"I Think I am Big Now..."

As I was hanging clothes on the line the other afternoon, Lily came over to me and said, "Mama, I think I am big now. So I want to walk to the market." I replied, "Well Lily, the market is a long way away. (about 1-1.5 kilometers/1.6 miles...one way) She had a quick response, "Mama, I can make it because my legs are strong, so can I go?"
"I think we can do that, but we may just start by walking to the bus station, okay?"
Yesterday, we went out for the "I think I am big walk". Zeria, Lily, Lauren, and I set out on our walk at 9:15am by 9:30am we were dripping sweat because of the heat, but Lily kept walking with a spring in her step. We went into the bus station restaurant and bought some drinks and visited our friend Jenny who sells bananas. Lily talked with Jenny about the walk and sang her the praise chorus that she has learned in Chinsenga. Jenny was happy that we visited her. We walked home and on the way we saw chickens, cows, and a giraffe tree (a tall holly tree that was bent over like a giraffe). We arrived home at 11:15am from our journey, we were hot and tired! Lily was so proud of herself and I was too!

Lauren thinks that she is big now because this week she began to brush her teeth on her own. Well, one afternoon as I was finishing up some work, I began to smell bubble gum from the bathroom. Just then, Lauren rounded the corner from the bathroom into the den with PINK BARBIE BUBBLE GUM toothpaste all over her face. It was like she had put a facial mask of toothpaste on her face. I was so tired of chasing after her all morning telling her to stop touching things that I had given up and look what I got for my laziness! (sorry there is no picture of this, I was too lazy to get the camera!)