Nate, let me count the ways I love thee...

I love how he laughs when a bee is chasing him because he thinks the buzzing sound is funny. How he chased the fireworks on the fourth of July with his arms raised in the air. I'm scared at the way he free-falls of the top of the stairs when I stand at the bottom, but I love that he trusts me enough to catch him. He is unafraid of five foot water as he runs to the deep end of the pool to jump in (note: it's incredible difficult to outrun a child who is outside pool while you're still IN the water!) I love the way his imagination works while he plays under the kitchen table and chairs with his matchbox cars. I love how he follows me around the house holding out a book, grunting all the way, until I sit down to read. He squeals with delight when he hears a train whistle. Even how he jumps from couch, to ottoman, to couch with fearless energy, I love it. How I can hear him snoring from the hallway, and sometimes how he still sleeps with his bottom "jacked up" in the air. To watch him dance at the slightest sound of music and claps his hands after every song. How he can look like my husband, brother, uncle and cousin all at the same time. To see him with his beloved green blanket after a long day of play, he says "Mmmm!" with delight while he pushes it against his face. I love that he requires at least 20 hugs, kisses and cuddles everyday. I sure do love my little man Nate!

If we could see what He sees...

In the midst of explaining my thought process to Mae I was able to connect another spiritual truth to parenthood. If we would just trust that God has a plan, a purpose, a reason for the situation we're in He would be able to bless us abundately. Mae is a typical 3-year-old. She wants what she wants, when she wants it, and how she wants it. She KNOWS what SHE wants and she will make a mess of things JUST to get whatever it is she desires. Of course her "messes" usually consist of physical tantrums or spilt paint, but mine are more mental and spiritual. If she could sometimes see and trust that I will grant her request as soon as I do this, or after we do that, she could just relax and know that Mommy's got it all under control (for the moment and with a lot of help, anyway). I find it exhausting to explain myself to Mae, but after the "mess" has been made due to her lack of trust and obedience I am forced to go into detail about what my plan was and how if she would just be patient and wait then whatever it is she wants will be rewarded. After my long and frustrated explaination of how if she had just waited for me to clear the table to make a spot for her "art class" instead of grabbing the open paint bottles from the counter, we would be painting right now instead of cleaning up paint from the floor. I told her that I know what I'm doing and I have a plan, and she just needs to trust me and wait. Without pause I said in a rather "unspiritual" tone, "How's that for spiritual, application?!" I'm not sure if she even understood or if I was the one who learned the lesson.

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Sweet Reminder

Nate's favorite hobby besides playing with trains, cars, and anything with wheels is READING!  He LOVES books.  I'll catch him in his room, after wondering where he is since the house seems oddly quiet and calm, with a pile of books all around him as he sits and "reads" a book.  There are a few books that scare him such as "The monster at the End of the Book" and "Where's Spot?" or anything with peekaboo flaps.  Those are the books in particular he'll bring to us to read.  Sometimes he'll sit in my lap to read those books, but often he'll just watch nervously from a distance.  He'll become upset if I DON'T read the book, so I continue in hopes of him not being so scared of the book anymore.  Most of the time he'll just bring me a book, any book and insist that I stop whatever it is that I'm doing and sit down with him in my lap and read.  I'll be carrying a load of laundry as stands in front of me, almost in protest, and hold a book high for me to take from him.  He WILL not take a book back once it's given away to me.  He'll just stare at me with those big, blue hopeful eyes.  He waits for me to put down whatever is I'm doing and stop for a good read.  It's a sweet reminder of what's important, and how much he longs to spend time with me.  I'm glad he's here to remind me to slow down and take a break, an escape into a book with my little boy is one of my favorite parts of the day.

"Funnies"

I caught myself laughing several times today....

