Doing Without

We are doing without the internet at home right now, so I'm only able to post when I can make it up here to the Library solo. Not too often! But cute things are still happening at our house! ;) I have lots of extra time without the internet, although it is very inconvenient to not have it. So, bear with me not posting as often. I miss checking in with everybody every day!

One thing happened that I thought I'd post about because Jason said it was just too hilarious. It is just a typical thing that happens when one has three young children. I had had enough of our car being filthy, so the other morning during Jack's morning nap, I decided to clean out and vacuum out the inside of our car. Joel and James love to play in the car, so they were quite excited about it, too. This chore took quite a long time. Long enough to where Joel and James didn't want to be in the car anymore. They were playing on the carport still, though, and I knew I needed to hurry because Jack was going to wake up any minute (and God forbid that I couldn't finish before he woke up!!!!!) . So as I was putting the last few things back in the car, I looked down to see James' arm covered in black car grease. "Mama, I put this jar in there and pulled it out again." "what??!!" "Joel told me 'no' so I pulled it out." James had taken a little spice jar and stuck it into the exhaust pipe, then when Joel told him he ought not to, put his arm back in and pulled it out. I can only say thank God that it came out! So while I was trying to make heads or tails of the situation and assess how to clean James up, Jack woke up and pulled on the blinds of his window because he could hear us and knew we were outside. He spied us and started howling. I marched James inside only to discover that the orange cleaner Jason uses when he works on the car was outside in the storage closet. So we marched back outside, although Jack was still howling. We got the orange cleaner slathered on, and I turned on the water hose to rinse James off. This of course turned into a mud mess. I took James to the front porch to undress him before taking him inside. Joel followed us, but didn't pay attention to the mud and walked right through it, getting himself thoroughly dirty. And yes, Jack was still screaming at the top of his lungs. I wanted to scream, too. Needless to say, I didn't finish the car before I rescued Jack from his crib.

My Girls Jewelry

I am very proud of my mom. She has started a new business on Etsy called My Girls Jewelry. She and Jessica took a jewelry making class several weeks ago, and they have been "into" jewelry ever since. It's bordering on obsessive! Well, the best way to make money is doing something that you love. And I think that Mom is really loving making jewelry. I am very impressed with what she and Jessica have been doing (they are actually both selling their items under one shop). So please check them out and support their business! They also do custom orders, repairs, and just about anything you could think of.

Cheers, please!

I have added Jason as an author of this blog, so now if he has anything to say there will be no confusion as to who is saying what. No hard feelings, dear!

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside -

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown -

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Joel has turned a new leaf. He likes to swing. He likes it very, very much. He actually says, "I want to go high!" And high he goes. I remember when he was just a newborn in the baby carrier, and Jason would swing it back and forth to try and comfort him. His arms would flail outwards with each descending swing. He hated swinging. Then, four years later, when his friend Adam showed him how he could swing all by himself, Joel's interest was piqued and you might catch him sitting on a swing on the church playground. When we moved, Jason put a swing in our front yard. It is hanging from a wonderfully immense oak tree. This is where Joel learned to love to swing.

In honor of his birthday...

This video is more like him ....

Home School

I have been planning to start doing school this fall with Joel. Not very much school, just a kindergarten sort of amount of school. September was my estimated time of beginning school ... and now that that time is next month, I am really trying to get my act together. I decided that for kindergarten (or Year 0), we would do reading/writing, math, art, and science/nature study. Reading we will do every day, maybe math every day, and the others will be more project based. We have a little desk that Joel will use and he is very excited about it. He has always been more interested in going somewhere to school instead of having school at home. But since we haven't really done any school work, I can see how going somewhere else would be more interesting. Anyway, since the desk is for "his home schooling" he has been rather pumped.

I have been interested in the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, as I have heard many people using it and giving it stellar reviews. Last week I decided that I wanted to go ahead and get the book because I haven't really found something that has helped Joel progress very well with his reading. I really think the Lord was in the matter of me deciding to get this book. I didn't have the funds to purchase it and was moping about that a little when I realized that the Library might have it. Now, I was also thinking that it would be a stretch for the Dripping Springs Community Library to have this book since the only grocery store in town only recently started carrying baby diapers (you know, like Pampers???!!!). But I looked anyway; I pulled up their website and nearly hit the ceiling when the search engine said that they had a copy and it was not checked out! YES! Let me just tell you, I love this book. Today Joel and I worked through Lesson 1, and he enjoyed it so, so much. That makes me love the book even more. To top it all off, a great home schooling website that I had perused over earlier this summer has free printable downloads of the writing portion of each of the lessons (all 100!!!) on manuscript paper. If you're interested, go here.

For math I am planning to use RightStart Mathematics. And art, science/nature study will all be fun stuff I find to do from the Internet, books from the Library, and Joel's Pop Bottle Science kit he got for his birthday. Aunt Mimi's gift subscription to Enchanted Learning is really going to be nice when it comes to doing these subjects.

So begins this chapter of our lives....

Typical Teether

Jack is teething; he's been teething for awhile now. He cut those top two molars in April. They have not come down any farther - they are each still just four little points sticking though the gums. Then on July 19, just two days before his 9mo birthday, Jack's first front bottom tooth came in; it's on the right side. It has grown in quite nicely and is very cute. He has not cut any more teeth since then, but he has had a couple days of fever, some diaper rash, (on some days) been more tired and clingy, and gnaws the living daylights out of his pacifiers. He is extra picky about food and sometimes just won't eat, and doesn't like me looking into his mouth to investigate. This morning I asked Jason to help me investigate because I just had to know how things were progressing (or not). His top two front teeth are very to cutting through, or so it appears. I am not really quite sure how long it will take, as Jack's teething experience is differing greatly from Joel's and James'. But you can see both teeth, bulging in the gums, so it's just a matter of time before they break through.

I am trying my best to beef up Jack's diet with more variety and interest. It is hard to believe that in a little over two months he'll be a year old and able to eat most things. He is somewhat of a picky eater. He purses his lips and makes the most hilariously awful faces when I give him something he doesn't like. He will wave the spoon away and shake his head if I try to give him a second bite. The other day, before I even gave him a bite (he must have known what was coming), he placed his hands on top of each other on his highchair tray and laid his head down on them in an defeated sort of way. It was pretty funny to see such a little guy do that. This is certainly one way he has kept me on my toes and made me pay attention to him; he is not the little porker that both his brothers were.

He likes:

bananas and cereal
mangoes
really ripe peaches
applesauce
avocado when mixed into something Especially Delicious
pinto beans
summer squash (even the way Grandmommy makes it!)
winter squash
peas
sweet potato
melons
lentils

So we have quite a ways to go. I have started giving him what we are having for supper, when it's 9-month-old approved, which doesn't seem to happen that much, and it has been pretty successful.

Mighty Men

James and Joel went to story time at the Library on Friday without me, as I was without car, car seats, and very much time as the day of the party was approaching. Aunt Jessica took them and afterward told me that they were very good boys, even though other children were not exactly using their Library behaviour. Anyway, Ms. Stark was telling the story, and also went through a whole host of things and had the children say whether the item was God made or man made, and whether it was used for work or play. One thing that she brought was a little toy "Lofty", a crane truck who is a character from the Bob the Builder series. James bonded with it, and Ms. Stark let James bring her (Lofty is a girl) home for keeps.

I discovered, once James had shown Lofty to me when he got home, the main reason he liked her so much. She talks. In the shows, Lofty is the character who is afraid of things, including heights - Lofty???? - and instead of saying, "YES WE CAN" at the end of the theme song, she says, "yeah, I think so!" All that to say that this toy Lofty says, "I don't like it, I DON'T LIKE IT!" among other lesser desirable responses someone could say in response to being given a job. Not bad things, like I said, just less desirable. I didn't want to take away James' new toy, but I also didn't want him to start repeating everything Lofty was saying. So I decided that James needed to start teaching Lofty a few lessons on how we talk to Mama, and gave them some jobs to do. James had me give Lofty/James a command, such as, "go put your shoes away". Lofty would say, "I don't like it, I DON'T LIKE IT!" and I would reprimand her, telling her that we don't say that; we have to do many things we don't like. Then I would tell James to tell Lofty what the Lord tells us to do, and he would tell her Ecc. 9:10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;". And over and over again we would go through a similar lesson with Lofty, giving her and James jobs all afternoon. Ever since, he has done the teaching all by himself, and it is quite comical to see him walking around teaching Bible verses to his toys.

