Beauty

The sun had just set when Luke and I were driving home from the store tonight. A dark cloud cover had rolled in from the right. On the left there was a patch of clear sky where you could still see the last sun rays of the evening outlining a large puffy cumulous cloud. Luke pointed and said "God."

Nothing fills my heart more than my children learning of the Creator. For him to see the beauty of our world and recognize God in it brings tears to my eyes.

I can write about their first step, their first words, their first outings, which are wonderful, but pale in comparison to their first encounters with God.

Luke, may you grow into a boy who trusts the Lord with all things.

Are You?

It is just amazing how much Luke is talking. It seems every day he is saying something new. He's begun to say "phone" very clearly. Today its snowing so he learned to say "snow" just this morning. Last night he pulled out his movie called 'Baby Songs.' Usually he calls it "baby." He brought it over to me and said, "Baby...Song...Baby...Song." At bedtime we sing, "Mama, sing." And he even sings 'Amazing Grace' with Daddy, just the "me" part, but still!

My favorite is, "are you?" When we are looking for something, like shoes, or his cats, we call, "shoes, where are you??" as we look. Its so funny to hear him say "shoe, are you?"

One day when he woke up from his nap, I hear, "Mama...are you?"

Also, we'd been trying to get a hold of "Gampa" Scobie to thank him for Luke's new cat. We had called a couple of times and left a message. Then one morning, Luke picks up my phone and says, "Gampa! Are you!"

Ah, he cracks me up!

How Great Is Our God

Today we drove up to Birch Bay to visit Ambritt and Kameron. As we were driving past the ocean, "How Great is Our God" was playing on the radio.

"How great is our God,
sing with me, how great is our God.
And all will see how great,
how great is our God."



Luke was in the back seat singing "God, God, God," and swaying back and forth.
When the song was over I asked him, "Were you singing worship to God?" "Yeah."
I told him to look at the water and that God made all that water. He responded, "Disa." (Jesus).

Oh how it touches my heart that he's understanding. Somehow he knew that God and Jesus go together, I'm not sure we've really taught him that. How great is our God to reveal Himself to my little Luke.

Sweet Stories

There are more and more stories each day that I intend to write down, get busy, and forget. I know the ones I write down will be cherished, so here are a few from this week.

Luke and I have been going to Puggles, a Wednesday night program for 2-3 year olds. We've been learning that God made light, the sun, clouds, grass, veggies, etc. Luke has begun to say "Jesus" (Disa) and loves reading his book "If Jesus Came to Visit Me" and singing Jesus Loves Me. One day, Luke looked out the window and said, "I see God!"

Today we went to the consignment shop to drop off some things. I always peek in the toy section to see if there is anything good. We looked while we waited and then we began to leave the store. Luke pretty much jumped out of my arms, said, "toys" and ran back to the back of the store. We weren't in a hurry so I let him check them out again. He stumbled upon a shelf with stuffed animals and wanted to hold them. "Hol, hol." He held Buzz Lightyear, put him back. Then asked to hold the Cat in the Hat. He got him in his arms and walked confidently toward the door. I thought it was so cute that I let him take him home. He's so proud of "hat." He brought him home to show dad, read bedtime books with him and is now sleeping with him. Who says you can't buy happiness for a buck?!

Luke loves his friend "Kammon." He's always asking for him, especially when we get in the car. Kameron likes to eat frozen peas and apparently Luke, who does not eat vegetables, loved eating them with Kameron. Luke and I went grocery shopping one day and I pulled peas out of the frozen section and handed them to Luke, who said, "Kammon!" Funny association!

That same grocery trip I pulled blueberries from the frozen section, handed them to Luke and he started licking the bag. He loves blueberries and must have been trying to express that. I laughed and he says, "Howie!" I could not stop laughing! I realized I must call for Howie when the boys do something funny, so Luke certainly knows the routine!

One night Luke was in the bathtub. He could hear someone on television going "weee we weee" and suddenly said "PIG!" I was confused for a moment and then busted out laughing. I could not believe that he recognized that. There is a commercial that plays on the nursery rhyme "the pig cried we we we all the way home." A pig is getting a ride home in a car and cries we we we out the window of the car. I don't think Luke has seen it THAT much and I didn't know he could recognize a pig, much less a weird looking one.

In the past week Brody has started babbling bs and ds (dabdabdab). He can sit up. He still rocks on his knees but one day was on his elbows and his feet with his rear in the air. Today he crawled up and down our little step. He's approached it, run into it, but has not climbed it until now. Unfortunately that was Luke's little play area where he wouldn't be bothered by Brody.

