"Are we going to eat there in China?"

I reminded Noah a few minutes ago that daddy leaves for China tomorrow. This is how our conversation then went.

Noah: Are we going to eat there in China?
Mommy: We aren't going there, Noah, daddy is.
Noah: Why aren't we going to eat there, mommy?
Mommy: We aren't going there, daddy is going by himself.
Noah: Is he going to work and going to stay there at work?
Mommy: No, well, kinda. He's going to get on a plane and fly there.
Noah: An airplane is coming to his work and going to fly there?
Mommy: That's right, Noah. So it's going to just be you, me and Maia for 9 days. Will you help me take care of Maia.
Noah: Uh-huh. {Then after a long pause.} We have to go to the airport and go with him next time.
Mommy: Yeah, maybe we can go with him next time.

And then he went back to coloring.

I do think he understands he'll be gone again. I think it's going to be hardest for this person here ----- me.

I still have lots of days "open" but I have came up with some things to do. Here's my list.

* Saturday - I have 3 shoots. Twins and their brother, then a portrait session of a man with his guitar, and then a session of a 9-month old boy. O'ma is coming over to watch the kids as I work most of the day. (Thank you, O'ma.)
*Sunday - going to church with my mom and dad, then going to her house to help her with computer issues. Kids will be occupied by grandpa, hopefully!
* at some point I am going to go get new glasses and hopefully without children!
* Monday - paint our family room, play room and my office. I just bought the paint last night. What colors you ask? Secret! I'm not telling!
* Tuesday night - we are going to Heather's so Noah and Cole can play and *I* am going to relax if at all possible. Maybe order pizza.
* Wednesday morning - Heather is going to come over and we're going shopping while Noah is at school. Afterwards we're going to hang out and talk her wedding.
* Thursday night - Noah's friend, Kristin's 5th birthday. We're going to her house so the kids can play and we're eating dinner with them.
* Friday - no plans; if I can make it work, I might find someone to watch my kids while I go with Heather to talk to her florist. (I really want to go!)
*I am sure I won't get all done painting Monday, so at some point I will have to finish. That's my goal, anyway.
* Saturday late morning - Neil gets home!!! I am doing a maternity shoot when he gets home.

So things are pretty filled which is good. Good for the kids and good for my sanity.

As I wrote in the comment section of the previous China post, Neil just found out that ADM has scheduled him a private scenic tour of Shanghai, which is awesome. He also has a road journey part way along the Great Wall. That's the only thing I had asked him to do for me - get a picture of that amazing piece of architectural history. I'm excited for him to see it. Hopefully this will make his journey more exiting for him as the last few days he's told me he's been really anxious, and that's very unlike my husband.

Missy, unfortunately, Neil said that where he will be is at least 800 miles south of Beijing so there probably won't be any English signs or much of anything (if at all) in regards to the Olympics. Which stinks because after you told me that, I was really hopeful!

I do, however, think this is an incredible opportunity for him, but it's hard to be 100% excited for him when you have a family. He's traveling by himself which I think accounts for his own anxiety. Well, that and leaving the kids. Maia is more attached to him now than ever. That's got to be hard leaving your baby girl.

Anyway, we'll see. Hopefully this will be the most exciting travel he's done yet. I am quite excited that he'll get to add this one to his passport. It's something I know I'll never experience!

Thanks again for all the tremendous support. It's just nice to know you have friends who care and who are praying for the good of us all. I know this is not the hardest thing we'll ever face in life, but it's definitely not easy. Like Christy stated, he's my other half. He really does probably half of the work just here at home. But he's also my best friend and so thinking about saying goodbye to him for 9 days makes me begin to cry. I'm so blessed that I found the best husband in the world. I pray that God keeps him safe and brings him back to me. {{xo to my friends}}

Thursday's (Happy, Funny, Heart-warming) Thought

I just had to share this because it's way too cute.

My friend, Vicki, just shared with me this morning something that her daughter wrote. Chloe was our "straight across the street neighbor/friend" and we watched her grow up into a beautiful little girl. Check it out:

"Last week we went to Chloe's new schools open house and on her locker there was a paragraph she had to write about herself. It said she had 4 pets (the 4th is a new fish, the result of me leaving her w/her dad for a day between girl scout camp ending and school beginning-my mistake!) 3 cousins....and a half brother and a half sister named Noah and Maia! I was pretty surprised and told her they are not her half siblings, she looked kinda puzzled and said "they're not?" the people around us kinda laughed. I'll have to save that piece of paper for her school scrapbook! She misses them so much and asked when we can see you guys again."

Is that not the sweetest?! They miss you, too, Chloe! If only you knew how much! Last night we were looking at a picture and she kept calling one of our family members "Chloe"!!!

Boy/girl conversation with the Little Mister

Mommy: (When he came upstairs) Are you being a good boy down there?

Noah: Uh-huh.

Mommy: Is Maia being a good boy?

Noah: Uh-huh. (Then he looks at me like a light bulb went off.) Maia is a girl!

Mommy: Oh. Are you being a good girl?

Noah: I'M A BOY!

Mommy: Is daddy a boy or a girl?

Noah: (Really thinking now.) Daddy is a DADDY!

Mommy: Is mommy a girl or a boy?

