A Declaration of Love...

Last night during dinner, Elias made a declaration of love. As he pointed from Adaryll to Elena to me and to himself, he announced, "I love you and you and you and me and Jesus and God and Kylee!" (Most of you know Kylee is our 4-year-old neighbor who calls herself "Elias' wife")
Elias has such a kind, sweet spirit and declaring his love for us all just reminded me what a great kid he is (not that I am biased or anything...)

The Deep, Deeper, and Not So Deep

Friday (Oct 26) Night: The Deeper (after Bible story at bedtime)
Elias: Who are the disciples?
Mom: These guys in the picture. And that is Jesus. You can be a disciple too.
E: I can? What's a disciple?
M: Well, a disciple is someone who loves God very much and wants to do what Jesus says. You can do that too.
E: Yes. And then will he make a place for me in heaven too? (from the story)
M: Yes- he is making a place for you in heaven.
E: He is making a place for EVERYONE in heaven!
M: No, actually not everyone will go to heaven.
E: Who won't go to heaven?
M: People who don't love God.
E: What kind of people don't love God?
M: People who think they don't need God. They think they can do everything by themselves.
E: People who don't love God have a different colored heart.
M: Really?
E: They have dark hearts.
M: Hmmm, maybe.
E: So where will they go?
M: They will go to live with the devil.
E: Who is the devil?
M: He was an angel who thought he could be better than God so God sent him away.
E: What is that place called?
M: It's called Hell.
E: JAIL!?!?!?!
M: No, hell.
E: What's in hell?
M: Fire, and hurting and the devil. But not God. And it is a place with no love.
E: (with big tears) I don't want to go to the place with no love.
M: You don't have to, honey. You just love God and follow him and you will go to heaven.
E: But I don't know much about God.
M: Well, we will keep reading your Bible every night and learning about God.
E: We need to read the black Bible (my Bible because his is a story Bible- not full text)
M: Tell you what, tomorrow we will go and get you your very own big Bible to read.
E: OK. But Mommy?
M: mmm-hmmm
E: Some of the words in the Bible are in Spanish.
(Which all led to a trip to Lifeway to buy a new Bible for the boy)


Saturday (Oct 27) night: The Not So Deep (in the bath)
Elias: Mommy, why don't we have tails?
Mom: Because God did not make people have tails.
Elias: Oh.


Monday (Oct 29) daytime: The Deep
Elias: I don't want to go to heaven. I want to stay with you here where there is a lot of love.
Mom: Oh, well you don't have to go to heaven today. That is for when you die.
E: When I die?
M: Yes, probably someday when you get old.
E: Will I see you there?
M: Yes, I hope so!
E: I dreamed last night that I went to God's house in heaven. And me and you and Daddy were there. Elena was in a baby heaven.

Monday (Oct 29) daytime: Ok, this is getting tougher by the minute!!!
Elias: Mommy, why did Jesus have to get punished?

I guess noone ever said it would be easy, huh?? Seems to me the first years are physically tiring doing all the bathing, butt wiping, chasing, feeding, etc. But now we are entering the mentally exhausting years of having to know the answers to everything!!!

AMAZING!!!

So the piano went over really well- we had it on a trailer outside the birthday party and brought all the kids out to present it. It was covered in a sheet. When Elias pulled the sheet down, his eyes got huge and his hand popped up over his mouth. Several seconds went by before he exclaimed "AMAZING!!!" Except, if you know Elias and his funny pronounciations, you will know it sounded more like "AY-MAY-ZING!" (first syllable rhyming with the second regularly-pronounced syllable), which was really cute. I actually have a digital video of the whole thing, but my computer is not currently cooperating with such things.
He plays it every day, usually several times a day. Now we need to find him lessons...

Tomorrow's Big Surprise

Tomorrow is Elias' birthday party, which has turned out to be much bigger than I expected. We are so excited that most of the kids in his class are able to come, plus some friends from outside of school and some adults who are family to us here. We are having the party at the indoor playground at church, which is like a McDonalds playground on steroids. Then we are doing pizza and cake in an open gathering area. Elias can't wait!
I can't either- but for a reason he knows nothing about....
A couple of nights ago I was putting an ad on craigslist.com about my murals and began browsing other catergories. Somehow I ended up looking at pianos and thought (once again, for the millionth time in the last couple of years) how wonderful it would be to have a piano for Elias. We do have a keyboard out that he loves to play. He began playing melodies of songs he knew at age 3 and has begun figuring out the "demo" songs on the keyboard now. So, Wednesday night, on a whim I placed an ad on craigslist. I pretty much said that I was looking for a piano for a talented, budding musician about to turn 5 years old. I got an email back THAT NIGHT from a lady 15 miles away who said she has a beautiful upright she would love for Elias to have. We went to see it last night and picked it up on Jean and Jerry's trailer today. It will stay on the trailer tonight and Jerry will bring it to the church tomorrow for the party. After all the gifts are opened we will tell Elias there is one more gift outside. We will walk him out and let him pull the sheet off and see his new piano!! We even got a big red bow to put on top. I honestly think that he is going to be do happy that he cries.
So, off to bed tonight to get rested up for the big celebration!

Life Back to Normal?

