Sweet Words

While I'm enjoying taking photos of the kids, it is still through their words that I most enjoy and treasure getting to know their hearts and minds. I am so excited about getting to see more and more of Abby's personality as she begins to share her thoughts through words. She already has more than a dozen words, and I wonder if her continued excitement over "PepperDog!" foretells a lasting love for puppies. While her words are still limited, Abby is just bubbling over with hugs and kisses. It's just the sweetest thing that every few minutes she runs up, grabs my leg, or my arm, or bends over to my cheek, plants an enthusiastic kiss followed by a full body hug. After some friction between Jonathan and Abigail last month as their interest in toys begins to overlap more, it's been fun to see lots of affection between the two in recent weeks.

I like to make notes of Jonathan's words and stories here, since this is the first draft that becomes our family album. So here are some of the sweet words I hear so frequently from my son that truly warm my heart.

"Let's nuzzle noses!" Followed moments later by, "Let's nuzzle cheeks... Let's nuzzle eyes... Let's nuzzle foreheads... ..."

"You're so pretty, Mommy." Every few days he randomly looks up and says as much, and it makes me smile every time.

"I like being with you, Mommy Crab." (For reference, this week we're the crab family)

A few weeks ago I had a headache and David was out of town. I don't think Jonathan knew I was feeling badly, but I must have not been smiling as I served him dinner. He looked up at me with a big smile, and I smiled back.

"You didn't have a smile, Mommy, so I gave you mine."

Then I couldn't help but laugh, "It worked, Jonathan! I really liked your smile."

"Yeah, Mommy, it worked like magic!"

This morning's prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the Chex for everybody, and I like to eat them with Baby Abby." A slight variation of his usual, "Dear God, Thank you for the food that you made. Amen."

Less on the sweet side, but one I'll never forget none-the-less: "I'm destroying the blue with my yellow and making green!" This in reference to pee'ing in a freshly cleaned potty.

Another thing we've heard frequently over the past year is lots of references to, "my friend the fruitfly." His preschool teacher must think our home is just filthy, because he drops continual references to insects, spiders, flies, and mosquitoes in our home! Some are inspired by real insects seen in the home at one time or another, but they're certainly not as prevalent as one would think for all he talks about, "my friend the fruitfly." I know one day his stories and friends will grow up and I'll miss all the silly talk about the fruitfly.