My Little Guy That is Not so Little Anymore

Sometimes I like to update on the kids and what they are up to at this particular stage.  Christian will be starring in this entry, as I have lots to discuss about his funny antics.  He is currently 4 years old and very active
He is sooo funny and I love the fact that he is starting to be able to tell when others find him funny.  He laughs all the time, and he is always trying to make us laugh.  When he is in trouble, he tries to laugh his way out of trouble.  Sometimes this works, though we try to hide it because we know he needs to learn that he can't laugh his way out of everything in life. 
Christian is really learning a lot at his speech therapy he goes to once a week.  He loves going to his "peach Parody" as he calls it.  He says, "I go to peach parody to learn" and then he flashes you a big smile.  :)  This of course makes us all laugh as we tell him it looks as though he needs to continue to go to peach parody. ;)

He is the easiest child when by himself, and I love the days that Ava is with a grandparent and I have just him.  He is so so sweet and always randomly telling me how pretty I am or how much he loves me.  The other day he looked at me and said, "mommy, you are my family!!" then he flashed me a HUGE smile.  I love that sweet boy.  He is also a snuggler and he loves to climb up in our laps and cuddle and hug and love on us.  He loves "family time" and he loves to play 'sack of taties' with his daddy.  He also loves to play tackle and hut set hike with Daddy.

Christian thinks the world of his sister Ava and he loves to do whatever she is doing.  When she is gone somewhere, he cries and says, "I miss my Ava."  She on the other hand is not always the nicest to him.  She loves him but she is the typical first born older sibling that instigates all the time.  He handles her pretty well though.

One day, Ava was setting up a store displaying their toys, to sell to others.  The funny part was we noticed she had almost all of his toys set up for sale and not too many of her own.  :)  Anyway, she was gathering toys from around the house and talking about selling them and Christian was following her around looking at everything wondering what to do.  Finally, she tried to sell something, and he decided it was enough. He was sitting in the back of his tonka big pick up truck, rolling around, and he said so dramatically., "DON'T sell it, I NEED it!!!"  So sweet.  He is a true pack rat like his mommy. :) 
He is still usually in a good mood when waking up in the morning and he loves his Sunday School Class and his Mom2mom class that he goes to every other week.  He thinks he is in preschool and he gets so excited. When writing his letters of the alphabet, he just writes the letter "H" and the letter "I" over and over and then asks me to read it to him. He is still learning his numbers but getting better at saying the alphabet.  :)
Christian seems to have "physical touch" and "gifts" as his two big love languages.  He is a very grateful child for the gifts he receives and he is quite excitable.  He jumps up and down and exclaims "yayy, thank you thank you!!!" 
Shy he is not. . . . He will talk to anyone and loves on everyone.  He is extremely sensitive and wants to know that everyone likes him and is pleased with him.  He hates feeling as though someone is upset with him, it breaks his little heart. 

Christian loves movies of any type, some of his favorites being, Robots, Wall-e, Peter Pan, and Spirit.  His favorite shows are Calloui and Super Y.  Red is his favorite color for now, with Blue being a close second.   He likes to dance and dress up.  Pancakes and Chocolate Milk are the first things he asks for when waking up in the morning. 
He is extremely bothered by the tags on the backs of his pants and he messes with them until they are cut out.  This looks as though he walks around with his hands down his pants all the time, but it really is the tags. He has finally mastered the fact that he needs a tissue, though he thinks you pick your nose and use the tissue for the boogers, not actually blowing the booger directly into the tissue.  However, this is real progress from eating them. :) 

Well, that is just a little tidbit of who our little man is at age 4.  He is one of the GREATEST blessings in our life and we love him so much.  What a special boy!!!!

Ava's Phone Conversations

Ava has been walking around for literally about 20 minutes with an old cell phone attached to her ear and she has been having a very engrossed conversation with the party on the other end.  Here is some of her side of the conversation.

"Jesus, made everything.  He made the sun and the sky and the dogs and the people. 

I know, he did!!! Isn't that great!!

Jesus opens doors and then closes them but then opens them sometimes again."


Then long pause


"Well the doors are not going to open up.  Nobody can do anything.  Jesus is really good to us, but we are already in the door."

Another pause, as though she was listening to the other party.

"Hello, yeah, sorry.  I lost the phone call.  We are not talking like Jesus, we have his voice, but he is not going to open those doors at all.  Nobody will answer me, but I know Jesus will answer me.  He can make us. . . . ."

