Logs and Elephants

Yesterday, Iain and I did his reading lesson. The story he read went like this: I am a log. I can not run. I can not sit on an ant. An ant will sit on me. (Yes, I typed that from memory; we did read it 896,000 times.) Iain tends to get lazy sometimes and guess what a word is, just from the first letter or two, like he'll see the c in can and he'll guess cat. Yesterday, he got to the word will and guessed structure. What on earth? What three-year-old even says structure? What a nut!

After he read the first sentence (I am a log.) he quite heatedly declared, "But logs don't have mouths! How can the log be telling the story when he doesn't have a mouth? Do logs have mouths, Mama?"

Me: Well, maybe this one does. Let's finish reading and look at the picture; then we can see.

(we finish the story and look at the picture)

Iain: Mama! The log doesn't have a mouth! How can he be telling the story?!

I love the literal phase of childhood. No problem with a talking log, but he's gotta have a mouth. I mean, c'mon!

Then there's Cory. He is amazingly logical for a little guy, thinks about everything, and reasons things out in his head. Love it!

Cory: Can we touch snakes, Mama? (well, he really said 'nakes.)

Mama: If you see a snake, you have to ask me before you touch it.

Cory: (thinks for a minute) But older children don't ask their mamas first.

A few weeks ago, we hosted 14 people from the ACCESS218 college ministry that Kelsey helps lead. They were doing a mission trip to Atlanta. The boys loved having such a big audience, and they loved the yummy food we served (and thus got to eat). Today, I overheard this conversation:

Iain: Cory, let's play Mission Trip?

Cory: What's Mission Trip?

Iain: It's when you eat Bojangles biscuits.

On Mother's Day, Cory grabbed my hand at breakfast and said excitedly,

Cory: We got you a surprise!

Me: You did? What is it?

Cory: Flowers! See? (he leads me to the backyard and I see this)

All the flowers in the backyard: mine for Mother's Day. What a sweet boy. :)

And finally, I resisted as long as I could. I didn't even buy our baby girl a dress at Easter, when the absolute cutest dresses were for sale. I have some garage sale ones, but today... I broke down and bought two little outfits. 

This one is for her to wear on her re-adoption day. Red, white, and blue for her new country, and a giraffe for her homeland. It's really too cute! (FYI: Because of the visas that kids coming out of Rwanda are issued, we will have to re-adopt our daughter once we get back to the States.)

And when I was getting that one, the boys both found this other one. They insisted that we had to get it for the Baby Sister, because it was pink and had elephants. They were so excited to buy it for her!

The boys have been asking all the time lately when the Baby Sister will come home. I explained yesterday that she will come home when the people in Rwanda say yes (how else can I explain it to a 3 and a 2?). So today at Target, Iain saw a woman pushing a basket with a cute little baby girl in it. He very loudly said, "Look Mama! They already got their Baby Sister! The people said yes, today for them!" And again, the next time we saw a woman with a baby girl, "Look! They got their baby sister too! If I was the people in Rwanda, I'd say 'yes, you can have her today!'"

So would I, Iain. So would I.