Sweet bedtime prayer...

"Dear God,
Thank you for this good world. Please help me to play with Ethan later, and get in the pool, and share my toys. Amen."

You can't expect to get precision plant care service from just anyone...

It'll cost ya.



One haircut, please.

Somewhat unclear on the concept...

Wyatt's first steps toward eventual Baseball Hall of Fame notoriety:



.......................


Until he decided it was more fun to make a "snowman with a leaf hat"



...and be "an airplane". ;)

I thought to myself...

Today I ran inside for a quick second while Wyatt waited on the deck.  When I came back out, his pants were around his ankles.

"What are you doing?  Do you need to go potty?"

"No, I already went potty."  (Over the side of the deck.  What IS it about boys and peeing outside?)

"Why didn't you just come inside and go?"

"Because I thought to myself, if I go inside I'll pee in my pants.  Because I had to go really really bad."

Future Ring Bearer

Wyatt and I are going to be in my sister in law's wedding in about a month.  Wyatt is the ring bearer.  Which could go well (possibly, if he takes his job seriously, and I walk with him, but I'm not letting him know up front that walking down with him is an option), or it could be a disaster of epic proportions.  (In which case, if I sense that coming on, he will just sit with Daddy.) 

You put Wyatt in a new situation, with new clothes including a vest and possibly a tie, and ask him to follow directions, especially with a whole bunch of strangers looking at him, and you never know what you're going to get.  But it probably goes something like this:

"NOOOOOOOOO!"  (running in the other direction while yelling) "STOP LOOKING AT ME!"  and crying and lots and LOTS of drama.

Of course I wanted to say yes when she asked and I know it could be a really good experience for him as well.  And the outfit...SO cute.  But took a lot of doing and prep to convince him to try it on. Like I had to hang the vest where he could see it for a week, and bring up the wedding nonchalantly for a while before he would stop saying how much he "didn't really like it" and would "run away from the pastor".

As he has never been to a wedding and really has no idea what it entails, we had him watch OUR wedding video, so he could see my cousin walking down the aisle as the flower girl.  He looked concerned, and then started tearing up and saying he didn't really like wearing rings.  So I had to explain to him that HE wasn't getting married, or wearing rings.

And then one day as I was tucking him into bed, he told me he was scared of Daddy's hair at the wedding.  I had to explain to him that Daddy had long hair and a pony tail at OUR wedding, and that he hasn't had long hair in a long time and that long hair wasn't part of mandatory wedding attire.

Anyway, we have gotten him to wear the wedding outfit willingly, so that's a huge first step.  (Although I had to order different pants, because as you might or might not be able to tell, the ones in the picture are super huge and had to be rolled up halfway to his knees.  And the waist is too big to keep the shirt in.) Here is my dapper little man (who also hates having his picture taken, so that always makes things interesting as well...) 

I hope it goes well and he has a good time.  It will be good practice for him as he will possibly be a ring bearer in my brother's wedding in October as well.

P.S.  Wyatt was just jumping on the trampoline, with no idea that I was writing about a wedding when he asked me where he was when Daddy and I got married.  I said he wasn't born yet, and he wanted to know if he was in my tummy.  I said, not yet, he was still with God.  He said he would rather have Daddy put him in my tummy than God, because God was so big.  (Oh boy...have no idea where he even got any ideas like that, its way too early to have THAT conversation...)

Yes, this is the boy who has always hated baths...

...with Grandmommy in a friend's pool.  I don't care if you think I'm a liar.  I won't tell you how long it has even taken him to just GET in the water, but knowing him like I do, I am very impressed.  And PROUD.  :)

(And I am harboring a tiny glimmer of hope that someday before he is 18 we will be able to get into a pool without him hanging on to me for dear life with both hands and a death grip.)

Random thoughts from a three year old.

“God made the people and the animals both. Does God like bunnies? He loves people AND he loves bunnies. He made the people over here (gesturing to his left)...and the animals over here (gesturing to his right).”

While listening to the "Hush Little Baby" song on a children's CD, "Why is he going to buy all that stuff? Maybe he has a really big garage. That's kind of ridiculous."

“God built a really mean man's house on the sand.” (There is some song about the house being built on the sand, but I don't know it, and I'm not sure where he heard it.)

And one that makes me feel awful, because it is usually said after I have lost my patience and yelled at him (most often to stop getting out of bed - another post ENTIRELY), “Try to be a good mommy.”

The makings of a computer geek...;)

"So what is that?"

Wyatt: "It's an "on" button."

"An "on" button?"

Wyatt: "Yes. Like on your computer."

Learning to ride a bike...

Well, kind of a big wheel/tricycle really. But I think it is self-confidence building all the same.

