unfettered slumber
for months, the turkey has been keeping his pull-ups dry through the night. we’ve told him that he’s ready to ditch them but he hasn’t had the confidence… until last night. my precious boy is now wearing und!3s around the clock!
i’ve been trying to teach the turkey buttons for a while now but he hasn’t had the inclination. yesterday, over the weekend, the sequel was playing with daddy’s buttons while brushing teeth and he totally figured it out. that got big brother interested so, yesterday, we got out the button straps that i had made for the busy board that i never assembled and they both worked on them on and off all day. the turkey finally figured it out. this morning, both boys wanted to wear button shirts. the sequel lost interest after the first one but the turkey managed to button the entire shirt by himself! after bathing in watermelon juice this afternoon, he also unbuttoned the whole thing on his own.
in other news, they had their best bike ride ever today. they did about two miles and they both pedaled hard enough to make momma jog the whole time! the sequel asked to take the training wheels off but i told him we’d make daddy cry if we did it while he’s out of town.
for months, the turkey has been keeping his pull-ups dry through the night. we’ve told him that he’s ready to ditch them but he hasn’t had the confidence… until last night. my precious boy is now wearing und!3s around the clock!
it’s been a seriously dreary fall/winter around here. so many foggy, rainy, or cloudy days make for restless boys and a depressed momma. however; whenever we have had the slightest window in the weather, we’ve been going down to the pool to drain some energy and collect some smiles. they’ve both been doing really great but today was exceptional. the turkey has been a mostly self-sufficient swimmer for a while now. he started surfacing for breaths a few months ago and he just took off after that. the sequel has been frighteningly brave for a while now… he’ll just jump out into the water with no announcement and expect one of us to know he’s coming and get him. he has not figured out surfacing for breath yet but he doesn’t panic. he just looks up at us from under the water with complete trust that we’ll get him. i’ve been so concerned about his survival abilities.
while he’s been all about swimming to us, he’s been completely unwilling to swim away from us. instead, he’ll swim from the steps to us and then ask us to take him back to the steps. today, he did something completely new. he started jumping off the wall and swimming to me (about 5-6 feet) and then swimming back to the wall to climb out and do it again. i don’t know what got into him but i was so proud and he was having a blast. and now i feel a lot better about his chances of surviving if he were to somehow fall into a pool without us noticing right away.
we were at the zoo with some friends today. in the past, the mom has shown that she is not a fan of going into the aviary and having the birds flying around her. today, when the boys said they wanted to head over to the birds, she made a sarcastic comment. the turkey looked at her in all earnestness and said “miss m, can you be brave? i’m brave and i can help you.” it was hilarious that he would even think to say something like that and also completely precious that he would think to say something like that.
the turkey is officially a big-boy-bike rider. i finally convinced the hubby to remove the training wheels from his pedal bike yesterday and the turkey cried and whined for the entire twenty minutes of training and riding. he didn’t care at all that we were so incredibly proud of him because after only about five minutes of “training,” he was up and going. today, we dragged him out again and he whined all the way from the car to the park but within minutes of going, he was smiling ear to ear and biking fast enough that we had to truly run to keep up with him. and so, just like that, he is a bike rider and he is loving it.
at lunch, the turkey asked his grandmother if she was having a good day. she said she wasn’t because her leg was hurting her. the turkey’s response was to bow his head and say a prayer for his grandmother. i’m so glad i was able to witness such a beautiful moment.
i almost missed the whole exchange because i was so absorbed in twc’s coverage of the hurricane barreling down on our home. a slight shift to the east at the last minute spared us from the brunt of the storm’s damage. we were so fortunate but i’m heartsick for all of those who ended up in those crosshairs that we thought were trained on us.
on monday, friends we haven’t seen in a very long time came over to swim. it was the girl the turkey plans to marry and her older sister. since we haven’t seen much of them this year, this was the first time he filled her and her mommy in on his plans to wed her. her mom was as amused as we were. this morning, we ran into them again at the monthly hd kids workshop and we had a great time together. this evening, i received a voicemail from the mom saying that her girls were arguing over who was going to marry my turkey. apparently, the younger girl settled the argument by saying “well turkey gets to decide and he chose me!” verily, i am amused.
i wonder if i should tell them all that i already picked my best friend’s little girl to be my future daughter-in-law when i first got pregnant with him.
we have had some major breakthroughs on the swimming front over the last month. the turkey is now swimming under the water like a little fish. he’s swimming all around the steps and out-and-back between us and the steps for a good 10-15 feet. today, for the first time, he started popping up to take a breath of air in the middle of his swimming. he’ll be going the whole distance before we know it.
