I Am, Too!

“I am, too!”  What precious, precious words!!  Last night I told Clay (who was insisting on watching t.v.) that I was going back to his room to play in hopes that he would join me.  Tim followed behind with an “I am, too.”  “I am, too,” repeated Clay, as he popped up from the couch and fell in line. 

That might not seem like much, but it stopped me (and Tim) in our tracks.  

Clay is a quiet child (with the exception of the afore blogged screaming fits J ) who turned two a few months ago.  He is very intelligent.  He understands things.  And as far as I’m concerned is advanced when it comes to fine motor skills.  But he is not verbal.  He gets his point across.  He just chooses to do it in as few words as possible.

“Was that his first sentence?!?” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was!” said, Tim.

“Clay!,” I practically yelled, “I’m going to do somersaults on the mat.”

“I am, too,” said Tim (with minimal prodding).

“I am, too,” said Clay!

It’s so amazing how the changes sneak up on you and are so gradual they are sometimes hard to notice.  After some calmer thought, we realized this wasn’t really his first sentence at all.  For a while now he has said “got it” pretty consistently and has started saying a slurred together version of “I want” before certain popular nouns such as “juice” or “cake”.  But, this has definitely been his clearest sentence, and was significant enough for us!

Now, I don’t expect Clay to start carrying on long conversations with me just yet, but those were still some precious words!!

A Horse Baby

The one thing I feel like I know about being a mom so far is that everything is a phase.  When it's a good one, I try to enjoy it while it lasts.  When it's not a good one, I try to tell myself it will pass.  Right now we are in a screaming phase.

Clay loves to scream, and is really quite good at it.  He screams when he is excited.  He screams when he is happy.  And he definitely screams when he is mad. 

When he's excited or happy, the screaming is funny.  It's like he just doesn't have enough space within himself for everything he's feeling and he just screams at the top of his lungs.  He will run around the room chasing us or just stand in one spot and absolutely shake with a scream.

When he's not happy, the screaming is almost unbearable.  He is not only loud, but persistent.  Persistent to the point where this morning I have a horse baby. 

You see, last night Tim and I had the audacity to leave church and drive to my grandmothers house without Pa!  Unbelievable that we would do such a thing, I know, especially since Pa was going to be at my grandmother's house for supper also.  Despite many explanations and threats, the screaming continued until we pulled into Grandma's house ten minutes later. 

He has a little more voice this morning than he had last night at least. 

This, too, shall pass.

Getting Started

So here I am entering the world of blogging.  Not because I have lived a diverse life that will fascinate you.  Or because I have treasure troves of wisdom to share with you.  Not because I have things "figured out".  And surely not because I am all caught up with the housework! 

As I write this I can look around my living room at a laundry board piled high with half completed sewing projects, a Mr. Potato Head without a face, a Clue gameboard, a dinosaur, and a baby monitor with the sweetest sleeping baby the world has ever seen.  I want to remember this stuff.  I don't want to fill my life with projects that seldom get finished and tasks that need to be done and miss out on the memories.  I guess that is my first reason for writing this--to journal my life.  To have something tangible to look back on and remind myself of the different stages we have been blessed enough to enjoy.

Secondly, I do want to share my life.  God has blessed me with a wonderful family and amazing circumstances that are continually teaching me and shaping me.  And who knows?  Occassionally I might have some new found knowledge that you can benefit from. 

As a former kindergarten teacher, one of my favorite parts of the job was observations.  I grabbed hold of every chance I got to go into other teachers classrooms and see what they were doing. Even those who were technically less experienced than I was always had a different view or technique or tip that I could benefit from.  You see, teaching is one of the few occupations where you are encouraged to steal each others ideas. I truly wish parenting were more that way.  There are many, many families I would LOVE to observe just to see how they do things.  So even though I may not have a lot of experience in the mom department and it is increasingly obvious that I have a lot of room to grow in my walk with God, I am trying my best.  And maybe you can find something to benefit from along my way.  Either way I plan to fill my blog with sweet stories of my son, Clay and anything else that I have on my mind that day, and I hope you enjoy reading all about it!