Just Because

I could not resist posting this pic. I think you'll see why.  :)

Blankie Baby

Both of my boys have been blankie babies. I gave them a blanket to go to sleep with in their cribs sometime in their infancy. And both boys are gaga over their blankets now. I love it....it's so sweet! Wunk 1, at age 3 1/2 would never dream of going to bed without BOTH of his. (He has two blankies: a lavender one (yes, I know it's girlie) and a blue blanket with ducks on it). Wunk 2's is white and very soft, with little nubbies on it. I know you've seen the material. Gran (my mom) made the beloved blankets for the boys, so that's even more special!

Here is a picture with the Redhead carrying/holding his blankie. He has developed a very specific way that he holds it while he carries it around the house. He accomplishes sucking his thumb, twisting his hair, and having his blankie by his face all at the same time by using this position. It cracks me up. Don't you just love babies? :)

Something Special

As a mother, lately I'm always being asked, "Mommy, can we do something special?" I try to explain that we cannot do something "special" every single day. Sometimes we just have to do our regular, normal things. Nevertheless, I am always seeking to keep things fresh and alive around here so life does not become stagnant for the little guys. Yesterday, in an attempt to do just that, I got out a big sketch pad and stuck some fat crayons in the Red's hands, and we all went to work on "drawing." The baby had never before been allowed to have crayons, so this was a first. We had fun!

Then, last night before dinner, I was in a happy enough mood to tolerate the banging on of silver bowls with plastic serving spoons! (It takes a special day to allow noise at this level!!) My little musicians enjoyed making their music. :)

Brothers

I had to include this pic because these boys were so cute the other night when I asked them to hug each other before bed. Not only did they comply with my wished, but they hugged again about four times after that! Now that makes a mama happy. :)

Another thing I love is that they cherish what I call "playpen time" together. After lunch every day, The Redhead goes in the playpen while I jump up from the table, do dishes, and clean up the kitchen. I put on fun, upbeat music for them back in my room where the pack and play is, and the two of them have a ball. Red plays safely in the playpen, and The Wake entertains him with his goofiness and energy. They both love that structured sibling time without mommy. In fact, the big boy is almost always so sad when I come to get his baby brother out. He tells me he wants more time with him!

A Child's Theology of Prayer

Yesterday the Wake Wake said something I found kinda neat! I have been "on him" about stopping biting his nails. He's gotten in that bad habit, and he often hurts himself by biting too much, and getting into the quick, and then he really cries and whines about how much it hurts. Anyway, I caught him doing that again the other day, and asked him to stop. In response, he said, "Mommy, we can just pray." I asked him to repeat what he had said, because I wasn't sure I heard correctly, and I wasn't sure it made sense. But sure enough, those were his words. I asked him, "What do you mean?" And he said, "We can just pray, and God will make it not hurt." Interesting! So I was very encouraged about his learned connection between need and turning to God, but of course, he was justifying his behavior by saying that we could just pray, and God would take care of the consequences. Huh!!!!

Another sweet prayer tidbit is that Jake is mindful of us forgetting to pray for certain things. Yesterday morning when we had our family worship, he said to J, "You forgot to pray for Mommy!" (I have been sick, so he thought we ought to pray for me). Then today at lunch, when I prayed to thank God for the food, afterwards he said, "You didn't pray for YOU!"

Sweet boy.

A Fantastic Paragraph

I've been reading Voddie Baucham's new book called Family Driven Faith. Today I came across a paragraph I just loved and had to quote.

In typical Voddie fashion, the author confronts the culture of the American church and American Christian families and exposes the idiocy of what is considered "normal" in so many congregations today. Get this--

"One day you visit a church, your teen goes off to the youth service, your little one goes off to children's church, the baby goes to the nursery, and you and your spouse get a great seat in a plush auditorium with first-class music, professional drama, a relevant, encouraging, application-oriented, non-threatening talk, and you get it all in just under an hour. Moreover, you look at the brochures, and it's right there in black and white: 'Our youth ministry exists to do the job that you've neglected all these years.' What a deal! We don't have to keep the little one quiet, we get our needs met, and to top it off, the youth guy is going to disciple my teenager (whom I don't even like right now). Who cares if the youth guy has only been married a few months and has never even attempted to disciple a child of his own. 'Count me in!'"

My Punkins

Is it okay to brag on your children? I sure hope so. I mean, I know we are not to boast in anything except Christ, but it sure is hard not to beam with adoration of your kiddos and want to share their accomplishments with others!  :)  Our firstborn here has just completed a puzzle that he just got.  What a smart kid! He received the puzzle from me this morning, and voila! Now he can do it in no time. It's almost a bummer, really, as things don't stay exciting for too, too long!  :)  That's what we get for having a smarty, I guess!

The little Redhead here is really in classic Redhead mode. He is doing his favorite thing: eating. I had never handed over spaghetti noodles to him before, but I thought it might be fun to watch. Indeed it was! Just as I expected....food everywhere! Ha!

A Day in Galveston

Last weekend we went to Galveston with a group from our church. We all played at the beach house of a friend. Because they live on the canal, there was not even a real need to go to the beach, as we just enjoyed the water right there. We floated in tubes, jumped off a second-story  balcony, and I praised God loudly in song with the sun and wind in my face on their motorboat. Such a blast!!! We also had a baptism there, which was wonderful. Anyway, this picture of Sugar from that day is too precious not to post. I love our boys!!!!!!

The Very Beginning

Today Sugar and I were doing a Treasure Hunt game that Gramzee gave us. At the end of the hunt, you match up words and pictures by reading the words. I told Sugar I thought the words were easy enough for him to sound out and read. Sure enough, he read "rug," "sun," and two other words (I forget them)  all by himself. I was SO proud! We've been working on phonetics informally now for a long time, and recently begun sounding out words. But today he did it by himself! Wowwies....they do grow up, don't they?