Family update

Mason is seven.
I know, you didn't see it coming, either. I remember this little guy going off to preschool, too shy to make trouble, quiet and sweet and oh so smart. Ok, so he was only like that in new, crowded situations, but still. I remember it.

Now. Now we have this seven year old, who knows so much and wants to know more, more, more! He is not often quiet but most often goofy, crazy, silly, zany. The perfect assessment of Mason right now came from his Sunday school teacher who observed that Mason is always very, umm…interesting… “When we’re lining up to go next door, he’s off in the corner, being a velociraptor… not because he wants people to notice, but just because he feels like being a raptor right then.” Joe and I died laughing when he told us that because it is so true. No matter what we are trying to do, Mason has some other world that he’s always got at least one foot in that is way more interesting and dramatic then the world we inhabit… say, the world of brushing our teeth in under 15 minutes, or practicing the violin. This other world is full of scary monsters, opera singers, British gentlemen, and, apparently, velociraptors. He has never liked being the center of attention in a large group but he also has this flair for the dramatic and a knack for imitating, so we’ll see what God does with that.

Mason has been taking violin lessons for almost a year now, and a little piano. He hates to practice but he gets SO EXCITED when he learns how to do something new. Yesterday he learned how to play an arpeggio and memorized it… he was squealing and jumping up and down, he was so proud of himself! He is not a careful player but likes to see how fast he can play everything, which is consistent in general with his personality. Much like his daddy J He likes the violin for now but what he really wants to do one day is SING. He loves to sing and I love to hear it!

Mason’s favorite things are making projects and collecting small things. He is longing for Cub Scouts right now which I think will be a perfect fit for his personality. He was telling Levi the other day how great it would be to “do projects, and then you earn badges that you get to wear on your vest!”

Mason is a questioner and a noticer. He will ask a million questions a day if you let him. Sometimes we just can’t answer any more but usually I love his inquisitiveness and he can suck me in. He also notices every tiny little detail, things I would never notice. Usually this is helpful, unless I have a pimple or something. Fortunately for me he hasn’t brought up the subject of my gray hairs yet. It’s only a matter of time.

One of the questions we hear often, when we’re just about to get out of the car, is “How does my hair look?”. The guy likes to look good, although at this point girls are mostly icky. He is more at that stage of wanting to identify with the men, do “tough stuff”, and get rough and dirty. For his birthday party this year he requested a “man party”, so we had a few of his friends over and set up an obstacle course for them, complete with running the silly string gauntlet at the end.

Mason melts my heart because he is such an interesting mix… sensitive and tough, musical, artistic, loud and silly. I love this age because I feel like he is really figuring out what interests him and I am getting clearer glimpses all the time of who God has made him to be.

 
Levi is Five-and-a-half.

Levi is, in so many ways, a typical boy. He lives for sports and playing and eating and TV. He is at his best when he’s playing soccer, baseball, or football in the backyard… his face lights up and he can’t stop grinning. He also loves to wrestle, play tackle, explore in the woods, and dress up like a super-hero. In fact, he is the one that is almost always in costume whenever friends come to play. Apparently Batman makes tag that much more fun.

Levi, our very distractible boy, has done so well with this year of homeschooling. The one-on-one is good for his attention, and he wants so very much to please me and to succeed that he tries hard and is making gains quickly. He has such a sweet heart. Sometimes we work really hard to learn a new concept, but it’s rare that he gives up or pitches a fit… he just tries over and over and over and when it sticks we both celebrate like it’s 1999!

Levi is a cuddler. If you ever want a tight, full-body monkey hug then Levi’s your man. He wakes up earlier than the other two boys and so most mornings he’ll come cuddle up to Joe and I while we read our Bibles. I used to ask him to sit separately—he is so wiggly!—but I am realizing how quickly the day will come when the boys either won’t want to cuddle any more, or won’t fit on a chair with me… so I try to take advantage while I can.