James' 3rd Birthday

It was a success! Here is a mini-slideshow of the mountain building and cake decorating process.

56 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal...

9 bags of marshmallows...

oh yeah, there was cake, too...

my arm is getting tired...

painting on the grass (is she serious????) ...

He loved it!

Joel dubbed the mountain, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", which is what the mouth of the tunnel says.

You can see Jason's gum paste characters - Sir Topham Hatt, the Funny Little Clown, Humpty Dumpty, and various toys.

Sketch Tuesday 4

Harmony Art Mom was on vacation last week, so there was no Sketch Tuesday. Joel drew a picture for fun anyway. He used a washer to create the circular faces and noses of these pigs. They kind of look like Pigling Bland, Pig-Wig and Alexander!

This week's assignment was to draw a flashlight. Joel wanted to draw the flashlights with lightbulbs in them. He was planning to draw one in each color of marker he had, but I told him four was plenty and got him another paper to continue drawing on....

Winnie-the-Pooh speak

I didn't grow up reading Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, and have immensely enjoyed reading it to the boys. The stories are a little lengthy, but so good! When I was last in Dallas, I was talking to Queen Shenaynay, Beatrice and Fa-so-la-la about not knowing what to call things, or do I pronounce/mispronounce things? For instance, "wolery". It is obviously a misspelling of "owlery", so do you read it "wolery" or "owlery" since you know what it is really supposed to be? Fa said that you certainly must pronounce it "wolery". Now on to heffalumps and woozles. Tonight I asked Jason, "is a woozle a weasel?" He said no, it's a made up animal. Then I said that surely it wasn't, since heffalumps are elephants. He was inclined to think that they were both made up, but since the picture in the story clearly indicates that a heffalump greatly resembles an elephant, one must concede that, indeed, a heffalump is an elephant. In the case of the woozle, I consulted Gooooooooogle. Gooooooooogle directed me to Wikipedia. You can read what it has to say here. My paraphrase: a woozle is assumed to be something like a weasel. Fa and Q. Shenaynay also cleared up my inquiries of Expotitions (as in expeditions), but there are different words that pop up here and there, and I wonder, "do I explain this one, or do I just let them figure it out"? Such as when the animals are trying to figure out what Christopher Robin does in the mornings, and Eeyore is telling Rabbit and Pooh that he is, "be[coming] educated ... he instigorates ... he instigorates Knowledge." It's hilarious; so does it ruin it to tell Joel that he really means a different word? AND, how do you read this: "HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA THUTHDY." ???? It's what Owl writes on the empty honey pot that Pooh is going to give to Eeyore for his birthday. He's supposed to have written, "A Happy Birthday". Help, please!!!

p.s. you shoulda seen spell check on this post!

Great Expectations

Okay, since these Wilkinsons don't really celebrate any of the holidays except Thanksgiving, 4th of July, and New Year's, I have made it a point to have really special birthdays for the boys. Special is sort of a relative term. Perhaps "unique" is the adjective of choice. Anyway, James' 3rd birthday is next month and we are throwing him a train themed birthday party. James loves trains, and has since he was old enough to play with JL's Thomas the Tank Engine trains and for us to read him "The Little Engine that Could". So I combined several different train stories and have come up with a "cake" that is a lot more involved than anything we've ever done before. Our "cake" will start as a mountain, about 2' tall, made out of rice krispies. The Little Engine that Could ...

will just be reaching the top of the mountain. There will be a tunnel running through the mountain, coming out of which will be James the Red Engine (because his name is James, of course) ...

pulling those Troublesome Trucks. And we cannot forget our special friend who was key in helping James learn to do his business on the potty. Thomas the Tank Engine with Annie and Clarabel, of course....

I have borrowed Jessica's train cake pan and am decorating them all appropriately. Jason has been busy with gum paste (!!!!!!) making all the items that the Little Engine that Could is carring over the mountain! Very fun! He has also made the faces for all the trains. I cannot wait to put it all together.

I like to move it, move it

After seeing Kung Fu Panda at the movies this summer, Joel and James have been singing "I like to move it, move it". I didn't see the movie with them and didn't know that the song was in the movie. Then about two weeks after seeing it, Joel breaks out singing "I like to MOVE it, MOVE it", just like a pro.

Daddy in the dust...

So I was reading my sister's blog. I miss her so much.....yes, I'm crying right now! Does that mean I'm sensitive? I feel like I get left in the dust sometimes. My job is to be out making a living. That's my job. I go and dutifully "bring home the bacon", and I miss everything. That means one of two things or a combination of the two. I feel the sorrow and longing that comes from missing those special moments in the life of my young little family, and I get in trouble for not knowing what is really going on and "just making things harder" by trying to insert myself into the family life when I come home from bringing home the afore-mentioned bacon. Yeah, I can see the knot growing in the manly stomachs reading this right now; and I hear your unspoken words. "What is he doing?!?! Nobody was supposed to talk about that!" or maybe "I would have never said it, I'm sure glad someone got it out in the open."
Ladies, I'm sorry for this sudden window into the fatherly male mind. You have your own deep struggles.(We do appreciate them. We just have no idea how to help you with them. It just keeps changing.......constantly!!) Men have struggles too. Oh yeah, those meat-headed guys that seemingly should have no problems. "All they have to do is leave us ladies with all the responsibility of house and home and raising children, go to their "work", come home late and collapse on the couch. Do they have any idea how hard it was while they were gone? Do they even begin to comprehend the stress I've been under all day?" No. We do not understand it all. I think I can safely speak for all of us. But we do appreciate it. God bless you!! That's why we married you. That's why we love you. You are amazing!! Can I get an "AMEN"? Can I get a "HALLELUJAH"?!?!
I feel like I'm left in the dust. Ferdinand learned to read 2 new words today. Flitterwallet is swinging all by himself in the big rope swing and goes potty all by himself. Fancy Pants can crawl across the room and he cut a new tooth today. Who knows whether I will see his first step or not. Now what do I do? Everything happened while I was gone. The only thing I have to offer is bacon. Bacon seems a poor payment for everything that happened while I was gone. Reading my sister's blog brought that to the front of my mind. Some of the crazy things that happen at her house with her 3 kids and the things that happen at my house with my 3 kids are quite simply priceless. What I would give too see them or be a part of them!! I never will. They are already gone....
It's hard to miss it all and read about it later on an Internet blog. I miss my mother and my father and my sister and her husband and precious children and my brother and his lovely new bride and my wife and my own 3 beautiful treasures. It's hard to miss it all. Keep blogging ladies. It's good to read about it. You are doing a great job.

~King Arthur~

Perfection vs. Excellence

My epiphany of the week:

I may not be capable of acquiring perfection, but I may acquire excellence in what I do.

And the Glory, the Glory of the Lord...

... is the song in the background. I think this may be as close as I'll get to capturing James' dramatic singing face. It's not nearly as animated as when he is when he's not on camera.

I'll do what I can

There really are so many things to write and record that it is overwhelming. Lots of things are not appropriate to post, some are essential to post, and there is a large area in between. But what it comes down to is posting what I remember when I remember it. It is not the most precise science. I really hate it, but it is the nature of life as I know it right now. Jason says that if I do my best, it is good enough. The question is: am I doing my best? Sometimes I do; I hope it is most times. But I know that I do not always do my best. I have a quote by Mary Anne Radmacher that is magnetized to my refrigerator. It was a gift from Queen Shenayay. It says, "Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow'". For me, occasionally, it is in the morning saying, "I will try again today". Sometimes there is very little courage in me, and on those days I feel like a failure. "Does the road wind uphill all the way?" asks Christina Rosetti's poem, and the answer is, "Yes, to the very end." Or as GG says, "Life's hard, and then you die". It's true.

...BUT...

