A Dedicated Brother...

Andrew is full of questions about his baby sister.  He is inquisitive by nature anyway, add to that his love and concern for his baby sister, and he is intense!  When he rides in the backseat with her he always consoles her so sweetly when she cries and gives me the play by play of everything she does.  When her blanket fell on the floor at church yesterday and he was quick to ask me if I should cover her up with it anymore. 

From the day she was born, he would ask me when we were going to take her to church.  I told him she had to get bigger before we would take her to church and one day we would stand up in front of our church and make a promise to teach Melanie about Jesus, just like we did with he and Mason.  I explained it was called a baby dedication.  The first Sunday we took Melanie to church he asked if we were going to take her up front.  I told him no, she would be bigger when we do that.  We waited a couple of weeks before we took her back to church, but again Andrew asked if we were taking her up front.  I told him no again and explained it would be several months.  He then asked me how the baby dedication worked.  I told him we go up to the altar with brother pepper in front of our church family.  He then interjected, "Do you hold her up like this", demonstrating by holding his hands way above his head and trying to sing the native African chant at the beginning of the Circle of Life song during this scene of a familiar movie:

I couldn't help it, I cracked up laughing!  I explained it isn't like the Lion King movie.  Now he was totally serious when he asked but when he saw me laughing, he got silly and said Dad or I should do it to be funny.  Mark held back his laughter (for a while) and explained to Andrew that being silly when we are making a promise to God was disrespectful to Him.  Andrew understood what his dad was telling him but I couldn't help but giggle at how his little mind was trying to envision how it worked and the Lion King scene is what came to mind when I was explaining the formality.  But, like Andrew, I have one more question.  Who's the monkey, me or Mark...or in keeping with the movie, is Brother Pepper the monkey?

FINDING HER HAPPY PLACE

We have all been working to find our new normal around the H. home.  They boys are back in school and football has started along with AWANA so we are busy during our week nights.  Little Melanie is growing and changing a bit every day.  She has begun to have a bit of tummy trouble so she is unhappy much of the time unless someone is holding her.  There is always a good supply of people in this house ready to hold her except for first thing in the morning when we are trying to get the boys off to school.  Melanie will usually sit in her bouncy chair for a bit and be happy but not this morning!  She was fussy to say the least.  Mason looked at me and said, "Melanie needs to find her happy place".  I laughed so hard when he said those words!  Mason is the most patient of everyone when Melanie gets fussy.  He will hold her and talk sweetly to her.  I love to see that connection between them.  It was funny to see even Mason have enough of the crying.  Don't worry, we didn't let her cry long.  She is officially spoiled :-)

And later this morning she found her happy place...

I am hoping we have found some of the reasons for her fussiness.  I gave her formula in a bottle for the first time on Friday and Saturday morning she was covered in a red rash.  We think it is a cow's milk sensitivity.  So now I must stop eating all dairy products and any other food item that contains milk proteins for a while.  Hopefully this will help Melanie feel a bit better while her little digestive system matures and can better digest cow's milk.  I'm on day two so wish me luck.  Just so you know, milk products seem to be in EVERYTHING so this is quite a task.  But hey, Oreo cookies are milk free so I can live ;)

Out of the Mouth of Andrew...

We had a fun Easter Sunday at home.  Church, lunch, naps and egg hunts.  I love simple days.  Andrew had asked me to wear a little dog tag type necklace he had gotten at a community egg hunt and he would wear one too.  They had eggs and bunnies on them and they weren't the type of necklaces meant to last. 

While we were snuggling on the couch watching a movie, his chain broke and I told him to hand it to me so I could fix it.  He looked at me and handed it to me with a scrunched up nose and said, "These necklaces aren't very good.  They are kind of D*llar Generally".  It took all I had not to crack up.  I guess he remembers the HUNDREDS of times I have reminded him that many of the toys at D*llar General aren't the kind of toys that last really well so he should think twice about buying some things there.  Now I promise, I am not a dollar store snob.  I buy lots of things there, but there are other things I won't buy there.  Most of the time you really do get what you pay for when it comes to items you want to last.  That being said,  I don't think the people at D*llar General would appreciate the new phrase he has coined! 

Oh the things their little minds imagine!

