Playing Doctor

Last night I was feeling a bit under the weather, with a stomach ache mostly (it turned into the flu in the middle of the night, but I'll spare you those details, along with the details of both Ezra and Levi having it as well ... been there, done that, why are we doing it again???). During dinner last night I started feeling pretty uncomfortable and heartburnish (no, I'm not pregnant. Don't even go there), so I excused myself to lay on the loveseat while the boys and Steve finished up. A couple of minutes later, Levi announced, "I have to go check on Mommy." Steve permitted him to do so, and the following scenario ensued:

"Mommy, what's a matter?"
"I don't feel good."
"Oh. Is it your knee (pointing to my knee)?"
"Nope."
"Oh. Is it down your pants (pointing to my pants)?"
"Uh, no (shooting a weird look to Steve, who shrugs)."
"Oh. OK. Is it in your shirt (pointing to my stomach)?"
"Yeah. I have a tummyache."
"Oh. Under your belly button. I'll kiss it."

Levi hopped on back to the dinner table, ate some more, and then announced "I have to check on Mommy again."

"Mommy, where do you hurt now?"
"In my tummy still."
"No, not this time."
"Oh, OK. Where do I hurt now, then?"
"In your head."
"Oh, yes. I do hurt in my head. Can you help me, Dr.?"
"Sure, Mommy. Sure. Hmm ... I'm going to have to take your head off."
"Uh, that's no good. Is there anything else you could do?"
"Nope. Just take your head off. And move it somewhere else."

After dinner was finished Levi continued to be a very attentive Dr. for the rest of the night. He wanted to go get me a pillow, my afghan from my bed (yes, I have an afghan, a beautiful afghan from my Grandma, and it's one of my most prized possessions), a drink of water. He sang me songs (Jesus Loves the Little Children, which he calls "The Black and White Kids Song [?!?!?!?!]" and he made up a song called, "Your head hurts right now."). He tucked me in. He read me a book (The Bernstein Bears and the Spooky Old Tree, word for word). And the whole time he kept repeating two phrases: "Mommy, you're gonna be OK." and "Awww, Mommy, you're so cute."

I asked him if he is going to be a Dr. when he grows up. He replied, "Yes. At Northgate."

From Management:

To those who receive emails when this blog has a new post, we regret to inform you that those emails do not contain the photos posted to this blog. To see said photos, please visit actual blog site.

--Management

So Long Jibberish, Hello Language...ish

Baby Ezra has started to transition his jibberish from random noises into noises that sound like they could actually be words in a different language. He talks, and talks, and talks, and talks. I can't even imitate it in my head, but it's so cute! And it's so not baby sounding, it's little person sounding. It's not goo-goo gah-gah ma-ma, it's like a little person talking in a different language. I know, I know, I already said that, but it's hard to find the right words to describe it. The funny thing is, he acts like I should be able to understand what he's saying. I don't remember Levi doing this, and I think Ezra does this because he hears Levi and I talking to each other all day and he wants to get in on the conversation. Ask him a question, and Baby Z has an answer. An immediate answer. A "looking-you-in-the-eye-deliberately" answer.

"Do you want some cheerios?"
"ah glah boot."
"Are you thirsty?"
"glee glish nat."

The really scary thing is when it sounds like he's getting words right. Coincidence? Communication? Don't know, but precious either way! Tonight, I was holding toys out to him and saying their names, and he could repeat me almost correctly for each one. And then I held out an elephant for the third time (we were going through the toys over and over again), and he said, "ephet" unprompted. What?! I'm sure it was a mistake. Right?!?!

A few words he says I do not think are accidental. He does say Mama (usually when he's wanting to get up in the morning or from a nap), Daddy (every day when Steve comes home from work), Ezra (I promise, and I'm not the only one that thinks this! He says it looking in the mirror all the time, too!), Hi, and I did it (Steve has heard it too and confirmed my suspicions that he's actually saying this). He says a few other words, and the best part about him saying things is that if I repeat them back to him right after he says them his little chubby face ABSOLUTELY lights up with glee that he was heard, understood, and acknowledged. And when I say his whole face lights up, I mean HIS WHOLE FACE. See?


Yes, every baby does this "starting to talk" thing. But right now, MY baby is doing this. And it's just as yummy to me as his squishy little self is.

Time Out

Levi was given a time out today. Levi gets a time out almost every day. I don't feel bad about that fact -- they are effective for him, and he's the type of child that gets really wound up and needs to have a moment to wind down and think about how to play more appropriately. Or is every kid like that? Maybe so. Here's the dialogue from the time-out chair:

::mumbling is heard from the corner. It goes on for a bit ...
"Levi, you are not allowed to talk when you're on time out. You need to sit there quietly."
:: silence for a moment, then more mumbling but much quieter this time ...
"Levi, I told you that you have to be quiet on time out."
"I am being quiet. I'm not loud any more."
"Levi, when I said be quiet I meant no talking, not just quiet talking."
"But I'm singing 'Heavenly Sunshine' (this remark followed by an angelic head-cocked-to-the-side smile."

I can't believe he played the "but I'm singing a song about Jesus" card. He's only 2 ... I am starting to realize that when Ezra's a little older and can reason like this I'm going to quickly find myself quite outnumbered.

He has no idea ...

Tonight, putting Levi to bed, he wanted to sing to me instead of me singing to him. Here's what he sang:

"In Christ lone, my fope is found, a light a string a song. Our Cornerstone, a little ground, nu-uh-uh siersest drought and storm. Nu-uh-uh love, a depth of peace, a sears a still, a strivings cease. My comforter, my solid ground, in Christ my live."

And then, he wanted to sing it for Daddy. So we called Steve into the room, Levi crawled into his bed with Steve (for his nightly Daddy snuggle time), and Levi and I sang "In Christ Alone" to Steve.