Brody Plays Peek-a-boo

While at my mom's over the weekend Brody started playing peek-a-boo! I was surprised to see him hide his face then pop up over and over. Its just so funny when they begin to do things for the first time.

October

We took the boys to the pumpkin patch, carved a pumpkin and went trick or treating twice! Luke was supposed to be Curious George and Howie was going to be the man in the yellow hat. But Luke would not put the costume on. So we dressed him in some slacks and a nice sweater and had him carry his plastic golf bag to carry his candy in. Brody had a warm penguin outfit to wear. Thursday before Halloween downtown Ferndale businesses allow kids to trick or treat, so we went store to store. Luke didn't really get it and wanted to eat the candy they were giving him. Saturday night we went to Lynden to trick or treat with some friends who live there. The town of Lynden trick or treats on Saturday when Halloween falls on a Sunday. It was fun to go around with a group of kids and Luke caught on to what he was supposed to do by watching them. The other kids were quite a bit older than Luke and ran from door to door. It was so cute to see Luke bringing up the rear, running as fast as he could carrying his little golf bag. Halloween night we hosted a "Glow Station" sponsored by our church where we handed out glow bracelets, hot cocoa, and candy. Luke and his friend Kameron were our station "security."

Catching Up - Luke

Luke is a smart, load of energy, all boy, and super friendly kid. Sometimes it amazes me that he's only a year and a half. He still loves music and sports. He is talking so much. I love hearing him say new words. The way he pronounces them is so cute. Here are a few:

Brody - Buda

piano - penew

towel - towie

spoon - bush

fork - shook

Uncle Dan - Nan

Grandma - Gabba

Jesus - Disa

on/off - on

vitamin - mona

He's beginning to recognize colors (purple, pink, yellow), shapes (circle) and can count to three, sometimes four. He loves to be thrown on the bed - we count 1-2-3 and throw him - now he calls the game "two." He loves Barney the dinosaur (Bada), Elmo (Elbow), and Thomas the Train (Tubby). We almost had him potty trained and suddenly he refuses to have anything to do with the toilet, though he loves reading the "Zoo Poo" potty training book and cheering for the kid who goes potty at the end of the book. He's very polite, usually saying please and thank you without being prompted. He loves to color. He loves stickers. He loves animals, especially cats. He can now reach the light switches so he turns them on saying "dark/ite."
When we tell him to smile he squints his eyes.

Catching Up - Brody

Brody is a sweet little boy. Can't believe he'll be 7 months tomorrow. At this point this is how I would use to describe him...

Sensitive - He's much more sensitive than Luke ever was. Loud noises, strange people, and random things make him cry or at least stick out the bottom lip. He seems to get his feelings hurt sometimes too.

Snuggly - He puts his head on my shoulder a lot. He appears to give hugs to me and others. He loves to be held. Up until a few weeks ago he'd wake up in the middle of the night and refuse to sleep anywhere but my bed.

Mama's boy - He's always got his eye on me. He'll follow me to the rooms I am in. Often he won't allow others to feed him. I have never been paged to come get Luke from the nursery...Brody is another story. Almost every other time I have been paged because he is unconsolable. At least I know I'm loved. :)

Loves Luke - He loves to watch Luke do just about everything. He watches Luke dance and then kicks his legs as if he's dancing too. He watches Luke play and we've noticed that Brody's favorite toys are Luke's favorite toys. He must see Luke play with them and he wants to too. He often follows Luke to other rooms of the house.

Tidbits about Brody - He wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning. He's up for about an hour and goes back down for a short nap. He's up for up to 2 hours before napping throughout the day. He WILL NOT allow you to rock him to sleep. Something Luke loved, Brody hates. It has been so nice to just lay him in his bed, give him his blankie (has to be a fleece blanket), he'll rub it in his hands and pull it over his face and go right to sleep. The sad thing has been that I get less snuggle time with him since I don't rock him to sleep or hold him while he sleeps. He took to solid good very quickly. We held him off because he didn't seem ready and suddenly he was grabbing food, moving his mouth like he was chewing, and watching us eat. He seemed to know how to use a spoon right away. We've just given him pureed fruits and veggies, mashed banana, and fruit in a pouch so he can suck on it. He doesn't seem to have any favorites. He learned to army crawl at about 5.5 months. He gets up on his knees and rocks but hasn't crawled yet. He seems to favor his left hand (and army crawls with his left arm and right leg) so we'll see if he turns out to be a lefty.