...the keys to our new house that is.  We closed on it yesterday.  So, we now have the house keys and garage door openers in our possession and so WOOOHOOO!

 

Here is a pic of the outside (at fall or so) that I downloaded from the realty websites.  Hope to post more later but I must get back to cleaning because we have a showing here right after nap time.

....for CFHusband (a link to his blog is on the left).  I don't know these people, but they are in the midst of some BIG stuff!!  Two of my blogging friends alerted me to the site and I have been hooked on the story unfolding ever since.  If you choose to read it make sure you have Kleenex handy.  But, it is a beautiful story of God at work doing amazing things and people who have huge faith and are dealing with tremendous stuff.  Since prayer is powerful, join me in prayer on behalf of this family. 

I am not exactly sure were the time has gone since my last post.  I have actually thought a lot about writing many different things.  (Sound effect) Puhhhhhhhhhhh. 

 

Let's see how many random thoughts I can fit into this one entry. 

 

 Tyler and Beth are starting to play well together.  Well, just playing together at all is really nice.  Tyler is the one that gets Beth laughing the hardest and the longest....we're talking belly laughs!  With that comes a new dynamic for sibling rivalry.  Tyler is not always willing to share his toys.  Lot's of crying and yelling when he is upset about the situation or running away from us when he realizes he has been caught toy snatching.  Beth has been watching him play with stuff for 14 long months and now she has decided to try those very same toys too.  She is not always willing to share or wait for her turn.  Usually this involves high pitched screaming and belly flopping on the floor.  So when things are going well, I could sit and watch my kids for hours. 

 

 

 If Tyler is a "Teddy kid", then Beth is totally a "Blanket kid" (she calls her blanket a "bebe")

 If she needs a moment of comfort or just a 30 sec. break to regroup, she cuddles with her blanket, sucks her thumb, and her world is right again. 

*A minor disclaimer to Tyler as the "Teddy kid" is that about 1 wk ago, Tyler had a stomach thing and vomitted off and on for about 12 hr.  Teddy took a huge hit, and because I have had to wash him multiple time and some smell remains no matter what.....Tyler wants nothing to do with him and is onto other bears/animals/dolls. 

 

  Fishie crackers....not my favorite food in the world.  My kids eat a lot of them because they are quick, easy, colorful, can go anywhere, and they like 'em.  But even though I am not so crazy about them, I eat one or two now and then.....it seems to have the allure of being the fountain of youth.  (Of course I know better, but hey, it is fun.)

 

 Beth is finally walking behind her hippo pushie thingie.  I hope to get a pic of that soon.  She is funny about it though because she loves to walk....begs for it all the time "Waahhh, Waahhh"  (sounds a lot like a frog croaking) but she will never let go or go one handed...eventhough she is fast and showing a lot of stability....all in her own time....I know.  And she loves to climb up our steps when we get home and use the stool in Tyler's room to climb on his bed, hold on to his side rail and bounce up and down and twist and dance.  Now that's my Dancin' Girl!    Daddy calls her Adventurous.

 

  Currently everyone in Beth's world is "Daddy".  Even Grandpa this past Sunday is "Daddy."  She has a sense of humor with it because most of us won't get her to say anything else.Tyler can sometimes get her to say "Mommy."  She will even wait until she senses that we have given up and then finally say "Mommy" and follow it up with a giant grin. 

 

  Right now, Tyler is laying in my bed "relaxing and I will just think."  It is a long story, but he is not sleeping for this nap due to his excitment that the babysitter is coming "soon".  This arrangement is our compromise so that I can finish typing this entry (as we are now in the same room) and get a few other things done around the house during "nap time"....yet this is a time (of which there are many) when I wonder how his mind works/is wired.  I am constantly being amazed by him....like on Thurs., I took the kids to a local mall.  Usually I have a small group that I go to but it wasn't meeting last week and it was a day that Nathan was going to be out very late....so I saw the writing on the wall and a to-do-list getting longer and declared that that morning was to be fun, to be out of the house, and to check a few things off the list....the mall it is then.  This particular mall has a carosel that Tyler loves to watch and tries to ride on everytime he sees it.  I had to remind him yet again that it is a special treat to ride it so we can't go on it every time we go to this mall.  Yada Yada.  Same old conversation with him, all is going well, I'm checking things off the list, but ya know I did declare this to be a fun morning so let's do it one time.    Tyler and Beth and I all climbed on.  We rode a chair part that tilted back and forth while the rest of the carosel spun in circles.  We are smiling and talking and at one point Tyler looks about 3/4 up to the ceiling and says, "Thank you God for this special day, and thank you that we got to ride this carosel.  Amen."  (may not quite be word for word, but close because it has been 4 days ago now.)  Man, my heart about jumped out of my chest.  So, of course I told him that was a great prayer....and a bunch of other things before we got off the carosel....but really I wonder about his mind and heart and wonder about all the connections he is making about the world around him.  Simply amazing.    (Heck, once Beth starts talking there with be two little tykes to make my heart jump.  For those parents with more kids than 2, or parents of older kids...How do you even keep your heart in your chest at all!?!?!)

