Snapshots from December

When I say "snapshots" I do not, of course, mean literal photos. In order to get those posted, I would need to learn how to transfer pictures from Shutterfly over to this blog. Apparently this phenomenon does not happen by yelling at the pictures or by dragging them off the Shutterfly page and dropping them at the edges of the screen. I am going to try taping actual photos to my computer screen. If you want to see them, then you'll have to come over.

OK, I will start my update from youngest to oldest...(visualize a cute picture of Jude now.)

Jude spent much of December (as well as November and January) arranging his matchbox cars into neat rows on every flat surface in our house. He is so cute as he hums and mutters and makes car noises to himself, lining every little car up end to end. And he gets so upset when they go crooked! Sometimes I just stand in the doorway of his room and watch him...and try not to worry about how much therapy he will need to overcome the OCD he obviously inherited from me. He gets as much joy from those straight little cars as I get from my bedroom closet-- with its tidy rows of garments all grouped by color, and the cute little subsets neatly organized by texture and sleeve length...(I would post a picture here if I knew how)

In addition to being a fine dancer (see previous post), Jude is now singing! I will often hear his deep little tenor voice floating under the door of his room in the morning, blasting forward from the back seat of the van, or floating up the stairwell. And he really is singing! He usually hits two or three sustained notes at the top of his range, then throws in some quarter notes a little lower down, and he almost always ends with a deep, round, full-bodied "OHHHH", which he holds until his breath gives out. I would describe his sound as a nice blend of southern gospel and opera, with just a touch of what could be described as "jaunty pirate".


OK, on to Isaiah. (Imagine an adorable head shot of Isaiah right here--maybe the one of him fitting an entire serving spoon into his mouth at the dinner table. That one is pretty much captures his essence.)

Speech has made this child endlessly entertaining. A few weeks ago, he asked me to put lotion on him after his bath, which I declined to do for some reason. A couple minutes later he bounded out of the bathroom, smiled sweetly and said, "It's OK that you didn't give me lotion, Mom. I used nose-blow." At which point, he proudly displayed his chubby arm--with its tiny hairs paralyzed in stiff swirls of snot. You have to admire his ingenuity!

Another (slightly alarming) witticism occurred shortly afterward when Jamey and I were in the kitchen. Isaiah tried to come in and snag some food--a favorite pastime of his when he is bored or tired or just awake. I informed him that there would be no snacks that close to dinnertime. He looked at me for a moment, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in his little round head. Finally he said, "Mommy, someday I'm going to be bigger than you, and then...I'm going to EAT!!"

I am praying for him every day.


Well, I will be posting the rest of the update tomorrow for three reasons.

1. Jamey is watching a Tim Hawkins DVD right now and I am getting distracted by his (and my own) laughter.

2. It is so cold up here that I had to put my little gloves on, and my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys.

3. I just reread what I wrote and it was so long that I got bored at the end. (Sarah Painter once told me that shorter posts are better and she knows everything about blogs. She does, really!)


(When I say I will be posting "tomorrow", I mean any day that follows this one--not necessarily adjacent, but hopefully in the same month. That is all any homeschooling mom can promise:)