bathroom humor must be innate

We were in the car, Davis peeked over at Ronin and shouted, "Poopoo!" Ronin cracked up, they continued this pattern several times, which got me laughing too. Why is that so funny, I thought? Because poopoo is funny, I don't care who you are.

Papa and Ronin

I just like this picture, but for those of you who would like to see Ronin's face...

can't keep it quiet

On the way back from Lubbock, we stopped in Pueblo (so close to home, I hated to stop) to get Ronin some milk and Davis some Bug Juice, his favorite road trip treat.

We put our things on the counter, the cashier scanned them and asked Davis,
"Did you have a good Easter?"
"Mmhmm," Davis nodded.
"Did you get lots of candy?"
"Yep."
I paid the man and as I was, Davis informed him,
"It's about Jesus. Easter is."
"He's got it right, it sure is."
"Because He's not dead."

And I think that he actually said, "It's about Jesus" three more times, because that's the way three-year-olds are, they communicate in triplets.

happiness in an eating establishment?

As I said in an eariler post, we just got home from a fun trip to Oklahoma and Lubbock, TX on Tuesday. When you're driving long distances...with two small children in the car...who sleep often...you start paying attention to nearly everything you pass: license plates, bumper stickers, names of streets, billboards; anything to occupy your mind long enough to keep you awake for just a few more minutes until the next entertaining thought.

I drove by this bumper sticker (on the back of a semi, no less):

HOOTERS makes you happy

Really? My definition and that guy's must be pretty different. How often have you listened to a sermon that makes this great distinction between joy and happiness (too many times?)? I believe and it's affirmed through Scripture, we serve a Happy God. As a result, I believe that He delights in us being happy in Him. Now I understand that joy can endure through all circumstances, but I don't think we are cut off from happiness if we are Christians. In fact, I think it's quite the opposite. I think that in Christ, all things that make us happy: a gentle rain, a delicious dark chocolate truffle, a good conversation with a friend, hearing the true laughter of a child, even sex within the context of marriage are better and significantly more enjoyable.

And maybe this guy just enjoys the chicken wings (I've heard they are really good), but I doubt it. And I find it interesting that with the change of one letter the sticker would read Hooters MAKE you happy. Which leaves you with a completely different meaning, and likely the truer meaning for the fella behind the driver's seat of that semi.

Oh! But may we not be so easily pleased with pleasures such as those, but find the richness of happiness (and joy) that are found with life in Christ!

open game

I just adjusted my settings so that anyone can post comments....so feel free, but know this folks, I will moderate them, so no funny business!

my new found love for the webcam

It's pretty amazing how fast we can get used to having technology. When I really put things in perspective I am incredibly thankful for the communication that I have with Kevin while he is in Iraq, but I'm spoiled now. He finally got internet in his room, so we had our first successful video call via MSN Messenger yesterday (granted, the service goes in and out). On Tuesday I had about three text messages asking me to log on to the computer because he was online, but that was a failed attempt. Then around 2am Wednesday I awoke to another text message...try number two: another failure. Finally yesterday around 3pm--it worked!! I woke Davis up from his nap so he could see Daddy. Then today Kevin got to see both boys, he even got to see Ronin crawling! And Davis in his pirate costume. Ronin has started pointing and when he saw Kevin, he pointed and said, "Da-da"

I think Kevin and I felt the same: we can make it until October (mid-tour leave) with the webcam. It makes an incredible difference. It was the first time I'd seen his face in four months. Beautiful!

small crawl to speed crawl in just a week

Even though Ronin is our second boy, I still find myself amazed how quickly he grows and develops. His crawling ability is just one thing on the list. He had that "small crawl" and within a week's time, he was zooming down the hall at my parents' house! Here's a couple short videos (really they're more for Kevin than for anyone else, but hopefully others will enjoy them too):

my computer had a really hard time downloading just this one video, so while it's not the best at showing Ronin's crawling skills it'll have to do for now.

poo poo cows

We recently made the trip to Oklahoma to see family and relax for a little while. On our way we saw some stockyards, I immediately had Davis look to see all the cows.

