More about Jude

He is cracking me up. Today I brought the boys with me to church to help set up for a fundraiser, and as we left Jude stopped for a drink from the drinking fountain.  I heard him nonchalantly say to himself, "Oh, up my nose -- I'm ok." 

He burritos himself in a big blanket and pretends to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  He tells me he's eating an apple, and is going to have some ice cream after.

When I tuck him into bed, we talk about what we're going to do the next day.  He gets this wide-eyed look of thrill.  And then he'll tell me a few times he's going to go to sleep, then he'll wake up and snuggle me, and then we'll go DOWNSTAIRS ("downstairs" is always very loud and celebratory).

He draws hearts and circles with sidewalk chalk and colors them in, staying pretty much in the lines.  Other things he draws are maybe not so discernible, but he drew a bunch of "temples" the other day; the next morning he told me, "I need to go check on my temples." 

So many other charming things, but it just feels so tragic that so much of the sweetness is in his delivery. I hope I remember all the little nooks and crannies of his 3-year-old self.

Why Jude is Extra Awesome Lately

• He is just so darn agreeable when it's something he agrees with ;).  Whether it's mapping out our day, getting a snack, discussing what happens in the hungry caterpillar book, or what he'd like to bring to the park, his sing-song voice is pretty great. 
• Snugglier than ever.  He sat on my lap with his arms wrapped around my neck for a good 20 minutes today during lunch, and peppered my cheeks with kisses and "zerbies".  He all of a sudden noticed I was wearing red lipstick (his fave color).  He started to examine the situation very closely, "I see wed....I see TWO BIG WED ONES!" I was laughing so hard.
• He's ALL ABOUT EASTER.  I think the love he feels for the books Runaway Bunny, Goodnight Moon, candy, and the Christmas-nocturnal-gift-depositing-crossover all are making this very thrilling for him.  "Easter's coming to OUR HOUSE!" has been announced many times this week.
• The pretending/creating/artistic eye are still omnipresent around here.  He crumpled and folded a scrap of paper the other day and said, "Look, mom!  It's Jesus Christ!"  I was eating a salad today and he pointed to the lettuce and said, "Look!  A fwog (frog)!" 
• I left the backyard door open a couple of weeks ago while he played outside (he flips if it's shut) and a little gecko ventured into the house.  I didn't even see it until Jude pointed to the floor and asked, "What's THAT?"  I didn't succeed in ushering it out, and it stayed under the fridge until the next day.  Jeff scooted it out the door very nicely and Jude was completely stoked watching it climb up the wall outside the front door.  We named it Bob the Lizard, and of course it has been a topic of much conversation ever since.  We have spotted a gecko or two since (heck, it COULD be the same one, but who knows?) outside the house and Jude acts like he's seeing an old pal.
• Cute mispronunciations:
• Aunt Lidabit for Aunt Elizabeth
• Pitard for Guitar
• Rainbow for Rhino
• Vibut for his friend Violet
• He has been announcing "My birthday's coming!"  The other night as I tucked him into bed he started telling me how his birthday party was going to be and even told me it could be "Our birthday.  You and me."  Nice.  Thanks, Jude!"
• I was making crepes and every time I added an ingredient to the batter he would growl, "Niiiicccce!" 
• "That's awesome."  "This is awesome."  "I'm awesome."  3 sentences that are awesome.
• Much to my delight, he's completely excited about doing everything he can possibly do on his own, on his own.  He wants to put on his own shoes, buckle the chest buckle in his car seat, do the entire toilet routine from start to finish, "cut" his food, and so much more.  I know it's a double-edged sword since he's not the fastest at some of these things, but how sweet is that 3-year-old autonomy??  So earnest and enthusiastic.
• Ever since he stopped napping in October I've been so worried he is under-slept.  Last Saturday he fell asleep in the car, transferred to his bed, and napped for about 2.5 hours.  And then was up till midnight.  I think he's ok without the naps.
• Jude is already plotting with Graham against me.  "Gam.  Come on, let's go in da bafroom!"  (Meaning the master bafroom, which is not baby proofed and I hate it when they're in there for more than 2 seconds.)  I heard him and said, "Jude, you're busted!" and he got the sneakiest grin on his face.  Cute.  I'm in trouble.