the sequel was doing great but has become more cautious in the last few weeks which has led to a bit of a regression. today, however, he grabbed the kickboard and figured out how to balance himself on it and kick around all by himself. he’ll swim between us and the steps up to 5 feet but he’s not as eager about it as he used to be.
the turkey talks a lot about his future as a family man. he tells us all about his plans of marrying charlotte, how they’re going to have a house far away, how they’ll sleep in the same bedroom, how they’re going to have twenty… yes, TWENTY, “itty-bitties,” how he’s going to talk to her belly and the itty-bitties will kick his face. we think it’s hilarious listening to all of his plans (and hope it’s normal).
today, i asked him if his friend hannah was in sunday school and he proceeded to tell us that she was and that he sat next to her because she’s his 3rd girlfriend. when i inquired about his others, his response was “ms kyla is my oneth girlfriend, my twoth girlfriend is kaitlin, hannah is my third, and my fifth girlfriend is ms robin.”
so many things to be amused by here… the fact that he has a list, his creative numbering even though he knows ordinal numbers just fine, that he skipped four, that #3 and #5 are daughter and mother, that his frequently projected wife didn’t make the list. we couldn’t stop laughing.
The boys have been making giant strides in the pool this week. They are both diving diving under to get pool toys, first couple steps for the sequel and up to 3.5 feet for the turkey. This is huge for the turkey who has a generally cautious personality. He’s also started swimming back and forth across the steps. The sequel, on the other hand, is completely fearless. He’ll jump into the deep and just float under the surface staring up at us with complete trust that we’ll get him.
over the last few weeks, the boys’ favorite play has been “worship service.” they have lego pieces they’ve declared to be microphones (although we accidentally left those in AL this week so we’ve had to make new ones) and they get up on the trampoline, plug in their mics, and ask if we’re all ready for the service. then they joyfully jump up and down while singing (read: shouting) “power in the name of jesus” or “what a beautiful name it is.” they raise their hands and get all into it. the turkey has even started taking a break between songs to bow his head and say a prayer.
every time i feel like we’re completely failing at this parenting stuff, they do something to make me think we can’t be messing up too badly.
the turkey really pedaled his tricycle for the first time today. he had a major meltdown about it but he did it and he was able to pedal himself around for quite a while before we finally gave into the tantrum and let him go back to his balance bike. he might not have been too happy about it but hubby and i were very excited and encouraging. if he can get the pedaling piece down, i think he’ll be ready for a real big boy bike.
meanwhile, the sequel decided this week that he’s a bike-rider too. he’s been riding his little mini balance trike all over the place. he’s turning and steering and doing so great. he also started driving brother’s cozy coupe car today. he’s been able to make it go backward for a while now but today was the first time he was able to flinstone it forward. these boys are growing so fast!
the turkey is doing really well with reading and he’s starting to grasp really important math concepts. he overwhelms me with his effervescent joy. an infectious light just shines from him. don’t get me wrong; he’s no angel. we still have lots of attitude regarding sharing and brother getting attention but, the majority of the time, he’s just full of joy. his laugh is the sound that i imagine fills heaven.
the sequel is able to jump both feet off the floor and hold his own weight while swinging. he is insanely affectionate. he’s got three teeth coming in right now so he’s crankier than normal but he also wants extra snuggles when he wakes up and it’s just so sweet. he scoops up both his lovies, his blanky, and his glow-friend (emptying the bed) and hops into my arms. when i ask him if he is ready to get up yet, he says “no. i snuggling.” and his voice just kills me.
i am constantly amazed at the blessings the Lord gives me.
the sequel is officially weaned. it’s very sad but it was time. he didn’t even notice the first couple nights. and then he woke up one morning, snuggled up to me, and asked for milk. i think it was just a comfort measure because he was sick. i will miss this phase of motherhood tremendously!
sometimes i think it would be nice to have some family nearby. my sissy, BIL, and niece are visiting this week and the boys are absolutely loving it. the sequel just keeps going around shouting “auntie*, auntie, auntie!” at dinner the other night, the turkey asked “aunt auntie*, do you have Jesus in your heart?” completely out of the blue. she, of course, said she does and asked what about him to which he replied “yes, i do! right here *pointing to chest*!” moments like that, i don’t think we’re messing things up too bad with our parenting. it has been wonderful having the aunt, uncle, and cousin here all week though. we’ve had dinners together every night and we’ve played and gone to playgrounds and just loved loving on family. i’m seriously of the opinion that they should just go ahead and move here.
*”auntie” used in place of actual name to protect the innocent
and, speaking of heart-melting moments, the turkey got me yesterday when i said “you are my favoritest love-monkey ever!” and he smiled at me and said “mommy, that makes me so happy!!!”