So, it’s been a few weeks since I just wrote about Christopher’s cuteness and not all about the drama. He recovered from his Rectal Dilation procedure by the end of that first weekend, we haven't really noticed any great improvement or change. With the funeral last week, it's just been crazy around here. We're lucky to keep up with school and all our committments, let alone change it up. Tonight I vowed I would. At least get caught up on my story telling about the cuteness of Christopher. We were at church this evening, and we were walking in at dusk, running late for our bible study. Christopher points to the roof of the church, “Is a Toss?” Huh? We look where he’s pointing, and he’s spotted the cross on the roof. Yes that’s a cross. Eric asks him, “Who died on the Cross?” I’m like, he’s not going to get that one. Instead we ask, “Who’s on the cross?” “Sesus on Toss.” (Jesus on Cross). Yes. Jesus was on the cross. So, I ask him, Where’s Jesus now? I’ve been trying to teach him that Jesus is in our hearts. He points straight down. “Right here!” Well, that’s kind of true too! I asked if Jesus was in his heart. He pointed to his own heart, and my heart, and Daddy’s heart. Yeah.

In other news, I find myself no longer able to speak English. I am fluent in Christopher-ese. The latest development in this is my grammatical form. Chris has begun this crazy way of forming sentences. For example, I find ‘em XYZ. I find ‘em dinosaurs. I find ‘em glasses. Let’s find ‘em. Go get ‘em Daddy. We eat ‘em munch (lunch). See ‘em friends. I actually asked my husband today, Can you send ‘em pictures to me? I wouldn’t be surprised if no one understood a word I said. I don’t think even Chris does, because he thinks his grammar is fine.

However, two weeks ago, a friend who is also expecting, (due a week after me) who also has a 2 year old, had posted that her daughter knew where the baby was, pointing to Mommy’s belly, and all that sweet stuff. Well, I was motivated to try to teach Chris where Mommy’s baby was. I pointed to my belly, and said Mommy’s baby is in her belly. I waited a minute, then asked him. “Where’s Mommy’s Baby?” He looked around. We were downstairs, and he started upstairs. I asked, Where are you going? “I go Find ‘Em!” Apparently, Mommy’s baby was upstairs and he was going to look for ‘em.

For dinner this evening, Christopher surprised me with requesting peanut butter "sam itch" (sandwich). It’s been a new development. A couple weeks ago, I was having my latest favorite pregnancy snack, a peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwich. Chris wanted a bite. I let him have one, and he loved it. Boy ate 1/3 of my sandwich. Since then sandwiches are becoming his friend. When we ask him what he’d like for his kids meal: chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger. He chooses cheeseburger. Now he’s only capped out at ¼ of a cheeseburger, but the cool thing is, he’s excited about his order. Mostly he eats French fries. He’s eating what he wants, but still not gaining weight. I think I wrote last about his weight check last week, where he went down 3 ounces. Mommy is not wanting to drag him to Riley when he’s finally beginning to enjoy making choices about his meals and they are going to want to up yucky things. So, his quantity is still crappy. He’ll drink 1 of those Soy drinks, a day, and if I’m lucky, he’ll dig a couple ounces into a second. But he’ll do 8 ounces of apple juice or water too. But they really want 4 soy drinks plus that extra 8 of water/juice. That’s just not going to happen. This boy just doesn’t drink like that. Never has. Honestly, I’m burnt out on the process. The feeding tube helped his throat heal, but it hasn’t helped him grow. He seems to be going at the same rate he was before, and I’d gladly pull the tube so he can just be happy. He’s enjoying meal times, almost taking pride in his lunchtime. He says, “My Munch!” My lunch. My sandwich. A couple weeks ago, we were going to go from Preschool to lunch with his friend Bryn. Bryn was more interested in the playground, and Chris was actually hungry! His was yelling, Bryn, Beya (Come on) , Munch! (Lunch!) It just makes me smile to see him excited at all about a mealtime or asking for snacks. I don’t want to buck a good thing.

