Quinn,
You love to say crazy made up words, or even just "try out" new words that you hear and aren't quite sure how to use yet. For example, you say something yummy is "Scrumdelicious". And the other day you were trying out the word "suffice" in a sentence. I finally figured out that you heard that word in a recent library book we had been reading, the mom says, "I've said it once. I've said it twice. To speak again, would not not suffice!" So you started proclaiming this line in random places like the grocery store or at the YMCA, always cracking me up and making me so proud of your quickly growing vocabulary.
You have repetitive bad dreams about .... skunks! I think these come from an incident this summer at Grandma and Grandpa's house where Ozark got sprayed by a skunk and then ran through their house at about midnight waking everyone up with the worst smell you can imagine.
Sometimes your prayers bring us to tears. Like this one:
Dear God,
Thank you for all of Your creation. Please take away all the coughs and sickness from our family. Take care of Chrissy and all my friends. Take away our sin and help keep us away from bad things. Amen.
I've been teaching you the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes I sing it to you and you listen quietly and then say "That was beautiful Momma."
This week you had lice. LICE! Turns out 4 kids at preschool also had it. It was a rough start to our week. But as I sat with you for hours, combing out your hair piece-by-piece, I was reminded that God knows every hair on your head. In the Message translation of Luke 12:7 it says, "And He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail- even numbering the hairs on your head!" What an amazing truth to remember. I want to love you like that too. My hope-filled labor.
During that lice debacle you said some funny things.
-"The Mommy lice teach their babies to suck my blood... that's not very nice."
-"Mom! There was a spider on my head. But then she jumped off. But I think it was a nice spider because she wanted to eat the eggs. And the bugs that are in my hair. So I think she was a nice spider. She must have seen an egg but then she jumped off."
You and your brother are so sweet together. You love each other so much and are truly best friends. I hope that will last forever. A few weeks ago when we were walking up to communion, I was holding Sawyer and he said "down" and then ran up to you to hold your hand for communion. Sawyer said "amen" in his sweet voice after I served him communion and you said "thanks be to God".
Sawyer,
That last one was for you too. You love your sister so much. Every night at bedtime you say to me: "Goodnight Quinn?" and sign for hug (fist at neck) or kiss (finger tips to mouth). I let you down off my lap and you run to give Quinn a hug and kiss goodnight, sometimes several. Or sometimes it's a tackle hug that turns into lots of giggling. It is the sweetest thing for my heart to see the love that you both share with each other.
It's been a big week for us too. I officially weaned you this week! March 1st was our last time nursing. I have mixed emotions but it seems like the right time for us. It's gone better then I expected, so I guess it was the right time. I've been intentionally slowing it down for a while down, cutting back to just that special time at night before bed, even though you still asked to nurse every single day at nap time. Now I just say "Mommy's milk is all gone. And you are a big boy now!" I never intended to nurse you for almost 2.5 years, but that is what worked for us. It was a blessing and a wonderful time to bond and snuggle with you. You've been my baby for so long. You are such a sweet boy, so loving. I know we will still cuddle at night, as you are still obsessed with my hair. You have formed a similar attachment to Grandma Kim (Nay-Nay as you call her). We are also potty training this weekend! So far it's going really well. Another area that seemed to be the right time.
And you are talking more! Even starting to put together some sentences. "More ride choo-choo at the zoo!?" You are still obsessed with trains but also love all construction vehicles. I am excited for the months ahead when I can take you to watch our house being built. You are also surprisingly particular. It's surprising because Quinn never had attachments to toys, blankets, preferences on the color of plate she used, how her bread was cut, etc. You are obsessed with BLUE. You always ask for a blue plate, spoon, fork, bowl... and if blue is dirty I have to talk you off a ledge or compromise: "Look Sawyer, I only have a yellow spoon clean BUT you can have a BLUE BOWL!!!" You only want to read train books or books with a train on at least one of the pages. So now I know which non-train books have illustrations of a kid's bedroom with a toy train on the shelf (Jessi Bear) or a train that appears transporting berries for two pages (Jamberry). It has been fun to look at the library for more train books to read to you. I never checked out books at the library for Quinn because we have so many and she loves ALL of them. But Mommy gets a little bored reading the same 5 "Choo-choo" books to you over and over again, twice a day. You are also a creature of habit at bed time. Nightlight on for rocking, off once you are in bed. You scream if I forget and leave it on. No blankets, toys, or stuffed animals in the crib with you, so we've kept a space heater in all winter. Sing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Twinkle Twinkle"- except for one time you randomly asked for "Hey Jude". You always want me to read the prayer book (after your choo-choo books of course) that Quinn got from JW at her dedication. You always have to give Quinn and Daddy hugs and kisses good night. And when you finally say goodnight to me, as I lay you in your crib, you say "Goodnight Mama" and I say "Goodnight Sawyer" to which you say "NO... goodnight Mama" to which I reply "Oooook, goodnight Mama".
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We are so blessed to have the community we have at JW, specifically in our Corpus Group. We all sit together up in the balcony at the 9AM service. We hug and chat and hold each others babies. We listen to the sermon and give a knowing grin as one or two of us get called down by flashing numbers on the screen to pick up a child who couldn't quiet make it through the service. At communion we collect our children (all 14 of you, as of now) from various Kid's Community rooms and find our way to the foyer where we weave our way into communion lines that look more like a mini mosh pit as our little ones all crowd together in the center of the aisle to hold each others hands. Then we split off into families to receive the bread and juice, and for a moment embrace the sacredness of the sacrament of our faith in Jesus, trying to pass on that glorious mystery to you, our children. Then we head back up to the balcony, sometimes sitting in different places and keeping an eye on each other's children as you sit with each other, or run playfully across the walkway, or dance to the music, or watch the musicians play. Then we stand to receive the benediction, which is usually the prayer I spoke over you each night for so long- "may God bless you and keep you..." Then we all hold hand together to sing the closing song. It is a beautiful chaos.
