Surprise in the bath tub.

Just when you think that you are no longer in jeopardy of enduring certain behaviors that are normally associated with infancy, your almost three year old will surprise you by pooping in the tub. Carter has NEVER pooped in the tub until tonight. I put him in and went next door to get pajamas and came back to find a nasty, flaky, brown streak on the side of the tub. I shudder to think about how it made its way onto the side of the tub and not the bottom. He immediately started to cry when I walked in and told me that he was scared of the poopoo, and really, can you blame him? Sweet Mike came in and drained the tub and washed the messy boy and cleaned the tub for me. As I was tucking the wild man in to bed, he kept telling me "Poopoo is not for the bath. Don't do it again." At least at the end of the day, he has a new life lesson to take with him, right? I almost took a picture for all of you bloggers but after subjecting you to dead mice, I decided that I had to draw the line somewhere.

Negotiations

I am learning that life with a three year old is all about negotiating and convincing him that things are his idea! I get so tickled when I hear my own words come back to me. For instance, "Mommy do you want juice or milk?" or "Use two hands mommy." Tonight as I was tucking Carter into bed I gave him a kiss and then he promptly told me "Mommy put one more on me." He leaned in and pulled my head right next to his and made the kissing noise ("mmmmmmmmm") for at least ten seconds before he decided it was time to smack and end the embrace. My head tells me that he was stalling to stay up later but my heart tells me that I am in love!

Random Flowering

You know how every now and then you hit that point in life where you look at your calendar and you have "something" to do every single day for three consecutive weeks and you feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the random things in life that you manage to obligate yourself to do and all of a sudden the thought of simply keeping up with dishes and laundry and trying to pack lunches makes you want to cry? Yeah. That point. Well, I was completely there last week. It seems like things tend to all reach the critical point at work, church, and home simultaneously for me. Maybe it is because I have just survived a month of "busy-ness", but I feel freshly appreciative of all of the little things in my life. I am married to my best friend, am crazy about my son, get to experience the miracle of pregnancy again, and am just sort of satisfied with life in general. The weather is beautiful right now and I actually have the time to enjoy it again! Ahh.

I went on a ladies retreat this weekend that was just good for my soul on so many levels. Every now and then you just need a good estrogen filled weekend where you can laugh and cry and stay up way too late doing absolutely nothing. I came home feeling like I had encountered the Lord with my sisters, and that was a sweet thing.

And then, to make things even better, I got to come home to this. . .

And to top it all off, my precious husband does this thing that I call "random flowering." He is the absolute best about bringing me fresh flowers randomly throughout the year on non-anniversary, non-birthday, non-"apology" occasions. It is amazing how a bouquet of flowers can lift my spirits and make a girl feel so very cherished. So, I walk in the door from the retreat and Carter runs to me yelling "Mommy we got flowers for ya." Could life be any sweeter? And, could Mike be any sweeter? (I love you, mister Lewis.)

And I would be remiss if I did not share this story tonight! Carter loves to read and he loves the repetition of reading a book over and over and over. Last night I had read "Duck on a Bike" three times and he begged to read it again. I just couldn't do it, so I told him to look at the pictures. Not satisfied with this answer, he physically picked up my hands and put them on both sides of the book and then said to me "Now, use yours mouth and say the words." What's a girl to do?

If it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey.

As the mommy of a two year old, I seem to have lost touch with anything that could possibly be classified as contemporary music and that part of my brain has miraculously been occupied with various cartoon songs and assorted "silly songs with Larry." Recently, Veggie Tales released a hip new tune helping children differentiate between monkeys and apes. I quote, "If it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey even if it has a monkey kind of shape. If it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey. If it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey, it's an ape." Unfortunately I have been humming this catchy little tune for the last week.

So, today we got to take a peek at little baby Lewis for the first time! I am thrilled to report that despite Carter's insistence that there is a monkey in mommy's tummy, we did not see a tail! While it is still too early for us to see gender, we did see opposable thumbs and that is enough for this mommy!

And check out these sweet little legs all stretched out. (This is the back of the baby and the arrow is pointing at a thigh.)

The baby was moving and flipping and kicking, and it was so amazing to watch. It is currently the size of a lime, and we marveled at how "human" it looks already. The fun is just beginning. . .

Another Uninvited Houseguest

We have been mouse free for a while now, but you never know what a day holds in the Lewis house! A few days ago Mike and I started hearing fluttering in the chimney and thought that maybe a bird was building a nest in there. We tried to look up the chimney but couldn't really see anything. Today Mike came home to find that a pigeon was camped out in our fireplace- I guess it finally fell down the opening.

Carter thought that we had imported a new pet just for him and was super excited about the bird. He met me in the garage when I came home from work shouting "COME ON MOMMY! BIRD IN THE FIREPLACE. TWEET! TWEET! TWEET!" I think he made the poor creature nervous.

Meanwhile, all I could think about was Mike with the mice and the rubber mallet in the garage. You will be glad to know that after enjoying some quality time with a very excited two year old, we managed a successful catch and release program with a towel. I think I actually saw the bird smile as he flew away as fast as his little wings would carry him!

Little Mister

This morning Carter walked into the kitchen and I said "Hey, little mister." He grinned and said "Hey little mommy!" Have I mentioned lately just how very much I love this kid?

I love it that Carter can talk now.

This little guy has so many funny things to say these days. I have to share some of my recent favorites.

• When it is obvious that he is pooping in his diaper, he will look at me and in his sweetest voice say "I am not pooping. I am sure."
• Today I asked Carter who loves him and he told me "Jesus." Then he asked me where Jesus is and I told him that He lives in my heart. He said "No mommy, Jesus is up there (pointing to the sky)." I told him that Jesus is in Heaven and in our hearts and he then pointed to my heart necklace and said with great enthusiasm "In there!"
• When there is anything that Carter is unsure of he tells us "I can't like it."
• When a stranger tells him their name he will normally respond with "Oh that is a GREAT name."
• We were talking about the baby in mommy's tummy and he told me "Yours tummy is so big." (I need to clarify that I am not really showing yet so this is in reference to my normal tummy.) So I asked him if there is a baby in there and he told me "Is monkey in there." You never know. . .
• On mornings that I feel nauseated Carter asks me "Mommy you gonna frow up a little?" His genuine concern and compassion when I don't feel good blesses my heart.
• Yesterday we had quite a conversation about elephants. He made the "elephant noise" complete with hand gestures really loud and told me that was a daddy elephant. Then he whispered the "elephant noise" and did a mini trunk gesture and told me that was the baby elephant. Too cute.

I can hardly wait to see what will come out of his mouth tomorrow.