Since Mason was a baby, we have explained to the boys that Santa brings three gifts to them because baby Jesus received three gifts from the wise men when they visited him.  This year Andrew has asked for collectible Lego Star Wars models that are no longer in production and are VERY EXPENSIVE.  We have explained to him that Santa cannot bring these kinds of things and it is too much to ask.  He remembers that Santa gives gifts to many children and to ask him for such extravagant things is a bit selfish.  I was telling him this yet again reinforcing this lesson on Saturday afternoon when Andrew said, "I'm gonna be happy with whatever Santa brings me, you know, Jesus was happy with what he got even when one of his gifts was deodorant."  I was a bit confused and said...."What?"  He said, "You know, the stuff that smelled good."  I remembered a conversation we had, probably last year, when I explained what frankincense and myrrh were.  He must have put together that frankincense, meant to make things smell good, was ancient deodorant.  I have laughed and laughed about this ever since.  I love seeing where there minds take things we try to explain to them from so long ago.  Now I think Santa should put deodorant in his stocking every year just so I can giggle ;-)

Check out more cute stories on Mary's Tiny Tot Tuesday fun!

HOLY SMILE BATMAN!

Andrew has been wobbling his front tooth for weeks now. Earlier this week it got REALLY loose. On the way home from my office that day he and I stopped to get a snow cone. He was in the backseat of the car eating it when he started crying big alligator tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, "I don't want to be a big boy, I want to be your little boy." My heart just melted. He had overheard me saying to the babysitter that once kids loose their front teeth they are big kids. I had no idea he would take that to heart :-( He wants to be big enough to do everything his big brother does most of the time so I wasn't expecting that reaction. I told him he will always be my little boy even when he grows up to be as big as his daddy. In no time the tears were dried up and he was happily eating his snow cone gabbing away with me about his exciting day. That night I couldn't help but snuggle him a little longer when I tucked him in a bedtime.

LITTLE BOY LINGO...

Every day there is something funny, sweet or just downright memorable my boys say or do and I always say I'm going to write that down. Most of the time I don't and find myself trying to remember. So here I go with my list of "little boy lingo" that I just have to document to remember these days filled with sweetness.

ANDREW: While fighting the bad guys as the Princess character on his Star Wars Lego game on his DS, "Don't be so rough with a ladaaaay" He said it in such a funny way, it was the cutest. I guess he has heard me tell him such things when we play around and wrestle. I always tell them I'm a lover not a fighter ;-)

Before we moved into the house and I was still spending the weekends painting, painting, and painting. It got quite tedious for me and especially so for Andrew. He would bring toys and play in the new game room but a little guy gets bored after hours and hours. During these long days Andrew would pop his head in the room I was painting to tell me something or ask a random question. I just had to document what some of the random thoughts go through the mind of this little 6 year old cutie.

What was your favorite toy when you were a little girl?

I built a new floor (out of leftover hardwood pieces) in my house (a large cardboard box).

What is an eyeball made of? Is it squishy?

______ is my favorite girl at school because she laughs at all my jokes.

What is 125 plus 9?

Sometimes I would just laugh out loud at the randomness of these things!

MASON: He is growing up and the conversations with him are getting so much more grown up. Mark has been reading Proverbs with him so he is learning a lot. One day as they were reading the subject was wicked women. The next day Mason told me that the bible says to run from bad girls. I said, "what is a bad girl?" He said, you know, the kind that want to kiss on boys a lot. I just nodded my head and said, "yeah, run fast!" I got so tickled but I am glad he is learning about God's word on subjects that will quickly be part of his life.

He has always had quite the insight on women. One day years ago when he was only 2 or 3 years old we had hired one of they boys from our church youth department, Hayden, to help Mark work to clean up an area we were about to build an addition onto our old house (yes, there is a pattern to our home remodel sickness) so we were having lunch together before they went back out to work. I asked Mark if he wanted me to come out and rake leaves to help them get finished before dark. Mason interrupted and said, "Girls don't rake leaves". I was a little indignant and said, "Oh, really? Why not?" He said that boys do that work and girls cook dinner. I was taken aback by his already accepted gender roles that he had seen in our home. Mark & Hayden thought it was funny and asked what else girls did. Mason said, "They wash dishes." Mark was just laughing and asked again, "what else". He quickly said, "They put band-aids in their underwear." It took me a minute but once I realized what he was referring to my jaw dropped & Mark was speechless (that says a lot since that almost never happens...he always has a witty comeback). Hayden either didn't understand Mason's baby talk enough to know what he said or was polite enough to pretend he didn't. Needless to say, privacy in the bathroom became a bigger priority after that conversation but how can you avoid taking your toddler in the bathroom stall with you at Wal-mart? This story will make us laugh for years!

