Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Dax

Today we celebrated Dax's THIRD birthday!  Wow.  Unbelievable.  Time to take a moment to list a few things that we love about our sweet boy.
1.  The way he grabs your face and pulls it to his for a smooch
2.  How he shouts at the top of his lungs from his bed for mommy or poppy to tuck him in
3.  The way his top lip pooches out when he's sleeping (I smooch it over and over!)
4.  How he snores as loud as Macy when he's tired
5.  How he loves to be "the match!!" with Reilly (clothes)
6.  The precious excitement and hugs he gives and gets every morning when his face peeks into the hallway
7.  The fact that he loves to jump.  Jumping in place, on the trampoline, but mostly off of the tallest thing he can climb up.  Sometimes he makes people nervous.
8.  How he loves everyone.  He runs to greet so many people at church with the sweetest squeezes.
9.  His precious funny faces.  He wrinkles up his nose, furrows his brow, then breaks out laughing.
10.  His love for stories.  He loves to hear any story that you want to tell.  Fiction or non.
11.  His unashamed singing.  He sings to himself and has such a happy way about him.
12.  His love for Disney's "Cars".  He adores all things Lightning McQueen and Mater.  He screamed when he opened his present.
13.  How he loves sports, namely, baseball.  He used to wear two mitts to all of Reilly's games.
14.  The way that he will sit in the corner with his cars and books and quietly play for hours.
15.  The bantering we do regularly when we say to each other over and over, "You're the best, you rock!"  He comes back with, "NO, you're the best, you rock!!"
16.  The fact that he can't pronounce the letter "L" or "R".  It's, "I WUV you."  I think I'll say that to him for the rest of his life.  It's the cutest. 
17.  How badly he wants to be a big boy.  If I call him my baby, he always corrects me and tells me, "I'm a big boy!"  I'm trying to use that in potty training...
18.  The charming way he compliments people- mommy, poppa, the kids, and even my friends at church.  I've heard many stories of how he has been stroking someone's head, then just says, "I wike your hair."
19.  The cute way he runs.  So determined, chest out in front, arms dangling behind him with that cute waddle making his hair bob.
20.  How he loves to be dressed up...by the girls in princess dresses!!  (Kurt doesn't think this is all that funny)  He's been seen in a tutu dancing in circles or riding the pink Barbie car.
21.  His love for "Deedee" his blanket.  He's always concerned to find deedee for bedtime.
22.  The most precious, priceless moments are when you're just sitting together and he snuggles up close, and with all sincerity looks right in your eyes and says, "I wike you, mommy."  

Catching Up...

We went to sing with the old folks that live in a nearby retirement home. We had a great time singing carols and playing Bingo!
Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit after Christmas- which means we really had two Christmases! Lots of fun.
Our little happy guy. Always fun to be had around him. Doesn't that face make you smile?
A day trip to Blowing Rock- what a blast. It was absolutely frigid, but we could not forgo the park. Then we had to go get ice cream at Kilwin's.
I know I'm really late posting these...but life is busy. What can I say? I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

Camdyn's Field Trip (Yes, this was last year)

So I've become a HUGE fan of sending a camera to school with my kids on days that they go on field trips. I love the pictures they bring home, and it's always amusing to see what their photo-taking tendencies are. I HIGHLY recommend doing this for the sake of precious memories and just for fantastic laughs. But first: 1) make sure you have a camera that you don't care much about. 2) get a long strap and attach around their neck (see Camdyn's above). 3) threaten them about removing that strap under any circumstances. I would also recommend that you give them a couple of suggestions before they leave- like make sure that you're in at least one picture! And, "snap away till your heart's content!!" (I love the world of digital cameras!) Isn't this a sweet pic of Cam?
I doubt that anyone captured this moment besides our animal loving Camdyn. Of course we have about a hundred pictures of the animals and only ONE of her. Oh well. Better than Shea's field trip when she took about a hundred pictures of her feet with her friends' feet! (and not ONE picture of the place they went to FOR their field trip!!)
Animal food. So glad she captured this. I was wondering what the turkeys ate.
Here is her first grade class. Great job Cam! And we still have the camera. It's probably lasted through 10 field trip days with four different children!