I'll do what I can. What I can do is my best. What I can do is try again tomorrow. What I can do is choose to be happy even though I haven't had a shower in three days, and my teeth haven't been brushed since ...?..., and even though I don't want to cook supper, and even though I am sick and tired of all my clothes, and even though Jason has the car today and I could really just stand to get out of the house, and the floor is dirty and the ironing is piling up. I CAN choose to be happy. Because God has given me so much. A wonderful husband, three great kids who are beautiful and healthy. And countless other things. I'll do what I can because I must - and I want to! "To whom much is given, much shall be required". I might as well do what I can because it will be required of me whether I like it or not.

Mother's Talent

Today at church I was able to get Jack to fall asleep. Yea! I walked back (up, actually) to our pew to sit down with everyone else. Now, if we had a family of girls, everyone would scoot down and whisper to each other to "make room". But we have a family of boys. Plus, cousin JL was sitting with us. They look up at me, then look down, down, down the pew and pat and point at a place right smack dab in the middle of the pew. So I climbed over our two big boys, Jason and JL in my heels with a sleeping baby and he actually stayed alseep and I actually didn't make a fool of myself, either. I actually got a compliment on my success.

No Pressure

To some of you this blogging thing is new. Once you have been blogging for two years, like I have, it will just become something else on your to-do list. So please be patient with me until I get around to entertaining you with my posts.

Okay, that was just a little too nasty to leave unended. You must know it was all in good fun. But in this case the scripture has been fulfilled, "Pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall". I have been do-gooding and been working like mad to finish James' baby book. I have been pouring over all my old posts of when he was little, when his teeth came in, his first words, what foods he liked, &c. Do you notice something missing? Well it's a pretty big thing. Weight. Height. No where do I find the smallest inkling of it. So where I left off in his baby book at 17 lbs at 3 mos is the last thing I have until 27 lbs at 22 mos. I am absolutely sick and feel like I could throw up. Barf, barf, barf.

Humorous Bits

Today James made two funnies. The first was his realization and relief that the hiccups he had had all day long were finally gone. He said that he, "ate them all up". Later on when I was singing a song to Jack just before his bedtime, James thought that I was singing the wrong words and started shouting, "SINNERS!! SINNERS!!!"

A little game I play with Jack is raising my eyebrows up and down. He thinks it's hilarious and just laughs and laughs. When he looks at me, he almost always looks at my eyebrows first, and if nothing happens he will look in my eyes. My glasses are a little bit of a problem because he wants to touch my eyebrows when they are moving, but my glasses are there and he gets them along with the eyebrows. So the game ends up not being as fun in the end. I need to get contacts so that my kids can see what I actually look like without glasses on. Oh yeah, and play with my eyebrows. ???

Sketch Tuesday 3

This week's assignment: something that comes from an egg. Joel drew a yolk (all by itself), a chick, a turtle, and an alligator. See all the other submissions at Harmony Art Mom's blog.

Stand up, sit down

Jack has begun standing himself up, and sitting himself down. About a week ago he started standing himself up in his crib. Then, of course, he started pulling himself up on all sorts of things as he crawls around. He is so proud of himself when he does it, too. He absolutely shrieks with delight when he stands himself up in his crib. Yesterday he started sitting himself up without any help.

Romanticising Mountains of Laundry

Whenever it is time to change *bed linens* (which happens ne'er too often since our third child was born), James and Joel get very excited. They love to play in the dirty sheets - dirty laundry of any sort, but sheets and pillow cases are best - and have all sorts of adventures. First they pretend it's nighttime, then they build a house or a tent, then it's another imaginary dwelling. Finally laundry is being thrown everywhere, then ending the laundry adventures for that day. But, while they playing amongst the piles I always think of the following poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. The boys may never have the experience of playing in real piles of hay, but dirty laundry will do for now. No, it doesn't smell sweetly, but mice don't dwell in it, either.

The Hayloft

Through all the pleasant meadow-side
The grass grew shoulder-high,
Till the shining scythes went far and wide
And cut it down to dry.

Those green and sweetly smelling crops
They led in waggons home;
And they piled them here in mountain tops
For mountaineers to roam.

Here is Mount Clear, Mount Rusty-Nail,
Mount Eagle and Mount High; -
The mice that in these mountains dwell,
No happier are than I!

Oh, what a joy to clamber there,
Oh, what a place for play,
With the sweet, the dim, the dusty air,
The happy hills of hay!

Sketch Tuesday 2

See Joel's Sketch Tuesday submission here and at Harmony Art Mom's blog! He drew a centipede, a mosquito, a potato, and a flower.

Singing Video

Here are Joel and James and Jason singing "In the Highways" from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Jack-man

Jack had accomplished much in the last few weeks. He has begun crawling. He does a wonderful camo-style crawling, with occasional on-all-fours spurts. He's everywhere, all the time! I have to now be on the keep-the-floors-clean-and-clear-of-possible-choking-objects campaign. Joel and James have jumped on the band wagon and have been quite cooperative in making sure that Jack doesn't have something he shouldn't. His crawling has allowed him to pull up on things, and sit himself up after he's pulled himself up on his knees. So he isn't just sitting himself up all by himself, but he's getting there. Jack has also started saying "mama", and makes a very impressive motorboat sound. He makes raspberries like nobody's business.

Since our trip to NYC for Aunt Jeana's graduation, where he got spoiled by having two of his favorite things all the time - being outside and people-watching - he wants to be outside all the time. If we walk to the door to lock it or to look outside, or if we're headed outside and I realize I've forgotten something and we turn away from going out the door, he becomes very upset. (In other words, he throws a fit, an 8-month-old fit). He wants to get out in the open.

Sketch Tuesday

Joel is participating in Sketch Tuesday, hosted by Harmony Art Mom. He was supposed to draw something to serve at a picnic. He drew a grilled cheese sandwich. His sketch will be posted on HamonyArt Mom's blog tomorrow, and each week that he participates. Here is his sketch....

They're growing up...

The boys understand why they can't go to the ladies' meeting, but why can't they go to the men's meeting??? "When you grow up, you will get to go," I tell them.... Jason swooped James up to say goodbye and go to the men's meeting this month. He held him way up in the air. James exclaimed, "OH, I GROWED UP!!!!!!!!!"

Music Buffet

James and I were sitting on the bench swing in the front yard the other day, taking a rest from play. The tejano music across the street was blaring as usual. Upon the start of each song, James would nod his head and say, "Yea, that's a good one!" I chuckled and was glad that at least someone in our household could enjoy it.

His apparent taste for tejano music has probably developed as a result of listening to it so much during the last five months. I think it is wonderful that children can develop appreciation for different types of music just by exposing them to it. The boys like everything from baroque and classical music, to country and bluegrass, to tejano music and Michael Jackson. They have absolutely fallen in love with MJ's "Beat It". Weird Al's parady "Eat It" is greatly loved as well. They like it all because we listen to it all, over and over and over again.

I am going to try to get a picture of James "singing" "And the Glory of the Lord" from Handel's Messiah. He lip-syncs and has the most hilarious look on his face. The trick will be to get him to do it for the camera. I have high hopes for all the boys being musical in their own special ways.

Liz

I can't believe I didn't take a picture, but I didn't. Around the beginning of spring Joel caught his first lizard. It was about 5" long, and was green then brown and back and forth quite a bit. He looked like this. Joel actually caught it twice because "Liz", as Joel donned him, got away once. I got a jar (after much begging to please let us keep him) and we held Liz in captivity for the rest of the day. Then Joel decided Liz was probably hungry and he let him go. Ever since, though, he has been on the hunt to catch another lizard.

A lizard exactly like Liz made its way into our house and has been living among us for a few days now. I am really on a mission to catch him and get him out. It's nice to have such an avid hunter around.

Calling all Beatrix Potter Fans

My mother-in-law found this ... and I get to enjoy it with my kids!

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/32581/beatrix-potter-collection-the-world-of-peter-rabbit-and-friends-the/

Shopping

I have never been much of a shopper. Most people who know me very well know this; Jason is quite proud of the things that he has shopped for because I didn't care to or was unable to. Since having children, I do enjoy shopping more than I used to because it is a nice outing. But I still am not what you would call "dedicated". However, one thing I enjoy tremendously is online shopping. In fact, today I found countless beautiful things that I wanted to buy. All on one website. Yea, me. Do YOU think they're pretty? Jason does not care for the painting. At all. He says it looks like something Joel would've done. Maybe that's why I like it so much. I am not revealing all that I found, as I hope to buy some as presents at some point. Don't worry. I won't buy anything that screams "JAMIE". Unless it screams your name, too.