My little knight in shining armour...

Andrew and I had appointments with the dental hygienist today so we did a little shopping while we were out. We went into a furniture store to look at the selection of U-shaped sectionals. While we were there, the boys saw a king size bed and were commenting on how big it was. I explained to Andrew that it was bigger than our bed because it was a king size bed. He asked what size our (mom and dad's) bed was and I told him ours was a queen size. He thought for a while and said, "Is mine a knight size?". It took me a minute but I finally understood his logic. We recently watched the movie Dragon Heart so kings, queens and knights were fresh on his mind. I didn't bother to tell him his was twin size, I told him his was just the right size for my brave little knight.

Life is just a bowl of cherries

We are settling in to our new house and it is so relaxing. We still have lots of little things to finish up but just being in is such a relief. I can see Mark relaxing too and that just makes my heart happy. He has been so stressed with all of this that it has been hard for him to enjoy anything. Well that is changing. Saturday night he cooked Jambalaya for dinner and it was great! For dessert he made cherry cobbler...another big hit. We saved the leftover dessert to have after church on Sunday. When Sunday lunch was over Andrew was quick to remember what was waiting. "I'm ready for my clobber", he said. Mark and I looked at one another across the table and smiled. Of course we had to ask him to repeat himself multiple times before we told him the correct way to pronounce his dessert. It is nice to have Mark sitting at the table again when these cute moments occur instead of me telling him about them when he was too exhausted to even giggle.

Check out more silly things kids say at Mary's blog. Go ahead and link up yourself. You know your kiddos are little crack ups too ;-)

Where is Mr. Mom?

Mason and I have a lot of conversations on our trips to therapy twice a week. One day he was talking about work and he said that "girls get things better". I asked him what he meant by that. He said girls can work if they want to or stay home with their kids but boys can only work. I thought that was an interesting observation and I told him that some dads stay home with their kids. He responded with a strange look on his face..."I don't know any of those dads". Maybe the family situation I tried to explain isn't very common in his world. I giggled :-)

I sure can pick'em

Saturday afternoon Andrew and I were heading back home after a day of hard work at the new house. He was getting excited because I had started painting his room so he started to tell me all the things he wanted for his new room. His little mind was everywhere and was really dreaming of all sorts of creative things for his race car room. In his little mind there was nothing we couldn't do. We settled in on a couple of ideas and I reminded him that our new home is a blessing and we are blessed to have Daddy who can build such wonderful things for our family. Andrew agreed by saying, "yeah, I'm glad you picked him to marry." Me too, Andrew...Me too! I'm glad he picked me too ;-)

Join Mary for more Tiny Tot Tuesday fun.

I was reading a post on Jodee's blog about her fun visits to her hubby's parents home that reminded me of a story I do not want to forget, so since this is our family journal, here it is...

Mark's grandparents are just some of the greatest people you will ever meet. They live in a tiny town in Kansas and going there to visit truly makes you take a break from things because life is much slower there. Grandpa is now 94 and Granny is 89 but that doesn't slow them down much. When we lived in Kansas, we spent many weekends at "Granny and Grandpa's" house. They were there for us in so many different ways. I grew to love them so much in such a short time. Once we moved to Texas and the boys came along it was harder to make it up to Kansas so often but when we did it was so fun. Granny's TV was OLD SCHOOL so there is no way you are hooking up video games on that baby. The TV rarely made it on unless KU was playing basketball. So what do you do with all of your time? You spend it playing games, reading, granny attempting to teach you to knit, granny actually teaching you how to cook, meandering through antique stores while the men were at the hardware store, looking at old photographs of hubby as a child in his best 70's attire...good times.
On one particular visit Mason was 5 and Andrew had just turned 1. Andrew had spent the day attempting to get into EVERYTHING at Granny's and Mason had a blast checking out Grandpa's workshop and doing man stuff. We put Andrew to bed and decided to play some card games and teach Mason to play Dirty Aces. It is a pretty simple game where everyone gets one card. You can decide to keep it or trade with the player your right. Once you have traded, you are stuck with the card. The highest card wins but Aces are considered the lowest card. Mason was sitting to the left of grandpa and kept trading with him only to get a dirty ace or something else worse than what he originally had. Mason was starting to get tired of this and started pouting and tearing up. Grandpa would just giggle every time. Granny didn't like her little baby getting upset so she kept telling grandpa, "Marvin, leave him alone, Marvin, don't let him trade with you if your card is bad" and the such. Mason finally looked up and burst into tears and said, "I don't like this game and I wish everyone would quit calling me Marvin!" We all roared with laughter. Poor little guy didn't realize that Grandpa's name was Marvin and thought we were calling him names. We still make him giggle when he is upset by saying, "I wish everyone would quit calling me Marvin". It gets him to smile every time.