I don't know where she gets this stuff, but I love her wise counseling. :)  So funny.

Spring is Coming!!!

I always love the first warm days of the year.  By warm I mean the days you can walk outside and feel the warm sun shining on your face and hang out in a jacket or a long sleeve t-shirt without getting cold.  However, the best part is it isn't hot enough to sweat either.  I love the smells and the chirpy bird sounds. :)

My kids love this too, just as all kids do.  It is the sign of new beginnings and I love to focus on this.  So, the other day was one of the first warm days out and the kids wanted to fly kites, eat a picnic, swing on the swings and ride bikes.  They were so excited and spent most of the day outside.  We happened to be spending the weekend (which sadly may be one of the last for awhile) at my parents current house. . the homestead.  This is such a nice place for the kids to play with out being in too much danger of anything hitting them or hurting them.  They explore, and play and just love life.  I captured a few pics of them playing outside as they packed their own picnic.

Their picnic consisted of carrots, peppers, and dip along with cookies, water, granola bars and candy.

After awhile, I peeked out and this is what I found.  They had sat two lawn chairs up and were lounging just enjoying the weather.  They looked like they were carrying on a great conversation and just enjoying each other.  I love that they have one another to spend time with. Hopefully some day they will love each other the way my little bro and I love each other. :)  Great memories.

Dressing Up to Go Out

Over the past two or three years, Ava has developed her own taste and likes to pick out her own outfits for our outings.  I have gotten frustrated with this because we battle sometimes, but we have kind of found a happy medium.  I also have always thought to myself how great it is that Christian just wears whatever I put on him with NO complaints.  Maybe this is personality or maybe it is boy versus girl, but I have appreciated it just the same.  However, as of recently, this little guy has decided he DOES have an opinion of what to wear.  I tried to nip it in the bud at first, but then decided if I was to let Ava show Independence then I should also allow him to do the same.  

The other night, I let them both get ready for a friends house we were heading to for pizza and to spend the evening visiting.  I allowed them to each pick out their outfits and dress themselves.  This is the lovely outfit our sweet little man brought out.

Yup, P.J.s and Dress shoes.  Isn't that so sweet?

Closer Look.  He was sooo proud of himself.

Valentine's Day Date Night

What do you do when you have two cutie pies in your life and no baby sitters?  Well we think Dinner at Red Robin sounds good!!! The kids love to eat there and we must admit, so do we.  We took them out and Ava sat with her valentine and I sat with mine.  The BEST Valentine dates Ever!!!!

Juggling Joy with J Week

At first, I thought J week was going to be a hard one to do.  I had a hard time figuring out how to teach them to differentiate between the G sound and the J sound that sounded alike.  The English Language is very difficult, but we just worked at it for awhile.  I think they got the idea at least. :)

We cut out and colored the flag of Japan and talked about Japan and our cousins in Missouri that spent time in Japan for a few years.  We talked about how they all slept in the same room and my kids thought this was a great custom and wished we did this in America. :)  It was nice we had spent some time with Sage, Lucas, Kai, and Tio this summer and fall so they could put names and faces with places.  They were very excited about this part of the lesson.

Ava made some Jewelry necklaces out of beads and string.  She always loves to use her beads and this was just another reason to use them.

We also spent time discussing words and feelings like Jealousy and how it can get the best of you and make you do mean things.  To reiterate our point, we watched the animated story of Joseph and the coat of many colors.  This was a great story to show the kids the meaning of jealousy and what it can do.  We also read the story of Joseph and acted it out. 

Some of the foods we ate were jelly toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice, and juice pops.  We also colored pictures of jets and read a book on jets.  Then we colored and cut out pics of jars of jelly. This was a great way to practice their scissor skills.  A few other activities we did were telling jokes, reading a goofy joke book from daddy, jumping jacks, jumping on one foot, and jumping for Jesus.  We talked about Jesus and who he was and what he did for us.

One of my favorite things we did was an activity we found online.  We took a paper bag and cut it into a vest with holes for the head and arms.  Then we decorated our JUNGLE vest and took turns traveling the jungle and searching for made up animals.  This was more fun than I thought it would be and the kids were SOOO funny as they were fighting over who got to wear the jungle vest.  We found Jaguars and jungle monkeys.  Fun game.

Here is a picture of Christian while wearing the JUNGLE vest.  He was soo proud.

They made their own JAVA for their party while daddy and I were drinking our java.  This was just another thing they got a huge kick out of.

