Happy New Year!

The boys have finally calmed down from the excitement of Christmas. Carter is being particularly sweet to me, wanting to climb in my lap and "snuggle buggle" with me several times a day. At this very moment, he's placing my crown (wedding tiara) on my head. He told me, "Don't worry, I'll be very careful." So, here I sit with my crown on my head. Unfortunately, I don't feel too empowered by it.
Yesterday, we had 10 extra family with us at church. It was fun trying to keep all 5 kids, ages 6 and under, in one pew and quiet. Then we all went to Ramsey's for lunch. It was fun to catch up with Nathan's cousins. The amazing thing was that my old friend Lora and her whole family came in while we were there. She is visiting from Indianapolis for the holiday. Just as Carter's Mickey Mouse pancakes were delivered, she leaned down and asked "Hey Carter, do you remember me?" He reluctantly took his eyes off his pancakes and looked her square in the eyes, and seriously requested, "Can we talk about this later?" She burst out into loud cackles and proceeded to tell her whole party what Carter had just said. I just closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I told her I was sorry but she really didn't hear me. She was too busy laughing. Later, I walked back to her table to talk about visiting with them before they leave Lexington and her husband asked Carter, "Hey Carter, you're getting so big! Did you have a big Christmas?" Carter looked at him, sized him up and asked, "who are you?" He responded he was Peyton Manning the quarterback for the Colts. Carter, unaffected and obviously unimpressed, asked, "Who are you?" Lora and her whole family howled with laughter. Then, as they they focused on Will, Carter disappeared. I looked and saw him at the other end of the restaurant talking to each table. I quickly, and politely as possible, excused myself and found out that he was asking each patrons at every single table "Did you have good Christmas?" Each table seemed charmed by this blond 4 year old spreading holiday cheer. Heaving a sigh of relief, I was happy he wasn't asking each one of them for money or candy.
Right now, I'm sitting on the couch, in my tiara, between my two boys. Carter on my right, looking through a stack of toy catalogues left over from Christmas and Will on my left trying to press any button he can on the computer. Carter is still in his pajamas, and Will has removed his pants and socks. Will is whining because he was hitting himself in the head with a small jewelry box. Carter, without even looking up from his catalogue responded matter-of-factly, "You did it yourself, Will." And that seemed to make sense to Will. Made sense to me.
Now it's time to get everyone in the car and head to the grocery. Time to spread some more cheer in the neighborhood.

I'll Love You Forever

Tonight, before Carter fell asleep next to me, he told me that he would love me even if I were dead or frozen. That is good to hear. He asked me about 30 minutes earlier if I would love him if he was frozen so I told him about the story of the mother who would crawl into her son's room and say "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm alive, my baby you'll be." He also asked me if being dead hurts. But then added, "you get to go to heaven and then get your glorified body, and come back with Jesus." He knows his stuff.
This sweet moment was actually uncharacteristic from the last few days. Christmas takes a toll on four year old boys who get to go toy shopping with Papa. When he left on this excursion, we were assured that he would be picking out one toy. Of course, this is my father we are talking about and he's, well, a soft touch, too. His intention was to get Carter a big firetruck he could ride on and that actually squirted water. Carter told him that he really just wanted a fire truck he could push around inside. Somewhere in this shopping spree, Carter said that he really had all he wanted for Christmas - "I love God and I have God in my heart." I'm sure that didn't hurt his prospects.
But these are the sweet, good things you want to remember. I don't want to remember his back-talking and stubborness that resulted in no less than 3 disciplinary actions before Christmas Dinner. As the day wore on, he seemed to calm down and be less overwhelmed. He was definitely more charming. Unfortunately, the bad attitude returned the next morning and has reappeared every day since. It gets so tiring to continually correct inappropriate behavior.
But tonight he was sweet and cuddly. Giggling and beautiful.
In stark contrast was his delightful little brother. Will was cute the whole time. He got irritable around bed time but every other minute, he was smiling and entertaining. He learned from his Papa about muscles. If you ask him to see his muscle, he will rub his belly. His Papa's corresponding muscle is much bigger. All in good time, grasshopper. He said new words like horse. And showed off how smart he is. He understands so much of what we are saying. You can tell him to do things and he does them! Of course, Carter can understand these words of direction but refuses to follow them. So I'm not sure if we are amazed that he understands or that he actually does what we ask. He toddles around the house, with his blond hair sticking up in the back and a happy, innocent smile illuminating his face. He's like his mama, though. He doesn't like to share his food. He, Carter, and I were all sharing an orange and he would get angry when Carter would take his part. It's hard to encourage him to share with happiness when you know how he's feeling. It was a good orange, dripping sweet.
We are bird sitting for some of our friends, and Will is fascinated by these tiny creatures. He points at them and smiles like they are preternatural beings. They chirp and get excited every so often and he is drawn to their cage. He utters raspy giggles and is delighted by them head to toe. We'll be sad to see them go home on Sunday. Of course, these are the best kind of pets - they get to go back home once their novelty has worn off.
Finally, as Carter's and Will's presents formed a Mount Everest in our living room, Carter said Christmas was his favorite day. I said "because you get all these fun toys?" "No," he answered "because it's all about God!" "Oh, of course" "And all the CANDY!" "Right."
Oh, and don't play this kid at Candyland. He cannot be beaten.

