I’m having a little trouble with Zion getting older.  Nobody checked with me to make sure it was ok.  I’m not so sure it is.  His legs keep stretching longer, his face is thinning out, he is spouting out new words and new teeth right and left and I never agreed to all this.  He’s my baby.  What does he think he is doing, growing up??

I am extremely partial to his cheeks.  I love their baby-ness.  And kissing the bottoms of his feet as he is lying on his back drinking his bottle.  And hearing his belly laugh when I tickle his sweet little soft tummy.  And smoothing the blond curls on the back of his head that are just so sweet and precious.  

He hit that extremely helpful 18-month mark a bit ago (I’m refusing to think exactly how long ago) where, as has been the pattern with each of my children, he sleeps much more soundly and isn’t woken up with teeny noises that permeate the sound barrier of a whirring fan that sits beside his bed.  He even sleeps all the way through the night some nights, although not every night.  I don’t have to take him out of his crib any more to give him his drink in the middle of the night though.  Now I just hand him the bottle and he lays right back down.  No more rocking in the chair with his head against my chin, happily sniffing his sweet soft baby hair.  

He brings me diapers when he wants a change.  And sped to the bathroom and over to the toilet when I asked him if he went potty, but then he got a little confused about what was supposed to happen next and quickly lost interest.  He understands so much.  He can go get in his seat in the mini-van all by himself.  He is so affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses.  He is pretty compliant, and responds fairly easily to the word “no”.

It almost makes me cry to think about him leaving this stage.  I’m not sure when I turned so sentimental but I just can’t help myself.  

Lately Gabe and Israel have invented a new contraction.  ”Amn’t.”  As in, “You are being too noisy!!”  ”No I amn’t.”    I actually think that Israel started using it first, and then Gabe picked it right up.  

Gabe pronounces “invisible” as “invincible”.  Lol.  It just makes me grin really widely whenever he says it.  ”Mommy, I’m going to go behind the bushes and then I’ll be invincible!!  See?!  I’m invincible!!”  I haven’t bothered to correct him yet.  I’m just enjoying the word choice for a bit.  

Although the two of them look awfully happy here, lately they have been squabbling more.  But I’ll just act like they aren’t and post a nice picture of them hugging.  :)

There now.  Doesn’t that just give you a warm fuzzy?  

Two weeks after coming back from seeing their Granddaddy and Grandma, lucky travelers Gabe and Israel got to go camping with their good buddy Jeremiah and his parents.  The boys could not WAIT to go, and counted down the days to camping SO impatiently.  

We went to join the party late Saturday afternoon for supper.  The boys had fallen asleep around 11:30 PM and then woke up about 6:30 AM.  So…they were a mite worn out.  Israel fell asleep in his chair before supper.  

Gabe had to go take some “essential” rest breaks with that oh-so-exciting electronic Leapster.

It was a beautiful night and it made me want to go camping myself.  

Grubby Buddy was thrilled to join the party belatedly.

After a walk to the water and some good long campfire chats, we rolled back home with some happily exhausted boys in tow, stuffed to the gills with roasted marshmallows.    Yaaay for camping!  Thanks Courtney and Amanda!!

“!!!!  I saw a green car!!  Green’s my fav’ color.  Yeah.  It’s my fav’ color.  And Gabe’s fav’ color is orange.”

I hear over and over and over throughout the day – “Mommy, I love you. Mom, I love you.  I sure do love you, Mom.”  Over and over and over.   We also have this conversation: 

Israel: “Mommy, I love you, too.”

Mommy:  ”I love you too, dude.”

Israel: “No, no you don’t.  No.  You love me, and I love you too.”

This is Israel showing me how “schong” (strong) he is.

“I’m a schong boy, ‘wite Mom?”  ”Right dude.”  ”Yeah, I’m schong.  And I’m a big boy!!  My bottom is growing (! lol!) , and my feet are growing…’wite Mom?  ’Wite, Mom?” “Right, dude.  You are growing and growing.”

Lest one be too overwhelmed by all the sweetness factor, I must balance out Israel-life with this photo:

Which we experience much of.  But honestly, less than we used to.  We grabbed him one night at church while we were praying and had some people pray over him, and I actually have seen a change in him starting then.  It’s so good to see some improvement after over nine months of sheer overwhelmed frustration – on both the part of Israel and his parents.  

We had some super strong winds around here lately that apparently ended up blowing some baby robins out of the nest prematurely, because we saw multiple robin babies hopping around in our yard the next day.  The boys in the family had to check one out up close and personal.  

My friend Emily came to visit this past weekend.  We all just love Emily around here.  Gabe was so excited about her coming.  

“Mom?” he asked. “Do you think that she got our message that I thought that she was very pretty?”  I assured him that I believed she had, that I had faithfully relayed that message.  

“When Emily gets here, I’m going to gather up a lot of flowers for her,” he told me.  He also asked, “Mom?  Are you going to bake a cake for Emily?  I think that that would be a great idea!!”

