1st day of school!

Last Wed was a sad/exciting day for our little family......both of my boys are now in pre-school. **big sigh of relief mixed with a little sadness**.  Who am I kidding? I felt a tinge of guilt when I handed off C, but then I came to and was shimming all the way out the door! C'mon folks, it's been really hard living somewhere new, with 2 small kids and really no support system till lately. I was praising and singing thanks that we could put both of them in the school and then hip hoped on home (only a mile drive) to read in peace!

It's funny because when I took J to preschool for the 1st time he was only 11 months, he went 1 day a week so that I could go to BSF and then have lunch with T-rav. It was an investment in my spiritual growth and our marriage..ha! ha! Dollas well spent and I really didn't think much of it because it was 1 day a week. Well now it was C's turn and yes, he's about 5 months older than J was, it was still hard to think of him as "big enough" to go.

The boys brushing their teeth before school

Trying to get their pic.....so un-cooperative

So since I'm all sentimental and up late I might as well dish a lil on my baby boy, C:

Mr C. Wow, where has the time gone? You are now almost a year and a half and all I see when I look at you is the little crawler we moved here with. Perhaps, because you were so sweet at that point and it was something I enjoyed seeing. You have now discovered your voice and my, it is commanding. You're hilarious when you are sassing J, and I'm so grateful that he is gentle with you. Why just tonight you got in trouble for scooping water in the tub and dumping it over the side. When mommy told you no and took the cup from you, you got so peeved that you start sassing, smacking the water with your hands and then slapped J on the back, just cause he was within reach. Yes, yes my dear little one with the big curious eyes, you have turned into a toddler. 

You run everywhere, not with the best of coordination, but you stay on your feet most of the time. Your sharp turns while running are worth the watching as it brings most people who see it at least a smile if not a full on laugh. 

Coloring is your new thing. You love it, get so excited when I grab the crayons and go running for the coloring table saying "lololo" which I think translates to "color". Green is the color you always go for first and then the next is purple. You seem to hold the crayon correctly already, but only make tiny little marks with a huge grin on your face the entire time and chatting about whatever you are drawing. It's quite precious to watch. Daddy also discovered the other day that you lend yourself to the task of decorating as well, since he caught you giving the walls a touch of fresh new streaks of color.....green streaks, of course, because it's your favorite. :-)

You rock the sleep world and when it's 1:30 pm on the dot, someone can say to you "nap time" and you'll just truck right on in your room and walk towards the crib.....it's astonishing! We were thinking of writing some sort of book on how to train your children to walk themselves to their cribs and then just sleep, but then we remembered that most people who write those books never ever had a child like your 3 year old best friend and so we just chalk it up to the grace of the Lord, to whom gets all the credit for that little diddy you brought to our family. 

I don't like admitting that you are a picky eater, but boy, yous a picky eater! You like all things vegetable, heck you'll even eat salad leaves off mommy's plate with only salad dressing on it. You will almost die if you don't get to eat an avocado a day (I think you jones for them, seriously) and a easy thing to feed you is pasta, broccoli chicken casserole. You love meat and go crazy for a rib bone if you see it. But fruit, my dear C is not your thing. I had you walking the fence for a while eating bananas but you since have dropped that habit and refuse to let any other fruit much further past your pierced lips. I did manage to get you to eat a 1/2 frozen peach when it was scorching hot this summer, but I think it had more to do with internal temperature than really liking the peach. You would eat sorbet though, so I just considered it a fruit and moved on. I've discovered with your older brother, that eventually you'll come around. 

Another thing mommy has to admit is that you love your Chick-fil-A, oh do you love it! Your not much of a fry fan, but boy oh boy will you plow through 6 nuggets in no time flat. You'll even eat part of mommy's salad after those 6 nuggets! The worst part? You started recognizing the sign from the highway when you were only 11 months old.......please don't hate me! It was the only constant that we had when we 1st moved here, the playground, the nuggets, the wonderful music they play.....Christian Chicken is what got us through the 1st couple of months. Every Tues we'd meet daddy (if he could) and have a lunch date with our little family. So now I have discovered it to bite me in the butt. I have to distract you to look the other way out the car if we are passing one of these fine establishments, otherwise you will scream (you must've gotten your lungs from the Indian in mommy, wow, you put your momma to shame some days) and give me one of your patented dirty looks. 

You are not always a "toot toot" as your brother says, you are very sweet too. You love to give me kisses still. You have a very favorite game where we hold your hands and you jump up and down (well really mommy and daddy do most of the lifting you off the ground, you just bend your legs) and laugh so loud. You love to pretend to be a race car and will run around the house making that sound really loud....even reeving up your engine when you run faster. 

You love to hide under your bed, crawl into cabinets and pantries. You like to open the hamper part of the hall closet, pull out the clothes and then climb in and shut the door. At least you leave evidence of where you are. 

Your curiosity got you into trouble the other weekend. You love to brush your teeth and play peak-a-book with yourself in the mirror. You also like to open drawers and empty those as well. The other morning you were in your bathroom and closed the door (another favorite, open and shutting ALL the doors in the house). After the door had been shut you opened the middle drawer of the vanity and climbed from your step stool you brush your teeth on, into the drawer. It was a little bit before you realized you had gotten up high was too scared to climb back down so you started to call for help. Good thing daddy was here because when he went to open the bathroom door and could only get it cracked enough to see you standing in the drawer that was blocking us from getting to you my heart about stopped. I had no idea how were going to save you. So daddy very patently started pushing the drawer back in little by little with his pinkie finger, you some how figured out what he was doing and started moving back towards the front of the drawer that was coming back in and.......volia! it was enough to get the bathroom door back open. Thank you Jesus, daddy was here! Mommy can't think in some of those situations you put us in, silly.

You love to wave to neighbors walking by, although if they talk to us you get a little cranky. 

You and brother will throw a ball back and forth to each other for a good 15 mins before you loose interest. J loves when you play ball with him and I can tell you just love J starring at you for 15 mins.

You are starting to talk a little more and can say:

mommy (you started yelling this when J is annoying you....awww, the beginnings of a tattle-tale)

daddy

dak-don (Jackson, and you LOVE yelling this at him when I'm trying to get his attention from far away)

moon

bird

milk

dis (everything is that if you don't know the name of it)

dog

bye-bye

eat

more

tik-ken (chicken)

duce (juice)

dar (car)
cheese (even when I pick the camera up to move it, you say this)

I think you say more, but still babble a lot and will carry a conversation on with your self quite well, even though no one knows what you are saying.....adorable to me and daddy. J tells you that you're silly.

Before we cut your curly red locks off 

After the haircut

you love umbrellas

helping brother build, you 2 play so well together

This pic is hilarious. you were playing chase with daddy and he scared you when you came around the corner

Very serious look. Your eyes are dark blue on the outside and dark brown on the inside

  We, or rather I, have taken on a rather large project the next 6-7 months that I will desperately need time to work on without children in tow which is the main reason C went on to school twice a week with big bro J. I give you our field of dreams......deep between these trees will be a house that we will use to call home and continue to do the work God has called us to do here. For His glory only!