Masters of Ourselves

"Make us masters of ourselves," wrote the prison reformer Sir Alexander Paterson, "that we may be the servants of others."

We have to talk about self-discipline again. We keep coming back to that, and we'll keep coming back to it as long as we live, whatever struggles we have to endure. "Does the road wind uphill all the way?" asks Christina Rosetti's poem, and the answer is, "Yes, to the very end."

No woman who has not learned to master herself can be trusted to submit willingly to her husband. And that word willingly means that she does not merely resign herself to something she cannot avoid. It means that by an act of her own will she gives herself. With gladness she submits because she understands that voluntary submission is her very strength. Because it is the thing asked of her by her Creator, it is the thing which assures her of fulfillment. It is the task assigned her which, willingly performed, actually strengthens the husband in his weakness.

The husband strengthens the wife in her weakness by obeying the command to command. But he, too, must first have mastered himself. George MacDonald points out that the strong-willed one is not the willful one. A willful child wants only his own way. His will has never been exercised against himself. The strong-willed person wills against himself, chooses that which he does not naturally choose. Many men protest that it is not their nature to dominate. Many see their wives as superior to them in intelligence, strength of character, physical endurance, or spiritual perception, and use this as an excuse to let them lead. But the roles are not assigned on the basis of capability. Thy were determined at the beginning of Creation to be a man's role and a woman's role and again, we are not free to experiment, tamper with, or exchange them.

It takes self-discipline and it takes humility to do your job. We can count on the God who issued the order to provide the strength to carry it out. No man has sufficient strength in himself properly to be the head of his wife. No woman can rightly submit to his headship. It takes grace, and grace is a gift, but we are to use the means of grace. Self-discipline helps. Prayer helps. Christ, who is the Head of all of us, stands ready to help any man or woman who asks Him.

~Elisabeth Elliot from Let Me Be A Woman

Cutting Edge

When Jack's five month birthday rolled around I began to look for teeth. Joel and James both got their first bottom two teeth when they were five months old and I expected Jack would too. That month came and went with no bottom teeth. I thought it was curious, especially since he was acting like he was teething. His sleep was disruptive, he was gnawing on his fingers, the drool was pouring out of his mouth. One day I was letting him gnaw on one of my fingers, and he immediately pulled it towards he back of his mouth and I felt something sharp. The poor baby had cut a top molar, and the second one came right after it. So Jack has two top molars but still no other teeth.

Inspiration

Beatrice has inspired me by her post of her Favorite Things. I am changing up my blog a bit and adding my favorite things to it. Hope everyone enjoys it, especially Queen Shenaynay.

He's mobile

During the first week of June, Jack began doing the "forward flop". He is now making his way quite easily across the living room floor and delighting us all.

the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker

Our little Jack began to clap today! I was holding him while assisting James, but I could see Jack's reflection in a mirror. He began to laugh and clap at James (who, when Jack sees him coming begins to laugh). I am so glad that I got to see his first clap! I think if it hadn't been for that mirror, I would've thought that he was still waving his hands up and down instead of bringing them together. So, another milestone passed today.

Ol' Mr. James . . . well, he's growing up. He's in perpetual motion, and in a perpetual growth spurt; now wearing size 10 shoes, and 3T and 4T clothes. He can't wait until his birthday so that he can be important and have his portrait taken, too. He instantly underwent Middle-Child Syndrome when Jack was born. It is a continual challenge for me to make sure I am connected to each of the boys, but especially James. He loves his brothers, and is Mr. Assertive and Mr. Instigator. One of his favorite things is hearing me say that something is "James' business" and not anyone else's. Now that'll make his day! He has recently showed a marked improvement in his drawing/coloring. He will color one object on a coloring page and although he doesn't stay in the lines, he doesn't go very far out of them either. He also has started drawing circles very well, triangles sometimes, and also he will marker or pencil lines as it were to fill in something. It ends up making a rectangular shape. Anyway, Joel did that when he was younger as well; basically, you can just tell that he is controlling his drawing utensil well. It's exciting to see. Pretty soon he will be counting to 100 by 10s and reading. Everything that Joel does he wants to do, whether or not he should (he doesn't stop to think that), and he is more times than not successful at what he sets out to do. He has great determination, which is wonderful. I know it will serve him well in his life. Quirky bit: James has begun to eat left-handed.

Joel began tying his shoes earlier this year, actually before his fifth birthday. It was quite a pleasant surprise for us, and what a big help it is for him to be able to do it! He's also taking showers, setting the table and sweeping. I'm so glad to have such a good helper. His jobs are changing a little bit so that James can have his own jobs and learn to work as well. Joel is a very nurturing older brother (except when he is not! ;) ). He enjoys "teaching" his brothers to read or some other thing that he hasn't quite mastered himself. It usually is well received and actually helps improve his own skills.

not one little bit

Jack is six months old today. He rolled from his back to his belly two weeks ago! Today I fed him a few bites of avacado. He is was so happy for the first 4-5 bites. He wasn't even thrusting his tongue out. It was as if he had eaten many times before. I was thinking, "oh, my wonderful, amazing child!!" Then the picture-perfect scene changed dramatically. Jack began to be very upset with his avacado. He began to grunt and fuss and cry and spit it out! He looked like he was spitting out a cherry pit. He was very precise about it. I believe he removed every bit of avacado from his mouth and did not swallow another bite.

Hidden Potential

Today I put Jack down on the floor for some play time. I placed him on his belly, and he immediately rolled over. I sighed, happily and proudly, then put Jack back on his belly. He had a grand time playing on his belly, and actually almost started turning himself in a circular motion to be able to see what he was trying to look at. He never got tired or laid his head down. I picked him up for a minute or two to give him a break, and put him down again. He rolled over again! So it definitely wasn't a one-time thing. He can really do it! Yeah, Jack! Now I just have to keep myself from overprotecting him, and let him get down on the floor and do his thing! I mean, we've got to get practice in for his 3 month portraits!

Favorite Things

Joel's choice word of late is "mongoose".

My favorite mispronunciations of James' at present are:

bithdee potty (birthday party)
poopted
berry coot (very cute)

All About Jack

Jack is eight weeks old now. In two days he will be two months old! He is such a good baby! He is pretty close to sleeping through the night. He sleeps from about 9pm to 4am on average. The 4am is sometimes 3am, but a couple of times it has been 4:30 or 4:45. He also naps well during the day, usually 2 hours at a time. He loves his bouncy seat. Today he was just kicking away (it looked more like stomping), and making the seat just bounce and the toys swing. He also loves the swing. He watches the mobile quite intently while the swing swings and the music plays. It is a good place for him to sit in the filtered sun coming through the glass door in the living room. I try not to put him in these seats too often, but it is nice to know that he does enjoy being there when I need him to be there. And there are times when I do need him to be in one of those seats! However, they are not safe havens for him. Any time he is not in my arms or in his bed I must keep an eagle eye on him to protect him from the big brothers. They would quite smother him with kisses and hugs, and James would try to give him fives and head butt him. Lest I forget, here are his weights and lengths that I have recorded.



Two weeks: 9 lbs. 1/2 oz.

Four weeks: 10 lbs. 2 oz.

Six weeks: 11 lbs. 3 oz., 23 inches

Eight weeks: 11 lbs. 15 oz.

Mama Takes the Cheese

The other day at lunch, Daddy grated the precious last bit of our cheese onto my food while Joel and James gazed on longingly. While Daddy was doing this he was telling Joel and James about how wonderful Mama is, how we love her so much, and all of the things she does for us and how hard she works; how we must treat her so well and do special things for her. Just what a good Daddy should be telling his sons! After a few moments Joel said, "and we give her cheese, too."

Remember doing this?

It has begun. While driving down our street, I could just barely hear Joel saying to himself, "has leaves, doesn't have leaves, doesn't have leaves, has leaves, doesn't have leaves, has leaves, has leaves...."