For our service, we cut jars out of paper and cut out jelly beans from colored construction paper and then we glued the jelly beans in the jar.  We took a Jar of Jelly Bean to our friend Jodi, who had just had a baby.  We also sent a Jar of Jelly beans to our compassion girl, Jessica Grace.  I think this picture is hilarious as you can see their personalities in this one.  She has been crossing her eyes and making that goofy smile for every picture and Christian smiles till his eyes go closed.

"Two Spaces that are Sick"

This morning, at 5:30, I heard a weird noise and then I heard Ava in a hushed voice, "Christian, Christian, sit up and look at this."  I walked over to tell her to be quiet only to find out Christian had thrown up in her bed.  As I was grabbing him to take him to the bathroom to clean up, Ava, wide awake, was following me while saying, "well, Mommy, I heard this noise and I saw this stuff so I smelled it and it was his frow up and so I was waking him up to tell him that he frowed up and he was already awake."  I was still cleaning a very sad Christian up and checking for his fever and cleaning the bed and blankets and sheets.  She, my lovely daughter, was still talking, saying in her mother goose voice, "Now, Christian, you should have sat up and told mommy you had to frow up.  I frowed up one time in Mommy's room and I had to wake her up to tell her. Remember that mommy?"  Anyway, this pretty much one sided conversation lasted for the remainder of our cleaning up session and then once I got Christian her both back and settled for the night, I was laying their talking to them.  Ava says, "mommy, Christian is sick on his belly and I don't know where he got that sickness, but he just got it.  I am sick on my neck (meaning her throat) and I, well, I have two spaces in my body that are sick.  My neck is worser and then my belly is just some sick, so it is alright.  It is only sick cause of my neck." 

This girl makes me laugh, here I am taking care of them and trying to get them to go back to sleep and she is just talking away.  It took her awhile to get back to sleep.  She makes me smile.   Now, today, the day of the BIG SUPER BOWL, we are home sick.  Two kids with fevers and whining around.  Looks like another day of snuggling and loving is in the cards.

Bed Big Enough for Two

I know I shared back in December, how Ava is now sleeping in her room all night due to a special beloved Pink Christmas tree that her Grandma bought her for Christmas.  This was, as most of us know,  a HUGE feat for our little bean.  She has hated sleeping in her own room since the day we brought her home.  Maybe we were not so smart in allowing her to be in our bed, but to be honest, we didn't really mind so much.  We look at it as those were some of the moments that were sweet and memorable and we will be remembering her sweet legs thrown over us and our covers being ripped off of us, as she is walking down the chapel isle to her hubby to be.  Will we be upset that we allowed her to sleep with us?  NO WAY.  We will be sad that she is heading off into her own life and happy for the memories we have. :)  However, all that said, it is nice to have her in her own room and she seems to get some satisfaction in herself for being able to be a BIG girl and stay in her own room.

Okay, so about two weeks after the famous Christmas tree, Ava's uncle called and had a bed to offer us that was her cousin Garrett's.  He didn't want it and it was a big bed so they thought maybe we would want it.  Grandma Bumbaugh called and she had a Princess bedspread in her attic that would match Ava's room decor perfectly, and so the move and transition was on.  We tore the toddler bed down and then Grandma and Pappy came into to start helping us move the big bed in.  Grandma had washed and freshened up the sheets and comforter and Pappy and Daddy were in the room setting up this HUGE bed.  What a big transitional moment and Ava was anxious, but excited. 

I hate that she has the anxiety that I have always had about new things and change.  However, she was a trooper and allowed our excitement to get her excited.  By the time the bed was up, she had already decided and invited both of her grandparents to come and spend the night with her and. . . the best part. . ...THEY COULD SLEEP IN HER BED WITH HER!!!!   Her words.  :)

So the first night, bedtime arrived and Ava and Christian decided that the bed was big enough for the two of them to sleep in together.  We thought this was a cute idea, and of course take every opportunity we get to encourage sibling bonding, so we said it was fine for Little Man to sleep in her room.  Little did we know at that moment, but a new tradition, one that was never to be broken by free will, started that night.  The kids now sleep in the Bed Big Enough for Two every night.  They lay and talk and laugh and basically put themselves to sleep and they even comfort each other in the night if one of them wakes up with a bad dream. 

One night, Christian fell out of the bed and was on the floor crying.  Little Bean woke up and jumped down to save the day.  She helped him back up into the bed and tucked him in and kissed him and comforted him.  This was a sweet sight to see from the cracked door, where I was not noticed.  So, you see, some changes are not so bad after all.