Quotable Quotes and Daily Giggles

This is my youngest son, Adam. Isn't he a doll?

He was supposed to be a girl, you know. With his 2 older brothers, I had felt like I knew they were going to be boys. But my cosmic woman's intuition (AKA wishful thinking) CLEARLY indicated that the next one would be a girl. I told everyone that I was having a girl, and commonly referred to my monstrous tummy as "Suzanne." To this day my boys still occasionally ask me where Suzanne is. There was never a woman at her 20 week ultrasound as surprised as I was. I am fallible? Oh noooooooooo! He he he.

I already had two little boys. I knew what I was in for--destruction, noise, hour long sessions of baby wrestling during sacrament meetings. All the books pulled out of the two bottom shelves...once a day...every day...for 2 years. Daily percussion performances (pots and pans). Pencils on the wall. Little action heros buried daily in my large potted plant. Sharpies on the couch, etc. etc. Did I have the energy for this? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

But God, in his infinite wisdom, gave me a big break. For my third son he sent me Adam. A true boy in every way, he is convinced that he is destined to become the Green Power Ranger. He loves to play in little boy ways, holding matchbook cars in the air and making spluttering sounds while he dashes around the house. He likes to "save me" from monsters and bad guys. He likes to attack the bushes with his appropriately green light saber, and make wounding sound effects. But you know what he doesn't do? He doesn't make my load heavier. He just doesn't! Everything he does seems to delight my little heart.

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He...hmmm, yes, he DOES make messes (although not as many or as terrifying as his brothers made at this age) but for some reason, to me they seem to be adorable messes that make me want to run and get the camera to immortalize the cuteness. Like the time he took all the carefully folded clothes from the drawers (I had just replaced winter clothes for the spring set) AND all the piles of folded clothes I had set on the floor to pack away and threw them all in a heap. When I came back from the bathroom he was pretending to "swim" in the pile.

"Look Mommy! It's the OCEAN!" I laughed until tears came out of my eyes, although one or two tears may have been because I was really tired and had woken up an hour earlier than usual to accomplish this task. But still. How adorable.

Anyway, Adam is at the age of adorableness. He has always been a very advanced talker, and his large vocabulary offers such interesting insights into the barely-four year-old mind. I'd like to share some of them with you.

• He dashes around the house, pretending to fly, and calls out "I'm Atonement Man!" Something from our family home evening lessons is sinking in, I guess!
• He came up to me yesterday and said, "Mommy, I have issues." Me: "issues? [already?]" Him: "Yes, I have booger issues. I nee-a tissue."
• Overheard while he was playing with little plastic characters, one to the other: "Accor-ing ta my research..."
• He came in and saw me putting on my morning makeup and said "What are you doing?" Me: "Putting on makeup." Adam: "Why are you doing it?" Me: "To be pretty." Adam: "Well I think you're pretty." Darling child!
• The other night he had a nightmare and came into my room. I was surprised that he didn't just wake up crying like some kids do. Instead he walked up to me and said: "I had a bad dream. In my dream there was the story of the missing eye-ball." I took him into the front room so Daddy could sleep and explained to him that eyeballs don't pop out by themselves and chase people. "If Sam had a missing eyeball...THEN what?" he perused. And we had to go through each member of our family and reassure that they would all still be very healthy and happy even if they did loose an eyeball (hopefully they don't!). Eventually I took him to sleep with Daddy and me, because this 31 year-old lady started to get a little bit scared of the dark after listening to the 4 year-old's nightmare. But Daddy made us feel safe. Lil' guy got to stay there for a short while--until he got passport revoked when he started kicking sleeping Daddy. (Why do all our kids do that?)

Someone with four kids once told me that her first 2 kids were nothing but work, and her second 2 were nothing but fun. I only had two kids at the time, and I thought she was full of SOMETHING. But now I believe! All the worries at unexpected difficulties have been used up in rearing the first 2. Now every challenge is expected, and every fun moment is enjoyed whole-heartedly--for now I know how fleeting each adorable stage is. These little guys don't last. They grow and they grow! Despite my urging them to not eat their vegetables and stay little (that is the only way to get them to eat broccoli) they continue to change, which is wonderful and a bit sad at the same time.

Anyway, every single day of my life these days Adam says or does something that makes me want to swing him in my arms and laugh my happiest of all happy laughs. He was sent to be my angel.