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"Singing" at church...
I can't remember now how many times Caleb has been on stage at our church, but this morning presented another opportunity. They were singing a song that the kids had learned at VBS, and even though CZ didn't GO to VBS ~ I like the caps in that sentence ~ they had sung it so often that he knew it. So he was with the performers. I had HIGH hopes, since earlier in the day he had talked about not wanting to sing with the kids, but made the decision to do so. I was working in the nursery, but Gavi and I snuck in to hear him sing. But it was mostly an exhibition of his AWESOME air guitar skills. There was a dash of crotch grabbing and a skosh of tummy bearing, but mostly just him playing the air guitar and staring at all the people staring at him. It didn't help that as soon as they were done, he ran like sixty back to where we were sitting. Couldn't have even let me get back to the nursery and pretend he was just Jonathan's kid. Actually, a guy in the nursery made me feel a lot better about it. He said, "That's what people come to see! They don't want to see the little angels in the choir, they want to see the punk boy throwing his halo at the manger." Luckily for me, he's only in the first two songs of the Christmas program ~ no halos involved...
End of November!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope all had a marvelous holiday, and spent some serious time reflecting on the blessings in their life. Gratitude is generally a given in my life, but Thanksgiving always gives me a chance to spread it around and revel in it. Actually, the whole Thanksgiving/Christmas order is pretty perfect – we can give gifts at Christmas in response to the blessings we praise God for at Thanksgiving. And if we’re thankful for the birth of Christ, isn’t Thanksgiving just an extension of Christmas?! (Terra says that we need to focus on taking one day at a time, which I also agree with, but I’m all about the fluidity of the two holidays. Thanksgiving doesn’t end by Black Friday for me. It continues through the season.) Anyway, there are some cute things going on at our house that I needed to get out. A couple of things have been going on, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned them. First of all, Gavi understands the concept of getting kisses when you have an ouchie, but not quite the application. So when he falls and smashes his face into the floor, he’ll come running with his hand out for kisses. When he kicks the table while playing tag with Caleb, he’ll hold out his hand for kisses. Every tiny hurt can be solved with a simple kiss to the hand. That’s some potent smooching power! We let Caleb watch Wall-E. I kind of regret it now, but only because he’s totally caught up in that world. This morning, he said he was waiting for the spaceship to come out of the sky with just one girl, who would take the stuff in his tummy back to space. (If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that this is actually a fairly concise synopsis of the plot.) I love that he has that kind of imagination, but I’m really tired of hearing about it. And I wonder if it really wasn’t a little scary. While we were watching it, he kept talking about the girl who was “pew-ing.” (If you make a shooting sound, it can sound like “pew-pew!” So that’s what Caleb calls it.) I’m just having trouble deciding when something is too scary or violent. Decorating for Christmas was especially wonderful this year! Caleb was a real help, and Gavi was a real sweetheart. We’re not going to be home for Christmas this year, so toyed with the idea of not decorating – for about three seconds. It really makes me happy to have Christmas decorations up! Even exercising is easier by the lights of the tree… For me, the only rough thing about having Christmas stuff out is all the Christmas books that are now available to Caleb. So I’ve read Spot’s First Christmas fifteen times in the past two days. And there are books that play “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Silent Night” in ways that are neither little nor silent. Gavi especially loves Silent Night and Caleb especially loves Bethlehem, so both of them are playing simultaneously a good chunk of the time. Ahh, the sounds of Christmas! And on a final note, if any of you have heard about the book “The Shack,” and were reluctant to read it because it sounds too cheesy, I would like to throw the Amanda seal of approval on it. I devoured it. There were parts where my critical, religious side would kick in and try to point out things that didn’t seem to fly, but within a couple of pages, the author had clarified the point, and I fell back into sheer enjoyment. If you get a chance to read it, I highly recommend it!
I'm a Poor Poster...
