Rapid Change

We do not do things gradually around here, or calmly, or any other term that would imply that I have time to adjust to changes. Last week at this time Caleb was not moving. He would roll some, but didn't really do it with intentionality. No scooting, no army crawling.

Fast forward to today: he now crawls quite rapidly and pulls up on pieces of furniture or other less stable items. I serve in our church nursery and most of the babies in there army crawled or scooted for a few weeks before crawling. Not here. I knew the day of mobility would come for the wee one, but I thought I would get more warning. Friday he started rocking back and forth on all fours and by Saturday he was crawling and getting into lots of things. He pulls up on anything and everything and is living up to the meaning of his name: fearless.

I am happy that he is mobile although my work is now doubled. He is much happier. Last week he would sit in the living room and screech. My most educated guess is that he was ticked that Jonathan could move toys around at his leisure and that he could not. Now he just happily crawls around, grabbing everything and smiling.

Music, Music and More

Our final music class for the summer was on Friday, and Maynard and Judy were here for the weekend so they accompanied us to class. Maynard participated with us and Judy took these photos. We won't be able to take the class again for a while because we have a conflict on the class days... bummer! Both boys really enjoyed it (although expressed their enjoyment much differently).

Yesterday when Jonathan was in his room for nap time he was singing, "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" from one of the songs. Caleb isn't singing quite yet, but he lights up when we sing a song. Especially if the song involves actions.

A Fly on the Wall

It is often said, "I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see..." If you were a fly on the wall in our house on any given morning you might see a scene similar to this one: We are very blessed to have made some great friends here in the last year and a half. Jonathan loves his friends, and Julianne and Erica are two of his favorites.

Julianne with Caleb

Tyler and Jonathan before Tyler left for college

Kids say...

such funny things. Here are a few of the latest:

~ The other day Jonathan unzipped one of the couch cushions and said, "There is an extremely big piece of fuzz in here." It's so funny to hear his little voice say the word, "extremely".



~ "It goes very fa-ast" "Da-ad". All with a "southern accent".



~ Jamie's parents are here and Maynard was drawing pictures with Jonathan, and Jonathan said, "I want you to draw a plumed basilisk." Do you know what that is? Neither did Maynard. Neither did I till I bought Jonathan a book about Reptiles and Amphibians. Now both Jonathan and I know that a plumed basilisk is a lizard that lives in Mexico and walks on water. We also know about the komodo dragon, various iguanas, and snakes. Amazing what you learn when you have children.

~ Tyler (next door neighbor) left for college today. When I told Jonathan that this would occur he informed me, "I am going with Tywer to college." Me: "You need to be older and bigger to go to college." Jonathan: "But I am big. I am growing bigger! I want to go with Tywer."

Whose "Job" do you want tonight?

Tonight is one of many, many nights throughout the year that the stark contrast between daily activities in my "job" and my husband's job are apparent.

Let's set the stage and then take a peak into our evening adventures:
Sarah: At home with the boys, in sno-cone stained clothing with her hair up.
Jamie: Dressed in a spiffy new shirt with his "business casual attire" at the baseball game downtown in the air-conditioned suite.

Several snippets of the evening at given moments in time...

Sarah: Receiving play by play information on Jonathan's pooping. "Mom, here's a little hunk. Ooo... there's more poo poo coming out of my bottom. That was a big hunk." Nice. Very sophisticated and refined conversation we're having around here.
Jamie: Watching the game. Talking about anything and everything that isn't poop.

Sarah: Eating watermelon and noodles while shoveling smashed vegetables and turkey to Caleb and getting up randomly to get other items for Jonathan.
Jamie: Eating shrimp, steak, fancy appetizers, and sitting calmly in his chair.

Sarah: Cleaning up dirty dishes and scraping dried noodles off the floor.
Jamie: Handing his dirty plate to a server and getting a different one with another delicious morsel of food.

Sarah: Rocking and singing songs to Caleb while he sits calmly in my arms.
Jamie: No rocking, no singing, just lots of loud conversation with co-workers.