The Season of Fall(ing)

James seems to just fall over himself continually. Tripping, slipping, not looking where he's going; these are defining parts of James' little home life. And people wonder how a 2-year-old could have subluxation in his spine.... Well, during the Thanksgiving holiday at Opa's & Oma's, he took his grandest fall yet. He fell backwards out of a barstool. It was sort of a complicated fall which I did not witness, but the details that mattered were that he fell from the barstool backwards while he was sitting, and on his way down hit another chair, and ended up on the floor with the barstool on top of him. His entire backside had bruises and bumps, from his bottom up to his head. The main injury, however, was his left shoulder which really hurt him. It was one of the situations that Jason has always told me to "get ready for" and "get used to". But I don't know if I'll ever be "prepared" to see my children in pain. Thankfully we had two doctors on hand: Daddy and Aunt Jeana. Their assesment of the "patient" put everyone's minds at ease, although it didn't make James feel much better. Poor James. He is doing much better now, thankfully, and I am perhaps a little more experienced at this thing called mothering boys.

Contradiction (Pooh speak for Introduction)

He has 10 toes . . .

. . . it's Jack!

Play Ball!

One positive attribute that comes along with James' affinity for the wilder side of life is his athletic ability in playing ball. The football, in particular, is one of his favorite things to play with; he says, "can ye pay catch??" He has no fear of the ball coming for him, and catches it amazingly well. He is catching it from 10-12 feet away now. The ball can hit him right in the face without the slightest wince from him. Only once or twice has he ever given a scowl or unpleasant look about the impact. His ability to throw is not as great as his ability to catch, but it has improved dramatically in the past month. I used to pretty much never be able to catch anything he threw to me, but now his aim is much better - you just need to be about 3-4 away from him. His advancement in this area has given he and Joel a real game to play. It isn't always a very long game of "catch", but as each of them improve their skills, I think it will just get better and better.

Just for You

This book came to mind a few weeks ago - cannot remember the circumstances which brought it to mind, but it had to do with the lawn mowing page in this book. I told Jason about it, and how much it reminded me of Joel; how he tries so hard to do special things for his mother, but they just don't always work out right. I couldn't remember the name of the book or the author, but while at the Library this week they actually had this book on display and the cover was something that I could never forget! Of course I snatched it right up! James and Joel both love it, although Joel is really into more advanced books. He understands the sentiment of it, though, and I like to think he appreciates it.

It is fun to see which books the boys tend towards. Right now James loves Eric Carle, and the two Golden Books he received for his birthday, "Scuffy the Tug Boat" and "The Happy Man and His Dump Truck". Those are basically the only books he requests to read, but happily sits down to any story. "Stone Soup" is a new one for him to enjoy. Also, he calls Jemima Puddle-Duck, "Jemima Puppy-Duck". One of the current favorites, for both boys, is "Jack the Giant Killer" which is way better than any Jack and the Beanstalk tale I've ever heard. James walks around saying, "Fe Fo Fum ... man ... bake my bread!" Joel is very much into Fairy Tales. He likes all of them; Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, Hop O' My Thumb. He also loves anything Mother Goose. If you tell him it's Mother Goose or a Fairy Tale, he is sure to be excited about it.

Joel is doing well with his learning to read. He likes to try to sound things out more and more. He is really solid now on his short and long vowel sounds; a little bored with them, I think. About two weeks ago in the middle of playing, he sounded out the word "cans" on the toy he was playing with. He just decided to do it all by himself. I was so excited to see him do that! He is excited now about learning to read, and learning about the letters. The blending of the letter sounds together is something he understands now, which was a big step. He will also pick out letter sounds in the words that I am reading or saying to him, and try to figure out which letters are in a particular word because he recognizes the sound. I love seeing the desire to learn in his eyes.

I Winned!

For all of Joel's tenderheartedness and gentleness with his little brother, James is aggressive and conniving back. No thankfulness on his part yet for a nurturing elder sibling. This upsets Joel to no end, and he has no idea how to handle these "situations" or "rows" or ... fights. If James takes something away from him, Joel doesn't want to go get it back. James is more than half his size and strong. It's never easy to go up against him on anything. So one day when James had sent Joel into a crying fit, I explained to Joel how James doesn't care about this or that, he just wants to see what Joel will do about it. It's all about power and not about substance with him. So I told Joel if he wanted to win, he must be strong on the inside and not be a bad boy and throw a fit. If he throws a fit, then James has won, but if he doesn't throw a fit, then he has won. Later that afternoon I heard some growling cries coming from the playroom. It was Joel. A few minutes later I heard James crying. Upon investigation, Joel came running up to me saying, "Mama, James hit me with --- and took ---, and I hit him back and he gave me back my --- and I winned!"

And so it was Mama who learned a lesson that day, and not Joel. At least, he didn't understand the lesson that I tried to teach him. We had to talk about not hitting each other for quite a while after that. But this episode did teach Joel to stand up for himself a little better, and that's a good thing.

The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad

You learn something new every day, and this time the lesson came from a CD of Mother Goose songs. For those of you who have enjoyed or suffered through hearing Joel's and James' "Puff and Toot" CD and, along with Jason and me, were puzzled by the song "Where Do You Work, John?" you now know that John works on the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad.

Restaurant

Yesterday afternoon the boys took their hot pink frisbees, piled rocks in them, and called it "chicken" and "pie". Joel set up chairs for their "restaurant", which according to him was a no-shoes restaurant. They just sat there and pretended to eat for quite some time. One would think that they were really and truly hungry, but they were rather upset to have to come inside to eat their real supper. Apparently the way this food looked to them in their imaginations was much more exciting and appetising than what I had prepared for them....

Repertoire

I'd better make a list of all the songs that James can sing. Jason was also able to sing songs very well at an early age (18 months), and James certainly has that trait as well. There are songs that I am not even aware that he knows, and he will just be singing them away one day and I'll think to myself, "when did he learn that one??"



Hymns:

Standing on the Promises

I Love Jesus

Brethren We Have Met to Worship

Marching to Zion

Sweet Bye and Bye

Buy the Truth



Other songs:

All 8 songs on our Mother Goose CD, including:

I've Been Working on the Railroad

Down by the Station

Where Do You Work, John?

Happy are the People

Be Ye Kind (also his first Bible memory verse!)

Clap Your Hands

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

This Little Light of Mine

The Measure of Their Stature

Jason has a very nice posture grid at work; it's so easy to measure the boy's height on it!!! James is 2' 8", Joel is 3' 3-1/2".

We have joined the Summer Reading Club at the Library. If the boys each read 20 hours or more before the end of July, they each receive a free ticket to the Circus (yes, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus!). So we are reading away. Right now Joel and I are reading Winnie the Pooh, with others mixed in, of course. James loves our Raggedy Ann Book, and Goodnight Gorilla. These aren't very long, but we have been reading them almost daily along with others. He's doing pretty good, and this is a good opportunity for him to learn to sit and have story time. He'll sit down with a book on his own just fine, but when he has to sit and listen it's not as enjoyable for him at this point. His already (somewhat) impressive vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds now. Words like "soldier" and "Pollyanna" just pop out of his mouth and that's fun to hear!

James' favorite shoes, his crocs, are already too small for him. His feet are growing so quickly right now! It's a little sad too, because he is so proud of those little shoes. We bought him some flip flops and he does like them, too, or is adjusting pretty well. He didn't want to have anything to do with flip flops until Joel was wearing flip flops again this spring. Yet, the crocs were still his favorite, with boots a close second. Perhaps we'll get him some boots for his birthday since his favorite pair have been retired.

Weighing In

Today I finally got the scale out and weighed the boys. I have needed to do it for some time for record-keeping purposes, and I should be doing it more often to track their growing. Joel is 39 pounds, and James 27 pounds. If only measuring their height was so effortless....

Joel has named the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, "Janeandthomas". I have no idea how he came up with this, but apparently "Beast" just isn't a good enough name for the poor beast.

A sad occurance has happened to Joel: he cannot wrap his arms all the way around me anymore! I told him that it was only temporary, and soon enough he would be able to again.

James is a little vampire right now. He has four little points sticking out of his gums where his eye teeth have cut through. He should be finished getting teeth for a time; not that it's really been an issue. He toughs it out real well. The last of his molars are useable now, finally coming in at about 20 months. You can see them quite well, especially when he gives out a nice big belly laugh, which he loves to do.