I’m a terrible updater! But we’re keeping busy around the Fashbaugh house, and honestly, fifteen minutes in front of the computer is enough for my children to make a fountain out of the spurting water where a toilet used to be. In stealth mode, of course. I kid you not – I was LOOKING RIGHT AT Caleb on Tuesday when he dumped a bottle of nail polish on my brand new carpet. I would have had a heart attack if I weren’t so concerned with staying calm with my little monster. (Sorry about the ear drums, Wendy. I didn’t mean to shriek like that!) SO! A lot of good stuff going on around here. We’re getting together with everyone we know and love these days, and having a grand old time. In the past week and a half, we’ve had multiple play dates, get togethers with a plethora of my oldest and bestest friends, and enjoyed the unseasonable warm with trips out and about to parks galore. It’s been SO much fun! Of course, now that the weather went all wintry on us again – snow? In November? C’mon! – we’re having a rough time settling at the house. Today, it’s too cold to even play in our patio area, so it’s five million books and hot chocolate for us! Grandma Fashbaugh is coming to visit us tomorrow! (Hopefully, I’ll have the majority of the nail polish out of the carpet!) And then it’s time to get going on Christmas presents! The Wonderful Weber girls are helping me be crafty with my personalized gifts, so if you’re lucky enough to get one, know that you’re benefiting from their creative genius! My boys are sitting next to me…kissing! That’s a relatively new thing, because usually Caleb is much more interested in squishing his brother, but just recently he’s started smooching on him. It’s a real blessing to have such precious boys! I love these kids! Now Caleb is pulling stuffed animals in his tiny wagon, and talking for both of them. The wagon just came over to me and said, “Glad to meetcha!” On the other hand, Gavi is now out of my line of sight, which means I could be dealing with major destruction. Gotta get!
Happy November!
It’s been a while, right? Things have been a little crazy, and I haven’t wanted to write anything lest my bad attitude flavor the progress reports for my sweet boys. Caleb and I have been at each other’s throats, Gavi was about to send me over the brink with his incessant screaming, and everything else has been an absolute nightmare. That seems like enough of a recollection, right? On to the delicious happy things! Gavi said his first word! WOOF! Ironic, isn’t it, that the kid that DOESN’T get a dog has his first word in canine speak? He and his Daddy were playing with a big stuffed puppy and the word came out of Daddy’s mouth, which made it gospel to Gavi. He hasn’t said it properly since then – he just likes the “f” sound. What a cutie! Caleb is potty trained! Allow me to change that a little – he goes POTTY in the potty consistently. Doesn’t even wet the bed. But poo is another story. Holy crow, I can’t even believe the fact that we’ve been working on this for two weeks and he’s only gone in the potty ONE time. Enough excrement talk, let’s talk about the good news: no more expensive size five diapers! Only fun Cars, Batman and Spiderman underwear! I couldn’t be prouder of him – scratch that, I will be the penultimate in proudness when that boy starts taking a seat to make a poo. He also had his first potty related ouchie. Sometimes, when a little boy is done pottying, he feels the need to slam the seat and lid closed. Should his boy part not be removed from the area they will close on, pain is felt. Intense pain that results in blood, bruising and total reversion to babyhood. It got to the point that I was tempted to put him back in diapers because he made such a fuss about how much it hurt to go potty. We got new carpet! It’s the most beautiful carpet that has ever been! (In our condo.) Thanks to the Fashbaugh parents for their overwhelming generosity! And thanks to them for understanding that little boys have no respect for the loveliness of new carpet when it comes to vomit. Both of them have done so. Gavi after his flu shot, and Caleb after his first allergic reaction to peanuts. Luckily, we were both home for both instances, so one of us calmed the sick boy and the other cleaned up the mess before it could damage our pristine carpet. Blech. Caleb also had his three year check up. He’s such a big boy! Three feet four inches and thirty six pounds. That puts him in the 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight. My dad swears by the wives tale that however tall a boy is at age three is half of what he’ll be at full height. Which means my sweet little munchie could be 6’8” by the time he hits eighteen. I find it doubtful, but I’ll keep an eye out for giant Caleb. Gavi gives five now! I know it’s silly, but it’s so fun to see Gavi start to do the interactive things! He also knows MANY commands and responds to them – bottom down, put that back, and gimme kisses. He also understands several and chooses not to respond to them – don’t bite your brother, no buttons and no toilet. I just read an anecdote about a little guy bringing his daddy pretend tea which was really toilet water. I laughed, but Gavi likes to wash his toys in the toilet. Oy. It’s HORRIBLE to discover that all those funny forwards that made us laugh before we were moms are actually the MILD side of motherhood.
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