For the past month or so, Wyatt has been riding a trike borrowed from a neighbor. He previously had very little experience with pedaling of any kind, and if he actually got up the nerve to, you know, SIT on a "bike", what soon followed would go something like this:

"Help! NOOOOOO!!! I CAN'T DO IT! It's TOO HARD!!!" And other displays of frustration, which often led to crying, which more than likely led to a tantrum of sorts, which was accompanied by more screaming of "Help!" and refusal to get off the bike because it was just TOO HARD, and maybe, just maybe, if he COULD do it himself, we might decide to make him try other things too.

Pretty sure I have mentioned here before that my kid warms up to things at a glacial pace, and if I have not, let me now take the time to do so. GLACIAL PACE, people. There.

With that in mind, I never really expected him to take an interest in riding a bike before the age of, say...12? Wanted him to, yes, but never really expected it when you couple his caution and perfectionism with the fact that his strengths definitely lie in the cerebral realm, and not so much the physical coordination realm.

I have had to face the fact that most likely I do not have an Olympic athlete on my hands. (Given my own coordination inadequacies, this should really come as no surprise, but you always want your kids to be better at things than you were, right?) The talking Olympics though? No problem. I have a gold medaler right here. He can talk your ear off and often answers yes or no questions with a 10 page, single-spaced response of verbal information. And questions. About everything. That I know nothing about. So if ever there WERE a talking Olympics, I would sign him up and we would display that gold metal proudly.

Ahem. All this to say, there is a delicate balance between pushing my child too hard and just enough, so that he is uncomfortable but still the teensiest bit willing. I'm sure I fail on a regular basis. But watching him go from, "NO, I CAN'T RIDE THE BIKE! I DON'T LIKE IT!" to "Can you push me, this is too hard." to "Look, I am doing it by myself!" (before running off into the grass while looking backwards to make sure I am still watching) to "I DID it!" to "Look how fast I can go! Watch me! Watch me!" (while zipping around the driveway, backing up, and performing hair-pin turns) is pretty darn rewarding.

Plus, now I have ammo to use whenever he says he can't do something because its too hard. (Which is still often, but now I have a CREDIBLE response, right?).

A little dinner music?

Yes, please.

Trend setter.

There is nothing quite like wearing pants on your head to make you feel a little rebellious.


You should really try it.

Chalk scribblings...

That's what I thought there would be on the driveway when Wyatt asked to draw with some chalk. I was in the garage for two minutes and I came out to this. I love stumbling upon unexpected creativity. ;)

Bedtime Prayer

"Dear God, please leave the thunder turned off and help it to just water the flowers with rain."

Do you remember that chewy granola bar commercial?

The one that insinuates that a chewing mouth is one that won't say embarrassing things in public? I needed one of those the other day.

We were in a store which only had one bathroom. The kind of bathroom you avoid going into at all costs and dread having to use because it is no doubt strewn with errant toilet paper and inexplicable muddy wetness on the floor which you unsuccessfully try to keep from soaking the bottom of your pants.

Anyway. Of course Wyatt needed to use THIS particular bathroom, in THIS particular store, and couldn't wait. Except we had to. Because there was a man who went in in front of us. And apparently set up camp complete with a sleeping bag and cookstove cause he was NOT. COMING. OUT. No matter how long we waited.

Finally, Wyatt was getting impatient with running around the rug display in front of the bathroom, and said really loudly, "Why is that man taking SO LONG? I think maybe he ate too much dinner."

We went somewhere else to find another bathroom.

My Child...

The one who never sleeps when he is supposed to, apparently never wakes when we need him too either. Upon trying to wake him to go out to dinner on time (I would not normally do this, but the plans were already made), we hear:

"NO!!! I am REALLY REALLY TIRED! YOU CANNOT COME IN HERE!" Followed by a door slam.

He wakes like his mama. I can't wait till the teenage years.

I have an amazing son...

I just had the craziest conversation before bed with Wyatt while I was singing to him. While I was singing "Jesus loves me" he asked me if Moses loved him too. I didn't even know that he had ever heard of Moses but I assumed it could have been during the VBS at Grandmommy's church. He said he had heard of Moses in the Bible at Adam's house. Which might be true, I just don't know. But later he did tell me he heard the story in the big church (the sanctuary) during VBS.

I said that Moses lived a long time ago and was now in heaven with Jesus and we would be able to meet him some day. He replied, "I don't want to meet Moses, he was a mean man, not very nice." I told him I thought he was thinking of someone else because Moses was not a mean man.

A couple minutes later he asked why they were in the desert. Then I realized the mean man he was talking about was Pharoah! He kept asking why Pharoah was so mean, and I said he didn't know God and have Jesus in his heart. Wyatt scrunched up his face and said, "You mean God is INSIDE of me??? I don't think I really like that!"

