Jingle Bells...

Why do rainy days make me think of Christmas?  When Fall comes around, inevitably,  it's on the rainy days that I pull out the Christmas tunes.  Yes, I know it's October.  But, sometimes it starts as early as September, so I'm doing pretty good.  I can't help myself; I've been this way for as long as I can remember.  My little brother and I used to record ourselves talking about Christmas, no later than Halloween, all the way until Christmas.  I do believe it's an illness.  It's not the gifts I get excited about, it's the atmosphere, the music, the festivities.  Of course, I have to pace myself, so that I don't get burned out before Christmas actually arrives.  One can take only so much merriment.

Now that I have a child, I am concerned with him not getting caught up in the pervasive "gimmee" attitude that our society tends to encourage.  I want him to think about it differently.  I want him to think about Jesus, His sacrifice, and what we can do to help others.  As a mother, I am actively searching for that balance.  

Meanwhile, the Christmas music plays on...

Look! Digger!

I never thought I'd be excited to see construction...

Jude is going through a "digger" phase; he's obsessed with them.  He's even begun to use his imagination, seeing them everywhere.  "Look!" he says, "Digger!"  And then, once we've driven past them, he inevitably begins asking for more.  "Okay," I say, "I'll tell you if I see another one."  So now, whenever I see any kind of construction, I get excited.  Even when I'm alone.  I have to stop myself from excitedly yelling, "Look Jude!  A digger!"  

Road construction used to annoy me.  Now it excites me.  How our children change us...

Too smart for his own good

I love this age.  Jude is 21 months old, and everything is a discovery.  Everything is new, a learning experience, and I am his great teacher, the one who knows all.

I love watching him discover what a pumpkin is all about, or a spider, or sidewalk chalk.  Every moment with him is an opportunity to teach him something, or introduce something he's never noticed.  And I have this eery feeling that he's retaining everything I say...even at times I've been disquieted by his ability to pull up a fact that I would never suspected he would remember.  For instance, a few weeks ago I was counting, and he just joined in, all the way up to 13.  I hadn't been trying to teach him; he just learned.  And the other day I told my husband I was going to take a "s-h-o-w-e-r", spelling it so Jude wouldn't want to join me, and Jude said, "shower."  I had rarely, if ever, spelled that word in front of him before.  Okay, okay, now I'm bragging.  But, the startling realization hit me that I have to watch every word I say with this one.  The other day, my husband said "dang" in his conversation with me, and of course, that was the one word Jude chose to repeat...over and over again.  He's not going to let me slip up without him noticing.  Oh, the pressure.