I'm making fourth of July cupcakes today. Josh was asking why I was making red cupcakes, and I was explaining to him the holiday and why we celebrate it. I told him that not everyone gets to live in a country where they are free to worship and love God or whomever they want. He thought about it for a minute and then responded with a very sincere and concerned, "aw, that's sad". What's sad? I asked, wanting to make sure he got the concept. "That some people don't get to love God".

Yes it is.

Josh has been coming up to me randomly throughout the day to tell me:

"Mommy, your my best mommy."

I'm not sure what that means, but I like it.

Jack officially took his first steps today. Not sure how soon he'll actually be walking, but we're getting there. Having one that I already have to run around in, I'm actually hoping he gets to walking sooner rather than later. My arms and back are protesting this stage.

Can't believe he's already to this stage. It such a funny contrast. Here you have this little boy, that still looks like a baby, has the cute chunky thighs, adorable fat baby wrists, and the pinchable cheeks, and yet he's doing something like taking a step.

Josh had a great one liner tonight. We've been out all evening, and we came home and were all having a snack before we put the kids to bed. Josh looks up and says "what a nice family snack." Chris and I cracked up. Chris told him thank you for being so nice, and Josh replied "it's my pleasure".

We also had our first major "girl talk" tonight. Josh was at a friends playing, and him and a couple of them were in the playroom. There is a girl that lives at that house, so as you would expect there are dress up clothes galore. I guess one of the girls changed into one of them while Josh was in the room, and he decided to tell us all about how he saw a girl naked (she had her underwear on). Didn't expect to have that conversation at four. Daddy handled it quite well teaching him how to handle those situations, and I quipped in that was a gift God wanted him to have when he gets married.

In typical Josh form he made us laugh out of the situation later. I was asking him what he had fun doing tonight, and he said "I didn't have fun with the girls while they were naked". Well thank God for that I guess.

What a week. And it's only Wednesday.

For the record, so far this year every birthday, or holiday (Father's Day, Mother's Day) someone in our house has been sick.

Sunday Chris got food poisoning in the evening, and it hit me Monday during the day. That's right, Father's Day and Jack's birthday.

Yesterday Jack had his one year check up (everything was good, 50% height, 25% weight, and 95% head, surprise surprise.) and four shots. Josh was extremely good at the doctors, and I told him I would take him to Chick Fil A for lunch and let him play.

After he was done eating he went to push his chair back form the table and instead of it moving back it flipped over with him still in it. He got a nice scrape on his chin and a bump on the head, plus he bit the inside of his cheek pretty good. He got free ice cream out of it.

Then last night I was trying to get dinner going with two fussy children (Jack is teething) and not paying attention to what I was doing. I was putting a piece of chicken (chicken paremsan in case anyone is curious) into hot oil, and it slipped off the fork while I wasn't looking and splashed all over my neck and chest. I finished making dinner, and told Chris about it when he got home. It was hurting really bad, so we finally decided a trip the ER was merited.

The 5 extra strength Tylenol they gave me helped quite a bit, as well as the special cream.

Chris is putting me on probation from cooking with oil. I call it an occupational hazard. At least I don't cut myself.

So far today has been an uneventful Wednesday. We are hoping to keep it that way!

Today Jack is officially a year old.

Bittersweet. On one hand, I remember the time between one and two years being one of my favorite periods with Josh. So I have that to look forward to. On the other hand I am painfully aware of how fast time is going.

As I rocked Jack last night and looked into his sleepy blue eyes, I was aware of the fact that this could be my last time rocking a baby boy that is mine.

If we had decided to only have two children, than this would be it. It would be over. That makes me feel very old. It still seems like yesterday we had just started this whole parenting business, and now we're over halfway through with it. Winding down with babies and moving on to little leagues games and school.

So today as Jack comes and endearingly lays his forehead on me, is screaming at me for more food, while he giggles uncontrollably as daddy blows raspberries on his belly and crawls after his brother every where he goes, I will be extra thankful for this time that we have with our baby boy. Because before I know it he will be a toddler.

