Rock’n'Roll

Christopher has a new favorite music genre–rock’n'roll!  Both Mommy and Daddy are guilty of letting them listen to an occasional pop song.  I went to NYC last month, and I got to see the New Kids On The Block with my friend Tara.  When I got home, I was singing “Please Don’t Go Girl” for the boys, and they loved it.  They both kept singing it, and I thought it might get me in a little trouble if Daddy heard it!  A few days later, we were all driving somewhere together, and Will had a lego man.  We asked him what the lego guy’s name was, and he replied, “Dave Matthews!”  (That’s what Daddy listens to with them.)  A few hours later, Will started singing, “please, don’t go girl” but after the Dave Matthews moment, I had some immunity. 

Yesterday Christopher set up an elaborate drum set in his room, and today he wanted me to play in his band.  I started tapping out Joy to the World, and he informed me that we were going to play rock’n'roll.  I said that song could be rock’n'roll, so I started playing and singing a jazzed up version.  Christopher said that was pretty good, but I was forgetting the “oh, baby!”  ‘Cause every good rock’n'roll song has a few “oh baby”’s in there somewhere–at least the New Kids songs do!!

A Preliminary Report

I went to the OB on Friday, and although my ultrasound isn’t for 4 more weeks, the doctor offered to take a quick look and see if we could spot any girl or boy parts.  I couldn’t turn that offer down!  So we took a quick look at my squirmy baby, and both the ultrasound tech and my doctor agreed–it looks like a GIRL!!!  I’m only 15 weeks along, so we’re taking it with a grain of salt, but we are excited about the possibility of some pink!  I’ll go back on December 11 for the full ultrasound, and hopefully we’ll know more then.

Will seems pretty obvilious to the gender news, but Christopher was thrilled!  (After all, he spent months asking God for a baby sister.)  The ultrasound tech had printed out a picture for me and typed “GIRL” on the image, and so when Christopher saw it, he said, “It says girl!!!  It is a girl!!!” and was jumping up and down.  I tried to calm him down, saying, “Christopher, it might be a girl.  We’re not sure yet.”  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Mom, it says right there–GIRL!  That means it’s a girl!”  It’s hard to explain the subleties of ultrasound gender identification to a 4-year-old ecstatic big brother!

Happy Halloween! (A little bit late.)

The boys had a blast with Halloween this year.  Christopher seemed to remember very well what happened last Halloween, and he got Will excited about trick-or-treating.  Christopher and Will both had opinions about what costumes they wanted.  I ordered Christopher’s costume online, and when someone asked him if his mom bought it for him, he answered, “No, it came in the mail!”  He seems to have a problem understanding online shopping.  (Who can blame him?  I love it when things come in the mail!)

Below are pictures of the boys in their costumes.  (You can click on the photos to see a larger image.)  Christopher was Diego, a Spanish-speaking animal rescuer from Nick, Jr.  We also took pictures at Nana and Granddad’s house with the boys’ cousin Caroline.  As you can tell, it was tough getting all the kids to stay still for a photo!  Halloween evening, we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  There is a picture of the kids trick-or-treating at their friends Ruth and Iain’s house.  And a photo of Noel and Will when we met up with a bunch of neighborhood kids and Will was afraid of some of the costumes.

Finally, there is a photo of the kids in their new bunk bed!  It was delivered on Halloween day, and the boys were so excited.  Right now, only Christopher is sleeping in it.  But in a few months (that is, when Mommy works up the courage), Will will move out of his crib and into Christopher’s room, so that we can use Will’s room for the baby.  On the day the bunk bed was delivered, I let Will spend part of his rest time in bed in Christopher’s bed, and Christopher read to him.  It was so sweet!