We got the pool out for the first time this summer yesterday, and the boys had a blast! Since the yard is sloped, one side of the pool is always much fuller than the other. So I let them run the water until there was about 5 inches of water in one side, although empty in the other. This was convenient for their exiting the pool whenever they got the notion to bring rocks and pebbles into the pool to wash them. They entertained themselves with a couple of buckets, some rocks and plopping down into the water and splashing as much as they wanted. Joel finally decided that I should get into the pool. I told him that I wasn't going to get in that day, but I would put my feet in. He began (what looked like to me) washing my feet, similar to a communion service. But he said, "Mama, I'm baptizing your feet."

Ear Training

One of our favorite things to listen to, as I have said, is Handel's Messiah. It is a work which both of the boys are quite familiar with, and can recognize, even when hearing just a small part of it. (No, I haven't been testing them, they just perk up when they hear it; Joel says, "is this the Messiah?" or, "what is this?") Well, the other night on "Adventures in Music" the theme was "Spring is Here" and the first piece of music featured was Vivaldi's "Primavera" or "Spring" from his very familiar "The Four Seasons". Now, I am not a fan of "Spring". It is just so very violiny and ... baroque. So I took a deep breath and braced myself as the music started. The boys did no such thing. They started swinging back and forth in their chairs (we were eating dinner), and waving their arms! "Well," I thought, "this makes it more enjoyable!" Just a few bars into the piece, Joel said to me, "Mama, is this the Messiah?" At first I was a little puzzled by his question. THIS the Messiah? Ugh. But then I realized the similarity, and I think it's what made him put the two works together. They are both so baroque; I don't know another word for it. The baroque patterns are so easy to recognize, and I think that Joel is recognizing those baroque patterns!

Caught with his pants down

On this, the day James turns 20 months old, I'll write a few things about him.

James has suddenly grown a fondness for pulling off his pajama pants after we put him to bed. He will do it over and over again. One night when I checked on him before I went to bed, I discovered him, asleep, with his pants off, inside out, and somewhat covering his head as if he fell asleep while attempting to put them on his head. I wish that I could've taken a picture. I laughed pretty hard at that one. But now he has taken off his pants during the daytime as well. It's just the latest thing, I guess. One time he pulled his shorts down to his ankles and went walking around with his shorts around his ankles. Then the other day at the table during supper, I turned to talk to Joel for a minute and when I turned back to James he had taken off his shirt and dropped it on the floor. We made the mistake of laughing at him, and I think that this all might be just a big joke to him as he loves to make people laugh, and he is a goofy boy anyway.

Here are some more words and phrases that James is saying:
baby
It's a baby
Jesus
plane
stink pot (my nickname for him)
bite
alright
Adam
Audra
Amy
amen
yes ma'am
yes sir
Grandmommy
Greg
Meme
PawPaw (he's said that for a long time)
love you
(I want) up
(I want) down
There he is!
apple
banana
beans
bread
meat
juice
eggs
cheese
salsa
I want that
can / can't
pen
sit
seat
phone
bath
book
teeth
shoes
all words associated with going potty

I think we'll be potty training soon.

It was a Motorcycle Birthday

Happy 4th, Joel!

Manipulation or Manufacture?

Joel and James have developed quite a good relationship. It is fun to see them together; I know that any day could bring a division between them and that nurturing their relationship is one of the most important things that I can do. While sometimes I have absolutely no idea what to do and am frustrated beyond words, there are also great and grand times of rejoicing in watching them wrestle or just shriek at each other, giggling all the while.

One thing that Joel has always done with James is to ask him questions to find out what he's wanting or thinking. He'll ask him, "are you hungry? are you thirsty? do you want to get down? do you want your toy?", etc. Just this week he made the realization that James was not simply answering the questions, he was just always saying, "uh-huh" to whatever Joel made sound exciting or tempting. Now he has begun asking random questions for his own enjoyment. "James, do you want me to throw this at the ceiling fan?" "James, do you to look in the refrigerator?" "James, do you want me to climb on the containers in the closet?" This is not as simple as it used to be....

when the cows come home

Tonight James went around with his toy cell phone, encouraging Mama and Daddy in pretend telephone conversations. We were saying things such as, "hello, yes, yes, okay, bye-bye", etc. He then turned to Joel, and holding up the phone to his ear Joel said, "Hi, how are you? Have you fetched any corn for the cows??" Joel is definitely more interesting than we are.

Spoons

Around the end of December James became fascinated, perhaps obsessed, with spoons. It began one day while at Opa & Oma's house when I gave him a small, red baby spoon to play with. I knew he liked to take utensils and use them to pretend to eat out of bowls. This spoon occupied him for quite some time, and I believe he didn't let go of it all day. He took it outside to play in the dirt and the rocks and sticks. He took it with him to the bath. And he was quite miffed that I didn't let him take it to bed with him. The next day I thought I would try to keep him away from the spoon; best not to form an attachment and be taking this silly spoon everywhere. But no, the next morning James went looking for the spoon. He took it to church and played with it throughout the whole church service.... Anyhow, during an exploration through Oma's cabinets he found a small box of plastic spoons. A gold mine!!! We allowed him one spoon, and every morning, and after every nap, he went to that cabinet and got himself out a spoon to play with. He was quite inseparable from the spoons. That next Sunday when he, again, took a spoon to church and played with it throughout the whole service, people started asking me about this infatuation he had with spoons. It has been quite entertaining to watch, and although the infatuation is not quite so strong it is still there.

walking backwards and singing

James learned how to walk backwards about a month or so ago. He was quite proud of himself, giving the, "are you watching, huh? huh? huh?" look. For awhile he used it to mock and act out a sort of high-faluting behavior; you just knew he was thinking of how wonderfully hot he was with his new trick.

Another thing James loves is singing. He started singing in church at about 10 months old, and now can sing bits of songs (do, re, mis; pop goes the weasel; oompah-doompah song from Willie Wonka). His favorite thing is to wave his arms around to lead or conduct the song or music. Thankfully he has pretty good rhythm and enjoys leading the classical radio station as well as the song service at church. The funny thing is how Joel gets such a kick out of James' leading. He'll just laugh and say, "Mama, look at James! He's leading!"

And in other news...

James has two new teeth and is working on a third. His fourth tooth on bottom(left) and his first molar (bottom left) came through and were discovered on the 21st. Now he's working on the tooth next to his new molar.

News Break

James moved into Joel's room. They are now sharing a bedroom and it's very cute. Everything is always very cute at first. It has made me wish that we had them sharing a room from the first, but what is done is done. James is learning to stay in his bed (we took the front off the crib to turn it into a toddler bed). He is doing quite well, but usually tries at least once to get out of bed each time we lay him down. Joel informed me today that he wants to be by himself again. I told him that was too bad, that we have to learn to share our rooms, too. I think that he doesn't like having to be quiet, so as to not disturb James. But who knows - we all like to have our own things to ourselves sometimes. So now James has entered the world of bedtime stories and night-night prayers. He thinks it is all a game and giggles through it all.

A First

This was on the refrigerator when I got home this evening from my harp job. Joel made this with (very little) help from Daddy. He wanted the girl to have green eyes. My eyes are green! He drew her face all by himself.

Just Because

Today we put in a family effort to clean the house in preparation for PawPaw and Grandmommy's upcoming visit. It's so nice to have help cleaning the house! Joel worked very hard for a 3-year-old amount of time. He cleaned up all his toys, hauled all the dirty towels in the whole house out to the washing machine in the garage, and put everybody's shoes away. That is quite a good job, I think.

Although it was quite cold outside, I decided we needed to have a picnic for lunch. Get the boys outside - which they were clamoring for since their eyelids opened - have some good family together time. Well, just as soon as we got settled outside Joel snuggled up to me and said, "Mama, the picnic makes me so happy." Now Joel has been giving "just because" hugs for a little while now. That is a big deal for him, because he has never been a snuggler. But all through lunch he would come up to Jason or me and just hug on us. It was very unexpected and sweet.

It's Official

James is officially walking. He is finally interested in doing it, wanting to do it, and really is doing it! He is still pretty wobbly and falls down but he is making great progress and will be a pro in no time.

A few other things he has gotten into are:

He opened the bottom drawer of my night table and crawled into it and sat down.
He's gotten up on the dining room table twice.
He regularly crawls on top of the small table in the play room at church.

