Well, heavens to Betsy

I never use that phrase. I don't know why I said it, but I did as a car cut in front of me in traffic. I guess better that than a choice four letter word considering that my backseat was occupied with two little parrots.

Me: Well, heavens to Betsy.

Paxon: Who's Betsy? What's heaven?

Me: Wishing that Travis were in the car for the theological questions. I don't know Betsy, it's just a funny thing to say.

Pax: So persistent. And heaven?

Me: Well, some people think that's where God lives. (I know, I'm selling him a Sunday school line here, but I was trying to move on).

Pax: Skeptically I don't think so, Mom. I think God lives in New York City.

So there you go. If you need to talk to the Big Guy, go to the Big Apple.

Big Mo

I remember a long time ago when we had a family blog and I wrote down funny stories a bit more consistently. There is no shortage of funny stories to post, just a shortage of time and energy to make it to the computer these days. For now, I'll put this one up because it's one I don't want to forget...

Pax has been making up a lot of words recently. Sometimes he tells me that he's speaking Spanish and other times, he's just putting sounds together. This can be pretty comical, particularly when he unintentionally hits some slang phrases. The other night, all of us were playing in the playroom before bedtime (as is our custom)...

Pax (driving a car over and speaking enthusiastically): Mom, I call this one Big Mofo.

Travis and I couldn't contain the laughter. I had to wonder what the driver of that car had done to him...

The sweetest sound

Laughter is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.

~Henry Ward Beecher

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.

~Yiddish Proverb

And, please ignore the fact that those cute boys' mom was so caught up in their laughter that she missed the choking hazard in the baby's mouth.

The Son of a Preacher Man

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Pax has started to go into the worship service with us for awhile on Sunday mornings. A month or so ago, he asked if he could come with us, and I am cherishing this precious opportunity to worship as a family and teach him about praising God in community. I know he doesn't "get it" yet, but I can't express in words how much I am enjoying the process. A few months ago, we started teaching him the Our Father (Lord's Prayer) and started singing the Doxology from our worship service as a part of our nightly prayers so they'd be familiar to him. He loves these new prayers and it's so sweet to hear his little voice repeating the familiar words. It's refreshing to experience worship from his perspective, too. For example, the choir wears "purple dresses" and the ministers "wash" those babies' heads sometimes.

Pax likes seeing Travis lead worship, he's been known to say loudly enough that our pew neighbors can hear, "What's daddy doing up there?" But he likes it best when Travis sits with us. Last week while eating breakfast before church he told me, "I hope my daddy sits with me at church today." Sorry for him that Travis was "on." The tough life of a preacher's kid.

Once a few weeks ago when Travis was "on," Pax watched with interest as his daddy accepted the offering plates from the ushers, faced the altar, and lifted them up toward the cross. When we got home and were playing in the playroom, Pax dumped his cars out of one of the baskets, collected a few coins he found on a table, walked around to the other side of our big ottoman, and lifted his basket up. I wonder where he got that idea.

Pax officially started Sunday school a few weeks ago. He's so proud to get to go. He asks me each week, "Mommy, how old am I?" because he knows that two-year-olds get to go to Sunday school or "Mommy, what day is today?" because he knows that he goes to Sunday school on... well, Sunday-- guess that's not much of a leap, but I'm glad he's excited about it regardless!

A friend was speaking about her son being in children's choir this week and she said, "He needs those songs and words deep, deep in his heart, so that he can draw on them later." That thought stuck with me, and while Pax is too young to participate in the children's choir program at our church, we sing a lot from all sorts of genres around here. I've sucked up every bit of Pax's eagerness to learn "new alleluia songs." We've been teaching him parts of the Catholic mass and refrains from hymns and praise songs. As summer storms have awakened him in the middle of the night recently, he's requested that one of us lay with him and sing those songs to him. I hope those words will be comforting to him when he needs to draw on them later in life as well.

The last two weeks, we've sung a line from Psalm 46:10 "Be still, be still, know that I am God!" It's simple enough that Pax has picked up on it and sung along with the congregation without me explicitly teaching it to him. He came home from church this week singing it. The other day he was singing it particularly loudly into a yardstick microphone:

Pax: BE STILL! BE STILL! KNOW THAT I AM DOD (God)!
Me: That's what God says to us.
Pax: Does He use a microphone like this one? Holding the yard stick out.

I don't know, Paxon, but I pray you will hear His voice in your life and that these seeds we plant today will grow as you do.

Livin' Large

Paxon kicks off his second year at his preschool next week. Parents' meeting last week, meet and greet with the teachers today. He loves it and is so excited to be headed back. Last week, one of the families in our new class had Pax and a few other classmates over to meet each other and play together before the school year starts.