My Hilarious Boys

The kids are really cracking me up lately.  (What else is new?)  The baby is definitely a frequent topic of conversation.  About once a day, completely at random, Will will ask, “Are we having a baby?”  I think he keeps wondering when this alleged baby is going to show up.  Sometimes he asks a follow-up question:  “What kind of baby is it going to be?”  The first time he asked that, I said, “Do you mean is it going to be a girl or a boy?” and he replied, “I think it is going to be a regular baby.”  The only thing I can think of is that in his mind, it would make sense that I could be having a puppy or a baby turtle, and he is hoping for a human.  The second time he asked what kind of baby it is going to be, I asked him what he thought, and he replied, “I think it’s going to be a red baby with blue eyes.”

Will also loves to “pray about the baby” at every meal.  He squeezes his eyes tight while Christopher leads him through their usual prayer:  “Dear God, thank you for this food.  And thank you for the baby you put in Mommy’s tummy.  Please give the baby all its baby parts, and keep the baby safe and healthy.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.  Let’s eat!!”

Christopher loves to talk about the baby, too.  One day he told me that he wanted to name the baby Katie if it is a girl, or Jason if it is a boy.  He seemed very annoyed when I told him that Daddy and I would be picking out the names.  He is so ready for me to go to the doctor and find out what we are having!  I did have an ultrasound last week (9 weeks–to early to tell!), and he loves looking at the picture of the baby. Will likes to look at the picture, too, but he doesn’t quite understand that just the one little blob in the middle is the baby.  He is finding the baby’s mouth, eyes, etc. somewhere in the picture!

Christopher recently had his very first homework assignment for preschool.  He was supposed to decorate a silhouette of a person with things that are important to him.  He had a great time with it.  I let him take the lead and tell me what he wanted to put on it, and I was surprised by what he came up with.  He was very detailed in drawing his face–including ears and cheeks–and drew fingers, fingernails, toes and toenails.  He wanted to be wearing clothes with rockets on them (not too surprising) and holding a flower to give to me and walking our dog Maggie, who died 2 years ago.  He made me cut out a dog and wanted me to write “Baby Maggie, our dog who died” on it.  I told him that maybe he should wait until Daddy got home, because I’m not very good at making a dog.  He said, “That’s okay, Mom, just try your best.”  So I did.  And later, when Daddy got home, Christopher confided in him that I’m really not all that good at making dogs.  Here’s Christopher and his finished project:

Sometimes living with Christopher is kind of like living with another adult.  A couple of weeks ago, I picked him up from a friend’s house after a meeting.  When we got in the car, he asked, “How was your meeting, Mom? . . . Did you eat any cake? . . . Was anyone there having a baby? . . . (Yes, in fact, 3 of us are pregnant) . . . How did you know?  . . . (They told me.) . . . Were you SO excited???”

Christopher has a friend from his preschool class who we carpool with, so I got to witness his first attempt at “flirting” (not really) with this adorable little girl.  We were getting out of the van, and Christopher said to her, “I like your jacket.”  She replied, “It’s a sweater.”  Shot down!  But the next week, after she had been at our house playing, Christopher very sincerely professed his love for her and got an “I love you” return.  Her mom and I thought it was so sweet!

Back to School!

I can’t believe we are already more than half way through September!  We’ve been busy the last couple of weeks getting back into our routine of preschool, mother’s day out and Bible Study Fellowship.  Christopher loves being back in school and tells everyone he’s in kindergarten.  (Not yet, that’s next year!)  Here he is on the first day of school and with his new teacher:

In the spirit of back-to-school, Will has had quite the knowledge explosion lately.  It seemed like it was just overnight that he went from not being able to sing his ABC’s correctly to not only knowing all his letters, but also knowing their sounds.  All the times he has watched the Letter Factory video are finally paying off!  He is also counting to 10, which is quite a big jump from his previous way of counting (1, 2, 1!).  He also picks up on song lyrics quickly and loves to sing along with our Seeds CD’s in the car.  (I highly recommend these CD’s, and I wrote this post about them on my other blog.)  Here are videos of Christopher and Will singing Ephesians 2:8 from the Seeds CD and Will singing his ABC’s.

Ephesians 2:8:  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

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Our big news!

