The Boy Stuff

When I use an asterisk in place of a letter, it's because I don't want people who'll use Google to search for yucky stuff to end up here! FYI. It's not because I consider it a bad or dirty word. It's just that people can be sent to my blog if they search for that particular word and I've typed it out. I don't want those people reading about my kiddos or seeing their pictures!

Since I didn't have a brother growing up, all this boy stuff is quite a new experience for me!

Here's Caleb's and my conversation on the way home from Mother's Day Out (this is all we talked about!):

Caleb: Mommy, do babies have p***ses?
Me: Baby boys do.
Caleb: Do babies have p***ses?
Me: Yes, Caleb, baby boys have p***ses. Only boys do, not girls.
Caleb: Does Levi have a p***s?
Me: Yes, Caleb, Levi does.
Caleb: Do you have a p***s?
Me: No, only boys have a p***s Caleb.
Caleb: Only boys.
Me: Yes.

I'm not sure why he asked this as soon as he got in the car, but he had probably gone potty before I picked him up and it was on his mind. Who knows.

I cannot tell you how many times I've said the word p***s lately. Seriously, it's enough to make me want to go get a pedicure or do some other really girly thing. I'm glad we're using the anatomically correct terms and all, but good grief I'm tired of talking about it! I guess this is just the beginning of the body humor and other lovely things boys talk about.

I can't wait.

Birthday Fun and Other Stuff

Last week Caleb turned 3 and Levi turned 1. I tried to do a birthday post on Caleb's birthday Friday afternoon, but our power went out again right in the middle of it. It was out for an hour and a half, and we were already in College Station celebrating (since nothing in Houston was open!), so the blogging moment was gone. Our power went out for 2 hours yesterday afternoon, but we weren't home.

I'm not in the mood for a sappy, emotional post about my boys getting older. I love them dearly, and it's such a joy to watch them grow and develop. Caleb asked me the other day where God lived. That's a tough one to answer in theology a 3-year-old would understand, but I tried to explain that He's in heaven and right here all at the same time. Since Caleb's been having a hard time getting himself to sleep lately, we've talked a lot about how God protects us and keeps us safe. The doctor said at his check-up that his intellectual maturity is ahead of his emotional maturity, and that's why he's been getting scared at night. He said they usually see kids realize that things are scary around age 4. He's put himself to sleep at least once this week and has slept in his own bed all night long for 2 nights now. We're hoping it's a pattern!

Levi is walking, but not exclusively. He's such a fast crawler that I think he just wants to forego the falling and crawl everywhere. He's walking a lot more now and getting better balance. We got him on video saying "mama" on his birthday, but he usually refuses to say it. If I say, "Levi, can you say mama?" he gets a big grin on his face and says, "dada." Stinker!

It's official that we're moving to Singapore. According to the schedule we're slated to move next June. We think it'll probably be July, though. That's what we're planning for, anyway. So, now we have a lot of work to do in order to sell this house. A HUGE garage sale is in order for the middle of October. I can't wait! And then there's replacing the carpet, painting, repairing screens the dogs ruined, sodding the yard the dogs tore up, etc. We have a lot of work to do! We're praying that the house sells quickly, even if that means we'll need to move into an apartment or some other temporary housing for a while. I just don't want the stress of an unsold house when we move around the world.

Do you have a gallon of milk?

Then consider yourself lucky! We told Caleb yesterday at dinner that if he ate his peas, we'd go for ice cream after church. What were we thinking? We drove around trying to find any place open that had ice cream...fast food, grocery stores, any place! The grocery stores around here have limited hours, which would have been nice to know before we were trying to find stuff. We finally ended up at Target, and all the refrigerated foods were gone! They had a limit on how much milk you could buy (one per family), and there were only a handful of half gallons of skim milk left on the shelves. They did have some ice cream, too, so we got some of that as well. That's all Caleb really cared about!

It was CRAZY, let me tell you, trying to grab a half gallon of milk at Target at 8:30 on a Wednesday night. Kroger is opening at 9am and we need some groceries, so I'm going to get the kids out and try to find some. A couple of days ago they were limiting the number of people who could be in Wal-Mart and the grocery stores at one time, so people were waiting in line outside. We'll see if they're still doing that today.

Thankfully I picked up eggs at my parent's house on Tuesday before I came back because I have some birthday cakes to bake tomorrow!

Wish me luck trying to get some groceries!

Hurricane Ike

Well, I think most of you that still read this blog follow me on Facebook, so you know we're safe and finally have power restored. We went to my parent's house Saturday night and stayed through Tuesday, when we came back home. We thank God that we have a house left and we sustained very minimal damage. (I'm not sure my mom has forgiven me for staying through the storm and not evacuating to her house.)
I got a new camera, since Caleb destroyed my old one, and finally am able to upload pictures rather quickly. So, here's what we did this weekend...

Caleb and Poppa on the 4-wheeler

my smiling Levi
Caleb not wanting to smile for the camera
one of our trees that was damaged
Ava looking pensive

He's Such a Mess

The other day Caleb dropped my camera on our wood floor and broke it. It's happened before and Uncle Scott fixed it, but this time I'm pretty sure it's for good. I guess that's what I'll be asking Santa for this year. It lasted over two years with Caleb constantly finding it and taking pictures of his finger, so I guess it had a pretty long life.

Caleb just came in here and announced, "I want to have my birthday. Right now."

OOOOOOOK. I tried to explain to him that his birthday is exactly 2 weeks from today, but that doesn't mean much to an almost-three-year-old. This is an almost daily ritual. Any time someone else has a birthday or we see a cake, he wants to have his birthday right then.

His favorite thing lately is to get on any raised surface in our house and pretend he's Buzz Lightyear. He climbs up, holds up his arms and announces, "To infinity and beyond..." Then he jumps off, laughs real big and does it again.

What am I going to do with him? :-)

On My iPod

My current favorite playlist includes (it's pretty random, but all good!):

Big Enough--Ayiesha Woods
Washed by the Water--Needtobreathe
Mighty to Save--Hillsong
If You're Gonna Play in Texas--Alabama
Call My Name--Third Day
Burn for You--tobyMac
Mountain Music--Alabama
God With Us--MercyMe
He Reigns--Newsboys
Undo Me--Jennifer Knapp
Let It Rise--Big Daddy Weave
O Praise Him--David Crowder Band
Shackles (Praise You)--Mary Mary
So Long Self--MercyMe
Something Beautiful--Newsboys
Sweetly Broken--Jeremy Riddle
I Dare You to Move--Switchfoot
With Arms Wide Open--Creed
Tennessee River--Alabama

Fun in a Box

Literally...

We're so tired around here. It's 8:21am, and Levi has been down for a nap since 7:45. Both boys were up for the day at 6am, and Levi was up eating twice during the night. I'm hoping it's a growth spurt!

We ALL had the stomach virus last week and over the holiday weekend. Not fun. I think we're finally over it, thank goodness. Now, if we could just get some sleep maybe we won't have a relapse!