I must confess that I think about this a lot.  Actually, this thought is based upon the book When I am Old I Shall Wear Purple.  I have never read it but I have heard about it.  And then there all the fine Red Hatters out there that run around town in their finest purple garb and fancy red hats. 

 

But maybe I should fill you in on a little background....sometime in the junior high/senior high phase of my life, I made a vow to never wear pink...to actually despise it for all its stereotypical girliness and implied weakness.  I also found it ironic that in Europe baby boys are associated with pink and baby girls are associated with blue.  Great!..my favorite color is royal blue.  And so, I have been pretty successfully at avoiding pink clothing and other personal accessories until I was pregnant with Tyler.  While pregnant, Nathan bought me a pink maternity sweatshirt for some special occasion (probably my birthday) and the saved the receipt for me because I may want to take it back for a different color or size.  There are a few more oozie-goozie details to this story that I don't need to bore you with but I never took the sweatshirt back.  I instead wore it with some small amount of pride because Nathan had taken the time to try to buy me some "Hot Momma" clothes.  (That is what we tried to dub my maternity wardrobe.)  Well, the more I wore it, the more I liked it.   And then my emotions toward pink remained dormant for a while until I held Beth in my arms for the first time....the hospital had her wrapped in a pink blanket and she wore a pink and purple stocking cap....dang she was cute....and then people gave us pink blankets and pink outfits as baby gifts....and pretty soon I was surrounded by pink....it was fun and pretty and sweet and EVERYWHERE!  (That Christmas ('06) I even got two pair of flannel pants that were both PINK.  COOL.)

 

And so, to this day I am proud to say that I like pink.  I think about this phenomenon a lot so I just thought you might wanna know.    This life is one funkyjourney so why not discuss this stuff. 

 

 

Tyler has an imagination that keeps me on my toes.  I think that he gets some of it from Nathan, because when the two of them play together is is so lovely that all I can do is sit back....say nothing....and smile. 

 

The two of them built a snowman:

 

Tyler watched TV while sailing in a boat:

 

They play "David and Goliath" together.

(Sorry no pic yet)

 

And, Tyler is a lion in its nest.  Yes....that is a lion in its nest:

 

Beth can be found (when not attempting to keep up with her brother) paging over and over in one of her books...or "boo" (that is book without the K) as she calls it:

 

Well, Beth has a tip for you: Spaghetti Facial and Hair Treatment. 

 

She has tried it out and swears by it for a tried and true relaxation technique.  Check it out. 

 

 

Yeppers.  It is true.  She has really demonstrated that she will not be rushed....that she will do things her own way and her own time and all is well, just let her do her thing.  When will Mommy get this!?!?   She finally sits up in her crib and sometimes even stands to greet us when we go to get her up from a nap or in the morning.  (Tyler did this at about 10mo. and then walked at 12 mo.) 

 

At church on Sun., the nursery workers commented on how Beth pushed this car thing around the room while she walked for almost the whole time (1.5hr) ...laughing and smiling.  I was shocked.  She will walk for us if we force it at home....eventually she laughs too, but for such a long stretch....unheard of at home. So I have spent these last couple of days giving her a chance to walk anytime I think of it....and you betcha, she finally loves it (she is 14mo. today)....only to really want to push the highchair around....not the hippo thing as is the intention, but I will give her credit that it may move a little to quickly for her still.  She needs more restistance to improve upon her current skills. 

....and it was a good one.  Quite relaxing actually.  Family.  Good food.  And one boy who is so in love with it all that he told me this morning that I can't take down the Christmas tree because it is still Christmas time.  No matter what I said....he didn't care.  This from the boy who before Christmas practiced giving and getting gifts by wrapping his trucks up in towels and then after Christmas continued the game with other toys, boxes and blankets.  He even wrapped himself up in a blanket at one point.  He is one party animal!!!

 

Here is the party animal himself with his new favorite toy that made its way here from Florida.  For the first 3 days or so, it went everywhere with him and he even slept with it. 

 

Here is one tired girl.  She loves fun, but really loves her blanket more.