I feel like I haven't updated much on Jack recently, so here goes.

He is on the verge of walking. He pulls himself up on things cruises around while holding onto furniture, and can get himself standing without pulling up on things. He's just not interested in taking steps. We'll see.

He also jabbers up a storm. He can say mama, and dada, Jack and he says something that sounds like Josh. He can also say ow, and uh-oh.

Besides talking he has no difficulty expressing himself. He screams at Josh when he takes something away form him, and if Josh is being too rough with him he doesn't hesitate to hit him. He yells at us when he wants more and is already throwing fits when we take something away from him (namely, remotes).

He turns one on Monday which seems absurd to me. It really does fly by. It doesn't help that a lot has happened this year either. It makes me want to cry to think that my baby is pretty much done being a baby and on the verge of being a toddler.

Thankfully he hasn't lost wanting to cuddle yet. I call him "bug" sometimes because he's such a cuddle/snuggle/love bug. He is such a sweet natured boy. Whenever we ask for kisses he leans his head over so we can kiss his forehead, and mommy picking him up and holding him can still make everything better. He lets Josh hug him, and nothing gets him more excited than Josh coming into a room.

On one hand I'm not quite ready to loose my baby, but on the other I'm excited to see more of his personality come out. I'm just praying that it's a little bit more mellow than Josh's.

Josh loves the bible. In fact we even got into our first theological debate the other day. I was so proud. He has his own little bible that he carries around, and will take in the car, and flip through the pages one by one "reading" them. Of course his favorite is David and Goliath. He even role plays it with Chris, alternating which one of them is Goliath and gets to "die".

That's also where our debate landed. He was looking at his bible in the car and telling me the story about how David "shot" Goliath with the rock and he fell down dead. I told him I wasn't sure Goliath died, and he told me "yes, he did mom it says so in my bible" (love that he already believes in the inerrancy of scripture!), so of course I looked it up in my real deal bible. While driving. I don't recommend that. My bible said Goliath fell facedown. Sketchy. So I looked up the Hebrew, and he did die. Josh was rather proud of himself.

It gives me such joy to see him having a passion about God and Jesus and the bible, kindling a deep relationship with all three.

It is also very rewarding in another sense. It's proof that he really does hear me (and hopefully see). For all of the things that I tell him to not to do, and all the manners I try to teach him that seem to fall on deaf ears, there is some tiny little bit that may have sunk in. Not negating God's role in this, obviously he's the main orchestrator already giving Josh a disposition towards himself. But to know that a little something of what I said was heard.

I can't begin to express how encouraging that is. It gives me hope, and encourages me. Maybe sometime soon we'll see some fruit from some of the other things I've repeated to him over and over. Like not shooting at people while we're in the store.

Best line of the day:

Mom, don't touch my bum, it's expensive.

Josh just came down to give me a hug and tell me goodnight. He comes down, puts his hand on my arm, looks in my eyes, tell me he loves me, climbs up on me to give me some love... and farts on me. The he laughs and squeezes out a few more.

This is life living with boys, and why I need a girls some dresses and princesses to balance it all out.

Stubbornness in play:

We go to Kroger a lot down here. Every time we go, Josh asks, "mommy are we going to Krovert?". I've explained to him several times that it's Kroger, but he refuses to believe and still keep calling it Krovert.


He also has this argument that he uses for everything I ask him not to do right now. This is an example of a typical conversation of ours:

Me: Josh, don't put your hand down your pants.
Josh: But mom, some people do it.

Me: Josh pick up your toys.
Josh: But mom, some people don't pick up their toys.


Jack is into EVERYTHING. If I turn my back for two second he has the bathroom cabinet open and his mouth on the cap of the hydrogen peroxide. Problem is I hate those baby proof openers they put on cabinets, plus I want them to learn not to do it.

I feel like my expertise in life right now is tearing/cutting food into minuscule bites, and saying no. I'm looking to expand my resume soon.