This is Carter's Favorite Holiday

The last two days have been full of activity - getting ready for Christmas and Santa Claus and Mimi and Papa. It's hard to know how to even start. Let's begin with the surprise visit from our friend Prentiss. He is an old friend of ours, who lives in San Francisco and is excellent at relating the crazy things that happen to him. He's a structural engineer, athletic, and pretty random. He enjoys doing things that are different. For example, he picked us up from the airport in S.F. wearing a bright orange KY federal prison jumper and a cowboy hat. He really enjoys coming over and getting our kids all riled up and then leaving. Someday, he'll find the perfect girl and then he'll have a house full and we will return the favor - only we'll know how to do it better.
Anyway, he dropped by last night and Carter immediately switched on for our company. Prentiss tried to catch up with us while this 4 year old Tazmanian Devil rotated fiercely around him. Then, the eye of the storm. Carter plopped on the couch and announced that he would like to say a prayer for us all. We all supported that idea, secretly hoping it would calm the energy level. He instructed us to close our eyes. Baby Will assumed the position - head bowed and hands loosely clasped. We all bowed our heads and then Carter said, "I'll just start out by saying 'God, thank you...' you know." We thought maybe we were supposed to all say something that we were thankful for and he suddenly started, "God, thank you for all the people who come to our house. This is my favorite holiday because it's all about YOU" <> "and because I get all kinds of toys." I peeked around the room and Nathan and Prentiss still had their eyes closed and both were struggling to not to laugh out loud. Carter finished up his prayer and Prentiss was moved to clap. Carter was visibly startled by the clapping. Nathan said, "we're clapping for God." Carter said "Yay God!"
Will, on the other hand really took up with Prentiss which really shocked us. Will hangs close to his immediate family, and his mama in particular. He leaned right up next to Prentiss' leg and drank from his sippy cup. Prentiss seemed to like it; he likes kids though. We were even further delighted when Will spent the entire time in the nursery at church today and didn't even cry at all. We are buzzed every week to come get our miserable little boy. We were so surprised, in fact, we kept looking at the pager wondering if maybe it was broken.
Tonight Will was being so funny. Nathan told Carter to take his finger out of his nose. Will, sitting in my lap, hears the word nose and starts squeezing his nose and saying "gonk gonk" (honk honk). I praised him for being correct. Then I said,"what do you do with your nose? Smell?" and he held an imaginary something up to his nose and inhaled loudly a couple of times. I asked him where a ball was and he leaned over and started looking toward the toy box. I said "yep, that's where the balls are." It's truly amazing the things he understands although he can't speak too much.
Tonight we decorated some allergy free sugar cookies. They are very tasty! Carter really loaded them down with all kind of different sprinkles. After Will ate a small one, he cried so hard and his little hands desperately made the sign for "Please" that I couldn't tell him no. I found one with no icing and gave it to him. He looked up at me with his big, round, blue eyes, tears trickling down his face, and gently took the small star shaped cookie. Then I realized why he's partial to me. I'm a soft touch.