Maybe he should be praying for my sanity
June 23, 2008
(Almost) every morning, the kids and I share what I have creatively named “Morning Time.” We sing worship songs, work on our memory verse, and pray together. I talk with the kids before we pray to find out what they want to pray about, and then the three of us take turns praying. Will always wants to thank God for “Jesus, died on the cross, He is not here, He is risen.” And recently, Will has followed his big brother’s example of asking God for a new baby. Christopher has the standard baby request along with other interesting needs. Last week, he wanted to ask God for more money so we could buy a donut machine (as seen in Dr. Seuss’s “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut”). This morning, our prayer request discussion went like this:
Christopher (suspiciously eyeing his stuffed dinosaur): I want to ask God to protect me from dinosaurs and T-Rexes.
Mom: Well, God has already done that for you. He made the dinosaurs all die a long time ago. There aren’t any dinosaurs anymore.
Christopher: Why did He let that one live so it could become little and become a stuffed animal?
Ah, apparently we’ve been missing a key concept about stuffed animals around here. I explained that the dinosaur was never real and was made in a stuffed animal factory. So what did Christopher want to ask God for? “That Will won’t hit me with anything hard today.”
Christopher doesn’t know it, but maybe instead of praying for protection from dinosaurs, he should be praying that Mommy doesn’t lose her mind. Today was laundry day, and as I always do, I had everything sorted into 4 loads on my laundry room floor. I save the underwear for last. (I love routines.) So tonight, as I reached for my last underwear load to put in the washer, it was gone. There was no underwear anywhere in my laundry room. I checked the load in the washer and the load in the dryer, and no underwear. How on earth do you lose an entire load of laundry??? It was a little disturbing to think that somewhere in my house there was a bunch of dirty underwear, which apparently sprouted feet and took off to spread germs all over my house. I started searching the house and found the missing underwear in Christopher’s dirty clothes basket in his closet. I remember being on the phone earlier while working on the laundry–I must have absentmindedly put it there. Man, I am really losing it.
Swim Lessons!
June 19, 2008
Last week and this week, the boys have been taking swim lessons. Christopher started out as his usual cautious self. He is a great kicker but would barely stick his face in the water to blow bubbles. Then on Wednesday, we had a break-through! For some unexplained reason, he became very brave and began going completely underwater! Here’s a video of the second time he did it:
Once he had conquered this skill, he couldn’t stop. While the teachers were taking turns “swimming” around with the kids, Christopher would stand by the wall, grinning at me to make sure I was watching, and then dunking his head underwater. I’m so proud of him!
Will’s age still does swim lessons “mommy and me” style. He loves swimming with me across the pool and practicing getting in and out of the water. He also loves the silly songs we sing, like “Motor Boat” and “The Wheels on the Bus.” Throughout his swimming lessons, he can’t stop gleefully saying, “I’m swimming!” Except for yesterday, when it was barely 70 degrees and cloudy, and he kept saying, “It’s cold!”
The funny thing about Will is that he will not close his mouth when we try to get some of his face in the water. We “pass” him back and forth between the teacher and me, and we are trying to teach him to close his mouth as we count to three, the idea being that on three, we stick his face in the water. When we tell him to close his mouth, he just covers his mouth with his hand. But by the time we get to 2, he is having such a great time, he is grinning with his mouth wide open! Yesterday when I handed him to the teacher, without even telling him to close his mouth, he covered it with his hand–he knows what to do!–but he simply will not close his mouth! He might not be much of an underwater swimmer! 
Here’s a couple more photos of Christopher in action:
For the past week or so, Christopher and Will have been very interested in taking care of their two “babies,” Baby Josh (my sister’s old cabbage patch doll that Christopher swiped from my parents’ house after Will was born) and Baby Tinky (a gloworm that my parents bought Will awhile back). Christopher dragged the high chair out of the guest room (where it waits between visits from their cousin Caroline), so Baby Josh could join us at the table. Since we have a play workbench and not a play kitchen, the best Christopher could do for food for Baby Josh was a bare Mr. Potato Head.
After I took this picture, Christopher put a small pillow behind Josh so he could reach his food better. The boys have been talking to Baby Josh, too. The other day, after we prayed before a meal, Christopher turned to Josh and said, “You can eat now, Josh.”
This afternoon, Will wanted to take Baby Josh outside. (Maybe he was suffering from jaundice and needed sunlight?) When it was time for dinner, Baby Josh was absent from his high chair. Panic ensued: was Baby Josh still outside? Was he lying in the grass, or was he still playing on the swingset? Please tell me he hasn’t fallen off the slide!! Or did someone bring him in? Does anyone remember if someone brought the baby in??? We found Josh by the living room sofa, safe and sound, but I felt a little rattled. Maybe we’re not ready for another baby after all!
My favorite moments
June 9, 2008
One of my favorite moments of the day is 8:00 a.m. Christopher usually wakes up between 7:00 and 7:30, and he plays in his room until I come get him at 8:00. I never know what I will find when I open his door. He is usually playing with his toys in an imaginative way, acting out a new and fascinating scenario. One morning, he was throwing a birthday party for his stuffed animals, complete with cakes with lego candles and gifts wrapped in his blanket. Last week, I opened the door and found this:
Here’s the explanation:
Will continues to dazzle us all with his constant singing. Here are a couple of videos I took recently of him singing “Jesus Loves Me” and “Twinkle, Twinkle.” Following those is another video of Christopher reading to Will. He is doing awesome with his reading!
So here’s a little parenting dilemma . . . do we allow our child to spend the morning pretending to hunt a turkey (played by his little brother), grill the turkey (on the sofa) and eat him? The boys had the best time playing this last week. Will was perfectly happy to be the turkey and lay in his assigned position on the “grill.” Christopher used various instruments to achieve a perfectly grilled turkey before moving him to a table for his feast. It seemed a little bizarre, but hey, they were peaceful and entertained!
