Can I Help You?

We were in Charming Charlie's yesterday just killing some time.  If you don't know what Charming Charlie's is, it's a shop full of accessories, hats, bags, shoes, jewelry, sunglasses and clothes too.  We were waiting for a table at a nearby restaurant.  Upon entering the shop, we, or rather Eden, was greeted very enthusiastically by an employee.  She told Eden she was such a pretty shopper and gave her a wire basket.  She also told her that if she needed any help, to just ask.
We walked around a bit, trying on sunglasses and hats and looking at shoes and jewelry.  Eden was mumbling something about asking the employee lady for help and soon got to the point where she was stopping every time I paused to look at something, plunking her basket down on the ground and sitting down with a big sigh as if we'd been doing this for hours.  I thought that might be the signal to leave, so I told her we were done and should head back outside and entertain ourselves out there while we waited for our buzzer to go off.  She didn't want me to put the basket away (even with all that plunking) and I explained that we couldn't take it with us and it had to be returned to the stack for another shopper to use.  She relinquished it begrudgingly, but still wouldn't go out the door.  I tried to coax her, finding it strange that she wouldn't want to leave when she seemed so bored only moments ago.

She explained, "I have to ask the lady for help!"

I chuckled and asked what she needed help with.

"I need help with... (something unintelligible)"

"We don't need help with anything because we don't want to buy anything.  Let's leave the sales person alone and go outside."

She reiterated that she was not leaving until she had asked for help and, not knowing quite what to do, I just stood silently.  After about 15 seconds of scowling, she gave up and walked outside with me.
We spent the rest of the time until our buzzer called us balancing and collecting leaves to feed the ants.  We had a nice lunch and when we were walking back to the van, she suddenly stopped and said,
"I forgot to ask the lady for help!"

As we continued walking, I asked her what she would have asked the lady to help with.  That didn't work, so I asked what she wanted the lady to bring her.

"Chocolate," she answered matter-of-factly.

"Eden, they don't have any chocolate in that store."

"Then WHAT am I supposed to ask her to help me with?!"

The mind of a chocolate-loving three-year-old...

Days of our Lives

We honored the high school graduates today at Broadmoor Baptist.  They put together a little picture slide show with each graduates baby picture and their senior photo as well as their name, where they were going to college and what major they had chosen.  As the photos scrolled through, I kept being drawn to the baby pictures.  Some of them looked to be Eden or Arielle's ages and it really hit home that they really will be graduating high school someday and leaving our home to go to college.
Our kids have really taken over our home and lives, from leaving toys everywhere, to becoming the soundtrack of my day (both sweet singing and horrible screaming), to eating up all my time except for the couple hours of nap time I get, to literally changing the way almost every daily task is done.  But it won't always be this way.  I teared up (not that unusual at church) when the pastor talked about our kids leaving the umbrella of our home.
It's hard to glimpse the future sometimes and I just sort-of assume that looking back and thinking "I wish I could have those days back" was just par for the course.  I'm asking God to help me, though, defy the odds and be able to live fully in the moment so I don't feel like I missed out by wishing time to fly faster than it already does.
As I write, I'm sitting on the countertop in the hall bath watching the girls play with bubbles in the tub.  Eden's "washing" Arielle and Arielle is just mesmerized by the piles of bubbles she can scoop up in her tiny hands.
These are the days.