I can't get enough of this sweet little boy.  I hope I remember every little mannerism.

Why Graham is Extra Awesome

• He's almost walking!  He will push himself to standing all the time, but it's almost always just so he can dive bomb/trust-fall onto a person or a pillow.  He's shuffled a few steps, but is much more excited to stick the trusty crawl.
• He says, "Yeah!" especially if the question is, "Do you want some milk?" or "Do you want to swing?" or "Do you want to go down the slide?"
• He also says, "Mmmmmmm-DAA!" all day long just because it's so much fun.
• When I hold him on my hip, he holds onto my thumb that's holding his leg.  It's these little things that just about kill me.
• He started giving Jude zerberts whenever he's got some skin exposed.  It's hilarious.  He'll pat it a couple of times and then go at it with the "zerbies," as Jude calls them.  Hysterical. 
• I still can't take his tantrums seriously -- in fact, they almost always make me laugh. The things that make him despair or furious are things like not getting to splash around in the toilet, eat my phone, or chalk, so I just don't feel bad for him. 
• He will chug more milk than a 15 year old football player.  Our pediatrician reminded me a couple months ago that it's best to keep it to 16 ounces and under each day and I had to stifle a giggle.  I lose count of the ounces.  He just drinks and eats A LOT.

High 5, G.

EUROPE 2014

When we were newlyweds, we planned to go to Europe for our 1st anniversary.  By the time we celebrated 1 year, I was 36 weeks pregnant.  So that got shelved.  And ever since then the timing was never right, until [cue heavenly choir] nowwwww!


Medium-length story short, we found really great deals on airfare to Copenhagen for this month.  Michelle and Mark agreed to come watch the kids.  We bought the tickets and tried to convince ourselves we were really going!


We got back last Saturday. It was obviously so much fun.  We had about 3.5 days in Copenhagen and 2.5 in Amsterdam. 


Before I go upload a billion pictures, I would like to pay tribute to one of my favorite parts of this whole trip that had little-to-nothing to do with the museums, castles and general exoticness that one travels to Europe to focus on:


We got there Monday late afternoon, partied a bit, and then went back to our hotel where we crashed.  Alas, I woke up at 3am and did not get back to sleep.  Stupid jetlag.  Once I gave up on sleeping, I pulled out the jug of Coke Lite we'd bought at a 7-11 the night before, I put in my ear buds, and turned on Taken on the iPad (that movie seemed most appropriate.  Also did you know the streaming content on Netflix varies from country to country, and there is way more stuff in Europe?).  Jeff woke up and said, "This is like heaven for you, huh."  Yes, yes it was.


More later!

More about the little boys we have

The other day Jude said out of nowhere, "My brother is very special."
He snuck into the office today and when I summoned him back he strutted into the room with his shoulders back and said with a sigh, "I was just working a little bit."  I love this age of confident willingness to chip in and help!
He has been taking the lead on park trips.  Several times this week we'd all be in the family room/kitchen area hanging out, minding our business, and then he would suddenly say (loudly), "HEY!  You guys ready to go to the park??" 
Graham was trying to get at a toy Jude was holding and he goes, "No, Gammy!  Time out!"  Pfffft! 
He has started to roar like lions, bears, dinosaurs, tigers, etc. just because he feels like it. 
He adorably mispronounces:

• foonie for smoothie
• oatman for oatmeal
• vroom for motorcycle -- he refuses to even try to say the word! :)
• lolo for loader truck
• payground for playground
• paygoop for playgroup
• curr for color
• free for three
• cruck for truck
• That's all I can think of for now............................

Jude does not want me out of his sight lately unless he has something more exciting on the horizon, like his weekly playgroup.  He didn't even want me to go upstairs to tell Jeff that dinner was ready yesterday.  I'll enjoy it; he's been so grown up lately, I know all his squishy smallness will be gone in a flash.