Christopher and Will have an announcement:

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We are excited to be expecting a baby in early May!  Christopher is ECSTATIC.  Despite Will’s ability to repeat what his brother says, he is oblivious.  I made some shirts for Christopher and Will to wear to tell their grandparents the big news.  At one point, when the message was getting a little confused due to Will’s babbling on about something completely unrelated, Christopher started yelling, “Listen UP, Nana and Granddad!  We’re having a BABY!!!”

My favorite part of this pregnancy so far has been Christopher’s reaction and questions.  He has been praying for a baby sister for months . . . fortunately, he’s already prepared for the idea that it could be a brother.  He wants to share his beloved frog and blanket with the baby, and he reminded me that we’ll need to get down the baby toys.  He wanted to know how we know there is a baby in my tummy and when it will start growing.  And he worried that his tambourine might be scaring the baby.

When I got out a pregnancy book to show him what the baby looks like now and how tiny it is, Christopher got a little concerned that we might be having a dinosaur baby.  So I flipped forward a couple of months to show him that the baby will look more human later.  He studied the picture and said, “Momma, are we going to have to put some clothes on the baby AFTER it comes out??”  He thought it was HILARIOUS that the baby is going to come out naked!

We are thankful for this blessing to our family and would appreciate your prayers for a healthy pregnancy and baby.  If you want to pray as specifically as I am, you can pray for a healthy baby, weighing less than 10 pounds, who loves to sleep. 

Riddles, puppet-less puppet shows, and other recent happenings

I apologize to my faithful readers for the lack of blog posts lately–we have been busy! I can’t believe the summer is almost over. We have enjoyed having Uncle Jamie here several days this month. Last week, Jamie and I took the boys to the county fair. They loved seeing the animals. Will couldn’t understand why there were no giraffes or bears. He also didn’t like any animals making loud noises. Christopher had fun petting a sheep, a calf, and a bunny!

Christopher’s latest obsession is riddles. He says, “Riddle me this . . . ” (taught to him by Daddy) and then gives you several clues. This morning he said, “It’s brown, it has cinnamon jelly inside it, you put it on a plate, you have it for breakfast, and you eat it.” Aided by the fact that he was eating a brown sugar cinnamon pop tart at the time, I guessed correctly. Christopher also likes to come up with games and then give you a lesson in how to play it. The games often have interesting names. Yesterday, it was “the English man who went up the hill and came down with all the tubbies.” Don’t ask, I have NO idea.

Will’s favorite game is “puppet show.” He announces, “We’re having a puppet show, guys!” And as far as I can tell, the puppet show does not involve any actual puppets. You simply step up and down the hearth in front of the fireplace. Will LOVES this game. Will also loves to tell you that you may not do things. I guess this is part of his strong 2-year-old need to be in control. He says, “You MAY NOT have a snuggle!” or “You MAY NOT have an [imaginary] cookie!”

My sweet, sweet boys have become very complimentary lately. Christopher often tells me that he likes my hair or my shirt. And since Will has to do everything Christopher does, he joins in. Will likes to compliment my buttons, my shoulder, or my elbow. They will make great husbands someday! It’s hard to imagine any wife who wouldn’t swoon when her husband looks into her eyes and says, “I really like your shoulder!”

100 Posts!

I noticed the other day that my last post was my 100th post on this blog.  Wow!  To celebrate 100 posts of riveting stories, hilarious quotes, adorable photos, and recaps of all major holidays and celebrations, I thought I’d share my top 10 posts from the past 2+ years.  Thanks for reading!

1.  Our new imaginary friend and a snow day–February 1, 2008

2.  Why I love Arkansas–November 14, 2007

3.  Jesus is alive!–June 21, 2007

4.  Mommy vs. the utility companies–April 15, 2007

5.  Happy birthday, Will!–January 25, 2007

6.  Adventures in self-feeding–December 1, 2006

7.  Cell phones, teeth, and Mommy gets it wrong–September 21, 2006

8.  626 miles with my boys–September 15, 2006

9.  Chips, dip and ice cream–May 20, 2006

10.  We knew it was inevitable–April 13, 2006

The Real Deal

Since my last post was admittedly braggy, this post is the honest, real deal of our current lives.  I try not to write many negative things about my kids on this blog, but I have a story from last week that may become a legend in our family.  At least I hope it won’t be topped anytime soon.