Levi is still in the stage where he wants to do everything and  say everything that Mason does, so sometimes it’s hard to see exactly who he is on his own, but maybe that’s a reminder that none of us are who we are on our own. I am thankful for two brothers who love each other so much that sometimes they seem more like twins than adoptive borthers :)

Levi melts my heart because he wants to love and be loved so very much, and he is so pure and sweet in his devotion. He will make such a good husband one day.

Micah is Two-and-a-half.

Micah is getting to be very silly. He loves to laugh and has the sweetest smile. I really do think his eyes actually twinkle, especially when he’s being a little mischievous. As I mentioned in the last blog, he is the closest to compliant that we have in our boys. He says, “OK, Mommy”…now I’m just trying to teach the bigs these magical words. He is definitely two, so we get some temper tantrums, especially after he steals my phone out of my purse and I have to take it away.

Micah is not someone who asks for help, he just gets the job done. For as long as he could do for himself in the least, he has wanted to try. As an infant he wanted to hold his own spoon to feed himself. He wants to climb in the car seat by himself, do his buckles, get the stool, put on his shoes, draw a picture, cut his food, and walk on the sidewalk all by himself. The bigs were usually very content to let me do for them, but not Micah. This is perfect for a third but also sometimes so dangerous, since he doesn’t ask but just tries things all by himself. Like getting canned food off of a high shelf, like putting the keys in the ignition, like going out to look at the pool. This boy, more than the others, has given me so many little heart attacks… he just disappears and is found later trying diligently to do some wildly inappropriate adult task.

Micah has always been a quiet doer, but now he is becoming quite a talker too. He is taking after Mason all the sudden… we were at the Farmers Market today and he had to touch everything there… “What ‘dis?” (I actually love this and totally indulge it… homeschooling has really helped me appreciate the learning opportunities in the mundane, and the value of slowing down for the experience.)

His other new question is “Means?”, as in “What does that mean”. Like, “What oink means?” (Um, what does oink mean?)

Micah’s favorite phrase is “Pizza Poppy’s House”, a mix of his favorite food and favorite place to go… and he asks six days out of seven to go there. Poppy let him drive a boat (“Dwive boat in cewcle!” hehehe), and Poppy has a ruff-ruff (“Lick me!” hehehe), and he gets to ride a bike there (“Bike ride! Pweese?) which is his very favorite thing to do. Every time we drive through the gates to come into our neighborhood, and most times when he wakes up from a nap, Micah’s question is “Go bike ride?”

He loves animals but not bugs (“so mean!”), salad with lots of Ranch dressing, strawberries, hummus, playing outside, running (“Race you!”), hide and seek, anything with buttons to push or even buttons on clothes, cutting with scissors, the iPhone, the iPad, train tracks, boats, motorcycles, M-E’s (scrabble-tile cheezits), the Humpty Dumpty song, macaroni and cheese, the colors red and yellow, shooting dart guns, Curious George books (we read the same 4 at least twice a day every day right now), Elmo, Ernie, swords, dressing up like a super-hero, painting, battery-powered toothbrushes, and puzzles.
 

He does not like getting his hands dirty, nap time, bed time, pooping on the potty, or loud noises. He’s pretty easy to please ;)

Micah melts my heart because he really is his own little man in this teeny tiny body, and he just cracks us all up. I was so sad for a few weeks when I found out we were having another little boy but he has been such a blessing… a great reminder that God knows so much better than we do what we need!

Joe and I are Ten.

Ten years married. Ten years, three boys, house, piano, two cars, couches, clothes, all the stuff we need... but realizing now more than ever that Jesus is all we need. Only in Him are we on mission together, growing closer together, loving and pouring into our family and friends together. It's a good place to be. These past ten years have been good; quite a whirlwind in so many ways. But we think the next ten are going to be even more amazing. Can't wait to see what God has in store for us!


 *note: I have struggled with the font, blogsite is obstreperous today (yep, that's our vocab word today), I'm sorry, but I give up.