Graham has taken to balls like I've never seen before in a buck so young.  Of course I'm hopelessly biased, but he is so coordinated with throwing and stopping balls, I'm pretty sure he's uncommonly gifted. If you put a ball in front of him he'll lift it way up over his head, and chuck it.  Then he shrieks with glee and chases it, and it starts all over again.  If the ball is rolling by a few feet away, he'll lean over at just the right moment to stop it with his pudgy hand. Sometimes we will sit several feet away from it and pass or roll it back and forth.  Graham loves this so much he now throws lots of things.  Like he'll take a sip of milk, then chuck the cup. :)


He's also my little shadow, loves to yell "DAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!", and pulled out a chunk of my hair the other day.  He loves to put his hand on my mouth because he knows I'll kiss it. 


I love these phases they're in.

"The Big D"

For Christmas, Jude and I got Disneyland passes.  This gift was a subject of some debate.  On one hand, I don't want our kids to think Disneyland is no big deal, or be spoiled to go there so often.  On the other hand, having it so close is a perk of living in Southern California, passes used often make entrance pretty darn cheap, and it's an activity that we ALL enjoy.  You know those gem activities when you're in the trenches of raising young, dependent children, those activities that both parent and child are happy to participate in?  Jeff wouldn't be able to go much because the passes we got are blacked-out most Saturdays, so he didn't want one, but I convinced him that he'd never forgive himself if he wasn't there for Jude and Graham's first visit to Disneyland. He got a one-day pass.

One Saturday in January, the boys were still a teensy bit wobbly in the tummy, but we had nothing pressing on the schedule, Jeff didn't see a weekday coming up he could escape the office, we realized black-out days don't apply to the first time an annual pass is used, and so we filled the bottom of the stroller with Pedialyte, Gatorade, cheerios, granola bars, and zipped up the 5 to "The Big D" (as my parents used to call it). 

It was a little crazy to be the parents in this situation.  I kept watching the kids thinking, "So this time we're the parents bringing our kids here??"  Very surreal, and it felt like a very big step in parenthood.  But so much fun. Jude vacillated between overjoyed and overwhelmed, and Grahamsky was just happy to be along.  Here is some photo proof of the day:

Dumbo

Screenshot of Jeff's Instagram of the obligatory flower Mickey Mouse family photo -- it looks like I was digging my nails into Jeff's shoulder/arm, but I promise I wasn't.

Sssshhhocking!  Disneyland wore out my baby.

Before he got worn out, though, he blew out his diaper.  (I did bring a spare outfit, but he looked so cute and pleased in his nakedness, plus he'd pinched Jude's cup of Gatorade, and I obviously had to take a picture.)

While we waited 45 minutes in line to see "Mickey" (see total biff below), the boys played in line like hooligans.

About 3/4 of the way through the long line to see Mickey at his little house in Toon Town, we realized there were only little girls surrounding us in line, and the closer we got to the house it was very pink; we'd gotten in the wrong line and we were going to see Minnie. Woops!  Luckily, the boys didn't give a woopdeedoo.  In fact, this was a stop we made pretty early in the day when Jude was a little weirded out by the characters.  He would freeze up a bit and cling to us but I could see it in his eyes, he was suspicious, pitied them, and admired them all at once.

Main Street really is still exciting to me!



Meeting McQueen "Muhkeen!" blew Jude's mind.  We also saw Mater, and Red the Fire truck.  He still talks about this.  It's like when my mom had been reading the Cinderella book to me and Elizabeth for months on end, and on our first trip to Disneyland, within a few minutes of entering the park, Cinderella approached us on Main Street, knelt down, and gave Elizabeth a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  My mom said it brought tears to her eyes, and she wanted to ask, "How did you know?!"  McQueen didn't kiss Jude on the cheek, but if you tickle his headlights he giggles, and the whole thing just made our day!

