Catching Up

It's been a while, so here is some catch-up work.
I'll just get this one out of the way. John has really been tough lately, particularly at night, and particularly with his sister. I'm certain that a surge of testosterone runs through his veins between the hours of 4 or 5 and whenever we send him to bed. He has tons of energy and looks for things to get in trouble...even if he's getting 100% of the attention at the time. I think it's probably because he's cutting down on his naps, and he gets tired near the end of the day, but I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Last night he was sent to bed really early because he threw a hard toy and hit Eve in the head. Fortunately she didn't get a big bump or bruise, but she was pretty unhappy about it. On the flip side, I took him up to bed a bit early one night this week because he was being a little rotten. He was tired enough to lay still in bed. We talked about how I love him, and I kept asking "and who else?", and we made a big long list. I spent such a long time up with him just talking, praying, singing, and having a super special time. Before he ever said "Mama", I used to ask "Who love you?" and answer with Mama. That's how he learned to say it. I so love that if I ask him, he still says it.
This week John went through the entire alphabet. He doesn't usually get it quite right, but he's very close, and I'm very amazed. I can't really pinpoint where his verbal progress has been, but it really has changed over the past few weeks. I think he's really started to put ideas together, and actually start answering questions with an answer rather than just repeating the question or saying no. We went to a birthday party today, but Buck had band practice, so he missed it. For the first time, John started telling him all about it! It was so fun to listen to what he remembered from the party, and how he put things together to kind of tell a story. What a HUGE leap!
As for little Evelyn, I picked her up one day this week and thought, "WOW, when did she get so heavy!". She has really grown. I took a picture with her Tigger at 3 months, and I'll have to post it with some other pictures soon. She has the cutest little smile and sweet little things to say. I was giving her a bath the other night and she was so ticklish under her belly roll. Just smiling away. I really just can't believe how sweet and beautiful our children are. God has truly blessed us.
Today, as I said before, we went to a birthday party. It was at an equestrian park. Daddy had given Buck his cowboy hat. Since I've seen a lot of pictures of Daddy as a child in his cowboy outfit (that's the image that comes to mind if I think of him as a child), I really wanted to take the hat with us. Fortunately I remembered to take it and found it right before we left. I got pictures of John and Eve both on the horse with Papa's hat. John talked about riding a horse the whole way there, and of course, when we got there, was too afraid to ride the horse. He wouldn't even pet it. Eventually he wandered over to the horse, and with just a little bit of kicking (from John, not the horse), I managed to get him up on the saddle. After that the biggest task was getting him down. He loved it! The tractor, well, that was a different story. He would have nothing of it. They also had a petting zoo, and he went crazy over that. And of course, something clicked on his birthday, and he now understands that birthdays mean cake and ice cream...his two new favorites. Needless to say, he took a great nap this afternoon. I just wish I had video of him telling Buck about it. It was so cute.
Oh, I almost forgot our crazy story from last night! This week John has gotten up a few times (three times one night) crying fairly frantically. Each time he's been standing by the door ready to go downstairs and play. I don't know if it's teeth, his cold, nightmares, or what. Last night was different, though. Around 2:30 I heard him calling "help please, help please". I went to go check on him. When I looked toward his bed, I saw the craziest thing. He was laying on his back, I think, wiggling all around. Not so strange, except that he's sleeping in his crib converted to a day bed - with just a fitted sheet, and the sheet was over him...tucked on all 4 corners. The only thing I can guess is that somehow he climbed underneath it from the side, then couldn't figure out how to get out! Needless to say I put a tighter sheet on the bed for tonight!