HMMMM?

Last night Andrew was cleaning up his room when I heard him yell with excitement, "Mom, come here. I found a ladybug". I had my hands in dishwater so I yelled back, "Just a minute". A few seconds later he walked into the kitchen and said, "Never mind Mom, It's dead". I asked him how he knew it was dead and he said, "I blew on it and it and my breath flipped it over...it was a brown old man." I have no idea how brown old man = dead ladybug but somehow in Andrew's mind it does. CRAZINESS!

FRIDAY FUNNY - THE SMELL CHART

ANDREW BROUGHT HOME THE SMELL CHART HE MADE AT SCHOOL. THE CLASS IS LEARNING ABOUT THEIR FIVE SENSES AND THE FOCUS THIS DAY WAS THE SENSE OF SMELL. HIS TEACHER HAD SEVERAL SAMPLES FOR THE KIDS TO SMELL. THEY HAD TO DRAW A PICTURE (AND WRITE THE WORD IF THEY COULD) OF WHAT THEY THOUGHT EACH SMELL WAS.

ITEM 1 - I THINK WE ALL KNOW WHAT HE THOUGHT THAT SMELLED LIKE. IT WAS ACTUALLY VINEGAR. HOW DO YOU CONFUSE VINEGAR WITH...I DON'T EVEN WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT ANY FURTHER. I'M SURE IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE COMIC RELIEF. HE DOES LOVE TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH.

ITEM 2 - "CADOL" APPARENTLY CINNAMON AND THE ONLY CINNAMON HE SMELLS COMES FROM A CANDLE...I GUESS I SHOULD BAKE MORE :-).

ITEM 3 - "SANUTISR" WAS RUBBING ALCOHOL. YES, MY KIDS ARE VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE SMELL OF HAND SANITIZER...THEIR MOM IS A GERM FREAK.

ITEM 4 - "TETEE" WAS NOT A CONTINUATION OF THE BATHROOM HUMOR I FIRST THOUGHT IT WAS. IT WAS PERFUME THAT SMELLED LIKE HIS TEDDY BEAR JUST AFTER I WASH IT.

ANDREW AND I HAD A TALK ABOUT NOT TALKING ABOUT HIS FIRST ITEM. "ANDREW, IT IS NOT NICE TO DRAW POOP ON YOUR SCHOOL PAPERS OR TALK ABOUT THAT STUFF WHEN IT ISN'T PRIVATE TALK." MY, MY, MY...I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD EVER PUT THOSE WORDS TOGETHER IN A SENTENCE. MARK AND I DID LAUGH LIKE FIVE YEAR OLD KIDS ABOUT THIS AFTER THE BOYS WENT TO BED AND NOW I'M POSTING IT ON OUR BLOG...CLASSY FAMILY AREN'T WE?

ASSURE

Mason and I were going over his new list of vocabulary words last night. I was asking him what the words meant before he read the definitions to see if he had a general understanding of the meanings. One of the words was ASSURE. When I asked him the meaning he said, "it means to know for sure...to make someone count on it, like you mom. I gave him a surprised look when he said that and he went on to say, "when you say you'll be there you always mean it." Oh, that made me feel so good! I want so badly for my kids to know how important they are to me. I try so hard, like so many other moms, to juggle so many responsibilities and commitments that sometimes I have to miss some of their activities. It was great to hear that he knows he can count on me to be there for him. Even if it means we are in a rush 80% of the time and are eating fish sticks, turkey sandwiches, or pizza four nights a week, we make it work ;-)

