So I Don't Forget

I'd love to say that I'm organized.

I'm not.

It's okay; with me anyway.

Neither of our boys have a baby book.

Get over it, I have.

In an effort to capture at least a few memories of their childhood, I've started jotting a few things down in spiral notebooks. A green one for Jude, a blue one for Micah.

The entries are few and far between, but I know that someday they'll be all that I can remember.

Makes me wanna cry right now, but there's no time for that.

I've resolved to spend my time enjoying the moments,

not living behind the lens of a camera or hunched over a scrapbook.

No offense to those of you who enjoy either activity.

Like I said, I'm not organized.

Enjoying the moments as they come is

how I roll.

Speaking of 'moments', we've had a few of them lately.

The other night Micah and Jude were taking a bath. We had tried to get Micah to

go potty before getting in the bath, but he refused. A few minutes into the bath he said, "Oh,

I've gotta go pee!" and lifted his leg to jump out of the bath.

It was too late.

He peed in the bath.

Awesome.

Don't tell DHS, but I didn't drain the bath, they just kept on a soakin'.

A few minutes later I hear Micah singing,

"My God is so pee, so strong and so mighty,

there's nothing his pee cannot do.

The mountains are pee, the valleys are pee.."

Sigh.

A few minutes later he lined two of his rubber ducks up on the edge of the bathtub,

brought 'Scuba Steve' up to their level and said,

"Scuba Steve, do you know where Jesus is?"

I think he was pretending the ducks were Mary and Joseph, and

he was looking for baby Jesus.

Oh to be 3 again.

Jude has also been making many 'memories' as of late.

As many of you know, we've begun speech therapy with him. While he is quite young,

and isn't expected to have a large vocabulary at this point,

he speaks primarily in 'ghu's', spoken from the back of his throat.

Rarely does he open his mouth.

The speech therapist is a sweet grandma-aged woman who, once a month,

brings fun toys and makes even funnier noises with the toys.

Jude loves her.

She helps to educate us on what we can be doing to encourage his speech.

A few things have really helped, and more than anything, he's just getting older, and

'growing out of it', I think. Don't get me wrong, I still don't understand

about 75percent of what he 'says', but our communication has

gotten MUCH better.

I say 'our', because Jason and I are learning

what helps Jude, and what feeds the frustration.

We have also started showing him some sign language videos.

The lady is obnoxious, but the boys love her.

Go figure.

Jude has caught on way faster than I would've ever guessed,

further confirming that his communication/comprehension is

spot on, if not a little advanced.

He has started signing for different food items,

daily activities, and even desires.

Tonight he wanted a drink of my water. He signed 'want'.

This is big!

So fun...and encouraging for this doting mother.

A few of the signs he signs are:

-cat

-dog

-more

-milk

-sleep

-apple

-cheese

-clean up

-want

-please

-thank you

He has also started to say more words.

When we started in October, the only word he would say was 'Mama'.

He is now saying:

-Dada

-No-his new favorite ;)

-Bible

-Barbara...our neighbor lady

-What's that/this?

And just yesterday he said 'Bye' for the first time,

until then he had just waved good bye.

This hurdle has been used to refine my patience,

but has also made me so thankful for the

health that our boys do have.

We are blessed, indeed.