He's Brilliant!!!!

So in our sons room, in addition to his toddler (fire truck) bed, there was a twin bed. On Wednesday when I went in to get him, he said "Ma'ma! I nigh-nigh!" and pointed at the twin bed. I looked up and noticed my little man took his pillow and cover off his little bed and at that point I realized what he was trying to say was "Mom I slept in this even bigger bed!" I'm not sure if he realizes how difficult it was for me to let him sleep in the toddler bed...but now he's wanting to sleep in a twin bed?!?!?!

About a month or so ago, we offered my mom that same twin bed and finally on Saturday night my husband moved it out to her house.

Sunday morning I was awakened by my little man saying, in an oh-so-distraught voice, "Ma-ma!!! Uh-oh!!! Uh-oh Ma-ma!!!" repeatedly.

So I went in his room and asked him what was wrong. He was standing where the twin bed used to be. He said "Uh-oh Ma-ma...no nigh-nigh!!!" Which meant only one thing....my son is a GENIUS!!!! He realized that this bed is missing from his room. What a proud moment as a mother to realize your kid is brilliant...but it gets better. I know. Big deal right?!? How could he not notice it was gone...wait for it....

The amazing feat happened later that day when I took him to my moms house. I went to put him for his nap and he saw his bed. He said, in an utterly excited tone, "Ooooooh Ma-ma Jacob Nigh-Nigh!!!!" See?!?! He's BRILLIANT!!!!! He noticed it was the bed from his room.

Every single day, even the unbelievably exhausting ones, I thank God for my son. He was a bear before birth and shockingly, he can still be a bear sometimes now, but oh man, it's these silly times that I LOVE being a mom.

So today, I thank God for the job of being a mom. My sister in law told me just the other day that she loves the way he says "Mommy." I couldn't agree more. It melts my heart everytime.

Tap Tap Revolution

So last night, my husband downloaded Tap Tap Revenge on his iPod Touch. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it but, it’s the finger version of Dance Dance Revolution. Any way, he downloaded it, and me being the arrogant/competitive person that I am, decided I knew I was totally going to beat my husband at this, so I say, “Lets have a contest.” After all, my husband has probably beaten me at one thing in the 7 years we’ve been together. I think we raced to the car one night after I gorged myself at dinner and he won that. But, other than that, I don’t think there has been anything, so, I’m pretty sure I’ve got this in the bag….I’m sure you all know where this is going.

So I take his iPod and I play first. This is the first time either of us had ever played. My score is a whopping 29,800 with 97% accuracy. I’m pumped!!!! I said “ok your turn.”

He says, “I don’t know why we’re doing this. We both know I’m going to do terrible.”

I encourage him, “You’ll do fine. Just play.” (thinking I know you’re going to stink it up let’s just get it over with so I can do my victory dance.)

He plays and guess what??!?!?! His score is 38,600. But his accuracy was only 67%….

So today, I thank God for multiple criteria.

So, here’s another tragic but much less important mini milestone in my life. My son, not even 2, is now sleeping in his very own big boy bed. How could it be?!?!?! How could he want to grow up so fast? Doesn’t he want to always stay mamas little boy? It doesn’t seem so. It also doesn’t seem that anyone else is having such a rough time with this as I am. My husband is excited for our son, and our son…well he LOVES his big boy bed. We got him one of those huge plastic fire truck beds. It has a light on the top, which he loves to turn on. He has adjusted extremely well to the new surroundings.

For about the past month, he has been jumping out of his crib every morning now. It happened one morning while I was sitting on the foot of my bed, after I had just woken up, trying to get up the strength to make it in to his room and get him out of his crib when all of a sudden his mischievous little face popped through my bedroom door, with a HUGE heart melting smile on it. “WHAT?!?!?!? How did you get in here?” My life hasn’t been the same since then.

We decided it was time (actually my husband decided and talked me into it being time) to move him into his new bed. So one afternoon while he napped, we took down his crib (he was sleeping in our bed, which is a milestone in-and-of itself) and put up his fire truck bed. We bought him 2 Disney Cars posters, a Disney Cars stop light lamp, a hamper and two sets of Cars sheets. When he woke up from his nap, he came into his new wonderland and was amazed and excited to see this new fascination.
Now, every morning I get woken up with the sound of him trying to turn his door knob, which he still can’t open, and escape his room. Thank God for the little things….old door knobs that are still toddler proof.

Mini milestones….what does that mean to you? It has been a month since we suffered the loss of a great friend of ours. It’s horribly sad. A 29 year old man with a young bride and a baby girl. Thoughts go through my head constantly, wondering if he knew how much we really loved him and his family. Thinking about how much I could have and should have been a better friend to him.

I have been praying constantly for this woman and her child. Wondering how they are going to make it. They can only make it by the grace of our loving God. Knowing that all things are for his glory and this horribly tragic thing is from God. We as humans aren’t capable of understanding why this happened. But we know through faith that our God is in complete control of this situation and his ever loving, ever guiding hand is once again, going to continue to lead, guide and up-lift all those that hurt because of this.

Life will continue to go on, we will continue to have mini milestones, and the memory of our friend will be all that we have left. So, as friends of Phil Penner, let’s do that. Let’s make sure we keep the memories alive. Let’s make sure his baby girl grows up to know what an incredible guy her father was. How her father loved the unlovable and cared for everyone. How this man was funny and kind and loving and someone who just really personified a Christ-like heart and attitude.

So, as this family is living what I would consider one of my biggest nightmares, I will keep on praying for them.