A week of notes

Prepare yourself--this is going to be a long one. I have been keeping brief notes on a piece of paper, but I just haven't gotten myself here. It seems like often when I sit at the computer, it's while I'm nursing Anders (hard to type) or when my brain is numb after a long day (hard to think).

First up--Erik and our Bible time. It is so rewarding to hear him talk about the Bible. One day last week, he got a Bible off the shelf, and said that he had some "questions" for us, it was our Bible quiz for the day. "How did Jesus come?" (answer: as a baby) "How did Jesus die? On the cross, on the river, or on the sea?" (answer: on the cross--I love the multiple choice!) "What did Jesus do? Anything, something, or nothing at all?" (Answer: something. To get this one right, you have to know Erik. "Anything" is most often used in "I don't want anything", so he uses it as a "nothing". And you get an automatic 100% if you understand that explanation.) "When did Jesus come?" (Answer: at Christmas. Erik then replied "Yes, and then he was 33.") It is such a pleasure to hear that he does retain what we talk to him about, and to know that even as a child he's learning. We have also started memorizing Matthew 5, the Beatitudes. He is enjoying that as well.

While we're on Erik and things he says--this comes with apologies to the Grandparents. While talking about birthdays, Erik said "I will have 60 birthdays." When asked "What happends after 60? What will you be?" Erik replied, "Old." The funniest part to us, though, was the next. He followed it with "And I can hear my voice--it will be like this: [insert talking in a low voice]. Now my voice is like this: [insert talking in a higher voice]." It's amazing to me the perception of children! We've never, of course, discussed voice pitch.

Anders continues to talk to us in all the ways that he can. Add to the previous list--tickle, bowl, duck, off, baa (for sheep), bed, on. Add to his signs list--music, sleep, phone, mama milk, stop, hot, hat, wheels on bus (to request the song), elephant, dad, banana, please. He also does a great lion roar--and he also picks up on some of the smallest things I do. In one animal book, he was reading it, and he would open the book, roar, and close it again. I realized he was imitating me--there was a picture of a lion, and he was roaring and then quickly closing the book, just like I do.

He also remembers a lot of songs. His favorite song we sing in the morning (we have daily prayer and praise music time in our house) is "Rise and Shine". When he hears it on one of the Bible Songs tapes in the car, he starts with a big belly laugh. He did the same thing today with "Father Abraham".

By far the cutest thing he's done this week just amazes me, at least in comparison to Erik. Anders loves dogs, or at least the concept of dogs (as he's had very little actual exposure to dogs). He loves to pant, and his modified sign for "dog" is to pant and pat his leg. One day a few weeks ago, we played pretend dogs with Erik. Fast forward to yesterday--Anders dropped to the floor, started crawling, and panting like a dog. When I said "Anders, are you a dog?" he started giggling hysterically. It was so cute to see him pretend to be a dog. Erik is just now starting to do some pretend play, so it amazed me to see it from Anders, at not quite 14 months.

Erik has also had a few "night owl" days recently. One of them was last Saturday night. I was exhausted after Carl and I had stayed up late on Friday night, and I decided to go to bed after Anders went to sleep, at 6:15. Erik was having so much fun playing with dad, he asked to stay up. Dad and son played board games (and Carl wins the award for persistence when faced with the Wiggles game one more time!), read books, and played together. Somewhere in there (remember, I slept through it all), when they were outside, Erik went to the stroller and asked to "go to another house," remembering the pastoral visits he'd done with Dad earlier in the week. So they did. And Erik, our early-to-bed son, finally went to sleep at 9.