What is normal anyway?! I'm not sure, but I can tell you that our last couple of weeks has not been it!
It all started with Adaryll having stomach pains on a Friday (but not mentioning it to me until Sunday!) He ended up at his doctor on Monday, and by this time he was doubled over and had a fever. He was sent to the hospital ER where, after lots of morphine and tests, he was diagnosed with an infection from diverticulitis. We were relieved it wasn't his appendix, but this is not really a great thing to have either. So they started IV antibiotic and kept him for a day. He is doing MUCH better now- I would say he is pretty much back to 100% except for energy level- and is continuing his antibiotics another few days.
In the midst of all of this, Elena decided to cut a tooth! She has had 8 teeth for what seems like forever, and I was beginning to wonder if there were actually any more teeth in there! Cutting a tooth is never fun, and we have still have 11 more to go including her 2 year molars! Kind of wish she would cut 8 at a time like Elias did- it was awful for a couple of weeks, but then we were done for the year!
Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for some dear friends of ours who are expecing their first baby (see Neil & Amy on friends list), and Adaryll performed a wedding in his drug-induced state the same day. Other weekends in October are booked with Elias' birthday party, my Dad visiting, TPCC staff picnic, and several other fun things.
So when will things get back to normal?! I'm not sure they ever will- or that they ever were for that matter! I keep thinking about all the friends who we would like to get together with and how I have told myself that we would "when things slow down". Well, friends, we had better just start setting dates and getting things on the calendar, because I don't think that life with a 15 month old and an almost 5 year old ever really does that!

Oh, For the Dawg Days of Summer...

We had our last summer popsicles with neighbors last night. Elena finally got one of her very own for the first time (she normally just mooches off the moms). It was cool enough yesterday that I had her in long sleeves and jeans all day, but when the kids came out with popsicles- well, who can resist?! So, Ian McC. handed out one to each friend and they all proceeded to load up with sugar and dye coloring. Elena was in heaven with her blue rasberry.
Then, all of the sudden, we hear Maggie crying and freaking out. And justifyably so- a bee had flown onto her popsicle just as she put it in her mouth. So she feels it sting her tongue and then realizes THERE IS A BUG IN MY MOUTH! Much crying, concern from the other kids, and Benedryl followed, with the conclusion that the bees are officially out (they start stinging from about now until November) and there will be no more sugary treats outside!

Finally!

We have been going to Club Rock- a worship service for kids and parents and at neighbor's church- for about a year now. Last night was the first one of the summer. The way they teach at Club Rock is mostly through drama skits, and the music is way-cool.
So last night was the fall kick-off for Club Rock and the value this month is INITIATIVE: seeing what needs to be done AND doing it. One of the skits was with "Coach Fred" (the pastor of the church comes out in coach gear and gives some sort of monologue about the value relating it to sports). So... many of you know it has long been Elias' dream to get to be on the Club Rock stage...
Coach Fred was talking about how the Colts used to be like 6 and 10 before Coach Dungy came on staff. But that when Coach Dungy came, he saw what needed to be done and did it. He called Ian Miller (another neighbor) up on the stage (the kids all sit on the floor at the stairs of the stage). He said that if he were Coach Dungy, he would say "Ok, I need a new quarterback", and he would get someone like Ian to play quarterback. Then he picked another kid from the crowc (wearing the black shirt in the picture) and said that he would also get a new lineman to protect his new quarterback. Well, as he was talking to the little boy about being a lineman, Elias just decided he wanted to be part of the fun too, so he walked up onto the stage and stood next to Ian. The parents were all giggling.


So you see him standing next to Ian above. Well, then Coach Fred realizes what has happened and he goes over to Elias and says "And then I would need to get a tight end who could score me some touchdowns. Could you score me some touchdowns?" Elias replies sheepishly, "I don't know". Fred says "Well, he doesn't know. But I think he could!" Parents now really giggling.



So then he goes on to explain how he would get a coach for each of these new players and train them up, etc. And that they would eventually become on Superbowl Champions. Elias stays by Ian and listens.

After it was all over they went back to their spots at the bottom on the stairs for the rest of Club Rock. And when Club Rock ended Elias ran to me and hugged me and told me "I am so proud of me for going on the stage!" Needless to say, all I said was "I'm so proud of you too!" And so he had his day on the Club Rock stage- Finally!

Pictures courtesy of Jennie M. (Ian's mom) who was prepared with her camera. She emailed them to me, which is nice because I have been unable to get pics off my camera onto my computer because my computer randomly decided the drivers are no longer there. Ugh!

Jonathan Wyatt

My sister and brother in law delivered their second baby boy today, which makes me an aunt again! His name is Jonathan Wyatt and they will call him Wyatt. He was 4 weeks early, but this was a scheduled c-section from the beginning because of complications that can occur if she goes much further than 36 weeks. He is super cute and I wish I could see him in person! I am posting pics of him and Elena as a newborn below so we can all ooooh and aaaaah over their sweet chubby cheeks!

Elena

Wyatt

A Cure for the Runniness!

No, not the nose kind. Though we are dealing with that too a little this week!

The runniness I refer to is that of the Gerber Pears. Anyone else out there wonder WHY in the world are baby food pears Sooooooooooooooo runny?? Seriously, they manage to make every other fruit a texture that you can at least get a heap on a spoon and into a little mouth, but the pears are in a league of their own! And this isn't a new problem! The pears were runny 4 years ago when Elias was on baby food too!

All that to explain the little experiement Elena and I had this morning. Guess what folks? It is easier and MUCH LESS MESSY to slurp your pears through a straw! It is like her very own "my first smoothie"! Aren't we hip?

Added plus- as you can see from the pictures, slurping sludge is MUCH fun for a 13 month old!

Wrapped

You know what they say about little girls and Daddies, right? About being wrapped around her little finger?

Elena: "Daddy, can I have the keys to my very own brand new Mustang?"

Daddy: "Ok, sweetie"

Nobody panic- it's only a joke. We did not, I repeat- did NOT- buy a red mustang! :)