Monday, June 28, 2010

Cubby

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Richard C. Helms
May 20, 1924 - June 15, 2010

On June 15, three years to the day after his beloved wife went to be with Jesus, my Cubby made his final journey home.

We miss him badly but are grieving with hope. It hurts so much to have him out of sight and out of reach for now, but joy invades my heart as I picture Cubby in Heaven, basking in the presence of the One who died to save him. And we know that we will see him again. Soon.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Mimic

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The other day I was in Esme's room, ridding my girl of a yucky diaper. Beside her changing mat there is a small, ever-rotating stash of toys that I keep to amuse her (i.e., keep her from rolling over) during diaper change time. On this particular morning, the toy of choice was a small, wooden carrot that Esme really seems to love. Watching her stare at its bright orange smoothness, I wanted to give her its name.

"That's a carrot, Esme. Carrot."

"C-----t!" said Esme.

I paused in mid-wipe, trying to believe I'd imagined the similarity of her sounds and mine, but the doting mommy in me won out. "That's right, Esme! Carrot! Carrot! Can you say it again? Carrot."

"Ffffffffffffffff," she replied.

"Carrot. Carrot? Carrrrrrrot!"

""C-----t!" said Esme again.

"Good, job, little girlie! That's right! You said carrot!" I covered her in kisses and smiled down into her sparkling eyes.

And then my little prodigy stuck her foot in her own poop.

The End.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Things That Go

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Matthew's wheels are a' turnin'.

This kid is watching, thinking, processing and talking in ways that surprise and delight us day by day. His speech abilities have exploded in the last three weeks, both vocabulary and grammar. Suddenly we're getting complete sentences (even a couple of compound sentences!) where there were two-word phrases before. Suddenly he is our Life Narrator--constantly monologing on all that he sees and refusing to be silenced until we acknowledge him. "Yes, buddy! We see it too! OK!"

This morning we were outside, in front of our house. Matthew was wielding a stick about a foot long, intent on finding ways to use it in his play. After an initial dig in the shrubbery, he wandered over to the minivan, stuck the stick up the exhaust as far as it would go, and rattled it around a bit.

"F-fiiiixa you car, Mommy!" he said triumphantly.

"Wow, you fixed my car?"

"Yes." Eyes aglow, he turned back to the tailpipe for more. "Fiiixa you car again!"

Later we were down at the bottom of the street, and when lunch time came, Matthew made it half-way home before asking me to carry him. He climbed aboard for a piggyback and started rattling off the names of everything that caught his eye.

"Boo car!"

"Yep, that is a blue car."

"Boo pick-up chuck!"

"That's right, a blue pick-up truck."

"Boo mowercycle!"

"Yeah, blue motorcycle!"

"Uhrrr mowercycle!"

"Yep, it's another motorcycle."

One thing's for certain: he is still a Boy. His observation skills are in high gear (sorry) when it comes to all things transportation. And the color blue, evidently.

Case in point: a couple of days ago we were driving in an area that is unfamiliar to my kids, and we passed by a large Sunoco station with a blue canopy over the filling area. Intent on the road ahead, I didn't even see it until:

"Gaaaaas," said Matthew. "Boo gas."

Ohhhh, little man. You bring us so much joy--you, your planes, trains, automobiles, your gasoline... and all your hot air too.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Yeah Way

Excerpt from a conversation with Meg on the way home from ballet class yesterday:

Meg: Some people say "yeah way."

Me: Oh... Yahweh?

Meg: Yup. Yeah way.

Me: "Yeah way." Ok. Hmmm.

Meg: Some people say "no way," but some people say "yeah way" when something gorgeous happens or something like that.