I have been so convicted to spend intentional time in prayer for these kids that God has blessed me with. So when I found this post from a very incredible mom, I jumped on it.
After all the festivities, we were a little worn out, so Mom let us watch our favorite Charlie Brown. I let William lay on my lap. It was a little hard for me to watch the movie from that position, but it was ok.
Fifty percent of our family is 50%! Kate and Peter have unfortunately passed the flu back and forth for the past few days. Somehow William and I have escaped it. He and I celebrated by going to Quizno’s today. We were tired of crackers and applesauce! Enough of that, though.
Kate had a fun week. She went to the doctor on Tuesday for her 15 month– yes, somehow she is already 15 months old!– appointment. In 3 months she has grown 1/4 inch and gained 6 ounces (she is 31 in. long and 21#). Just for fun I decided to see what William did between his 12 and 15 month appointment. He had grown 2 inches and gained over 2 1/2 pounds! What a chunker.
Peter and I have decided to nickname Kate “Me too!” since she is always following William around and trying to do what he does. She’ll get up on his skateboard, plays with his tractors, pretends to read his books . . . but she’s also her own little person. She is continually on the go and rarely takes the time to just sit. And, as you can tell from the pictures, she is quite the little goon (Those are her first pair of sunglasses and if you could look more closely, they are extremely smudgy!).
Kate loves to take William’s things– like his clothes while he’s getting dressed or his snack or drink. This, obviously, starts a huge uproar, with William yelling at her and Kate running down the hall laughing. My solution was to teach William the Spanish word for “Help Me” which is “Ayudame”. Here’s how it plays out: William is going to the bathroom, with the door open for the world to see. Kate starts squealing and runs for the bathroom to see how close she can get. William, forgetting to aim into the toilet starts yelling, “AYUDAME, MOM! KATE’S GOING TO GET ME! AYUDAME! A-YUD-A-MEEEEE”. It’s really quite funny. But Kate does get her share of time-outs and sits obediently on the chair for a minute.
While we were at the Doctor the other day, he asked me about Kate’s speech. It’s funny, really. She has very few words, but she talks all of the time. She is always making little noises and pointing to things. And she can follow simple commands, like bringing me the phone or putting her toys away. She has this quiet way of learning. We’ve been listening to the song “Going on a Bear Hunt” and it has lots of motions. All of a sudden, Kate did all of the motions! I was blown away. She puts her hands on her eyes when they say “big green eyes” and sticks out her little bum when they say “fuzzy little tail”. It’s so fun.
William, out of the blue, at dinner asked me this question: “Mom, when do I need to die on the cross?” Is there a more awesome question than that!? It was so fun to give him the answer. I told him he didn’t have to die on the cross, but Jesus died for us to forgive us for our sins. He thought about it for a minute and then said, “Mommy, why do divers have to go underwater?” So much for my great spiritual teaching!
He’s also decided that he’s going to stay 3 years old and never turn 4. I’m quite happy with that since the years seem to be blurring together already. His reasoning is that kids who go to school have to get shots and he doesn’t want them. “Big-year-olds have to get shots, so I’m going to stay three.”
William announced to his swim teacher last week, “My name is William, but my parents call me Will.” We’ve never called him Will in our lives. We like it, but he is such a William. Nevertheless, his entire class knows him by Will now.
My parents were here over the weekend. William and Kate take full advantage of the spoiling. They know they’ll get more juice than usual, go to bed later than usual, and get extra cookies. Mom went out with William to play in the snow. I looked out and thought they were building a snowman. Oh no. They were building a snow BULL. Much more fun really. They’d both take turns sitting on it and then falling off of it. Does anyone else think this is bizarre? I do.
Grandad brought his usual smattering of gifts from farm shows. There is this particular gift that he keeps bringing that I keep trying desperately to get rid of. It’s a cow keychain. When you squeeze it a poop-like substance comes out of the rear. I don’t even want to know what kind of company gives these out to promote their product! Anyway, of course William thinks these disgusting things are hilarious (Jamie, I’ll probably be sending a few to your boys!). I didn’t mind so much until I discovered that William had snuck one to church on Christmas Eve. I had been off doing something and realized that William was gone. I heard laughter and discovered that William was greeting everyone at the door by showing them the pooping cow. Isn’t that lovely?! All of these people, dressed in their best clothes for Christmas– some of them people who only come to church on Christmas Eve– only to have the pastor’s son show them his poopy cow. So when Dad gave out another round of poopy cows last weekend, I promptly confiscated them. Oh, and they’ve upgraded. Not only does poop come out the rear, but their eyes bug out at the same time. Nice touch.
And with that, I think I’ll end for the night.
- I was on the phone yesterday when William brought me my chapstick. Before I could scold him for getting into my things, he said, “Mommy, I would like to offer you some chapstick.” Offer!? What kind of three year old OFFERS something?
- William is a bit stuffy. He described it to me like this: “My nose isn’t working and I think there’s a bug in my eye.”
- This is the plan that William devised for his friend Colton: Since he doesn’t have a baby sister, he thought that his friend, Jayk, could give Colton his baby sister Ella, since Jayk already has another sisiter, Addi. At least he didn’t suggest giving up Kate!
