Funny Little Boy

I don't mean to neglect my other kids here.  But babies change so fast.  I want to remember some of these things Emerson does before this stage evaporates before my eyes.

He has learned to stitch two words together.  It is so cute.

When his dad gets home from work each day, he toddle-runs ecstatically to the back door screaming "Da!" or "Dad!"  When Miguel says "hi Emerson,"  Emerson says "hi Dad."  They will repeat this four or five times, saying hello to eachother.  Its so cute.  Only today Emerson said "hello Emer" instead of "hello Dad."

He calls Isa "Kaedon."  So funny.  If you ask him where Isa is, he'll point right to her.  So he knows her name, he just calls her Kaedon (he also calls Kaedon, Kaedon).   The other day she was tickling him and he said, with breathless deliberation:  "that......funnnyy......Kaedon."

Still loves trucks and trains and tractors.  He has a fire truck shirt that I make an engine sound while I'm putting it on him and he loves it.  Then he'll point to the trucks and make the noise.   Today I put one of Kaedon's old shirts on him and he looked down, rubbed the buttons and said "pretty...shirt."

When Kaedon played Ring Around the Rosies with him, when K would say "ashes, ashes" Emer would say "tractor, tractor.....truck! (for all fall down)"

Kaedon tickled him today and he told him "no no .....Bubba."

So cute!

He is even adorable when he is crying.

Babies in Church Poem

So sorry to be so sentimental lately.  If you only knew...I'm sparing you a lot.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  (we put away the crib today!  I have to say I absented myself...I could not watch or take part)

I have had an idea in my head a while.  It has to do with babies and church and Walt Whitman.  And it is a subject that has been on my mind a lot, because Emerson will be going to nursery here in one more month.  (I need a little pep talk right now...not ready to let go!)

I have to admit, when Kaedon was little, I was thrown for a loop in church.  I have mostly always loved church (as an adult, mind you), and it was hard to take a baby out because I hated missing anything.  Church gives me a boost like nothing else can-- a little recharge and perspective changer for the week.  So it can be frustrating to take a baby out.  Sometimes I've even wondered why I was even there, I was missing so much.

Then, I turned around, and Kaedon was in nursery.

And I met a friend who helped me learn how to keep my babies from wanting to go out so much.  So with the rest of my kids, I tried to keep enough in my bag to keep them busy and take them out only as a last resort.  (They often forget its even an option when you rarely take them out)  And when I did take them out, I made sure it was worse for them out of a meeting than in, ie-- no running around, drinks, or play...just sitting in a chair in a boring room.  They quickly decide it's much more fun sitting on Mom's lap eating Cheerios and reading a book.

After changing my approach, my little ones were (mostly) so good, and I enjoyed the time just holding them, and realized they'd be in nursery before I knew it, that I learned not to wish away that time.  I really soaked it up and enjoyed my little buddies.  And I realized that even when I have to take them out, I'm learning how to be Christlike through actions and not just sermons.

I see so many frustrated first-time parents that I wish I had a way to explain this-- so they don't resent their child but see it as an opportunity.

Disclaimer:  I love church.  I love listening to people speak.  I love the "old men" in our church-- LOVE them (see here) (I LOVE conference...it's my favorite and it's coming up!).  They are so wise and I have learned so much from their wisdom and life experience. They are mostly not boring.  This poem I wrote to mimic one of my favorites by Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer.  I tried my darnedest to keep to his original intent, meter, etc, and it was much harder than I thought.  Won't be doing it again any time soon.  Hopefully you will get the picture of what I'm trying to say?

When I Heard the Old Theologian

When I heard the old theologian,
When the nature of God was ranged in theory before me,
When I was shown the footnotes and references,
To highlight and cross-check them,
When I, sitting, heard the high councilman, where he
Lectured with much approbation in the chapel-hall,
How soon, unaccountable, my baby tired and sick;
Till rising and slipping out, held fast my child,

And under a pastel of Jesus touch'd with honey-sun,
I comforted and soothed 'til he fell asleep,
And, from time to time, look'd in wonder
At His face in my perfect
Sleeping babe.

One Truck Mind

I have a little boy who is suddenly interested in anything vehicle!  Kaedon used to love Bob the Builder at this age, and one day I was thinking wistfully that I just can't expect to relive Kaedon's childhood through Emerson, that I need to let him be himself, you know the drill.  Then, overnight, Emerson developed an interest in those things, and he has taken it to new extremes.  :)

First, he went through a phase where every vehicle was "a truck."  In New York, he loved to perch on my sister's couch and watch all the traffic, saying over and over and over "a truck. a truck. a truck. a truck."  I think it is so adorable.  He did this on the airplane, too, and I wondered if it bothered anyone to, you know, hear him say truck like 50 times in a minute.

Well, suddenly, he learned how to say the word "tractor."  Then suddenly, everything was "a tractor."  Pronounced a trA--ck--ter (emphasis high on the "A" with a little cute pause as if it takes a lot of effort to coordinate those sylables, which I'm sure it does!). 

Now he has turned his one truck mind into a well-trained one, if you know what I'm hinting at!  Now everything is "a train."  He calls corn "train."  He calls drinks "train."  Yesterday, he pointed at his drink and said "Trrr---ain." (same pause in the middle, trying to reach the second half of the word with care).  Then he paused.  And he said, concentrating, "trrrrrack."  Ha ha.  He called his drink a "train track."  Do you think he loves trains and trucks and tractors?  I think it is the cutest thing.

Enjoy these random pictures I took of him when in the mountains with family last week.