The faith of little children

Kate has been so excited about the changing of the leaves and has really wanted to jump in piles of leaves. She says, "I just love to play in the leaves". We don't have any trees, but a few baby ones so we don't have much as far as leaves except what blows on to our lawn from the neighbors trees. The nice fall days seem to be fewer and farther between, but we did get one opportunity to play in the leaves. It was fun practicing with our new camera trying to catch some actions shots and the color and lighting were great.

Beck mostly enjoyed inspecting every leaf and he seemed so serious most of the time, but he finally started to understand that it is fun to throw them up into the air.

Kate has been in the "why" phase for some time now. She is always asking questions like "why does the wind blow?" and the dreaded questions like "how did the baby get in your tummy?" or "how will the baby get out of your stomach? Lately she has been asking "why do the leaves fall off the tree?" I usually give her as honest and correct of answers as I can and sometimes I encourage her to answer the questions herself. She tends to ask the same questions over and over again. I don't know how many times I have told her that the leaves need to fall off the tree so that when the snows come the trees won't break from the weight of the leaves and the snow. Kate came up with her own answer and I liked her answer much better. One day out of the blue Kate made the comment that Heavenly Father makes the leaves change colors and fall off the trees so she can play and jump in them. How true that is that He created this Earth in part for our enjoyment because HE LOVES US! He wants us to be happy and find joy in the simple things of life like the beauty of the earth and the changing seasons. I also thought it was great that she feels she is important enough to her Father in Heaven that he would do it just for her. He knows Kate personally and individually and what makes her happy. How pure the faith of the child who knows these simple truths automatically unlike many of us adults who need to constantly remind ourselves that He loves Us and we are important to him. Why is it so hard for us to believe? Why do we doubt his love for us? I think this is one reason we are commanded to become like little children.

Shortly after this experience I overheard Kate telling her brother "Beck did you know you are a child of God?" How sweet this was for me to hear. I love to watch the special bond that is developing between Kate and Beck. Kate is a pretty good big sister and she loves having a little brother. She has even said that she wants the next baby to be another baby brother. She is always saying "Beck is so cute" or "I love Beck". They are very affectionate with each other also. I think it is funny how protective Beck is of Kate as well. When Kate is in trouble, Beck gets mad at me for disciplining her. It upsets him to see Kate upset. They fight a lot over toys, but they also really enjoy playing together and are quick to forgive each other. It will be interesting to see how Beck responds to the new baby. He is quite a momma's boy and it will be hard for him to have to share me with a new baby. I am not so worried about Kate she is already saying she loves the baby and she has even tried to help us come up with names.