- Mom sent a book to William by Mercer Mayer called I Just Forgot. It is an absolutely perfect book for him. Here are a few lines: “Sometimes I remember, and sometimes I just forget. . . This mornign I remembered to brush my teeth, but I forgot to make my bed . . .I had cookies and milk. I was just going to eat three cookies, but I forgot to count them . . .I took my bath and remembered to wash my ears. I didn’t use soap, but I didn’t forget to. I just don’t like soap. . . ” Perfect. My William exactly!
- There are times that I feel like my life is defined by being a mother. Not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it something I think about very often. But the other day, I went to our little grocery store and the clerk said to me, “Wow. You’re out without the kids today!?” Now, a few things went through my mind at that time. First, I need to go places without the kids more often. Second, I really hope the thought behind her comment was, “She has such sweet kids. I like it when they are along” and not, “Her kids are so crazy. It’s about time she quits bringing them along!”
- I was so proud of myself last week when I made homemade bread. It was very fun, even if it took 7 cups of flour! I grew up seeing Mom make us bread all of the time (I remember begging her to buy bread from the store!), but haven’t really tried it myself. I had to laugh when I got my bread pans out and found someone (William) had put stickers all over them. I guess I need to use them more often!
- The other day I was particularly cranky and found myself yelling at William for quite a few things (In my defense, they were mostly things that deserved punishment– like yelling for me and waking up Kate after it took me 30 minutes to get her to sleep!). At the end of the day, while I was putting William in bed I said to him, “William, I’m sorry that I yelled at you so much today.” He put his arms around me and said, “I forgive you, Mommy. I forgive you again and again and again.” I found myself crying, realizing how quickly small children are ready to forgive. We lose that readiness to forgive completely as we grow older. I also realized how William’s response is the same as when we ask forgiveness from God. Again and again and again I get it wrong– and again and again and again, God is ready and waiting to forgive me.
- We all continue to be completely in love with Hank. We couldn’t ask for a dog to fit in more perfectly with our family. Kate especially loves him and squeals with delight whenever he comes close to her or sneaks a lick on her feet. I find it completely hilarious, though, that when we were at some friends’ house, she was terrified of their 10 pound dog.
- William, since turning three, has declared that he is now a grown-up. But, he says he still like little boy bikes. And when he turns 20-20-20 he’s going to marry Mommy. When he’s 7 OT, he’s going to marry Kate.
- Every afternoon, Peter calls me to tell me he’s walking home. We live 3 houses from the church and by the time he gets to Miss Shirley’s house (the first house), William is running to him, Hank has already been there and back, and Kate is practically jumping out of my arms, screaming and throwing her hands in the air. Everybody’s happy when Daddy comes home!
We’d like to introduce the newest adopted addition to our family . . . Hank. After much pondering and a trip to the Vet’s office, we’ve decided that Hank is here to stay. He weighed in at 94 pounds and growing and is totally healthy. He is mostly (maybe all) Labrador Retriever and is estimated to be about 18 months old. So we are collecting a hodge podge of dog supplies, walking twice a day and adjusting to our new addition. Yikes! It’s been a bit crazy, but we’re enjoying him. He continues to be great with the kids and is already very protective and loyal to us. He is particularly fond of Peter and cried (head thrown back, howling!) for 30 minutes yesterday after watching him walk to work. I’ve never heard anything like it. There always seems to be an adventure happening around here! More later . . . .
After three years, I like to recall the day when I woke up realizing my water broke. I was anticipating another five long weeks of being pregnant and the doctor tried to keep William from coming for another few days, but five hours later, all six pounds, nine ounces of him arrived. We spent eight days in the NICU waiting for his little lungs to develop so we could take him home. That week stands out as one of the hardest times of my life, though I feel guilty as I remember how many parents there were afraid for their baby’s life. We always knew William was never in danger of living, it was just a matter of time until he could develop a little more. Nevertheless, it was so hard to wait until the doctor gave me permission to hold my little guy. I remember it clearly—he was four days old and I had only held him a bit right after he was born. Peter was running an errand and they asked me if I wanted to hold him. Of course, I sobbed out a yes and they put him in my arms. A few minutes later, Peter’s mom , Polly called. She was staying at our house and driving back and forth to help us. The electricity had gone off and she was frantically looking for candles or a flashlight or something. I’m a bit ashamed to admit I told the nurse there was no way I was giving up holding my baby. Poor Polly spent the night in the dark! We can laugh about it now, but I’m sure she was a bit upset with me at the time.
Each night after we pray and before I put the blanket on William, I sing to him the verse we’ve picked for his life. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, Oh William, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” He loves to sing it back to me saying, “Oh Mommy” instead of “Oh William”. (He also likes to replace the last part and sing “Walk humbly with your fox”—why, I have no idea. I don’t think he even knows what a fox is.) Anyway, the first night he sang it back to me was one of the best moments of my life. Being William’s Mommy is both the most exciting and exhausting adventure of my life. But my joy in hearing him repeat his verse—and now teaching him how he can live it in his life—is a rare privilege. We have been so blessed by this boy!