This Boy

He says the funniest things lately. Like this "tory" he told us in the car yesterday:

Cory: I found a mouse and I was petting him but then he turned mean and I runned and runned into the house so Jesus could protect me.

Cory to Mama: How many are you? Do you have a number? (translation: How old are you?)

Yesterday at play group, Cory said to his friends who wanted to go outside: "I will go with you in case a moose wants to scare you."

He embodies several Proverbs lately: 

"The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth." Prov 10:24

The Cory version (at dinner last night when he didn't want to eat by himself, though he is perfectly able to do so): Mama, will you help me take bites? I'm too tired!

Prov 22:13 "The sluggard says, 'There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!'"

The Cory version:

Me: Cory, go pick up your toys in the living room now.

Cory: (wailing) I can't! The moose might bite me!

This boy also gave us quite a scare last Wednesday. I was at a writers' group meeting, and Jeremy and the boys were playing on the trampoline. Cory came down wrong on his little knee and really hurt it. Jeremy called me, and I raced out of there so fast that the group leader was still in the middle of a sentence. We took the poor little guy to urgent care, and they x-rayed his knee. Thankfully, it wasn't fractured. It was swollen and very sore - maybe a sprain? And he didn't walk on it for two days. He just crawled and scooted around, and asked me to put him various places. But what a little trooper! By the third day, he was taking a few limping steps (and grinning when he did, saying, "Look! I know how to walk!"), and now, eight days later, he's almost back to 100%. He still limps a little and doesn't jump much (which for him is a big deal!), but man, what a speedy recovery. So our first urgent care trip for one of our kids ended happily.

(Here's Tiny Tim the day after his injury. He and Iain played so nicely and quietly all day - it was really relaxing! But he pretty much laid around the whole time.)

Have I mentioned Cory's very logical mind? Here are some examples of his brain at work.

Today, Haylee came through on her way from TN to FL (we love being in the middle!). She and Cory had a funny conversation:

Haylee: You're a nut!

Cory: No, you're a nut! We are the squirrels. Squirrels eat nuts, so we eat you!

Me: (as we drove in the car) Hold on, Cory!

Cory: But I don't need to hold on.

Me: Well, what if I stop? You might fall. (I know he won't fall when he's buckled in his carseat, but I was trying to explain my reason for telling him to hold on. It's a reflex to say that sometimes - maybe that's what I should have said.)

Cory: But I don't fall when you stop and I don't fall when you go. So I don't fall anytime. So I don't need to hold on.

Me: (oh, the constant debating with this boy!) Okay, Cory. You won't fall.

Cory: See? You were wrong, and I was right.

Sassy boy.

Halfway - Sort Of

(This sweet "special buddy" as the boys call it was a gift from Nan to our baby girl. It's in her room on her dresser, waiting for her to love on it.)

Today, we have been DTR (dossier to Rwanda) for four and a half months. That means - see if you can follow this convoluted line of thought - that we are half way through the longest estimated timeframe for the longest wait.

Let me explain (No, there is too much. Let me sum up.). The estimated wait time for our approval is currently 7-9 months. We are half way to nine months. After that, all the other estimated wait times are 2 months and shorter. So we're halfway through the longest of the longest. 

That makes me happy! Half way! Hurray! And sad. Only half way. Seriously? And anyway, all those times are estimated, so really it could be shorter. Or longer, but I don't let myself think about that.

So here's to halfway through the longest of the longest. And may reality be much, much shorter.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Since Jeremy's real birthday took place while we were at the Property, we celebrated it the following week. According to our tradition, we made a birthday banner to hang the day of the party!

The original plan for the day was for us to leave the boys at a friend's house for the morning, so Jeremy and I could go on a date, and then pick them up after lunch and have the party at dinnertime. But the best laid plans...

Iain started running a fever the night before. We thought about calling off the morning activities, but he seemed to be doing okay, so we brought the boys along. First stop, Land of a Thousand Hills coffee shop. As the name suggests, they serve coffee grown in Rwanda, and the company is involved in sustainable coffee growing, fair trade, micro-loans, and helping villages become self-sustaining. Besides the fact that they are working in Rwanda, the place was seriously the coolest coffee shop ever - it's in a historic house and it's beautiful and so interesting.