A few more words he says are:

Hallelujah
wow
owwww
Joyce
Claire
Hannah
Jesus
I did! (at least, that's what it sounds like)

More to come!

in Anticipation

Next Sunday is the Handel's Messiah sing along. It's hard to believe that it's been a year already since the last time we were getting ready to go! Yes, it's been a whole year that we've been singing the Hallelujah Chorus while flossing and brushing Joel's teeth (not the whole Chorus, of course). The only difference now, a year later, is that I don't have to sing it for him. He sings it all by himself and is quite creative and determined with it. It can even be a deterrent to getting the job done. His singing can definitely get in the way of the job at hand. For instance, this is how it goes sometimes. "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth" - SPIT - "Halleulujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" - SPIT - "For the Lord God Omnipotent" - SPIT - "reigneth" ....

Poems, Pirates & Pfootball

Football season is now in full swing. To celebrate, family and friends of ours shared a special CD with us featuring the legendary voice of John Facenda and the music of Sam Spence. It celebrates the Americanism of football and Footballism in America. It's a great tribute to the sport. Joel has been quite taken with a track on that CD and runs for his plastic sword whenever we turn the CD on. He says, "can we listen to The Poem?" Here's the poem:

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.

His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache

He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.

The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.

Now, in my investigation into the history of The Poem I have not found out for certain who it was written by. It appears that a certain Mary Jane Carr wrote The Poem in slightly more light hearted language, and it was later adapted into the Hymn of the Raider Nation (for the Oakland Raiders) by Steve Sabol. I personally am not a Raiders fan. However, growing up with a love for this poem - especially listening to John Facenda reading it - could make a Raiders fan out of Joel.

Dreamy

This is Joel's first dream bachelor pad. He didn't say those exact words, but here's how he described it. "It's a garage. And this is where the cars go. And they stop here. And this is a jumping board for the swimming pool" (the red lego on the top left). Dreamy cars, too.

Behold, he climbeth

James is climbing onto everything, and I mean everything. He climbs into the dishwasher. He climbs into the toy crates. He climbs onto the couch. He climbs on top of the coffee table. He climbs into chairs of any sort and size - rocking or no. He climbs into our bed. He climbs onto anything he can get ahold of. He attempted to climb onto the rocking horse yesterday, but the horse's back just wasn't quite large enough of a landing area for him. He went down head-first on the other side. There is no discouraging him from doing these things; he is quite determined. He pulled Joel's booster seat off of Joel's chair the other day just so that he could try to stand up on it. He did for about 2 seconds, then fell and split his lip. This I am not allowing him to do anymore, but he tries to do it when I'm not looking.

I've come up with a short list of the words he is saying:
yes
no
more
please
thank you
all finished
cat
dog
grrrrr
vvrrrooooommmm-vvrrrooooooommmmmm
woof
quack
eat
hot
hi
mama
dada
Joel
James
Oma
Opa

He says more, but it is unintelligible still.

Little Chiropractor

This is the spine that Joel built with his legos all by himself. He built it last week and when I asked him what it was, he said, "it's a spine!"

Little Things

Little boys are so funny. Hugging and giving butterfly kisses at naptime and bedtime is, I think, one of the best things I get to see each day. James putting his hand flat across his ear (imitating putting a telephone to the ear) and saying, "Hi? Hi!" Joel saying almost every morning, "can we listen to Dan's CD?" and singing so many of the words to all the wonderful, old hymns on it. (His particular favorite is "Soar Away"). James' one-legged dance (to bluegrass music, of course) with his diapered bootie bouncing up and down while his foot slaps the floor. Joel saying that eating a particular thing or other makes him "jiggle". James' imitating everything is adorable, particularly his pretending to do things ("drinking" out of a "cup", then saying a guttural, "AAAAHHHHHHH"; rubbing "lotion" onto his hands; licking his lips, with an extra pouty-looking lower lip; "talking" on the phone).

Joel has an ever-growing instrument wish list. Yes, instrument wish list. Heaven help us. His first instrument was his guitar from Grandmommy and PawPaw. Then he asked Grandmommy for a banjo, which she provided. He has already asked her now for a violin, and his latest request has been for a trumpet.

I actually got to witness James taking three steps yesterday. He took about 5 consecutive steps today. Yeah!!!! James wasn't too proud of himself, as he was quite distressed and drew his motivation to move those legs from his frustration/anger, but Joel was quite impressed and asked me just to make certain, "did James walk???"

James likes to pester Joel. He'll crawl up to Joel and say, "NAH" very loudly, and Joel will say - can you guess? - "don't say no to me, James". It can become quite upsetting to Joel when James tells him no over and over. But then there are times when they turn it into a game. It seems to happen a lot in the car. They will just be (practically) yelling the opposite of whatever the other one is saying, yes or no, back and forth. As long as it doesn't irritate me to death I'll let them irritate each other until they work it out themselves.

A State of Mind

Joel was introduced to Billy Joel music a few weeks ago in the song, "New York State of Mind". Now, the whole idea of this was quite a lot of information for him to take in. First of all, the CD case had Aunt Joyce & Uncle Eric's picture on it (the CD was a favor from their wedding rehersal dinner). Then the man's name who was singing the song was Billy JOEL. I mean, can you imagine that??? To top it all off, the song is about New York, where Aunt Jeana lives. So what in the world could this man be singing about? What? "Is this song about enemies?" Joel asked me. I'm not sure if he was referring to the Twin Towers (yes, he knows about them) or if he was misunderstanding the word "evergreens" in the song. I didn't even tell him what the name of the song was, I just told him Billy Joel's name. Then he said, "can we listen to 'New York State of Mind' again?" It was adorable.

Vocabulary

For those of you who don't see James on a regular basis, this is what he would do if he saw you. He would lean forward as far as he possibly could, stick his arms straight out in front of him and slightly upwards with all of his fingers sticking straight out. He would incessantly say, "hi!" until you got right up next to him, then he would cock his head over and look at you with a huge slightly-upside-down-toothy-grin. Then he would spend the rest of your time together showing off his strength and his fearlessness. He would say yummy, nuh-nuh-nuh!, yah, tat (cat), and dase (James).

If Joel were greeting you, he would say "HEY" in his biggest, deepest big-boy voice. Then he would ask you if you if you would like to come see or do whatever it is that he's been planning to do with you for the past days, months, years since he's seen you. Joel's is a land of make-believe of food and drink, and punching and fighting. He's as likely to ask you if you want some coconut water (Miss Rumphius reference) or a peppermint candy (Ox-Cart Man reference) as he is to ask you if you like Bob the Builder or would like to wrestle with him.

But whichever of the children are talking to you, you are in for quite a bit of expression in the eyebrows and handmotions to go with the conversation.

Transportation

Although James is not walking yet, he has taken two steps. But neither Daddy nor Mama saw them. He took two steps to Opa right after his first birthday. He was not thinking about what he was doing, as we tried and tried to get him to do it again and he would just plop down. In fact he has no desire to walk; he's much faster when he crawls. So why walk?

Joel likes to play cowboy, especially when Daddy gets down on his hands and knees and crawls around like a horse. Then Joel really feels authentic. In fact, he rode his "horse" back to his bedroom when it was bedtime the other night. He crawled off, climbed into bed and told Daddy, his horse, "you can stay there until I wake up in the morning, okay?"

The Story of Julio & Jaime (not Jamie)

James received "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf for his birthday. As with all things, Joel has adopted "Ferdinand" until such time as James is old enough to enjoy said thing(s) for himself. And so we have imaginary Spain, bulls, and "picadories" (picadores) throughout the house. The first time he began playing out the story his tent was set up in his room, and his tent was "Spain". He got his plastic sword to "poke da bulls", and his wooden ABC blocks were "da bulls". He and James crawled into the tent and had quite a lot of fun playing "picadories". Bursts of laughter echoed out of Joel's room which was really the best part for me. Currently the tent is put away; but ever creative, Joel will pick some special nook to be Spain and he will go get his blocks and "fight" Ferdinand.

Growing Pains

James is up to 5 teeth now. He cut his second top tooth (left middle) about a week after he cut his first top tooth. Then he cut the third top tooth (right middle) late last month. The last of the top front four teeth should be coming in any day now. It is visible, but just hasn't cut through the gums yet.