I was on the computer and heard Christopher and Will playing in the other room.  I heard Will start to scream, and immediately Christopher said, “Will, I’ll tell Mommy what happened.”  They come into the study, Christopher’s arm comfortingly around Will’s shoulder.  Christopher explains:  “Will’s sippy cup was on the floor, and Will fell down, and he hit his head on the sippy cup.”  It sounded a little odd, but Will does fall down a lot, so I was tempted to believe it.  But too bad for Christopher–his brother can talk!  Will was on my lap at this point, earnestly protesting:  “He threwed it!  He threwed it!”  A few seconds later, Christopher confessed that what actually happened was that Will wouldn’t give him a toy, so he threw a sippy cup at Will’s head.  Oh yeah, he was in double big trouble for that one!

While Christopher is spinning lies, Will is asserting his independence and trying to control as much as his life as possible.  That is a nice way of saying that he throws tantrums.  All.  Day.  Long.  I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that he throws a tantrum every morning because he doesn’t want to get out of his crib.  And he throws a bigger tantrum every night because he doesn’t want to go into his crib.  And every point in between is contested as well.

But in the midst of Will’s independence month (please, Lord, just let it be a month), there are some pretty funny sayings.  My favorite is when we tell him no, and he says, “But I want you to say yes!  Say yes!!”  He knows who is in charge, he just doesn’t like our answer!  Another favorite is when he wants to do something himself, he says, “Just me!”  And then there’s the classic:  when we tell him something and he responds, “Uh, uh, uh, I don’t think so!”

Ah, gotta love those terrible twos.

The World of Reading

WARNING:  This post contains some serious bragging.  But this is my blog, and part of my goal is to record what my kids are doing so they can look back on it someday in case I never recover from my 6-year backlog of scrapbooking tasks.  Continue reading if you must.

Christopher is really reading.  Not just reciting memorized books or sounding out simple words.  I have no idea how it happened, and it amazes me.  It’s kind of like when they start walking or talking–you cannot imagine your tiny baby coming toward you vertically, or saying “uh, uh, uh, I don’t think so” every time you ask them to do something, and then one day, there you are.

I love to see how it has opened up a whole new world for Christopher.  He loves to read signs as we drive down the road.  (Will likes to pretend he can read, too, based solely on context clues.  The other day, as we passed Starbucks, Will pointed and said, “That spells coffee!”)  Christopher has a Wallace and Grommett video, which he has always called “Wallace and Grommick.”  Last week, he looked at it and said, “It’s not Wallace and Grommick!  It’s Wallace and Grommett!”

One thing I am most proud of is Christopher’s participation in the summer reading program at the library.  He read 120 books!!  He earned a ticket to a baseball game, and he is SO excited.  Now that we are done keeping track, he is still reading all the time.  (Ashley, remember our dream of our kids spending their day reading in the corner?  It is coming true.  A little bit.)

Will has been staying busy perfecting the arts of tantrum-throwing and arguing over every miniscule aspect of our day.  I noticed today that the first of his 2-year molars is poking through, so I’m hoping I’ll get a little bit of my sweetheart back when that turmoil is over.  Poor thing!  (Hmm, am I referring to myself or my kid?  I’ll let you decide!)

You mothers out there know that we all secretly wonder–if something happened to us, would our husbands be able to handle the kids okay on their own?  I am always very confident in Noel’s abilities, as long as someone reminds him to cut the kids’ fingernails.  Today he admitted to me that yesterday at lunch, the kids asked for honey and jelly sandwiches.  No, that is not a typo.  Not peanut butter and honey, or PB&J, just honey and jelly.  He gave it to them.  So I’m just putting it out there–if something happens to me, will someone check to make sure my kids have peanut butter, at least at school??  I’m sure everything else would be fine.