“Mom,” he informed me, “Emily is your friend, but we can all love her too.”  

While he was helping clean up the playroom, he sat thoughtfully for a few minutes and then said, “Mom!  I have a great idea!  What if I would build a machine (and Dad would help a little, too) that would have a whole bunch of arms that could come out and then it could pick up all the toys and could clean for us?!”  I thought that was an excellent plan.  He excitedly told me that he was going to go draw one right away, but I thought maybe that he could wait until after the playroom was clean.  

Emily wasn’t planning to come until late Friday evening, after the boys were in bed.  Gabe could hardly get to sleep, what for looking out the window to see if she was coming.   After calling me into his room to talk about her arrival time yet again, he suddenly exclaimed with great distress, “Oh no!!  I forgot to draw a picture for her!!”  He begged to be allowed to draw his picture, so I put his paper and crayons up into his bed to let him work.  When he was done, he called me back in and pleaded with me to wake him up when she arrived so that he could give her the picture he had drawn.  I finally agreed, and he went right to sleep.  I couldn’t wake him up enough when Emily arrived, however, so the picture waited until the morning.  

Sweet Gabe.

Tim and I had a great time during our “breather” mentioned in my last post.  I had been praying for the ability for us to be able to get-away SOMEHOW despite our limited budget, and our Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon really felt like that get-away I had been longing for.  We were able to catch up on talking and talking and even got to go out on Saturday after finding a babysitter for Zion and took a Restaurant.com coupon (thanks for the tip, Melissa) to an Indian restaurant where we had a smashing good time.  :)  

It was just the perfect length of time – one more night and I was going to feel lonesome for my kiddos.  Thanks sooooo much Carl and Sue and Mom and Dad!!!!

I sure do love you, babe.  

I’m having a breather right now.   Some friends, Carl and Sue C.,  who were going to VA for a brief trip, took Gabe and Israel along with them so that they could stay with their grandma for a few nights and have a GREAT time and Mommy could have a GREAT time on what feels like a mini-vacation.  

Zion cried and cried when we left the boys, but he’s been perking around here just fine.  He laughed with happiness when he saw pictures of them running through as a screensaver on the computer today, though.  

It truly feels like a mini-vacation.  Personally, I am somewhat amazed at how much easier it is to clean up around here.  Things stay where you put them.  Well, unless Zion finds them.  He’s somewhat of a force of nature to reckon with himself, but not in comparison.

The boys traveled well, from what I heard.  Gabe needed Mom to call me after she picked them up at the meeting point to make sure that I had packed his “brown boots” (hand-me-down high top leather shoes with velcro straps) that he is convinced “make him run faster and jump higher” (as we have been told before).  Which I had.  Israel hummed around on his bed for a while the first night, having slept on the way down, but Gabe conked out like a light.  Mom couldn’t believe how much Israel tossed and turned (the boys are sleeping on an air mattress in Mom and Dad’s bedroom so they won’t get scared) compared to Gabe who didn’t move hardly at all.  This morning Gabe thought that Mom needed to send me a picture of him with Maddie (the dog) so that I could see that.  Gabe hesitated to play on the swingset at first because he was worried about “the bears”.  Mom reassured him that there were not any bears.  

  Goose eggs.  Sure do love those critters.  

Here’s my other critter that’s keeping me company.  And who likes him a good circus peanut.

In other, entirely unrelated news, my long-awaited, much anticipated irises out by the back steps are blooming.  

So are my rose buses.  Ahhhhhh.  Happy sigh.  I’ve had to do a lot of flower-protecting this year; Zion has busily pruned much of my irises already.  As did an accidental mower swipe from Tim. Well, there’s always next year.

Our neighbor Barry gave the boys some money the other night to go get ice cream at McDonald’s.  Sluuuurrrpp!!  Drip!!  Crunch!!!

The previously mentioned kitty baby survived the night and was carefully placed in the hands of the SPCA the next day, as per my Facebook update “where Tim won’t sneeze over it and Chloe won’t traumatically tear it to pieces”.  I found myself REALLY missing it the next day though.    I think it was actually younger than I had thought – probably about 2 weeks old.  It really loved it’s human mommy-for-a-day; it would tuck right under my chin and go straight to sleep.  I miss cats……   Gabe and Israel really missed him too and kept wondering when we were going to go pick up the kitty.  Israel kept cracking me up when I was carrying the kitten around.  He would say, “Mommy, why you got the mouse?” or, “Where is the bunny?”  Gabe was really good with him and gentle.

Gabe: Mommy, why are you always getting your hair cut?

Me: To keep it looking nice.

Gabe: But Mommy, I like it better with your hair scrolled down.

Me: (struggling to keep a straight face) Do you mean long?

Gabe: Yeah. I like it better scrolled down.

Me: Well, maybe I can grow it long again for you. Would you like that?

Gabe: (nodding very seriously) Yeah. (runs off to play)