Jumping and rolling and tumbling...oh my!

Where has the time gone? We're currently almost one month into 2009, and I feel as though I am running to catch up. Anyone else out of breath? If not, can you wait up for me please?!?

Today I took Miles to his first of a (roughly) three-month gymnastics class. I use the word 'gymnastics' very loosely here, by the way. We're talking about a group of 17-month-olds to 3-year-olds, so...not much more than running and jumping taking place. Miles is what I would call a cautious child. This can be a good thing most of the time (doesn't dart into traffic, doesn't stick his finger into the outlet, etc.). But there are times, like this morning, when I wish he would run in there and join in the fun. He did eventually, so it all worked out. He loved it so much that he didn't want to leave. His favorite thing? Climbing on things and jumping off of them. That seemed to be what the other little boys did, while most of the little girls worked on their balance beam routines. It was all really fun, so I'm glad I signed him up to do this. There aren't a ton of options as far as getting Miles out for some running around during the colder months. This will be helpful to him and to me. We continue our weekly library trip, where they let us check out puppets and make popcorn and crafts, but having one other place to go on the weekdays will hopefully help winter to move on a little more quickly.

A little more than two months from now, my boy will be three years old. Three. Doesn't that sound so much older than two? When I hear 'two-year-old,' there are still images of chubby elbows and knees, lots of big firsts, lots of cuddly moments. But when I hear 'three-year-old,' I just don't know what else to imagine but my little boy growing too fast before my eyes. And I would give examples of things, but I've never had a three-year-old. I'm sure there will still be some cuddly moments and more firsts to experience...I suppose what gets to me is that they will take place with this bigger boy who was not so long ago my tiny, precious baby. (Good grief, will this woman just get over her kid getting older already?!?)

If you're looking for news on the baby front, I'm not giving it to you. It's either because there's nothing to tell, or because it's too early to let you know. Does that infuriate you or what? (Commence evil laughter.) I'll admit I enjoy holding this bit of power in my hands. It's really a matter of sharing, but not sharing too much, and mostly to protect my own fragile self. No, this does not necessarily mean that I'm pregnant and am just not telling you. Maybe I don't even know if I'm pregnant, how about that? Just know that I am praying and praying that I will be someday soon, and in the meantime trying to cling to God and know that his timing is best.

Gets me every time

Parents, you know it happens. You're trying to discipline your child, and they do something that is either cute or hilarious and you crack a smile. And usually by that time you can't help it and you start laughing.

Miles does this thing lately when we tell him 'no' that seems to get funnier each time he does it. And now, unfortunately, he knows that I can't keep a straight face and he uses it to his advantage. All he does is pound his fist into his open hand. Where he got that, I honestly have no idea. But when a tiny little person does that in actual anger...I'm sorry, but it is hilarious to me. It's as if he thinks I will be threatened by it, and the look on his face is priceless.

Twice now, I have nearly exploded with laughter during worship service because of this. I have tried to turn away so he won't see me laughing, because yes, I know he shouldn't be acting this way. But now that I think it's as funny as I do, it makes it all the more difficult to keep myself from laughing.

Last night, our little family was sitting around the dinner table eating yummy baked potato soup. Miles had eaten a few bites and was no longer interested (In his own mother's cooking? What?!?). He was told that he would have to sit there and eat more before he could get down from his chair. Immediately the scowl came over his face, and his little fist pounded his little hand. I smiled at Casey in an attempt to hide that I was smiling about what Miles had just done. But Miles had already caught on and started laughing...I couldn't hold back and started laughing myself. The more I laughed, the more Miles laughed. And he has this new belly laugh that goes on and on and is so contagious that eventually I was crying with my laughter (my belly literally aching) and Casey had joined in as well.

It was all over much too soon for Miles, who kept telling me, "Mama, do it again...I want funny!" meaning that he wanted us to recreate the whole entire laughing scene. If only I could. I would bottle that moment up and reopen it all day long.

Sharing a John Shore post

John Shore seems never to fail in making me laugh (or at the very least chuckle) and think at the same time. That's hard to do!

Click here for his latest post.

"...gone about its incessant business..."

In (possible) preparation for my sharing photos of my scars with the whole entire Internet at some point, I keep going back to a quote by author Janet Burroway. I've never read any of her work, just came across this quote in a magazine. I tore it out and have kept it in my purse or by my bedside since, because it helps me in those times when I try to wish my scars away. Meaningless to do so, I know, but don't we all have moments in which, even for a brief second, wish that something could have been different? If just one little thing could have been different...

Those moments for me are, thankfully, fewer and farther between. But they still come. If something had been discovered about my appendix just a bit sooner...If they just hadn't closed up that incision right away...and so on. The part of me that has grown stronger since tells them to go away. They're more like a pesky fly that I have to wave away, but yes, sometimes they are like heavy weights and I allow myself to sink down with them. I still lament many things, just not as often. Time is my friend, in that it helps those things to heal, but it can be a very slow friend that I keep having to walk back to because it won't keep up to where I think it should be by now.

Have I waxed poetic enough for you? Let me do just a little more, but now with that quote I mentioned earlier:

Why, I say, should I ever have bitterly blamed [my body] for such trifles as I have blamed it for: for having too much flesh in this spot, too little muscle in that, for producing this wrinkle, that sag, that gray hair, or this texture? Dear body! My dear body! It has gone about its incessant business with very little thanks.

~ Janet Burroway

I only beat him by sixty-three points

What do I have to say in my very first post of 2009? That I've set and already broken 10 resolutions? That I should have posted two days ago? Something more meaningful? No.

My kid bowled a 101 on the Wii last night! Not only that, but I happened to be taping him. It was so cute watching him bowl that I started taping it, but when he started getting spares I knew I had to keep going. Casey and I were laughing and whooping it up, it was too funny. I believe by the end of the game I had just one minute left on the tape, and not much more on the battery power.

We called my parents, avid Wii bowlers that they are, right afterward to tell them. They loved it, but of course wanted to see the video. So I set to work this morning with some quick editing and uploaded it to YouTube. And let me tell you, there are a lot of people out there taping their two-year-olds bowling on the Wii. I didn't check to see if any of them had beaten my son, but it didn't matter. He's the one I'll be watching.

Click here to see the video.