For Posterity

So I have a three-year-old son. You may have heard. He's awesome and I'm totally in love with him. The thing about Elijah is I'm constantly amazed by him. I mean, really, all day long I'm shaking my head. I'm starting to realize that I have to be very cautious about the things I let him see and hear. Equally, I can see the necessity for challenging him intellectually. He's going to be a smart one - which is wonderful - but opens up a whole other set of challenges for me in teaching him.

He's just so funny and comes up with these little things that make me say "I really should be writing this stuff down." So I am, for posterity, and all that. You're welcome, future Elijah. And you're welcome, future Elijah's wife... whoever you may be, because we all know its the wife who really cares about things like this anyway. (Isn't it crazy to think that whoever she is, she's probably alive right now. Doing similar things.)

The other night we were watching Glee, which is normally innocent enough for him to be in the same room without me be worrying he'll see something bad. There was a scene where Rachel and Finn kissed - they were holding each other's faces and being a little too passionate for a kid to see. But Elijah saw it. I tried to play it off like they were just acting silly. After all, Mommy kisses Daddy like that, right? Ha ha ha. [gulp] Later that night when I was tucking him in he said "Oh, Mommy let me give you a kiss before you go." He reached up, took my face in his hands, pulled me down to him and planted a big wet one right on my mouth just like they did on TV. So yeah, great.

We've been working a little bit on reading these days. He knows all the upper-case letters, most of the lower-case ones (he gets confused with n, m, w, and u), and the sound each one makes. Plus he's learned a few things about vowels, like two Os say oo. And he can read a few words now. I think it's partially memorization, but it's a good start. These are the words I know he knows...

Elijah, Ezekiel, Mom, Dad, Daniel, Truck, Train, Red, Stop, Go, No, Yes, Cat, Dog, Allstate, Food.
(I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.)

The other morning he climbed into bed with us, was cuddled up next to me touching my cheek and hair when he said in the sweetest voice "Mommy, I really love your ears".

The two of us are loving our nighttime routine of reading from his new Bible before bed. Moms, if you are looking for a wonderful, beautifully written children's Bible, you should check out The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every story whispers His name. It's so Christ-centered and really does a great job of introducing elements of the Gospel in every story, even the Old Testament. I can't say enough how much we enjoy it. If you don't have it, buy it. Now. :)