I said, "Not really inside your real heart, but he lives with you and helps you when you ask him to! And Pharoah was mean cause he didn't know Jesus and so he couldn't ask him for help to be patient and to be a good listener like we can."

Then he asked why Pharoah died...and told me he thinks Pharoah died in a big pond with no ducks! It took me a minute to realize he was talking about when they went through the Red Sea and Pharoah's army drowned!

He wanted to know how fast God made the water cover over the army, and I said probably pretty quick cause God controls everything, all of nature, like the thunder and lighting the other night.

Wyatt replied, "But God needs to turn off the thunder and lightning when I'm sleeping." (Haha!) I told him we can't tell God what to do but we can ask him for things.

Then he asked if God protects him when he goes fast (like on his bike, etc.), and I said, he protects us if we're being careful, but if we do crazy things we can still get hurt! But we don't have to worry about things because God is looking out for us.

He said, "But sometimes I worry," and I said whenever you are worried you can tell God about it and leave it with him.

After I came downstairs, he came down a couple minutes later and wanted to pray that God would keep him safe. So I prayed that God would keep him safe and then he prayed and thanked God for a good lunch. (Even though it was bedtime! Haha!)


What a crazy deep conversation. I can't believe how much he pays attention, and how much he thinks about things. Sometimes I don't give him enough credit, he is a truly amazing three year old. It just touches my heart to see his longing to know about God. (Especially earlier when he asked me how old God was and then said he must have really big feet, like the size of a steam train if he was that old.) :)

Sweet Moments

Last night as I was putting Wyatt to bed, there was a big storm raging outside with lots of thunder and lightning. Wyatt was scared of the thunder and wanted me to tell God to make it stop! I tried explaining to him that the rain was a gift from God because the flowers and plants needed water, and he told me they had enough because we had watered them earlier today (we had)!

So I told him about all the neighbors' flowers which might not have been watered, and all the trees and the grass which we didn't water and how much they need the rain, and that God would make it stop when they had the perfect amount. We didn't need to be afraid of the lightning and thunder because God was in control of it. And then I prayed about the storm and asked him if he wanted to. He said he didn't want to talk about the storm, but would pray about Buster.

"Dear God, please help Buster to eat his food, and drink his water, and stay on the earth."

Then Wyatt wanted me to pray about the storm again, so I prayed that God would protect us and keep us safe, and then Wyatt prayed:

"Dear God, Please help protect me and keep me safe and help me not to cry and not to get hurt by the storm."

And the storm rolled away.

EVEN more funny...

I had to wake Wyatt up from his nap this afternoon because lately, no matter how early I put him down, he can't seem to fall asleep before 4-5pm. The other day he slept till almost 7pm, and I did not want a repeat of that night. The one wherein my mom and I tried to watch the finale of our favorite reality show (which shall remain nameless) and Wyatt couldn't help but moonwalk and soul train back and forth across the room in front of us the entire time. It was KILLING him that he was not the center of attention. And I don't like being forced to put my kid to bed close to midnight because otherwise its too early. Hah.

He was all groggy and a little upset that I woke him (hate doing that), so I just let him lay there and turned on his light and went downstairs. A couple minutes later I called up, "Are you getting up?" And he said, "No, I need a few more minutes, I didn't want you to wake me up because I was making a fish. In the room. But there weren't enough stickers." I can only presume he was telling me about a dream he had been having, based on something that actually happened this week. (Wyatt has attended VBS at Grandmommy's church since Monday this week, and done surprisingly well. One day they made fish (in the room) and used stickers to decorate them. Haha!)

Anyway, he finally got up after realizing I had turned on his light and chided me that I was "wasting electricity!" When he came downstairs, I was putting together shish-ka-bobs. I stubbed my toe on the oven, and Wyatt said, "I think you'd better back up and let Granmommy do it." Thanks kid! ;)

And more already...

Heard from upstairs just now:

(Bump, thump, thump, thump...)

Me: "What are you doing out of bed?"

Wyatt: "I just had to tell you I love you all through the day and all through the night. And give you a hug and a kiss."


How can I be mad at that? Boy, he knows it too. ;)

Funny Stuff...

Whoa. Time has gotten away, and fully updating just seems way too daunting, so I'm just going to post a couple funny things from Wyatt (that I can think of offhand, they are so constant!)

After dinnertime prayer last night:

"Is Jesus's name 'Amen'?"


Tonight while I was putting him to bed:

"Why don't we see crickets during the day?"
"They only usually come out at night."
"But, why?"
"Because their day is our night! They sleep all day."
"Whoa, that is TOO funny."


Etc, etc. Lots more to come, I am sure.