Backlog

It's ashamedly been a while since I actually made a post on this blog (over a year)... but I've had a huge list building of notes on my phone regarding cute events and memories that I had to share. So be prepared to read back a while as I post a load of good stories that I have backdated to when I noted them in the phone.

Favorite Outfit

One of the funny things about our little guy has become his propensity to want to wear one outfit… literally one. A pair of Carter’s “Super Sleepyhead” Giraffe pajamas with short bottoms… even now that its December (which considering that its suppose to hit 70 degrees on Christmas, it means nothing in Georgia). For the past couple of months, he has sought only to wear these clothes. Starting in the beginning of November, his mother informed me that she was pretty sure he had worn his favorite outfit for four days straight.

Day and night. Before and after baths. Four days. Straight.

She had to finally peel them off him so she could wash them, much to his frustration. But once they were washed and dried, he was quickly to show up wearing his favorite outfit. In fact, later that week he had quite the meltdown when I forced him to change out of them and wear pants so he could go to Awana.

We took him Christmas shopping a few weeks ago and made him wear pants. Joshua kept trying to hid his legs at the restaurant so no one would see him wearing pants. Because, after all, he would “look weuhd.” Yep, wearing pants in December is pretty weird (well, perhaps in Georgia this year).

Call the Cops

This evening, Stephanie showed the family a photo of her step-brother in his new police officer’s uniform. Aubrey, who is enamored with her Uncle Cameron and his ability to be a human jungle gym, quickly pipped up and said, "I hope someone breaks into our house so Cameron will come and give me a hug."

I’m sure there are less invasive ways to encourage a visit from a relative…

Refill?

This evening, as we were around the dinner table, finishing another “peaceful” (ha, ha… anything but) dinner, Joshua in his mother’s lap, I looked over to see little J sipping water out of his own cup and spitting it back out in his mother’s glass.

Sure that his mother was unaware of his actions, I asked loudly, “Joshua, why are you spitting in your mama’s glass?”

This quickly got her attention (and everyone else’s) and Joshua replied, “I’m fillin it back up.”

We all got a good laugh at his toddler logic.

Fear Not Festival 2016

For Halloween, we took the family to our church for the Fear Not Festival. Stephanie volunteered and spent the evening happily painting children’s faces. Aubrey and Elijah both ended up with other friends and families, while I spent almost the whole time at the inflatables watching Joshua repeatedly go through the obstacle course over and over and over again. He loved it and didn’t care about much anything else. One of the teenagers manning the station kept asking him for a high-five as he climbed up the ladder for the final slide. His response was classic toddler talk (or drunk friend at a party). "No, "he would laugh, "Elijah has braces."

The Gospel at Bedtime

Tonight, I am extremely proud of my oldest son. And it's not because he played his best at his soccer game tonight (which we still lost 0-2), nor to the fact that he scored so well on his last science test (whereas most of his classmates did not do so well). No, I'm proud because he reflected his creator in a powerful way.

As with every soccer night, we get home and are trying to rush to get the kids in bed before 9 o'clock, (which never happens). After the kids got a bath and had their teeth brushed, we sat down to read the Bible. The kids were getting in their positions when Jay hopped back up and ran over to the books again. I told him repeatedly, “Come here first, J. Come here first.” But he would not listen. He forced my hand, and I had to tell him, “No stories tonight.” He immediately broke down in tears. I expected his mama to be anguished over her sons crocodile tears, but it was Elijah who spoke up after Bible time.

"I would rather go ahead and lose my story time and let J have his stories," he told me.

"You'll take his punishment?" I asked.

He nodded and said, "Yeah."

I confess I teared up a little as I nodded and told him, "Go ahead, Buddy."

Then I sat J down and presented him once again with the Gospel message. But this time, it was in a real-life situation where his brother, in love and out of the desire to please the father, took his place.

"That's what Jesus did for us J. Even though we did bad things and deserve to be punished, he took our punishment so that we could have Grace."

I'm pretty sure neither kid really understand what took place and what part they played in the retelling of the most beautiful story in the entire universe, but I was blessed to have he eyes to see it.

Nerf Party

Today, while Stephanie and Aubrey took a trip to Stone Mountain with Ms. Patti for a fun time at the Yellow Daisy Festival, I took the two boys to Memphis’ Birthday Party. The Theme: A Nerf Gun Party. This is my kind of celebration. I got to run around and shoot a ton of kids in the name of fun. And I was proudly the only adult (the guy running the party games doesn’t count). So as Elijah and I teamed up to get sweaty running around outside in the hot summer weather, Joshua played in the inside air-conditioning with several little girls inside with Memphis’ and Myah’s toys.