Last Month's Birthdays

Well, I haven't completely given up the blog yet. This has been a good place to chronicle our children's growing up. Two of my favorite young men had birthdays last month, and I want to take time to honor them here.

R turned 12 in November. On his birthday, we remembered how hairy he was as a baby. We were thankful that he wasn't in the hospital this year (he had surgery to remove part of his mastoid bone two years ago). We were also glad he hadn't had any broken bones or stitches this past year!

R is the son who keeps things light around here. One of his gifts is being able to include EVERYone in whatever fun he thinks they ought to be having. He tells the funniest stories, has an amazing vocabulary, and his love language is still punching. (Family joke; truly, though, he loves to be punched and to have his back scratched.) This past year he taught himself to play guitar and he learned a bit of ballroom dancing. (Look for the slight young man wearing a tie with flair!) He had his first season on swim team (which he enjoyed mostly for the social aspect!). Our avid reader continues to devour hundreds of pages at a time and he will happily chat your ear off on about any topic (he's well versed in a variety of subjects thanks to all that reading!). If he gets in trouble, it's usually for talking instead of working. He is extremely happy to have a friend who lives in our neighborhood and would spend every day with friends if he could (or maybe watching football- or BOTH!). Our R is absolutely a delight to us. He can cause me to feel a level of crazy I'm not comfortable with... but he also adds color and joy to my life. Love him!

G turned 3 in November. I love 3 year olds. They say the funniest things! When I read to G and there are animals on the pages, he often asks me to stop reading and tell him WHO the animals are. For awhile, I was confused by this. Now, I understand that when there are two animals, I am the bigger animal and the smaller animal is always G. He also uses pronouns incorrectly, although it's endearing. "Him wants to go outside" would be G speak. Also, "Him wearing his hat." G has a weakness for gum. We know better than to give him a pack as a gift; he eats the entire package at once. And then we find it: on our bed cover, in his hair, on the floor, under his bowl at the table...

For Christmas, G got a new bike. (His old bike had issues with the tires and training wheels.) The boy is ELATED about this bike. He rode circles in the house before we took it outside. He happily took off with a loud, "Weeee-who!" He comes up with all kinds of loud, happy exclamations. Lately, he has even taken to making up songs and singing them to us. (Yesterday he sang about the baby Jesus in the clothes in the manger.) He loves to sit on the counter and help me with everything. Thankfully, he still takes regular naps. He usually gets up from them slowly and still wants lots of snuggles on my lap (which I'm glad for!). He likes for people to lay with him when he goes to bed. I thought he only wanted me because he still likes to put his hand down my shirt (ahhhh!), but apparently anyone's skin will do. And, one night, I found out, that he didn't really want me anyway. He said he wanted Daddy to lay with him. When I asked why Daddy was better than Mommy he said, "Because Daddy shows me funny cat wideos!" (And how can I compete with funny cat videos in bed?!?!) I think we all wish he would stay little and talk with his cute imperfections and need us just a little bit. It may just be me, but I think I detect that we're all in denial that this precious boy is already three.