Jeff and I were both so impressed with Radiator Springs.  On some rides Jude would not let himself be excited until it was over.  He'd sit with a deer-in-headlights face until it was over, and then as soon as his feet hit solid ground he would jump up and down and yell about how it was the best thing he'd ever done in his life :).  A major error on the part of MOI: after 6 hours at the park, the boys were fading and we figured we had enough time for one more ride before the boys would be deranged by exhaustion.  I thought it would be awesome to go on a ride that's been around since the 80s -- aka a ride I'd gone on as a child.  The shortest wait was for Pinocchio, so that's what we picked.  As soon as the safety bar was lowered and the lights dimmed I realized this was a baaaad move. And with each subsequent millisecond the ride got scarier and scarier, and it took Jude all of 2 seconds to start wailing, and then he wailed louder and louder.  Do kids even enjoy that ride anymore??  It's all loud carnival music, creepy images popping out at you, you get eaten by a whale, and there was nothing to do but sit and live through it and hope the car we were on would pick up some speed.  Jeff and I had a pretty good laugh about it, but we booked it outta there and of course they fell asleep before their car seats were even buckled.  He seems to have tucked that nightmare somewhere deep into the dark corners of childhood terror memories, and has not mentioned it since. :)


And since we've gone about once a week.  I'm such a lucky mom to get to go with my kids and my friends -- they love it every time!  Jude dances while watching street performers do Newsies numbers, loves the Jungle Cruise, Monsters Inc. ride, and I think next time I'll try Pirates of the Caribbean. 

J&G

More stuff:

That little hand: Jude can be quite the Mr. Bossy Boots.  Sometimes this results in me saying, "Jude, I'm the mom."  Sometimes we'll be driving and he tells me which direction to go, and he does the cutest thing guiding me with his hand.  Fingers together, his thumb extended, he holds his arm out and ushers me (or tries to).  "This way, Mommy, go this way."  Sometimes we aren't going the way he wants me to and wails from his car seat, unfortunately.

Sometimes Jude says, "Hello, my mommy!"

He's way into "I did it a' by mysef!" but is very kind in crediting everyone he loves with creating anything he likes around the house.  Like, Grandma made his blocks. :)  I ask him a lot "Jude, are you happy?" so now he will just volunteer it, "Mama, I'm happy."  On Sunday he said, "Mom, snuggle me."  "Ok."  Sometimes I really want to call him my baby boy, but don't you dare make that mistake.  He will sob (like a baby) and say, "Noooo I a BIG BOYYYYYY!" 

Whenever I'm on the floor, usually kneeling or squatting and changing Graham's diaper, Jude comes up behind me and tackles me, knocks me down or throwing his arms around my neck and choking me. They beat me up every single day.  They drop heavy toys or objects on my bare feet, pull my hair, Graham is obsessed with chewing on anything and his razor teeth hurt every time, he bonks his gigantic head into my cheek bone and/or gives me a fat lip, really, I get pummeled on the regular.

Graham has been such a mom's boy lately and I'm loving it.  He hides his face in my shoulder, gives me coy smiles, and only wants me to put him down when he thinks I'm staying close by.  But on the other hand, while we're out and about, he wants to be free of a buckle or human hip of any kind and wants to crawl wherever he fancies.  Speed crawling just like Jude did, putting holes in his pants, probably a month or two away from walking. 

Graham is still my crazy bottomless pit, eating at all times of the day as if I only allow him a lettuce leaf for meals.  He says, "MMMMMMMMM" whenever he sees food or I put him in his high chair.  He also says "uh-oh" which makes me worry that out of all the words he hears in our house, that's the one he hears most consistently :).  He loves to pick up a ball, throw it a few feet, laughing hysterically, and then he chases it, and repeats.  He buzzes his lips and squishes his chin down to glorify the chub under his there.  I want to eat him.

My favorite thing from today: Jeff came home from work and I ran upstairs to take a shower.  As I came downstairs I could hear laugh-squealing.  All 3 of my boys were wrestling and jumping on the giant teddy bear, Graham was wild with delight to be in on the frenzy and kept pouncing on the bear and biting it, it was all pretty great.