James is also trying to say more words. He tries to say "all finished" and "uh-oh". The other night at dinner, Joel exclaimed, "oh no!" James immediately exclaimed, "doh doh!" He has started mimicking a duck quacking, "dah-dah-dah-dah...." I know it sounds like a stretch, but his little vocabulary of da's sure can sound like a lot of different words! I am sure he can say "Joel"; it just sounds like "dah".

Restore unto me the joy of my ... bath

James has begun to enjoy his baths again, oh joy! I believe the experience of the cool wading pool a few times taught him to be thankful for the warm water of the bath. He again shrieks with delight to get into the bath and splashes up a storm. Of course, he still tries to stand up and do other various no-nos, such as trying to steal whichever toy Joel has. But we are thankful for our little steps toward temperance.

Joel's dexterity continues to improve. He has started drawing real pictures! Real pictures, I should say, that you can tell what it is that he intended to draw. He started drawing stick people with his sidewalk chalk, and with his magnadoodle he drew a snowman. The snowman was adorable! It was a large circle at the top with eyes, then some stick legs underneath, with large triangles at the ends of them: boots.

Momentous Amongus

James cut his third tooth while out at Harmony Hill. At least, that is when I discovered it. I had not been looking for a tooth where this one came in. It is his top left next-to-the-middle-tooth tooth. Poor thing had kind of a hard time at HH. First he cut a tooth, then he and JL came down with a bug that either was or turned into Rosiola. He probably thought that HH was hell, poor thing.

Joel, on the other hand, enjoyed as much of HH as possible. He was constantly in a state of exhaustion like every other child there, but he had a huge sand box to play in and friends from church that he was familiar with. He was quite introverted most of the time. Then there would be outbursts of the true Mr. JSW that he was keeping hidden. Such as when we would go to the "potty store" - the bath house - to get ready for bed. He liked talking to particular ladies about his puppy dog towel and tooth brush that lights up. He also had quite a conversation with Elder Shafer about horses. There was a little misunderstanding about the type of horses that Elder Shafer owned - not 5 rocking horses, 5 real horses. It was a priceless conversation. Then Joel decided to befriend a little girl who wore pink crocs. He put his arm around her shoulder, and she reached up and held that hand. Then after class he took her hand in both of his and lead her to the play ground, saying the whole way, "come with me; it's okay; look, your mama's coming too" all the way. Later on she asked her mamma, "where's my Joel?"

I'm still not sure that I like this....

This is Daddy. I haven't written anything here yet, but this is primarily for Mamma to tell her special stories. Still, I must agree that the trip to the Hill was momentous. The experience of spending a week like that was priceless for Mamma and for the boys. Joel learned some interaction skills as mentioned above, and James had to deal with being away from the comforts of home. Schedules are out the window, and everything is unfamiliar. It was good for them. It's easy to get comfortable and lose the art of dealing with tough situations. I am very proud of the way Jamie handled it. Her sister helped her a great deal as well, and I'm very thankful to her for that.
It was precious to see my son up there with the rest of the class. He forgot what he was supposed to do while he was up there, but that made it all the more precious. I'm glad this will be apart of his life as he grows up.

Hercules

We have on our hands quite a strong little 11-month-old. For some time now we have known that he has great strength in his legs. His favorite thing to do is push things around, especially chairs, his mail cart, and anything else that will move. Also, he doesn't get too frustrated when he comes to a roadblock. He just pushes through or moves around it; it's quite entertaining to watch. A few more feats have been accomplished recently giving him a new nickname, "Super James" and "Hercules". He pushed the tray of the high chair at Oma's and Opa's completely off while he was sitting in it. So I placed the chair in front of the table to sort of "prop" the tray onto the chair. Nope, didn't work. He pushed the tray off again, and the chair away from the table. Then he pushed a chair which Joel was standing on; pushed it about 6 feet. He did it quite easily, and Joel is almost twice James' weight. He's something else!

Semantics & Self-control

Joel began using another what I call "e-r" words. They are words that are plain, ordinary words that he puts a cute "er" on the end of; such as plugger instead of plug. Joel was telling me a story that including the dinosaur towel hook in JL's bathroom, but instead of it being a plain, ordinary hook, he called it a hooker.

Joel is quite witty with words and tries to be precise as well. He will tell anyone who says differently that he is not writing, he is penciling. He is not coloring, he is markering. You color with colors. The other day he was digging in some dirt with a pair of plyers. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was not digging, he was plyering.

James graduated from the baby bath tub to the big tub a little over a month ago. He liked it at first, but it became quite clear early on that the ideas he had for having free reign in the bath tub were not going to be realized. For example, standing up or pulling the stopper for the shower are not allowed. Since then he has lost his love for the bath. He does enjoy it for a few minutes initially but when he has to begin excercising self-control, the enjoyment is definitely not as great. However, I believe his love for the bath will return in the near future. He is quite a good splasher, and has been from a very young age. This, I am sure, is some sort of advantage in life and must be used in his defense against his elders.

Catechising

Joel and James are benefitting quite a bit from our family Bible study. It is always amazing to see what children absorb; I don't know why, but we never ceased to be amazed. I decided to begin to teach Joel Psalm 1, and Jason decided to teach him his own first memory verse, Titus 1:2. He is doing so well, and seems to have great satisfaction in knowing the verses by heart. Jason also at times picks certain Bible stories to read to Joel, and they also have influenced Joel's life even at such a young age. The other day while playing with his legos, Joel told me that he was building an ark for Noah. And indeed, there was a very large structure built when he finished. I also heard him saying while "building the ark", "and the Jebusites, and the Perrizites, and the Moabites...."

James is trying to walk. He will walk behind Joel's little mail cart. He does much better on the carpet, of course, as the wood floor is rather slick against the wheels of the cart. He is so proud of himself when he does this. I am looking forward to him walking. He is cruising so well, I don't really think that he will get into anything worse than he can already get himself into. James is needing training to learn about heights, and getting down. He will climb onto anything he possibly can, but doesn't know how to safely get down. This results in many bumps and bruises. I feel so bad for him sometimes, but he really is a go-getter and is not easily discouraged. I know that can be a very good trait and hope that the Lord will help us channel that trait in a godly direction. He is an extremely cheerful and jolly little boy; Jason and I never stop talking about how wonderful he is.

Gardening

Jason and I planted our first vegetable garden together earlier this spring. It has been quite an exciting undertaking for us as well as Joel. He loved planting the seeds and seeing the little plants come up. Now the garden is a huge jungle. Joel has been fascinated by the little (now larger) green tomatoes forming, the blooms of the green beans and squash, and seeing how the cucumber plants wrap themselves around the trellis all by themselves. Just before our trip to Austin for Memorial Day, we discovered our first baby yellow squash. In trying to convince a few people to come back home with us, he asked Oma, "don't you want to come see my baby squash?" Well, a few days ago the baby squash finished growing up and we got to pick it and another squash. Joel carried those squashes around the back yard the entire time I worked in the garden. I was hoping that perhaps he would enjoy eating the squash since they came for our garden, but not so. He still can't stand that texture in his mouth. Next time we'll try what he told me, "Mama, I like it a little bit crunchy."

the latest

James is most happy when standing up these days. He has a death grip, and he's fast with it, too. He will grab onto anything solid, but not necessarily sturdy; pants, chairs, laundry baskets, doors, the washing machine, Joel. I have been instructing Joel in how to call for help when James gets him. James is simply too heavy and unsteady for Joel to handle.

Wrestling has officially began. Joel and James like to wrestle already. I will only let them do it on a soft surface, such as a bed. James loves it! He is definitely not the cautious type, as Joel is, and is quite open to rough-housing and living a little on the edge (whatever that is when you're 8 months old).

Correction: James does not have 3 teeth. He still only has 2. I'm not sure what happened; perhaps the tooth went back down or it actually never did cut through. It did look like it had for a couple days, but apparently my eyes were fooled. James is doing quite well with the teeth he has, though. He has bit Daddy twice. Once on the toe, and once on the ear. Score!

James is a very clappy boy. He is enjoying his new skill more and more. All I have to do is start singing the little "clap your hands" song I sang to him when I used to clap his hands for him, and he'll grin at me and start clapping.