Steve said, "oh, buddy, we are so proud of you. You have no idea."

To which Levi responded, "OK. Now let's do devotions."

Really, we are SO proud of him. So proud. So privileged are we to watch a childlike faith develop in this little boy. Proud doesn't even describe it. He has no idea.

************************************************************************************
Edit: I ran downstairs to post quick before putting Ezra to bed, and much to my mixed dismay and delight found that I took too long posting. This is what I came upstairs to -- the squishiness of my second son cannot be rivaled:


So, while Levi's being adorable in ways that make my heart swell with pride, we cannot forget about Baby Ezra, whose squishiness melts my heart into a puddle. An ooey, gooey, puddle. That's my baby. He's 10 months old today. My beautiful, sweet, and did I mention squishy baby.

It's About Time ...

I know. It's been a long time. But it's been a crazy past couple of weeks! Apparantly last post I jumped the gun by writing that we were done with the sickness game and on the upswing. Two ER trips, many reduced-sleep nights, and a couple of weeks later I think we're now (knocks on wood) ... HEALTHY!!

It really hasn't seemed like as bad of a winter as many people are telling me I've had. "You guys sure have had a tough winter!" "Your kids are sick all the time!!" "Where do they pick up all those illnesses?!" I've heard it all in the past couple of weeks. Maybe it's that when you're in it day to day it doesn't seem as jarring, maybe my children are just not so terrible to have around when they're sick (and they're not, they're very endearing), maybe ... I don't know. But I do know that I've missed out on many great blogging opportunities, so two quick stories to catch you up to speed ...

*****************************************
The other night we heard a LOUD bump/thump/crash. We rushed to Levi's room, to find that he had fallen out of bed.
"I broke me."
"You broke you? What did you break?"
"I broke my bed."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah. Daddy fix my bed?"

*****************************************
Levi's new favorite game to play with me is "let's go grocery shopping." He pushes a baby toy we bought him when he was learning to walk, and I am supposed to be his child ... or something like that.
"Mommy, let's go. Let's go, Mommy."
(I wait where I am)
"Mommy, you need to stay right by my cart. Stay right here."
(I don't move)
"Mommy, you hear me? RIGHT here. RIGHT by my cart (pointing to the floor next to him)."
"I don't want to."
"You need to walk like a big girl, Mommy."
"My legs are broken."
"No. Your legs are not breaking. Be a big girl."
"I don't want to."
(walks up to me with his fingers in a pincer grasp)
"See this here, Mommy?"
"I want it."
"It's a special treat for you."
"I want it."
"You can have it, if you stay right by my cart."
"I want to hold it."
"Okay. Here. Now I'll open it when we get back to the car."

WOW! He has me down to a T. Crazy how quickly they pick up on regular scenarios! And, of course, there are more fun stories but I'll save those for other days (as if those days will be dull enough to not have a story of their own ...).

I'm posting, can you believe it?!

Folks, they're sleeping. Sleeping. SLEEPING. As in, both sleeping. Both SLEEPING. BOTH sleeping. BOTH SLEEPING. I don't know if I'm feeling the need to repeat it over and over because my brain cannot function due to absolute exhaustion, or if I'm feeling the need to repeat it because there's a small (okay, large) part of me that doesn't believe it and thus can't stop marveling over the fact that they're sleeping. BOTH. OF. THEM.

I will spare you the details of the bodily functions that have taken place over here on Wildwood Dr. for the past ... mmm ... almost a week now. There are only two things you need to know that will sum up the whole week for you in a nutshell: One, we have done a total of 11 loads of wash of JUST bedding (SO thankful that we have two washers!!); Two, this morning when the alarm rang I turned to Steve and asked, in all seriousness, "what day is it today?"

If those two facts don't give you a picture of my week, I don't know what will. Yet through it all, there have been some ponderable moments that I have wrapped up, sealed with a kiss, and locked away in the vault of my MamaHeart. Some of those moments are mine, all mine, and only mine like singing hymns upon hymns to the children who were laying next to and on top of me, wanting nothing more than their Mommy to sing to them and stroke their hair ... or like those big brown eyes looking at me saying, "I love you, Mommy. You're so sweet and cute." And some of those moments I've captured on camera for both my enjoyment and yours. So, without further ado (because I have full anticipation of actually getting a wink of sleep here myself before boys wake up), three photos to melt your heart:

*************************************************************************************
On Monday morning, after being up from 2:00-7:00am spittin', as he called it, Levi played racecars for about 5 minutes until Steve had to change Ezra's diaper and came back into the living room to find Levi asleep:


Yesterday Levi was helping me fold laundry when yet another sneak attack of vomiting hit him. Afterwards, he created this little bed for himself, saying, "I'll still help you, Mommy."

At night Levi has had a hard time going to sleep. "My really scared, Mommy." "Scared of what?" "My really scared-a more spittin'." I don't blame the little guy! He woke up in the middle of the night 3 nights in a row throwing up, and was worried this would be a forever recurring thing! Wednesday night was a restful night, no waking up all night long!!! However, last night we had a little relapse around 11:30, resulting in us needing to scrub Levi's rug and give him a shower and such. Since we were still working in his room after his shower, he created a cave for himself on the couch because "Your lights are such too loud. Too loud of lights in your house, Mommy." The lights were actually all off in the living room, which you can't tell because of the flash in the photo, yet somehow the living room lights were still too loud.

The cave seemed to be a good idea, though, because it kept him nice and sleepy (a good thing), and it kept him out of our clean sheets (a very good thing, I'm done changing the sheets on that bed for this week!!!!)

Goodnight little man. We all hope last night was your last night of rude awakenings.