running a fever, but she has a runny nose and a cough, and she isn't herself.

She still seemed excited about going to the FamilyWise service this morning. We thought we'd take her to that, but not take to her regular children's ministry class where she would be handling toys and playing closely with other kids.

But just as we were suiting up to leave, Jadzia decided she no longer wanted to go. So we ended up staying home from church. She spent the next several hours laying on the couch, moving in and out of sleep, listening to Christmas music and Bible readings.

It's always tough to watch the girls be sick. We want them to heal up soon ... and we also want to make sure they don't infect each other or us.

There may be one bright side out of all this, at least for Ludi: She's been totally free the last two days. Free to run around without her older sister bossing her, taking toys from her, pushing her, etc, etc. She seems pretty happy about it, too.

Northern Lights

This past Sunday, Yoli bravely trekked from our house to Florissant Rd. so the girls could watch Northern Lights, Ferguson's holiday parade/festival. She did this in spite of the threat of snow.

As she tells it, everything went well until the end. Jadzia was so happy she wanted to stay forever (these days she never wants to come home, anyway, and she always tells us so. She wants to be out and about.) ... while Ludi was tired of it and screaming to go home. It was a no-win scenario, to borrow an expression from Star Trek II. Unfortunately, Spock wasn't there to resolve the scenario for Yoli, so she just went home, and dragged the screaming girls with her.

The girls picked up a couple of do-it-yourself kits courtesy of Home Depot, plus some cool orange aprons. They immediately set to work playing with this stuff upon arrival at their warm home.

Fall, leaf, FALL!

A few pictures from falltime in our backyard as winter approaches.

Christmas tree farm

I've been a little off-kilter the last couple weeks with a new work schedule and the big Thanksgiving holiday. I'm now try to play a little catch-up. Here are some photos from my family's trip to pick out a Christmas tree, the day after Thanksgiving.