Tidbits

Ezra is 11 months old now. We’ve had several brand new babies at church lately, continually emphasizing the fact that he is a VERY BIG baby. He wears size 18 months clothes – which tend to be a little long in the legs, but just right about the middle. He eats like a teenage boy, it seems – frequently he finishes off Judah’s portion at mealtimes and when he likes something he snarfs it down in no time at all. Today he ate an entire nectarine in less than 3 minutes -\’c3\’82\’c2\~basically as fast as I could peel the quarters and put them on his tray. Now, I don’t think he eats quite so much as Jaeger, but compared to Judah, he really packs it away. Also, he has learned how to climb up stairs, although going down is still a mystery to him. He claps, gives high 5s, and yesterday he lifted up his hands at church during the “Lift up your Hearts!” portion of the liturgy. It almost sounded like he was trying to say “Kitty” yesterday, too, and we’re pretty sure that he says “Daddy” and “Momma” sometimes. When Michael gets home in the evening, he immediately drops what he’s doing and crawls with all speed toward the top of the stairs when he hears Michael’s voice. In fact, yesterday, he crawled to the top of the stairs when he heard Michael talking in the bathroom after he’d been in there getting ready for church – apparently under the impression that he’d been away and was coming back. I’m trying to teach him to sit still and be quiet on my lap during church (by practicing at home) and he’s coming along. Still not quite pew-ready yet, but we were able to sit down in the dining hall where we could hear the sermon for about 20 minutes yesterday.\par
\par
Judah is talking these days. If you give him half an ear he just goes on and on and on. It hasn’t really gotten too irritating yet, but it probably won’t be long. I suppose I’m just not very nice and not at all opposed to interrupting him midstream if necessary. This morning I was talking to my dad on the phone when the noise of phone beeps alerted me to the fact that the boys were in my bedroom playing with the phone in there. I went in there and asked Judah if he wanted to talk to “Bampa Mite.” He picked up the phone and said “Hi, Bampa Mite!” and when my dad answered he held the phone away, pointed to it,\’c3\’82\’c2\~and told me excitedly “Bampa Mite in ‘ere!” He has Psalm 1 basically memorized, although he keeps trying to shorten it by getting immediately to the “Shall Perish” part, which is his favorite phrase. He says it with gusto and likes to keep trying to insert it after any phrase that mentions the ungodly. He also likes to sing. Some songs that he sings, I don’t even know where he’s heard them, like the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pop Goes the Weasel but he also sings numerous Jamie Soles songs, Up from the Grave He Arose, and If You Like to Talk to Tomatoes. He watched the Veggie Tales Sing-Along Songs the other day where Larry is leading an exercise video bouncing on a trampoline and saying “Squeeze and Jump, Squeeze and Jump.” He was jumping around in the kitchen saying that for a while, and that night I went in to check on him and half woke him up at which point he started repeating “Squeeze and Jump, Squeeze and Jump” in his sleep. He loves to tell Ezra what to do or what not to do “Ehra, you need to obey Mommy!!” and “Don’t throw food, just throw balls!”\par
\par
We’re getting our deck painted soon, hopefully. I went to Home Depot on Thursday and came back with a gallon of Stain to test on the deck. It was way too blue – a yellow blue, not a grey blue, which was a real heartbreaker because it’s non-returnable and dost $30. So today I went down to Home Depot and got the little booklet that has all of the available stain colors for Behr paints, brought them back here, had Michael help me select the right color and then sent HIM to go get the stain. That way he can ask all the right questions and I’m not responsible if it goes wrong again. “There’s always someone higher up where you can pass the buck…”\par
\par
I’m making matching Christmas vests for the boys – as usual the cutting out part takes a lot more time than the sewing part. I haven’t even gotten to the sewing part, which is what I’m looking forward to, as that’s when I get to use my new sewing machine. Hopefully it won’t be too frustrating trying to figure out what I’m doing. And hopefully the vests turn out alright!\par
\par
Oh, and when my mom and dad were here last Thursday night, my dad brought his knife sharpener and sharpened my knives. They are SO MUCH BETTER! It’s like having new knives again! Thanks Dad!\par
\par
Well, that’s all. Sorry for the long post, but sometimes you just have a lot to write!