The Kiddos Update - Part 1

The 'king of the castle' as he says.

Time for a good update on the kids. It seems like they are growing up so fast. Don't get me wrong...that is partly really nice. But, at the same time...sadness. :) But (again), so fun too!! I'll update you on one at a time. Today is Grady's turn.

Grady and Hadley are seriously pretty much all grown up now. They'll probaby graduate from college and get married sometime next week. :)

Grady is 4 years and 10 months old now. He is as sweet as ever and is really, really maturing. Here are a few Grady happenings as of late:

*Eliane has a motorcycle and the kids aren't supposed to touch it. When we were still in the old house, the horn on her motorcycle honked. I went outside and asked who did it. Now, at this point most of the time the kids would say (in that lovely kid way) 'I don't know' or 'Eissa' (because poor Eissa couldn't speak up for herself and would most likely be considered innocent since she didn't know better...those days are dwindling though...she now knows exactly what she's doing most time). Well, that day Grady just immediately and with a soft, repentant voice said, "Me." So proud I was.

*Also when in the other house, he loved to catch butterflies...O.K., he loved to try to catch butterflies. It never quite worked out, but one day when he was about to set at this task, he was talking about catching a butterfly, "just one." Joel said something about how just one butterfly would be sad and lonely...that they would miss their family. So, Grady didn't say that he was going to get 2 butterflies so that his butterfly wouldn't be lonely. He said that he would get 3...a Mama, a Daddy, and a baby. He groups everything into families...cute.

*Every day after we get done eating lunch, Joel has a "Bible lesson" with the kids...just a little devotional. He is reading through "Devotions for the Children's Hour" (we have the old school hardcover version, copyright 1954...it was a whopping $2.50 brand new back then). We talk about Jesus with them alot. We talk about God too. But, we have apparently not vocalized "Holy Spirit" much to them (although the Holy Spirit is very much a part of our lives, I guess it just doesn't come up in our conversations...when praying, for example, I guess our kids haven't ever heard us say "Holy Spirit"...only Jesus/God). In one of the devotions it talks about the trinity and how there are 3 persons in one. Grady was obviously listening and wanted to re-trace their steps through the devotion. At the end, he said, "So there's God and there's Jesus." Then he wrinkled his nose and thought, then he asked, "who's the 3rd guy?" It was funny.

*He is constantly rubbing his face on me saying "you're so soft." It's really sweet.

*Sometimes I make a big fuss over them getting so big and I pretend like I'm crying and say, "Please...please don't get any bigger." :) This is usually Grady's reply..."Jesus wants me to grow up and be just like Daddy." He knows I'm just joking around, but he also usually nips my silliness in the bud on this issue. He knows God's design for us. It's not up for discussion.

*He loves to carry Cass. There were a couple of times that he just brought her to us. It was crazy, because he really is capable, but it was just a little unnerving...we aren't ready for that. He has since learned that he can't just do it...he can only do it when we tell him to. But, he loves to carry her...because he just loves her, but also probably because he feels so big and strong when he does.

*He continues to be the "Great Organizer." :) A month or so before we left the old house, I had taken a bunch of clothes out of storage bags for Cass for the coming months and had arranged them by age (6-9 months, 9-12 months, etc.). Within the age groupings I had arranged them according to type and use, as I always do(shirts, dresses, long-sleeve/short-sleeve, etc.). So, about a week or so after I had spent a good bit of time doing this, Grady "arranged" it for me again. Apparently they weren't color coordinated enough for him. He put all the pinks together (and thought that we should focus on those clothes since she's a girl). We had to laugh.

*Recently I told him to smile for a pic. He said, "A man doesn't do 'cheese.'"

*Yesterday I took all 4 kids to do the grocery shopping with me. I've never done that before alone. Turns out, it was actually a breeze (this time)...no potty issues, no meltdowns. It was great and they helped me a ton. When we got back from the store, I put Cass down for a nap and then the other 3 and me had to then lug all the bags up the stairs to our apartment. It was awesome...even Eissa did her part. At one point, Grady and Hadley had both just gotten a load of something to take up. I noticed that Hadley had 2 bags of pretty heavy things and Grady had one thing that was pretty light. I started to say something, but decided against it...thought they should do it on their own. I got a load and then headed back in the building. At that point, what I saw put a big proud smile on my face. Grady was coming back down the stairs and telling Hadley that those bags were too heavy for her...that they needed to switch. So, Grady gave her his light load and took the heavy load for her. So, so sweet. He takes such good care of his little sisters.

He is just so mature now...and really gets it about things. It's so great to be able to have a conversation about something with your little one and he fully understand (or mostly anyway). When he gets in trouble now, it really does grieve him that he made the wrong choice deliberately. It's amazing to see it all come together, and I know that I will only see more and more of this through the years...so fun to see them blossom.

All ready for church.
He just recently got a gift in the mail...thanks Aunt Marilyn (Madden Williams)...a Cars book complete with stickers. He loved it. They love stickers, although they don't last long. He decided he preferred to put them all over his body obviously.
He's such a help. I was feeding Cass when Joel sent Eissa out of the shower the other night. I asked Grady to put Eissa's diaper on for me. I was interested to see how he would do. Well, he set to it and even saw that Eissa was a little red and got the medicine and applied it. He was so matter-of-fact about it all and didn't ask for any help...like he'd been applying diapers for a couple of years already. :) Of course, I guess he has watched others do it constantly his whole life. ;) We did have to discreetly rearrange it on her little tush, but I was impressed with Grady's abilities. I will probably be utilizing this newfound talent of his some in the future.
Finishing the job.
He went to his room and came out dressed like Superman. Note the underwear over his pants. I never realized he had studied an image of Superman to that extent. :)
Flying.
The Superman stance, folding of the arms (I really don't know where he's seen this).
A day or two after we got here to the apartment, Grady asked if he could go outside and pick some flowers for me (they did that every day at least once a day at the old house). Of course, he couldn't (I don't think there are any flowers out there anyway). :) So, he resolved to get me some flowers. He drew some and cut them out and gave them to me. Too cute. Then I let him use the camera to take pictures (he loves to take pictures).
Complete with ladybug and lizard he told me.

10-27-08 We had just got Cass's jumper out (thanks Anna!!) and Grady was showing her how to do it. This little snippit is nothing compared to what it was before I reached for my camera...belly laughter like crazy from Cass.

10-28-08 Right before leaving the old house, we went swimming in the pool there at the seminary. Grady is pretty fearless, even if he does close his eyes the whole time. ;)