sweet Ella girl

Ella is starting to show so much personality!  She has such a calm and sweet spirit about her, but there's definitely a fire in her, too.

The other day, she didn't seem to want to nurse, so I shifted her on my lap so that she could see my face, and she began to talk.  She talked and laughed and smiled -- for at least half an hour we just sat there and talked (so glad it happened while Jay was napping!).

I hope she'll always want to talk to me.

When she looks at me and smiles, her entire body lights up, and I feel like the most important person in the world.

I am so grateful that God knew I needed a daughter.

my prayer tonight for Jay

Lord, you have created such an amazing little boy.  He has a love for life that I have never seen in anyone.   He has such a loving and generous heart.  He loves completely and without reservation -- and he shows his love with so much enthusiasm.  Please protect his special little heart.  Please protect him from cynicism and self-consciousness.  Please make his heart strong to keep loving others when his love isn't returned.  Please give him a love for You that exceeds all other loves he will ever know.  Please continue to remind me that you love him so much more than I do, more than I ever can.  Remind me that You created him intentionally with this loving heart.  You made him this way on purpose and for a reason and You want him to keep loving without abandon.  Thank you for my son.  Thank you for his heart.

Jay-isms

Jay's vocabulary is exploding!  Every day he says something new, but we don't always know what he says.  It's a little difficult when he gets frustrated that we can't understand him.  Sometimes he'll say something I can't understand, and I try to make a generic comment like "that's great!", but that isn't good enough for him!  He wants me to repeat what he said because he desperately wants to be understood (he definitely understands pretty much everything we say to him!).

He has several "words" that sound the same (to us) but mean a variety of things.  Sometimes we can guess correctly from context, but not always:
cuh-cuh: computer, phone, helicopter, popcorn, or hot dog
chuk: truck or church
uh buboo: "I love you" or "where are you" -- can tell the difference based on inflection

Today he said "fish" for the first time!  It sounded like "shish".

He doesn't say "yes", but says "please" instead.  It is so incredibly sweet!  For example, if I ask him if he'd like to play outside, he says "please!!!"  It's also very cute that if I ask him if he got an owie, he says, "please!"

Jay likes to say "I did it!" when he accomplishes something, which is awesome because we only ever say "you did it!", but he says "I" instead of repeating the "you".

He calls Ella "Wee-Wuh" or "Tee-Tuh" (sister).

He also generalizes all people.  Every older woman he sees is "Meemaw", and he addresses them as such. We'll be at the store and he'll say "Hi, Meemaw" to every older woman he sees.  All older men are "Peepaw", all little boys are "Tad", all girls are "KeeKee" (Katie), and all other adults are either "Mommy" or "Daddy".  He's not confused as to who is own grandma or daddy is, I'm pretty sure he just thinks those are the names for everyone in that age group.

It's so fun that he can communicate so much now!

Jay at the library

We haven't been to storytime at the library in a long time, because Jay still doesn't like sitting through long story readings.  But he always loved the music and I've missed that for him.  This week we went to the pre-school storytime because we were babysitting our friend Lexy.  Jay didn't care for the books, but oh, the music!  He loved the music!  One of the songs involved jumping.  Jay can't jump yet, but he didn't know that he wasn't doing what the other kids were doing.  He was prancing.  I wish I could have captured the look on his face -- it was pure elation.  He was the very definition of happy.  He was prancing and dancing and laughing and clapping with complete abandon.  That is one of my favorite things about him right now -- he is not self-conscious.  He didn't know and didn't care that he wasn't perfectly following the directions to jump, but he loved feeling that he was part of the jumping group.