"Wow, there ARE a lot of cows, why are there so many?" he asked.
Instead of telling him that it's because people eat cows and they kill them, I explained, "Well, cows' poo poo helps plants grow, so they have all the cows so they can get their poo poo to help the plants grow."
"Cool, I wish I could be one of those!!" He said with excitement.
I asked, "A poo poo cow?"
"Yeah, a poo poo cow!"

small crawl, thanks Wesley!

Just last night we were celebrating a friend's birthday and Ronin's friend Wesley was there. Ronin is still low crawling, but Wesley is walking occasionally and speed crawls. I think this was some pretty intense motivation for Ronin because while we were there, he crawled (on hands and knees) about four feet!! Today he has been going between the two--crawling then low crawling. I guess he's not ready to make the complete transition.

stronger than we thought

I was pleasantly aroused from my sleep this morning around 5am by a phone call, it was Kevin. It had been a week and a half since hearing from him, and I never mind if it's him waking me up. He is doing well, he is however a little sore.

Just yesterday he decided to start working on his legs, so he went to the leg press. His lower body has always been stronger than his upper body so he thought he would start out slow; he put 2 50s and 2 20s on each side and decided to do 3 reps of 12-15. He did a few but felt pretty weak starting off there since this is his strong point. He added 40 to each side. And it wiped him out, he was really disappointed with himself and decided he would do a little more work on his legs and grabbed a 60 lb dumbell to do lunges but barely made it through them, his legs were shaking at the end.

He returned to the Aid Station and one of his buddies asked him how his workout went. He proceeded to explain how he has lost so much strength in his legs and how surprised he was at himself. His buddy asked, "You do know the weights are in kilos not pounds?"

After doing the math, they figured he was pressing about 410 lbs. Not quite as weak as he thought!

can you hold it?

We were in the car on our way home when Davis informed me that he had to go potty.
"Can you hold it?" I asked.
"Yeah." And then a moment later he said,
"But I can't hold it in my hands, I hold it in my peenie."

always learning

Here are a couple Davis stories:

It is quite amazing to me how much like sponges toddlers are--I'm seeing that I have to be more and more careful with what I say and do. Earlier this week Davis was talking to Spiderman on the phone (pretending, of course) having a real conversation; he was role playing quite well. For a few months now, he has declared his koala his baby sister, so after talking to Spiderman for a while, he asked Spiderman if he wanted to talk to his baby sister. He put the phone up to her ear properly and waited a solid thirty seconds while I assume Spiderman was "talking" to her. When he got back on the phone, he told Spiderman, "She didn't say anything, she's not a very good say-er."

~~~~~~~~

Just yesterday we were at Target with a friend looking at some clothes when a very overweight woman wearing legging-type pants passed us then walked in front of Davis and he says, "Mommy, her bottom looks weird." Forunately he wasn't insulting her, just making an observation, but all I could say was, "Sshh." Then I had to turn away because I was laughing so hard (even though I shouldn't have been). Thank goodness my friend was there, she quickly grabbed something for us to look at and we all talked about it to shift our attention.

bath night!!

On bath nights we watch the video of Kevin reading Green Eggs and Ham while I get the boys into their pj's. Couldn't help posting a couple of pictures of them in their towels!

little scooter

Ronin has been pretty defiant about learning or trying to crawl. He has opted for other means of travel along the living room floor, primarily: rolling. He even figured out how to do a complete 360 while sitting on his bottom, the boy can maneuver really well, he just didn't want to crawl. In the past week he started doing a low crawl (or Army crawling)!! He gets up on his hands and knees every now and then, but ultimately ends up on his belly using his elbows and only slightly raising his knees to roam the rugs. And I think Davis is just as excited as I am! Here's a picture of him in his 360 action