Life

We moved Israel out of the crib into the toddler bed, and moved the crib into our room for Zion, since he kept bumping his head on the sides of the cradle and waking himself up. Israel had absolutely no problem switching - he crawled right into bed for the night and started sucking his finger. Naps are not quite so easy - it's hard to stay in bed when you can get back up so easily! :)
I have felt sooooo much more on top of things since last week. It is such a great feeling.

Zion has been falling asleep every night around 9 PM, sleeping about one hour, waking up at 10 PM and staying awake until 12 or 1 AM. TIREDNESS. LACK OF EVENINGNESS.

He has been very chew-y lately, and chews on his hands a lot. I don't remember the other boys doing that as much.

He has also gotten very grabby lately, and very interested in my food, which leads to almost pulling my suppers onto my lap. (He usually sits in my lap for meals if he is awake.)

He does not like to be carried on my hip, but only settles for the crook of my arm. Then he settles down happily for the oh-so-interesting ride.

(please enjoy this most-awesome-of-me-picture-ever. You're welcome.)

The other night we had one of those not-so-infrequent episodes where all of a sudden Israel is crying and Gabe has fled under the table or behind a chair, etc. When questioned about what happened, Gabe steadfastly denies any wrongdoing, as his gaze flits all over the place, and he looks really guilty when he looks in your eyes. Despite a 98% certainty that you are speaking with the guilty party, when you don't actually see what happened, and when you know that Israel sometimes will yell his head off when he is tired anyways, it's sometimes a little hard to know the best way to handle it. Gabe asked if he would be punished if he said that he had hurt Israel. I told him that he would be. So he was not interested in 'fessing up. On his way back to brush his teeth, I sat him down in the hall and had a very serious conversation with him about lying, and about how we often get a yucky feeling in our hearts after we do something bad like lie, and that is one way that God talks to us, and lets us know what we need to do, and how when we feel that yucky feeling, we can ask God to forgive us, and then we can go ask the person we lied to to forgive us too, even if it means we might get into trouble for it. I also talked to him about trust, and how if I know that he does not lie to me, then I know that I can trust him when he tells me something. He listened very seriously and closely.

I have heard elements of that conversation come out over the next several days. The next day, he told me that he was going to have to tell some people that he lied to them (although this hasn't happened yet :)) and asked if I would pray for him about it. He also admitted to being the culprit in another Israel crying bout the other day. About a week ago, I moved the "kid table" in his room out into the living room where I had had the Christmas tree. Two nights ago I was tucking him in bed and he got a very grouchy look on his face and said, "Mommy, when you took my table away, you got a yucky feeling in your heart!!" :) LOL. I said, "Gabe, you weren't even using your table in here! Now you are using it!" He said, still very grouchy "No! I was using it to do my work!"

Speaking of praying, Gabe has really talked about praying more the past few weeks. He informs me regularly that he prays in the bathroom that Jesus would help his pee come quickly. :)