The hosting family's daughter is named Lindsay Large. Because we have a couple of Lindsays in our life, I usually refer to this one by her first and last name... Lindsay Large. Pax had a really good time playing and as we were leaving this conversation occurred:

Pax: Mommy, I don't want to go.
Me: I know. Was it fun to play with Lindsay Large today?
Pax: Yeah. Long pause and perplexed look. Mommy, I thought she'd be... bigger.

Times are changin'

Yesterday, Pax asked me if we could change his sheets to the other set that I have for his bed. I told him that no, we would change them another day. His sheets were clean and Asher was needing to be fed. No, we weren't changing sheets right then for no reason. I intentionally decided not to say anything about having to change them if he tee-teed on them... why give a kid any ideas, right?

Flashback 28 years or so... I LOVED to change my clothes as a little girl. I have memory of going into my sister's dresser and putting on some of her clothes just because it was fun to wear something different. I'm still kinda like that today. I love to borrow someone else's clothes and I still change my clothes sometimes without reason. To prevent the laundry from taking over our home, my mom put a limit to my clothes changing in the day: Pick and outfit and stay in it. I was potty trained at the time, but I quickly discovered that if you pee on your clothes, you can change them... multiple times a day if desired. I'm sure you can imagine how that went over.

Pax is REALLY close to being officially potty trained. He hasn't had an accident in a couple of weeks. We've got a hurdle or two to get over, but we're almost there. I usually keep him in a diaper or pull up overnight , just in case. Last night, he was insistent that he was ready to wear underwear overnight. And truly, he's probably right. He's almost always dry when he wakes up. I liked his desire for independence and I indulged it.

This morning... 6:30 a.m. Pax came into the room and said, "Mommy, I'm wet." I was surprised, but accidents happen, so I hopped up to go help get him in dry clothes and get the sheets into the washing machine. My feet had hardly touched the floor when he said, "Can we get my other sheets now?" It takes one to know one...he quickly fessed up (without my prodding) that he tee-teed ON PURPOSE after he woke up in order to get his other sheets.

I can hear my mom laughing as she reads this... Damn that karma.

That's NOT right!

To follow the lead of a dear friend, I'll warn you that this post is about breastfeeding... not like the technical aspects of how it happens, more of the comical aspects of breastfeeding with a verbal and curious two-year-old watching, but if you're uncomfortable with talking about my nipples, then I suggest you skip this post altogether.

Breastfeeding was an easy choice for me, almost not even a choice. I just knew it was what I was going to do and I was going to make it work. Thankfully, it was something that came easily to me and to both boys right off the bat. Nursing is infinitely more interesting and challenging this time around because I am rarely alone. Asher has yet to spread out his feedings so he eats about every 1.5 to 2 hours during the day... it's pretty hard to fit in a time to even pump a bottle in between, so my nursing cover is my uniform and needless to say, I spend a fair amount of my time in various locations with baby on boob. I really love the snuggly intimacy of nursing a baby and Pax has been a great sport . He's been so helpful and he's getting the hang of what I can and can't do while nursing. Read a book? Yes. Drive cars? Yes. Climb to the back of the car in order to get a toy tossed behind the carseat? Um... maybe, but I'm not sure I'm willing to try it.

Shortly after arriving home from the hospital, Asher needed to eat. I began feeding him and Pax watched with concerned interest. I decided just to let it play itself out. After a minute or two, Pax finally piped up.
Pax: Mommy, what he doing?
Me: He's drinking milk.
Pax: Mommy, that baby is... CHOMPING you. (With a concerned and slightly disgusted look on his face.) That's NOT right.

My nursing cover is with me almost always. Pax likes to put it on backwards and wear it as a cape. I keep trying to decide what his superhero name should be wearing a nursing cover. When I was nursing without the cover at home the other day, Pax suggested that I cover the baby up. I guess he doesn't realize I'm not being discrete about the baby.

I was pumping in front of Pax the other day and he told me that the breast pump was saying "Build it". I almost choked on my water I laughed so hard, but I have to agree. The breast pump talks. Call me crazy, but when I began pumping for Paxon two years ago, I swore that the pump said "Mee-ilk! Mee-ilk! Mee-ilk!" I didn't mention it to anyone until I read this several months after I'd heard it. This time around, I've really not noticed, but next time I pump I'll be listening for "Build It!"

Just this week as I was nursing Asher, Pax came over and snuggled up to me. He then stealthily slipped his hand INTO my bra and suggested that perhaps he could try the other side. He didn't seem surprised at all when I declined. Poor kiddo, it did make me realize that he's missing being the center of my attention and affection when we're at home during the day together.

My favorite quote of the week came last night as I nursed Asher. Pax, looking quite solemn, asked me if my "boobies" were gone yet. I must have had a puzzled look on my face as I was trying to decide how to respond that with my body type, I've never really had "boobies" and that yes, they will shrivel back into nothingness after I stop nursing Asher, and why was he asking anyway, but he quickly rephrased to ask if Asher had drunk all the milk, and thus, we could go outside. Ahhh... yes, Paxon, we can go outside. Good thing I paused.