Noah: Girl, mommy. (Rolling his eyes, totally annoyed with me now you could tell, and then back downstairs he went.)

I love conversations with him . . . what a joy :c)

Pretty.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, Noah said this.

"Mommy, your toes are pretty".

(Thank you, Noah.)

"Mommy, your face is pretty".

(Thank you, Noah.)

"Mommy, your eyebrows are pretty".

(Thank you, Noah . . . I think.)


Both Neil and I could not stop smiling after that conversation. Pretty dang cute, I must say. Man, I love that little guy.

God Bless You, Noah

Noah sneezed and right away said outloud to himself, "God bless you, Noah".

I was too late I guess when I came in a split-second later and said "God bless you, Noah".

He then says "I said those words!" . . . and then in a deep monster-like 3-year old voice he said "God bless you, Noah." He was making fun of mommy and mocking me!!

Okay, now you are allowed to laugh.

Conversations with a 3-year old.

My sil, Michelle, made me remember a conversation I had had with Noah when he started feeling better a few days ago. It was quite the interesting conversation!

It went something like this:

N: I want some parcocks . . .
me: Huh, Noah? What did you say?
N: Parcocks (looking at me with this look like, GEE MOM, HELLO!?!)
Me: I don't understand you, Noah. What do you want to do with your cars?
N: NO MOMMY!! Parcocks!

And then it hit me (Duh!!)

V: Pancakes?! Do you want pancakes?
N: YES!! (totally disgusted with me at this point)

Isn't that great?! Of course "parcocks" sounded a bit more distorted than "cars", but I knew he wasn't say that!

And then last night we heard the funniest thing ever out of his mouth. We were all playing ball (Alexis, it was with the big pink ball you gave us), tossing it back and forth between the 4 of us, and into the mix walks our dog, Frankie. I announce excitedly, "Noah, look, Frankie wants to play, too!" and Noah very frankly says, "No, mommy, Frankie can't play, she doesn't have arms."

I am laughing again as I type this. Is that the funniest thing you've heard today or what?!

I love the age of 3.

I really love Noah's age right now. It seems he went from answering questions incorrectly and looking at us like we're nuts, to answering correctly and with a voice of a 10-yr old, not a 3-yr old. He's changed overnight.

Right now he's working on these new mini legos that I bought him (purposely for the trip that we didn't go on to Ohio this past weekend) and he's counting. While it isn't perfection yet, it's still very good ---- at least his proud mommy thinks so!

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, eighteen . . . eighteen!"

I just love it.

And then Maia . . . she is talking a lot now, too. She seems to be quite a bit ahead of Noah compared to him at her age. (I think that is pretty common with girls.) And she is growing up waaayyyy too fast. With Noah, his baby-ness seemed to last a lot longer. With Maia, she's almost not a baby anymore (babies don't talk, do they?), and well, I think this graduation from baby to toddler is sneaking up on me much quicker this time. I think that is because it's my last child and I'm honestly not all that ready to say goodbye to the stage. But I guess I kinda need to suck it up and be ready. (sigh . . . )

Maia likes to say the word "trash". She loves throwing trash away. We'll find something for her to throw away and we'll ask her to put it in the trash and she runs to it like it's the greatest thing ever. Well, because to her, it is! And on her way there she's saying "fash, fash, fash, fash . . . ". She loves to say that word and it's quite amusing.

I still think so far, my favorite age is 3. Noah finally understands between right and wrong (usually) and is understanding consequences pretty well, too. He can be so grown up at times, but then at other times he's such a boy . . . a pre-schooler - oh my! But he's also so very loveable to both daddy and myself. I love that about him. He's so sensitive like his mommy, but funny and goofy like his daddy. The traits are emerging, and it's just so fun because, well, he's a part of us! There's nothing more spectacular or rewarding or more of a gift than that. God is so good and I am so blessed.

"That's grandpa"

I was sitting here at my desk tonight and my son, Noah, comes up to sit on my lap. He likes to sit with me when I work sometimes. I have some pictures under a clear mat on my desk. Right at the bottom where he could see, is a picture of my grandma and grandpa (picture above). The same grandpa who passed away at the end of this past October.

He pointed to this picture and said "that's grandpa".
I said, "yes it is, Noah".
He went on to say "grandpa is sick".
I said, "yes, grandpa was very sick".
He continued, "and grandma was with grandpa . . . grandpa's sick". (He was talking about my mom - we always were with her when we visted grandpa.)
"Yes, grandma was with grandpa a lot when he was 'sleeping', wasn't she?", I replied.
Noah responded, "yeah . . .".

He then went on talking about something else. He then came back to the picture.

He said, "who is that, mommy?", pointing to my grandma, who is with grandpa, in the picture. He never knew her.
I said, "that is grandma. Mommy's grandma."
"Oh", Noah said. "Grandpa likes to sleep", he continued.
I said, "yes, grandpa likes to sleep. Grandpa was really sick. He is sleeping now".
I went on, "grandpa loved you very much".
He said, "uh-huh".

And that was it.

Those words, those memories, are from 38-month old little boy. It makes me cry. I sit here in tears. I'm not sure if it's because my baby remembers grandpa like he does; dying. Or that soon he won't remember anything of him. Or that I just miss him. I think it's probably some of all.