As we were walking out of Target Mae comments, "Look how pretty blue the sky is, Mommy."  I agreed, it was a nice shade of azure.  Her eyes were searching the sky.  "Where's the little man?"  she asked.  It took me a few questions and a little soul-searching to figure out that she was looking for the main character of Pixar's "Up" floating to the sky in his house hitched to balloons.

Nate brings me a new book to read and quickly backs up while he glares at the book in my hands.  Let me preface this by saying that he brings me books often throughout our day.  He'll find me in the laundry room, unloading the dishwasher or feeding the baby a bottle and insist that I stop right then and there to read to him...and I usually do.  But this was different, he didn't come to sit in my lap to hear a story.  He just handed over the book and backed off.  I looked down to see the cover of Grover's "There's a Monster at the End of the Book!".  I read it to him as he watched from a distance, not taking his eyes of that book and his face was completely without expression.  It was the first time I had read it to him, but it was as if he was scared of that book.  Come to find out Jon had read it to him earlier in the week, in a very animated fashion.  I'm thinking of "banning" Sesame Street for a while since Nate runs at the site of Grover and Snuffy and Mae is paranoid about "monsters" coming through the back door.

On our way to meet Jon for dinner Mae asks, "Mommy, are we there yet?"  I reply, "Not yet."  Then she reapeatedly asks, "Now?....Now?....Are we there, are we there, are we there??...How about now?"

"I think I'm going to wash your clothes today, Mae."  I said this morning as I was getting ready to put in the first load of laundry.  Mae replies with this short story:  "No, Mommy.  Let's do Grammie's laundry.  Grammie does laundry.  Grammie does laundry at her house, in her 'bootiful' kitchen!"

Nate is a man of few words, well maybe even only a couple of words.  As he climbs on the dining table he says, in a chanting pattern:  "Nate, No.  No, Nate. Nate, No.  No, No Nate."  I think it's a safe assumption that he realizes he's NOT supposed to be climbing on the table.

Letting Go...

Watching kids play and interact is such an enlightening adventure, you really can learn a lot about basic human nature while standing by as a witness at Pop-In Preschool Playtime at Pump It Up.  We were there just this morning and while most of the other moms were chatting, I was following behind Nate and keeping a close eye on Mae.  Basically, I was one of the only "grown-ups" close enough to see the following scenario: 

A little boy was cruising around in one of those little red coupe cars that just about every preschooler has in the garage at home.  He parked right next to the ramp of the 20-foot inflatable slide and started to get out to climp up its ladder.  Then he spotted Mae who was carefully eying his joy-ride coupe.  He froze immediately and Mae just kept staring, waiting for him to leave the car behind so he could climp up and enjoy the thrill of the slide (which no preschooler I know has at home). She was waiting for a turn in the car (which we have at Grammie and Grampy's house).  The stare-down lasted for few long minutes until the little boy decided it wasn't worth the risk of loosing his Little Tykes ride.  He jumped back in and Mae ran off to find something more interesting (and available) to do. 
A thought crossed my mind (because I think much too deeply sometimes) about how we respond to God's blessings.  Sometimes we don't want to let go of the ordinary in order for Him to grant us the joy of the extraordinary.  We want to hold on to what is comfortable, what we know is safe and under our control.  When God is standing, waiting and probably staring at us wondering when we're going to let go of that so he can bless us beyond our imagination.  It would be impossible for that little boy to have carried that little car up the slide with him, and the ride down would've been painful had he tried to hold onto it if he got to the top.  But to let go and climb up with trust would've created so much more joy than a ride in that little car could ever offer.
During Christmas, I looked closer at Luke's account of  Elizabeth, Zacharias & John the Baptist.  The lack of faith Zacharias had when the angel announced that Elizabeth would deliver a son caused him to remain mute until John the Baptist was 8 days old.

59 So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. 60 His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”

61 But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.

63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66 And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him

I think I'll continue to study God's extrordinary work in ordinary lives.  And how those blessing are contingent upon living "by faith."  Hebrews 11 is a good place to start...