baby talk

I am hoping to post some photos from the rehearsal dinner and the wedding soon, but today I just have to update on my boys :)

We didn't wake up until 10:00 a.m. this morning! We so desperately needed to catch up after lots of late nights, early mornings, and missed naps. We are all staying cozy in comfy clothes today and I'm working on more ideas to get (and keep) us organized! (Thinking of doing a week of organizational ideas as the next "series" that I do!)

Right now Isaiah is laying on the floor on his side, playing with a car, driving it back and forth and saying "OOOOoooo OOOOO" (His train whistle noise) For the longest time his sound effects were just animals (moo, baa, neigh) and drew would yell at him when he was playing with trains and saying moo. "Trains don't say Moo!!! They say WOO WOO!" Well, much to Drew's delight Isaiah can make train sounds now :) He even says "chug chug chug" between the whistles. Besides his ability to make quite convincing train sounds, he is imitating lots more words now. He comes up to me opening and closing his fingers going "ticka ticka ticka" for tickle, tickle. Recently I was feeding him chicken for lunch and he was running around in between bites and he came running to me saying his version of "chicken! chicken! chicken!" He says mama, dada, pup pup, consistently, and he will randomly imitate other words perfectly. Amen, Nan, and dinner are three words he has said perfectly and in context before but not repeated. He acts all shy and gets this cute embarrassed smile when I ask him to say words. He has a whole range of grunts and "ohs" and "ahs" that he says that mean different things. It's like his own little language. When he hits his head (which is very often due to his crazy boy stunts) he comes to me going "oooo!" and pointing at his head and then pointing to whatever he hit it on. He now knows that he can push a dining chair to any spot that he wants to climb or investigate and end up on the counter, or in any cabinet or drawer. He has fallen off of said dining chairs multiple times, but continues to love climbing. He blows kisses and still loves giving kisses and hugs. He's going through a  hitting phase, but as soon as he hits then he wants to give hugs. He has this ability to look ornery and innocent all at once. Those stinkin beautiful blue eyes and his fluffy blonde curls are just too much! He loves books, and brings them to me and climbs up into my lap wanting me to read to him all the time.  He's a mama's boy for sure. But where he used to be so messy and dive head first into things and not care about cleanliness at all, now he is starting to get particular like his big brother. He holds his hands out to me for me to wipe them throughout eating, doesn't like if his nose is runny and comes to me pinching his little button nose between his fingers to show me it needs wiped and has other things he is picky about too. He gets mad if he can't shut a cabinet/drawer/door all the way for some reason. He loves music and rhythm and wants to play the drums too. He imitates anything he sees Drew do. He loves to laugh and be friendly to other people as long as I'm close by.

And my firstborn! He's sitting here at the table with me making play dough creations and using a toilet paper roll as a rocket ship. His imagination is really taking off! I hear him having little conversations randomly through out the day about all kinds of made up things. He loves to do things the right way, and I hear him giving Isaiah instruction quite often. Unfortunately the instruction doesn't seem to come with much patience at this age... lol. One of the main things I want to remember that Drew does right now is that he'll come up to me and say "Mommy, guess what I think." To which I reply "What do you think?" And he says "I think that I ove you." (he still doesn't say l's) It is the most adorable thing ever. Sometimes instead of saying that he loves me he'll say "I ove to snuggle you" He will never know how much I love to snuggle him too! I hope I can always see his almond brown eyes looking up at me so sweetly in my memories of him. He asks me all the time to watch things that he's doing. He wants my attention and approval. He loves to help me carry things, to help me vacuum, to feel like he's a big boy. Sometimes our evenings end up in family wrestling (when you have a family of all boys you just gotta go with it, right?) and Drew is always saying things like "I'll save you mommy!" or "I'll protect you mommy!" He's my little knight :) When he gets cold he climbs into my lap and curls in a little ball and says "Warm me up mommy!" and wants me to rub his arms and back and hold him tight. He is starting to use facial expressions on purpose when he is talking and over exaggerates some of them so cutely. Like when he's asking a question he will try to make his eyes into these inquisitive little slits, and keep a straight face while doing it. So cute!!

He's going through a little bit of a rebellious stage right now, and it's probably not much compared to what it could be, but for my little sweet heart it's hard to know how to deal with. He will sometimes just yell "No" or hit me when he doesn't get his way. I didn't know how to deal with it and was praying about it and I felt like God brought the verse about turning the other cheek to mind. So the next time he swung at me I got down on his level and told him to hit me again. But only if he could look me in the eyes while he did it. He can't hit me and look me in the eyes at the same time. He ended up giving me a hug instead. I'm not saying this always works, but it does seem to take the fight out of him and helps me love him through it instead of getting angry with him. The kingdom of heaven is so opposite to our way of thinking... I would never in a million years have thought that as a mom I'd ever tell my kid to hit me. But that's what Jesus told me to do. (I'm not saying this is what every mom who has a child who hits should do, but it is what I was supposed to do, and maybe it would work for others too.)

I love this parenting thing. It is challenging and stretching and exhausting but so worth it. It is shaping me, molding me, changing me, calling me to continually lay down my own desires. And that's all I want. I want to be empty of myself and full of Jesus. Jesus thank you for my boys, for their uniqueness, their personalities, quirks, habits... I love studying them, knowing them, and helping to meet their needs and introducing them to you daily. I'm forever grateful for these little people you entrusted to my care.