Material World

I know you all would probably prefer a family update, but this morning I've got some thoughts that I want to organize into more clearly defined ideas. Blogging is a good way for me to do that, as well as to encourage whoever still manages to come across this completely outdated blog.
I woke up this morning to the sounds of toddler feet at 5:00a.m. I love that sound, because I know that he's still up for sleeping and that means a snoodlefest with me for a couple of hours. I treasure those sweet moments when I can kiss his little forehead and caress and smell his little head.
This morning, however, the "Black Friday" sales kept me from falling back to sleep. I hadn't even looked at any ads, but I lay in bed wondering if there was something I might be able to get for the kids and if it might just be worth it to get up and run out. I slipped out my arm from under the baby's head and sat down at the computer to peruse those enticing ads.
Thankfully nothing jumped off of those pages that was compelling. Maybe that was my selfishness since I wasn't looking for me, but I soon crawled back into bed and fell asleep content that I wasn't missing much. It was a much sweeter morning snuggled up with my precious baby.
Later this morning I was cleaning my closet- hanging up clothes that had been piling up on my dresser. As I neared the bottom of the pile and saw the other mounds of clothes that I hardly wear my stomach began to get tangled up a little. Maybe I'm just emotional but when I see all that I have (and of course everything I buy is at bargain prices), I get uncomfortable. I've been exposed to poverty and I know what could be purchased- even for the price of one of my cheap $4 or $5 shirts. And there are a lot of cheap shirts in my closet.
My mind quickly goes right to Dwight Stone. Who? Dwight is a missionary to Romania from our church here. He has laid down his life for the gospel and continues to do so. I love to be around him. He is encouraging, he knows the Word, he is passionate, he is winsome and just a sweet older man. He convicts me. He has poured himself out. He eats a can of beans for dinner many nights. He lives in a tiny apartment so that he can use all that he has for God's purposes. He has a ministry to gypsies in sector four. These are people who are not acknowledged by the government. They are not born in hospitals, so they don't have birth certificates, aren't allowed in schools, and are uneducated, unable to get real jobs, and are the poorest of the poor. On top of that, they are despised by their own country. Dwight reaches out to them with education, food, medical care (several nurses on staff) and hygiene items. But, above all, he is preaching the gospel to mothers, fathers, grandparents and children. His means of reaching hearts is through helping them with what they perceive to be their real needs. He then helps them to see their One True Need- Jesus Christ.
So...I guess this perspective that I'm sorting out in my own heart goes like this.
Another cheap t-shirt, or a bottle of ibuprofin for Dwight to bring to those hurting?
Another cheap t-shirt, or a jacket to bring to a child who will freeze in the cold snowy season?
Another cheap t-shirt, or a warm meal for a mother of a nursing infant?
These things Dwight can use to reach the hearts of the gypsies. To advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Where are my priorities? Am I shutting my eyes and pretending that these needs are just too far away for me make any difference?
I think God can do amazing things with my small sacrifices. It's embarrassing to even call them sacrifices. A sacrifice means that I go without something for the benefit of someone else. I'll never go without a clean, nice shirt. I'll never be in need of a warm jacket. I have to choose which warm jacket matches best with my outfit.
So this morning, by God's design, I happened to land in I John. I end with this.

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

I like to think that I do not love the world. When I look in my closet, I'm embarrassed. I wonder if it doesn't tell me something else.