Speaking of bucking good things, we broke our record yesterday. Neither Chris nor Mommy had puked in a month. This was fabulous…for both of us. However, for some unknown reason, when Chris woke up from his nap yesterday afternoon, as we were walking into the living room to our usual spot of cuddling in the glider, he belched and yakked. Through some amazing feat he managed to go right between the glider and the footrest, and not get the furniture. I yelled for Eric who was downstairs (being fabulous and fixing the computer!), and he came running. I felt the flux coming, and I still had Chris in my arms. I looked at his face, made sure he was ok, used my other hand to wipe his forehead, but I could barely speak to him. Daddy got upstairs just in time, for I realized that Chris had gotten my shirt, and that pushed me right over the edge, and I barely made it to the toilet. Chris and I hate puking. Though this morning, we had a Veggie Tales fest. He was on a Dumbo kick, he calls him, Dummo, which sounds a lot like Elmo, got confusing. But then he started quoting the line, Coochie Coochie Coochie Coochie, where the big elephants are tickling little Dumbo. Of course Chris does it Doochie, Doochie, but then he has begun tickling us back on the changing table (a frequent site of ticklage) and saying it too. So cute. Anyway, I don’t mind watching episodes of Veggie Tales, much better than listening to the same 2 CDs over and over and over again. So, I asked him if he wanted to watch “Minnesota Cuke” the Veggie Tales version of Indiana Jones. I asked the boy if he could say Minnesota Cuke. He said, “Yes! It’s puke!”

Oh well, an interesting end to an odd weekend. We had to run to Marion the last few days for Eric’s grandmother’s funeral. We actually had a nice time, it was good to spend time with family. Christopher was adorable, that’s not surprising, but his love for life made it hard to get too sad. He made me very proud of him on Thursday night, after the Viewing we all went out for a late supper (dessert for some), and there was some delay in starting the prayer, you know the delay, who wants to say it. Chris did! He got his hands ready to do his “Open, Shut them” prayer, which is what they do every day in Preschool at snack time. If Eric and I are quiet, Chris will say the whole thing. They were on Thursday night. I remember how when Alexis and Kaylee went off to Preschool, how impressed I was that They were leading Grace by Thanksgiving. Chris gave us head start. He was hard to understand, but what follows is what he said (and what is supposed to be said though I’m not including the hand motions, you’ll just have to imagine that).

Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Give a Claps! (Open, Shut Them, Open, Shut Them. Give a little Clap.)

Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Laps! (Open, Shut Them, Open, Shut Them. Lay them in your lap.)

Dipa Dipa upa Chin. (Creep them, Creep them, up to your chin.)

Dod is dreat. Dod is dood. And Food. Amen. (God is Great, God is Good, and we thank Him for our Food. Amen.)

Anyway, speaking of being exceedingly proud of what he does in Preschool. That is why I named this post after all the colors. Last time I bragged about Preschool, I didn’t think they could top Red Week, where they got to meet the fireman. Well, I don’t know about Topping it, but they certainly can do it up! This last week we had Orange day. Chris looked pretty precious in his orange waffle top onesie and overalls. I love it when he and his classmates are all in the same color, they look so adorable. Something like uniforms, but tons cuter. The week after Red Week was Blue week. First we had Blue Day. I was amazed to find when I went to pick Chris up, that they had done fingerpainting. Chris hates to get messy, whenever we’ve tried fingerpainting at home, he doesn’t, or the therapists will do most of it. So, after class, I took his drawing which had 2 decent size blobs, as opposed to his classmates who had not left a scrap of paper uncovered. I asked them how much of this did Chris actually paint. I thought, maybe, he did the small blob himself, after seeing them do the big blob, thus I’d cut out and save the part Chris actually did. They looked at me like I was crazy. “He did it all.” Himself? Yes. Still looking at me, like I AM the nut. Well, he only worked a minute, then he was done. But they didn’t have to prompt him? A whole minute! Amazing! I was so excited. That was just Tuesday! His therapist, decided to kick it up a notch, and get him to try on clothes. Chris actually did well, he’ll try to pull on pants, but he doesn’t work the back end at all. We’ve been working on it, and he’s getting good at pulling stuff over his head, but sleeves, buttons, snaps, and getting things over that back end still remain troublesome (and it’s not even a big back end.) On Thursday of Blue Week, he got to meet a real live Police Officer. I saw the officer greeting kids in the class as they entered, and he was very nice and friendly, the teachers told us that in class everyone had to go up and shake his hand. He calls him a Peas Man. So, I asked him if he got to talk to the Police Man. He said, Sate Ann, not Satan, but those were his words for Shake Hands. He even told Daddy that part at dinner that night about how he shook hands with the police man. Chris is not usually one to reiterate stories that have happened. Another thing we’re working on.

