So exciting!

Wow, what an exciting week around the Gilliland house. (Warren's excitement is that he got a new tv today.) Ethan has been regularly turning over and he has recently discovered his feet. What a fun time for him! I think that this marks the end of his bouncy chair (at least unsupervised time anyway) and the end of his bassinet. (which, btw, was the most absurd 150 bucks ever spent) I think it's time for some better carpeting and padding... I knew I kept that carpet padding for a reason!

bye bye Daddy

Every Thursday after speech, Benjamin and I stop by CFA and grab lunch for all of us and bring it back home. Warren is usually starving by 11am since he rarely eats breakfast, and it is sort of like a treat for him since he stays home with Ethan, whom he refers to as "the screaming baby". (He's not that bad, just so you know.) So anyway, Benjamin stole Warren's coke and was walking around the house with it and we hardly ever allow him to drink caffeinated beverages, much less one with carbonation and caffeine. We had an incident about a year ago with carbonation that was not pretty. Yuck. So, he was walking around with it and Warren was getting ready to go to work and Benjamin sits the coke on the desk way away from Warren and says "bye bye Daddy.... bye bye..." and then looks at him as if to say, "What? This is mine, not yours.".... oh my gosh it was hilarious. And I guess you would have just had to have been here to witness the whole thing, but Benjamin usually makes a big ordeal about Warren leaving for work. He follows him to the door and has a two hug minimum and sometimes a call back from the truck for one more hug. It's sweet. So for him to just say bye bye like that with his coke in hand was just a riot!

Passing by

So sometimes I feel like my life is just passing me by. It is as if I have blinked and there went the entire Summer. I know we moved somewhere in there. Wait, I think that was actually Fall when we did that. I am so tired of being in survival mode. I am siting here typing this while I am waiting for Benjamin to fall asleep. Thank God for my iPhone. Sometimes I seriously think that I would fall off the planet without it and there are times when I wonder if anyone besides my family would really notice. I don't really mean that of course. I am just tired of being tired. I miss my old house. Or what I really miss is my routine that I associate with my old house. Bp misses his awesome swingset. I miss watching him play on it. I miss being outside. I feel like we are always on the go, always in the car, or always "just waiting for the baby to wake up, go to sleep, etc" so we can have fun. Thank God Bp loves Ethan because otherwise I think he just might hate him simply because of how much has changed in his life since E has been born. And thank God that he is a happy baby! I know that this will pass, and again, all I am saying is that I am tired of being in survival mode. I miss my life, my husband, and time!

Eyes of God

Children are awesome, aren't they? They are incredibly accepting (well, until a certain age, I think) and see the most miraculous creations of God. We as adults tend to be blinded by all the complexities of life. Children truly see people and objects as God sees them. Well, Benjamin does anyway. I love that kid. And not only because he's my child, but because he is my teacher. He has taught me so much more than I could ever teach him. Sure, I'm teaching him letters, numbers, and eventually how to tie his shoes, but he is teaching me acceptance, joyfulness, and creativity.

A sampling of my personal favorites this week:

Acceptance: A little boy lives across the street from us and we've actually never met, so I can't say for sure how old he is, but he looks around seven. He walks to school, and I'm assuming that he's walking over to the local elementary school. We see him quite frequently as he leaves around the same time that we start loading up the car for preschool. He is very polite and always says good morning and generally just looks like a good kid. He is quite short and is just a wee bit chubby around the middle. (which is precious to me) Benjamin gets in the car today and rubs his tummy and says, "I like it". "What do you like, Benjamin?" "That boy. I like his tummy." and then rubs his tummy again and smiles.

Joyfulness: We love to go for walks in the afternoon, usually sometime between 3 and 4:30. This is of course the time that I should be making dinner arrangements because it takes forever to cook when you have two small children, but whatever, it makes him happy and Ethan takes a little nap in the stroller and it makes me feel better, too. Benjamin has the same routine, the same route, and it gets quite boring for me sometimes, but I don't mind too much because while we're walking I'm envisioning wearing smaller pants this winter. So as we're coming around the corner of the loop, he shouts, "Look, a purple leaf! Mommy, it's a purple leaf!" Just the look in his eyes made me completely break down in tears. And it makes me cry a little just thinking about it again. He was so incredibly joyful for this purple leaf. One purple leaf. I can't wait until the whole tree turns.

Creativity: Ethan has had a runny nose off and on for weeks now, so I've had to suction his nose with one of those bulb things. No idea what they're actually called. Benjamin walks downstairs carrying the bulb and says, "paint, Mommy, we need paint." And I ask why and he says, "for this pumpkin" and he bends the long part of this suction thing down to look like a pumpkin stem and just laughs about it. He amuses me so much.

Diabetic

I could seriously turn in to a diabetic. Ethan is soooooooooooo sweet, cuddly, and just is just the happiest baby ever. EVER. He laughs all the time. He does demand to be held and/or talked to most of his waking hours though. He does not like tummy-time, which is odd for me since Benjamin could roll over both ways at 3 months flat. They look so much alike, yet they are completely different children. Thank goodness. haha..

Magic Stick

Scene: Mommy is loading dishwasher and little boy is playing in pantry.

Little Boy: Mommy, look, I have magic sticks.
Mommy: Mmhm, that's great.
Little Boy: No, Mommy, LOOK.
Mommy: Benjamin, those are batteries. That's not really a toy.
Little Boy: Yes, I know. They're magic sticks. Not a toy. A magic stick.

unconditional love

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could love ourselves and other people as innocently as children love?  Children love their toys with their whole heart.  They don't care if their toys are scratched, messy, or torn.  When I say that I have the sweetest child on Earth, I'm not biased at all because it's the truth.  No really, let me give you an example:

We went to Michael's yesterday and I looked pretty horrible.  My hair hadn't been washed in days, but I didn't have the time to wash it before we went.  Ethan had just eaten, so we had to go ahead and run out there and do a few errands so I'd make it back home before it was time for him to eat again.  Or so I thought.  We were getting ready to check out and he just started screaming, which is really unusual for him.  The place was packed and the lines were long.  (No idea why everybody in Hampton Roads decided to go to Michael's on a Tuesday morning.)  So of course everybody starts looking at us and Benjamin starts laughing, which is really unusual for him.  He puts his hands on either side of my cheeks and gives me a kiss and says "Mommy, you're beautiful."  I kid you not, this is what he does. 

He still thinks that I'm beautiful with dirty hair, spit up on my shirt, and pants that are a little too tight in the seat.