After some green strawberry tea (yum), we went to historic Roswell to walk around and see the pre-Civil War era dam and mill. It was very hilly (see below) and beautiful. We had some interesting discussions with Iain about the Civil War, who won, why the Union soldiers burned the mill, etc.

Then after lunch at Arby's (during which Jeremy got to order anything he wanted!), we headed home for naps and rest time. I cooked dinner and made dessert, and when the boys got up, we decorated the dining room.

It was Iain's idea to get green streamers (he calls them ribbons). They both decided we should hang them in the doorway, and they call it Jail. Cory ran back and forth through the jail for a good long time saying, "In jail! Out the jail! In jail! Out the jail!"

We made banana pudding for dessert - it's one of Jeremy's favorites. Iain really, really really wanted to have Frog and Toad on the top. I thought about using icing, but didn't have what I needed, so I tried with marshmallows. Do you know how hard it is to make Frog and Toad, reading books, with marshmallows, while a sick three-year-old is directing you?

When I finished, the poor little guy's eyes welled up with tears. "It doesn't look like Frog and Toad," he said so sadly. "It looks like Robot and Toad." (Well, at least I got one!) I tried to fix them, but I just couldn't make Frog look like Frog in Iain's mind.

"Daddy will think it's Robot and Toad," he said, chin quivering.

"No he won't," I promised. "He will take one look and know it's Frog and Toad."

And a well-timed whisper in Jeremy's ear insured that. You should have seen Iain light up when Jeremy make a big deal about how great Frog and Toad looked on his "cake." What a good dad!

(That's Frog on the left, with a book in his lap and a hat on - yes, they both had to wear hats, too. And Frog's hat had to look like an ear. Don't ask me why! And Toad is crouched on the right, looking at a book that sits on the pudding. Yeah, I know.)

We had a lovely day in all, despite the poor little boy's fever. We love you, Jeremy/Daddy! Happy birthday!

Peace Valley, TN

My family owns some property in Tennessee. Called Peace Valley, it is one of my very favorite places. We all gather there every Memorial Day Weekend to camp - I love it! This was our first time having both boys in the tent together, and I have to say, it went really well. They took longer than usual to get to sleep, but both of them slept all night without any trouble. Even when the braying hunting dog ran through camp at 3am, neither one stirred. 

Iain and Cory loved the trip: eating hot dogs and s'mores, sleeping in the tent cuddled up next to Mama and Daddy, playing with the cousins in the mud and creek all day... everything about it was heaven for them. And I loved seeing them fall in love with the Property.

Highlights from the trip:

--Cory woke up the first morning, stretched, and said in a sweet little satisfied voice, "I love this place."

--The boys were quite daring jumping down the embankment, and they loved it.

--Jeremy made pancakes for everyone on Saturday morning.

--It rained every afternoon and all night Sunday night. Even so, it was very pleasant. We had a great pavilion to sit under during the afternoons, complete with foosball table and plenty of camp chairs. Last time (before Jeremy and I were even together) that we camped in this pasture it rained all weekend long. And we had no pavilion. We sat out in the rain for three days. This time was much better.

--We even had electricity in the pavilion, meaning we could cook over a griddle and in a toaster oven even when the fire was out because of the rain. I know, it was weird. But it worked!

--The last night, I was up for most of the night. I listened to the rain and the crickets, saw all the drama with the hunting dog, and enjoyed the quiet.

--Making war paint from river rocks is a long-standing tradition. I was glad to see the cousins initiating my boys. (note: when I say "the cousins," I really mean my cousins who are just a little older than my boys. Iain and Cory are so blessed to have so many playmates in the family!)

--This was the first year we had a bathhouse. I was so impressed! My uncles built the bathhouse, installed a sink, two toilets, and a shower, and ran electricity to it. This is a big step up from the previous years - I'll leave it at that.

--And we made it one more year with no one falling off the bridge!