Microphones

This boy loves music, and microphones and stages. He has become very creative in how he makes this happen. The other night it was a Turkey Baster with him standing on a box. The next day it was standing on the box that houses our hose using the sprayer as his microphone. He is not an "on demand" performer. He performs his music, his way in his time - sometimes he takes requests, sometimes he let's us join in. Most of the time in the car I am told, "Please don't sing Mama" as I must taint the voices of Evan's favorite singers Mr. Travis, Ms. Julie and Ms. Brin. (An amazing night of worship happened a few months ago and it was recorded - Evan loves the CD that came from that night). I love to watch this little boy so full of life and joy.

Christmas Cookies

The weather in Texas can spin you in circles. It can be 70 and sunny one day and with in 24 hours it's snowy and 21. Give it another day or two and it's 70 and sunny again. Inbetween these days come the rainy, cold days where going out just isn't fun. On one such day last week we had our friends Sarah and Grant come over to play and make sugar cookies. Why not? Two 2yr old boys making cookies - how bad can it be? I made the dough ahead of time since it had to sit in the fridge for 2 hours.

Helping me roll the dough. I had aprons on them both but Grant wanted nothing to do with his so off it came. They are doing great so far....

Making their cookies, sharing cookie cutters and dough space - wow!

After cooking and some decorating...some eating. Evan eating off the icing and sprinkles, Grant only wanting Mom to hold his cookie. So far so good...

What I don't have a picture of is that after this there was some playing, some fighting over a few toy cars, some sharing, and some pushing...ummm yea, the pushing. So Grant was back up on the chair - the one Evan is in in the picture above - and Evan decided he wanted up on that chair. I do not have pictures of what ensued...within seconds Evan says "Move Grant" and shoves him, Grant goes flying off the chair onto the floor, thankfully his knees hit before his head hits the cabinet, Grant in tears, Evan successfully on the chair. The next minutes are filled with Evan in timeout, lots of Evan tears. Evan returns and apologizes and the boys are back to playing, laughing and sharing again. Ummmm...so I actually think the cookie making was a success and am thankful for great friends. I love watching a friendship develop between two little boys as they begin to understand what a friend is.

It was a good day.

Last night we went to a "Walk Through Christmas" story night at a local church. They took us in groups through various scenes set up around the church telling the story of the birth of Christ. We went with some other friends and their 2-3 yr olds which means never a dull moment. While we were waiting for our group's turn they sang Christmas music in their Sanctuary. Although we only waited about 20 minutes Evan had a few adventures: first I noticed that he was going down all the pews and collecting pencils. He later rushed for the front once but then all the kids were invited down front to help out with a song. Evan got quite upset that "down front" did not mean on the stage but just "down front." Although he did get his hands on a mike - another favorite. Hopefully soon I'll get the pictures of Evan with his microphones downloaded - a turkey baster and a garden hose nozle. There are very few dull moments these days.

This Boy Loves Christmas

Evan is a huge fan of everything Christmas. He loves the lights, the music, the Santa hats...

He also really seems to be beginning to understand why we celebrate Christmas. He is pointing out the "Baby Jesus" everytime we see one somewhere and loves to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. He knows Christmas is about Jesus and his birth and seems excited about that. Something he has started saying lately if we are in the car after dark is that "sometimes there are monsters in the dark." I have no idea where he's picked this up. We talk about it some and he usually tells me, "Jesus will take care of me." It's so awesome to see this little boy take small steps on an incredible journey to knowing Jesus himself.