My daughter, The Sponge...

I've always heard that old saying that kids are little sponges and today I actually realized just how much that Madalyn picks up on.

Let me start off by giving a little bit of background... Every Tuesday evening at our house, Mark and I lead the college group from our church. They all come over, hang out, and then we do a study and have prayer time. Mady really enjoys it when everyone comes over. She gets excited every time she hears the door open - she runs over to see who is here. She has done a pretty good job at saying everyones name (I usually run through all the names of everyone before they come over.) Two weeks ago we spent Tuesday at the zoo in St. Louis. On the way home I randomly asked her "The Fusion group is coming to our house tonight. Do you know who is coming over?" She turned to me and very excitedly said "Char-leeeee," just as plain as day. She was definitely right - Charlie usually comes over a little before Fusion starts and apparently she was excited about seeing him that week. She said "Char-leeee" all evening over and over until she saw him. I was just surprised that she remembered names without me going through them first.

Tonight on the way to church I said to her, "We're going to go to church tonight and you are going to go to your class. Who are we going to see at church?" She immediately started rattling off names... "Crystal, Loni, Stacie, Steve, Charlie!" Just as clear as can be! It amazed me that she remembered names and that she named exactly those people that come to Fusion. I did tell her that none of those people would be at church but that some of her friends would be there. I asked her again who she might see (to see what her response this time was) and she proudly stated "Nemo!" Apparently Nemo goes to church with her :) I used that as a teaching moment that Nemo is a fish! ha! We'll see if that soaks in! (no pun intended!)

On another note, I babysit for a girl who Mady has named "Leena." I have watched her randomly for a few weeks this summer. One week "Leena" and I were addicted to Uno and we played at least once every day. This evening I was downstairs picking out games to take to church and I pulled out the Uno game. To my surprise Madalyn belted out "Leena Leena!" Wow. She put the connection together of "Leena" playing Uno. She continues to amaze me. Kids truly are little sponges and I think they know a lot more than we think they do!!!