Sarah: Rocking with Jonathan and singing , "Pass It On" and "Our God is so Great" while he rests in my arms.
Jamie: No rocking, no singing, just lots of loud conversation with co-workers.

Many, many times tonight I lamented the spill on my shirt, the messes to be cleaned up, the lack of adult conversation (trust me: we are NOT lacking in conversation... I am ready for silence after a night alone with Jonathan. I just appreciate adult conversation). I wanted to be at the game, talking and laughing and eating good food. It posed the question in my mind... would I trade places?

There isn't one day that I would REALLY trade places with Jamie. I would like to have a one day (or even one week) trade on occasion. I would love to work outside the home one day a week and pursue other things that I find challenging. But never a true trade. Never a trade with the early mornings and late nights he has to work. I would miss the rocking and the singing and even the play by play of the pooping.

Had I traded places with Jamie or someone else, I would have missed this conversation:
Jonathan: "Mommy, Jesus was killed."
Me: "Oh?"
Jonathan:" Yeah, and they put his arms on this thing like this." Arms outstretched.
Me: "A cross?"
Jonathan: "Yeah, that thing. Then he was killed."
Me: "And then he came back to life, right?"
Jonathan: "Uh huh, that's right."

Definitely no trading for me. And many, many thanks to a husband who is second to none for wishing he were here and loving us when he is away.

Rubba, Scrub, Scrub

Have I mentioned Jonathan's affinity for water? Demonstrated by this photo set, once again. He was entertained for quite some time by this spray bottle of water. Then, even more excitement came into the picture... Tyler and Drew! A water bottle, two boys Jonathan l.o.v.e.s. and a car... a perfect world for my little two year old.

Moods

Our rather tempermental technology device for blogging (a.k.a. computer of sorts) is in a mood. I have sent it for evaluation because I fear that this current mood may be permanent. It seemed a very bad sign that Google sent me a message on Internet Explorer regarding sypware or adware or ?!?!ware and wouldn't let me complete a simple search. I took that final hint and shut the computer down, loaded up the boys, and took it to the local computer shop for some serious help.

All that to say that pictures of recent events will be delayed. One only knows how long the computer might be out of commission.

Speaking of moods: Caleb is getting at least four teeth (I can see the white just breaking through for four of them... maybe two more on the bottom that have suspicious looking whitish areas) and is NOT really cooperating with my wishes. Actually, that seems the norm for my babies. Only now his uncooperativeness is paired with lots of crying and whining when not being held ALL of the time.

Jonathan's great excitement of the week was seeing a real, live train pass under the trail where we were walking today and getting two transformers from our neighbors as a hand-me-down gift. Ahhh, the life of a two year old. A two year old who can now say spray instead of pray, spill instead of pill, stuff instead of tuff... you get the idea.

Such an exciting life I lead! I threatened to get a job on Tuesday after no naps for both boys, managing a termite treatment that involved lots of loud banging (don't ask), and the aforementioned teething issue. But, alas, I know that this is the place for me, and I just love my two little munchkins.

Seventy Years

Jamie and I will celebrate our eighth anniversary this fall. His grandparents celebrated almost nine times as many years together on July 29th. Many factors make that possible: they married at a young age, they have both lived a long time, and they still live out "for better or worse, in sickness and in health" every day. When someone asked his grandfather whether he could believe that it had been seventy years he replied, "And I would do it all over again if I could marry the same girl. I picked her out when she was just a little girl walking with her mother."

We had the priviledge of celebrating with them last weekend in Michigan along with most of Jamie's family. The boys traveled reasonably well and they have now gotten back in the sleeping groove after all of the excitement. I hope to have photos of the weekend to post soon... we flew there so I didn't pack the big camera in light of all of the other stuff we had to bring.

Worship

The single thing I desire to teach my children, my greatest hope for them, and the thing that I would give up most anything to insure that they grasp is the immeasurable love of God for them. I realize that I do not share this perspective with many of you who read this and you think it strange or "over the top", but it is the defining factor of our lives. Period. It defines our relationships, our perspectives. Everything. And I pray that it will change us more everyday.

We have been teaching Jonathan and Caleb about Jesus and this is one of the verses from the Bible that we worked on...