Jude, my 3 year old

This little hunk is going to be 3 tomorrow, and I don't really know what to do about that.

It just is crazy how much he's changed in the last year!  Not just with speech, but he's taller, toilet trained, his imagination is exploding, he's in a "big boy bed," not napping (humph!), eating almost anything, and just is so darn grown up.  I see how suddenly this growth means I must relinquish some amount of control.  I don't even want to think about the control withdrawals that await me in years to come!  (sob!)

He turns his giant bear into anything from a "boat in the ocean!" to a "wocketship" to a tent.  He sat in the laundry basket and it was a boat, and he took his nerf gun and made it a screw driver to fix a leak at the bottom of the vessel.  He will point to a crack in the sidewalk and tell me it looks like the letter Y.  He counts to 10, usually when he's letting me know how many M&Ms he wants as a reward for relieving himself in the potty.

Which brings me to: potty trained is AWESOME.  I was not looking forward to it because I was sure we'd be stopping every 20 minutes of life to go to the bathroom.  I also worried about it dragging on and on forever, and that he'd have accidents all the time.  I mean, he's so strong-willed!  Everyone kept telling me to wait until he was ready.  I wondered, "What if when he's 'ready' it happens to be when he's 5 years old?!"  Well once again all my concern was for naught, because the readiness dawned at 2.9ish years of age, and he has done an amazing job.  Only a handful of accidents, and I wouldn't even have minded keeping him in a pull-up at night, but he doesn't need one!  I'm so proud of him!  And buying diapers for 1 child is so very nice.  He's very proud of himself for #2 and will tell me all about just how he pulled off the job.  I also love having him potty trained because his little bum is so adorable without a thick wall of diaper covering it! 

Which brings me to: he's very into modesty lately.  What happened to the little boy who would do anything to run around in a loin cloth??  He freaks out if he doesn't have all his clothing on. 

Lately the things Jude says most frequently are:



• I wanna hold you. (The snuggle inclination is still at a steady incline.)
• I come with you?  (Which always makes me chuckle -- he ALWAYS comes with me.)
• Gammy, come pay wis me!
• I wanna bite it.  (This is referring to food.  He doesn't bite anyone, but he pinched Graham today.)
• I need Daniel Tiger.
• I need [insert food, blocks, candy in the grocery store check-out line, etc. etc. etc.].
• Mommy came back!
• It's DEEEEElicious!
• I love Grandma/Grandpa/Mimi/Papa/trucks/Gammy/Daddy -- I hope when I'm not around he's reporting to other people that he loves his dear old MOM!
• This is my Gammy.  (He loves to introduce his little brother.)

He said to me the other morning, arms outstretched, as he came over to my side of the bed upon waking up, "Welcome!"  Welcome, indeed!  He runs me ragged, makes me laugh, and I couldn't ever explain to him how much we love having him.  Happy bday, Juju!

Graham is ONE!

How amazingly cruel it is that we can't rewind.  Our Grahammy's first year has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Each day I knew that I was in the middle of something singularly wonderful with this cherub on my hip.

Obviously, being the first child has its bonuses and drawbacks.  Jude got me (us) all to himself for 2 years.  But, I was a novice, and that dragged a lot of minuses with it.  Graham had to share me from the minute I got home from the hospital, but I knew what I was doing (mostly).  I also didn't really care much about what developmental milestones were on the horizon, I was able to appreciate each minute just for what it was and where he was in his babyness.  I had made it through 2 years of parenting Jude, I knew I could make it through with Graham, so I was ready to relish.

On top of this, Graham is, in my humble opinion, just perfect.  And he makes us all happier and better.  There is no grump he could not charm out of a funk; he is the ultimate elixir of joy.  These last several weeks I can see some of the pre-toddler angst as he wants to keep up with Jude but lacks some of the mobility, but it is his inclination to enjoy life.  I wonder daily how I got so lucky to be mother to these two boys, and I'm trying really hard not to screw them up.