My Personal Shopper

Andrew was my shopping partner at Wal*mart this week and he is such good company. He has learned to read price tags on the shelves. I have little rain man with me saying "That's $8.97, That one is $4.86, that is G-U-M. I was a bit distracted on this trip because EVERYTHING at Wal*Mart was involved in a rousing game of Fruit Basket Turnover. I could not find anything. We never found the toy department. How they manage to move ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in just one week I couldn't tell you! It is a bit of irony that the management can pull off that kind of feat but struggles with basic customer service like helping you find sunflower seeds... I get DISGUSTED when an employee makes it obvious that your request is putting them OUT. I don't know what gave it away but it may have been the tounge click and eye roll, but I digress. I am wondering aimlessly through the cleaning supplies when Andrew suddenly exclaims, "TI*TTY!". I stopped and looked around thinking, my goodness...what else have they stocked with the cleaning products! Then he says it again with such a cheerful ring to his voice and I am embarrassed. Where on earth has he heard that word and why is he saying it here...so loudly in the presence of all these people in the cleaning supplies isle? I calmly ask him what he is talking about, not to draw too much attention to this inappropriate word. He smiles and says, "Over there, Mom, it's TI*TTY." I slowly turn around expecting a nursing mother when I see this...
What a relief! I did not have to have the conversation about body parts and the respectful, appropriate names for them...yet! I only had to explain the long vowel rule. Now he is starting to understand when the "E" is on the end of the word, he is quiet while the "I" says his name. I laughed for remainder of my shopping adventure with my little reading machine and my frustration melted away.

Pop on over to Mary's and hear what else our little tots are saying and welcome the new addition to her family!

Theology Today

While we were waiting in the car at the pharmacy drive-thru today the boys had a small disagreement...aka screaming match from the back seat, about when someone should be expected to share. I tried to use this moment to explain to both of the boys that they are not expected to share everything all the time, but to remember how it feels when someone doesn’t share with them so they can listen to their heart and choose to share most of the time. Andrew said, “I try to listen to my heart Mom, but my brain always interrupts”. I was speechless. That was a great sermon delivered by a 5 year old with one sentence.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Andrew and I were walking from the car to the house when Andrew asked if we could race. So off we went to the front door. When we arrived I said, "Oh, you beat me". Andrew said, "Mom, I know you just do that so I'll be happy and smile since you like my smile so much". He's on to me! Visit Mary for more Tiny Talk.

I think I've been had...

Last night Andrew wanted to try the spicy hot Cheetos. He decided they were a bit too hot for him so he said to me, "I think I should eat an Oreo to make sure I didn't burn my taste bud". That sly little fox! Mason looked at me and shook his head. I think he's on to Andrew's M.O.

Check out TINY TOT TUESDAY to hear more of what the little ones are saying.

Frog and Toad

Andrew and I were eating dinner together while Dad and Mason did some little jobs at the house one evening. He looked over his plate of ravioli and asked, "Are frogs and toads the same?" I said, "they are similar, just a little different. Frogs have wet skin and toads have dry bumpy skin." Sorry, that is the best I could do at recalling basic biology. He looked at me with a funny stare and said, "I thought toads were just old frogs." I guess that makes sense...the older I get the more my skin looks dry and wrinkly!

Check out more funnies at Mary's Tiny Tot Tuesdays.

Deep thoughts, by Mason...

Mason has learned many things from his responsibility to take care of his dog, Sadie. He has the primary chore of making sure Sadie gets taken outside frequently. Needless to say, he spends quite a bit of time waiting for her to do her "business" outside. I guess this quiet time gives opportunity for deep thought because tonight while I was tucking Mason in at bedtime he shared some of his revelations with me.
Sadie laid her head on the edge of his bed waiting for a pat on the head. Mason leaned over to pet her and she started smacking her jowls and licking her lips. The conversation went like this:

Mason: "Sadie licks everything"

Mom: "I guess dogs just do that"

Mason: "Do you know how God made dogs different from people?"

Mom: "They have 4 legs."

Mason: "Besides that...their bottoms don't itch if they don't wipe good, well, they can't wipe... and their lips don't get chapped."

Good observation son. All true, disgusting, but true. How do you top that? He was totally serious. I CRACKED UP LAUGHING and made him laugh. Good night son.

Check out more funnies at Mary's Tiny Tot Tuesday's