Dax

Okay, so this morning we pulled out the kids journals of their birth through the first years of their lives, and have had so much fun remembering the little cute things they did (and some of the not-so-cute). Poor baby Dax has very little journaling of these first two years of his precious life, and I want to play a little catch up here on the blog!
I guess the first thing that makes him such a fun little munchkin has been a habit over the past couple of months as he's watched Reilly playing baseball. We would go to the games, but had to be sure to bring Dax's own baseball gloves. Yes, I said gloveS. That would be one for each hand. And two times (at least) he has taken a nap or slept with them on at night. He is serious about his "guzge". That's the closest to the pronunciation I can get. "Guhshz" is Kurt's preferred spelling. He also loves to take the catcher's stance with the glove, but with such tiny hands trying to manipulate the glove, he can't really catch anything yet (in the glove).
His other sweet affinity is jumping. I've put some of that on the blog, but it has since evolved into jumping off of things. Last week, it was jumping off of the piano bench like 50 times in a row. He was sweating profusely in our 74 degree living room. I got out the video camera just when he decided to be done. This morning, he was jumping off of Kurt's chest while Kurt was laying on the floor. I'll have to say, he's very stable and very athletic.
He's also into calling everybody's attention to "WATCH! WATCH!!" while he performs some athletic feat or does something funny...yesterday in the car he kept saying, "WATCH Shea Shea!!" (and in between the "watch" and "Shea Shea" is this really cute pause that he has developed as he's learning to put words together). When he had gotten her attention (or perceived that he had) he would perform the Count's (from Sesame Street) evil laugh- which he has down pretty well! He probably did this about ten times in the car.
Dax has recently learned to climb out of his crib...much to the dismay of his parents. Yesterday he climbed out a couple of times, and after realizing that he was not supposed to be climbing out, he decided to take cover in our bedroom and I found him (after who knows how long) sitting in the corner on some pillows with a sippy cup just chillin'...while he was supposed to be taking a nap! He typically gets out of bed (knowing that he's not supposed to be up), and comes out of the bedroom with a sheepish grin and greets us with as much sweetness as he can muster- at two years old he TOTALLY understands how to schmooz!! He says with such put-on schmooz, "Hi Mama! Hi Poppa!" I was startled at 3:00 this morning when I woke up to see Dax standing next to my bed! Though I didn't hear him, Kurt said that he came out of bed asking for his blanket! Kurt searched the house at 3:00 while Dax layed with me and when Kurt found it Dax went right back to sleep snuggled up with "Deedee" (as he used to call it! He now says "blanket" quite clearly!)
Speaking of schmooz, Dax has just about everybody he knows wrapped around his little finger. He LOVES to give hugs to just about anyone at anytime- even perfect strangers. He layed a big smooch on Marissa (Shea's friend) yesterday at church. And I mean on the lips. Anyway he is such a love, and is super easy-going.
We've been swimming a lot this past week, and being so easy-going has been such a blessing to me. He doesn't demand to be in the pool- in fact he's quite content just hanging out with me as I watch the kids- as long as I have some food for him ;). He will just sit with me and walk around and watch all that's happening.
Dax loves to eat! He will eat just about anything, and will eat off anyone's plate if it's left out. He has upset many kids when they come back to their plate only to find it emptied by the little man. He loves kiwi, melon, cukes, all vegetables and fruit, really. I can hardly think of a thing that he has turned down in the past month! He does love sweets too.
I can't believe the sweet little munchkin is two!! We celebrated his birthday at Cherokee Cove again this year- he opened his presents on the deck from Aunt Maggie and Uncle Chuck- Mr. Potato Head (which he LOVES and plays with quietly by himself for long periods of time), a Mets t-shirt from Pop and Granny Dee (he said, "Let's Go Mets!!" when he opened it), a crawl tunnel from grandma and grandpa (which I nearly bought for him myself) and "little surfer" outfit, and three balls from mom and dad (various sizes and shapes).
Dax has been learning to command people to do things that he wants them to do recently. It's rather hilarious to receive a command complete with hand gestures in case you were wondering exactly where he wanted you to be. "Sit down here" he tells me when he wants me to feed him lunch. And he points to the chair where you are to sit. Of course we're helping him with "asking" and not "telling" people what to do. But it's awfully cute anyway to see him with such command.
Last night after we had put Dax to bed I decided to go in and check on him (about 30 minutes later) to see if he was still in bed (little stinker). I went in, and he was laying on bis back awake playing with the velcro on his slippers. I said "Hi sweet-pea" quietly. He looked up at me, and with all seriousness he reached up with one hand and waved me out of the room. "Go away" he said. I cracked up at his sweet innocence. He wasn't being rude at all. "Go away" he said again. No malice. Just two year old sincerity lacking a little in the social politeness area. So I said, "Please, mommy?" "Please Mommy"- he repeated. "Good night sweet-pea". "Good night mommy". And off he went to dream-land.

Macy-ism

I was doing a little clean up in my room when Macy walked in.
"Mom, can I please have some string cheese?"
"Sure, but I don't know that we have any more."
"We do mom. I smell it."
Hm. All kinds of things come to mind. First, how does a four-year-old, or anyone for that matter, 'smell' string cheese? What does it smell like? Second of all, if the string cheese really does 'smell', I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to eat it at this stage in the game. Third, I'm almost confident that there is no string cheese left. Which leaves me to wonder, what did she smell? Most likely, as is the case these days, her imagination is running wild with all kinds of sights and smells, and her world of pretend sometimes crashes in on the real world. That's all just fine with me. She's as precious as can be!

Singing an old song from TMC chapel many years ago this afternoon while cleaning the kitchen...

"And I would rather be a doorkeeper in your house..."

Shea was listening and gave me quite a puzzled look. The question that followed sent the house into a giggle fest.

She was dead serious. And seriously questioning my ridiculous song. "Mom, 'a dorky bird?'"