The LDS church promises joy in this life and in the life to come if we are faithful.  I've tried to always live in a way that would make Heavenly Father happy.  With my husband and our children, I feel God has given me this joy beyond measure, despite my many, many flaws and the mistakes I make.  It's like Elder Holland once said, "There is theology in the family."  Now I'm going off on a tangent, but as I look back on this last year with Graham, and the last 3 years with Jude, and last 4 years with Jeff, the love is so sacred, I know in my heart it could not touch this life only.  This is stuff that is absolutely heavenly, and meant to go on forever.

Graham, thanks for being my baby.  We can't do anything but love you!

From the mouth of Jude

Walking by this interesting display in Nordstrom (a huge cage with a mannequin inside it), Jude goes, "Mom!  Look at THAT time out!" Like he was thinking, "What poor sap blew it big enough to wind up in THERE??"


As I tucked him into bed tonight: "Thanks, mom.  It's Chistmas time."


Jeff was tucking him into bed the other night and said, "Jude, I'm just going to rest here for a minute."  Jude pointed silently in the direction of our bedroom and after a few seconds exasperatedly said, "No, sleep in there, with mom!"


In his car seat: "Mom, I'm a little stuck!"  Well, yes my child, that is the whole point.


That's all I can think of for now.  I love his little ways!

Happy Anniversary + Happy Bday (to Jeff)

I shouldn't make a habit of combining these 2 extraordinary days in my calendar, but this year that's how it's clearly going down.

1. Happy anniversary (a week ago) to me and Jeff!  4 years have gone by faster than fast.  Our anniversary was on a Thursday, and it's so much more fun to celebrate on a weekend when Jeff doesn't have work the next day, so we saved the real party for Saturday night when my parents watched the kiddie bops.  We had a nice dinner, and walked around The Spectrum, and I discovered in Nordstrom that they make Spanx for men.  :)

While we were driving to dinner we each were in charge of thinking of our 4 favorite memories from our marriage so far.  I have more than 4, but the ones I picked are:

1) The night before we moved into our house/last night in Huntington, we took a break from packing to get some dinner at Claim Jumper (we had a gift card from our wedding).  Their big mistake that night was seating us in a booth, because every time our server came by we were making out.  This also bleeds into us moving, which is a hilarious memory in hindsight because we totally thought it would be cake to do it on our own.  We hadn't been married long enough to accumulate anything.  HA!  It was brutal, and we wished we'd taken people up on their offers to help, and we were so sore the next week.
2) Jude's birth
3) Graham's birth
4) Last Halloween, some friends came in to visit after they trick-or-treated around our neighborhood.  The wife accidentally walked off with my cell phone.  After tearing apart the house looking for it, we realized what had happened.  These friends, though, had just moved several miles away, I had never been to their new house, and had no GPS or way of contacting anyone till I got my phone back the next morning.  While Jeff ate breakfast, I saw him doodling on a piece of paper.  He was actually drawing me a detailed map of how to get to their new house, complete with "Map not to scale" and "This way to Sonic" written on it.  It was just straight up cute.  I kept the map.

So, to the love of my life, I'm so glad we got married, and I'm so glad you were born.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

Yoga for the Conleys

In September, I woke up to phone calls and text messages from Elizabeth and my high school BFF, Lani, urgently telling me to call them.  I knew someone had died.  And a few minutes later, Elizabeth confirmed it. 


Ryan Conley grew up in Irvine with us.  He ran around with Sarah and her posse of sweet, silly, good teens, found his high school sweetheart Tiffany (who later became his wife) in that posse, and we all loved him.  His older sister Lisa is a friend of mine, their parents are awesome, in sum all the Conleys are wonderful and you can't do anything but love them.  I remember when Sarah had her 15th birthday party, there was a Talent Show portion and Ryan (and another guy) stood up and sang Build Me Up, Buttercup a capella, which I thought was very impressive because aren't 16 year old boys supposed to be self-conscious and unwilling to put their pride on the line??