The next week was Black day. All the kids were breaking out their cute Halloween-y type shirts. I love to see everyone wearing matching colors. Chris came home very proud of the Cat he made, a construction paper Black Cat. I asked him what it was, he told me, “Bwat Tat.” But his Bwat Tat has a White face. I had to work a bit to get him to say White, Whi’i. When I was in discussion with his teachers the latter half of that week, Mrs. B, came out and announced to Mrs. D with whom I was speaking, that “We have Lovebirds in here.” I thought, oh no, surely not. But yes. Chris was, “Sharing a Carpet Square” with Bryn. Everyone is supposed to just go in and sit on their own square. Apparently, Chris and Bryn often sit next to each other. But even the teachers could tell these two were close, as Chris sidled up next to Bryn on her square. She didn’t seem to mind either.

Chris has started an interesting new habit: Talking in his sleep. (I was a sleep talker too, still do when I don’t feel well.) “This morning it was just “No!” While we were in Marion, he screamed out, and as we were climbing out of bed to get him, he said, No, want more sleep. No prob. A few weeks ago, he woke up at 7 a.m. Sang the entire chorus of the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, and before I had finished brushing my teeth, he was back to sleep. If he was awake at all. Last week, he was yelling at the dog. At 5 in the morning. The dog was in the bedroom with me. “Nay dow Fi Fi. No Fina. Nay dow!” He’s been getting very emphatic during meal and snack times that Fina be laying down. I’m not surprised it creeps into his dreams. Nay Down Fina!” Sometimes he says Fina “Finon.” I remember hearing or seeing that three year olds go through a bit of a bossy phase. Well, it seems that the boy is getting to start his about now. He’s actually been telling me, want something, “NOW!” Oh no, we’re not going there.

It’s much better when he does little happy things. The last couple weeks we’ve had some fun family birthdays, his Aunt Amy and Cousin Kaylee. I’ve been working on getting him to sing Happy Birthday. But all we’ve gotten is “Hap Bu to you!” Last night, he told his cousin Kaylee, “Hap Bu Tee!” He was eyeballing her candle on her piece of cake, I think he’s primed and ready for some serious candle blowing this year. He hasn’t been up to snuff, pardon the pun, the last two years, but with the recent birthday parties , he’s getting ready. It’s funny how on one hand he’s so mature, then the other he’s not. Just this weekend, he started playing with this toy he got for his First Birthday, a Leap Pad Baby and a booklet for it, called Pooh Loves You. Well, today, he can’t get enough of it. He was traipsing around the house carrying it, telling me, “My Poohs”, and asking me to “Help Roo.” One of the pages has Roo give a speech, but every time the machine turns off, it defaults to not making Roo speak. Chris suddenly has figured out how to turn the thing on, and almost read the booklets. I’m working on getting him to hit the Green Go Circle to get things to happen, but that’s only working about 50% of the time. But once it got going, he sat there for 20 minutes playing with the same couple pages. Funny how this toy took him so long to enjoy it.