Ryan died in a car crash on September 8, leaving behind his wife Tiffany (sister to Lani and one of Sarah's BFFs) and two young daughters.  The Irvine Stake is all very close, and Ryan's death was felt by everyone.  I won't go into all the grief because every time I try to write it, I don't finish this blog post because it puts me in a funk.  But it was inspiring to see the way people rally in a time like this.  I know food was on their doorstep, money donated, Elizabeth raised money to have a Kershisnik painting sent to Tiffany; it was a testament to the wonderful person Ryan is and how much people love his family as well as Tiffany's. 


One of my closest friends, Lisa Ashton (Lyla's mom), never even met Ryan but wanted to help.  She's a long-time yoga instructor and enthusiast (read: obsessive), and she wanted to donate the proceeds of a yoga class to Tiffany and her daughters.  We set up a date and time, and it was held at the Irvine LDS Stake Center (incidentally where Ryan and Tiffany just met).


One thing you have to know about Tiffany and her family is they are ultra bubbly.  Happy, loving go-getters, and in the handful of times I spoke with Tiffany in the week following Ryan's death she had a smile on her face and was doing her best to stay positive.  That's just the way they are.  They are full of faith and positive thinking.


We got to "Yoga for the Conleys", and my mat was next to the still-peppy Tiffany.  There was a good turn out, and everyone was having fun.  Once we were done with all the stretching and planking and downward-doggying and warrior posing, Lisa led us into the traditional "Final Shavasana" where we get to relax, lie down, close our eyes and listen to the music.  All through the class the music had been purely instrumental, but not long after the Shavasana began, a song came on Lisa's mix with lyrics that seemed custom made for Tiffany's situation, all about dealing with trials and receiving heavenly help and hope, and I opened one eye to look at Tiffany, who was silently crying.  I wanted to reach over and grab her hand, but was hesitant because sometimes I like to grieve by myself and didn't want to intrude.  Right then Lisa, who had been walking quietly around the class, swooped in behind Tiffany and started rubbing her temples, wiping away her tears, massaging her neck, held her hands, and their exchange was so touching I felt for a minute heaven had touched earth.  This was Christlike love for one of God's children who is undergoing the trial of her life.  No words necessary, just love and service.  I'll never forget it. 


I am so grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever.  Tiffany and Ryan will be together again.  I know that Tiffany is more than equal to the task ahead, and that heaven is close by her.

Graham: 11 Months

 Reasons why this baby cakes has my heart:

• When I pick him up, he relaxes his body so I can squish him and hold him tight.  
• If I'm holding him but not paying enough attention, he'll swoop from my hip to put his face right up in mine.  Jude did the same thing :).  
• He still has big, wet, drool soaked smiles that have given him a rash around his mouth.
• 4 teeth, all the better to shovel food into his mouth.
• He "waves", i.e. sticks his arm straight out at you, and it looks a little Nazi-esque if you want to know the truth.  But he'll learn to wiggle his hand too and I won't be worried he'll come off as a white supremacist.  
• My Mother-in-law and Erica heard him say "cruck" (truck) over christmas.  Last night he was on my lap and ripped a board book spine (it had been hanging on my a thread already).  I said, "Uh-oh" and he said, "Uh-uh" a handful of times.  !!!
• He greets you in the morning with outstretched arms and the biggest smile this side of the Mississippi.  
• He must follow Jude everywhere and participate.  Sometimes this doesn't work out for obvious reasons, but when it does it is cute.  I love to hear Jude say, "Gam, pay wis me!"
• He taught himself to drink out of a straw tonight, purely in an effort to copy Jude (I think).
• Graham will go off roaming around the family room and will totally entertain himself.  Jude definitely believed I was his cruise director at this age, so it's a little surprising but very sweet and keeps me a little more sane.
• He's just got to clap.  He claps and claps, and even when he's tired and cranky he will start clapping, look like fatigue is sweeping his face, asking him to rest those weary palms, and then you can see a resurgence of will, and he goes on.  MUST.  KEEP.  CLAPPING!!!!

I am not sure how this year has flown by the way it has, but it's gone too fast for me.  Graham is so easy to love.