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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Four Years Old!

Dear Ransom,

You are four years old! Something you are VERY excited about! Having an August Birthday is a little hard when all your friends in preschool are having birthday parties 6 months before you! However, we eventually made it and you turned four in great style!
Our friend Dub Dub let us visit her airplane hangar, where you got to sit inside two airplanes and a helicopter, as well as watch planes take off and fly low overhead! One of the coolest things about your party this year was that ALL of your cousins were in attendance! We were having a family reunion with Nana's side of the family and so all 12 of your cousins got to come! You felt very special.

This year has been full of fun for you and your Mommy has loved ( almost) every minute! At the beginning of the year I was worried that someone had gotten it wrong and that it was actually the "terrible threes" not the terrible twos! But after walking out of a couple of targets because of tantrums you calmed down considerably. This year you sent your beloved Paci to live with another littler boy who needed a paci more than you. You took it VERY well! And we went to a trampoline place called Amazing Jump as a reward!

Since you were potty trained last year, you now know that you can go to the potty by yourself. However, that's a luxury your own mother hasnt had for several years now. This year during one of our family visits to the potty where you and Tabitha patiently waited for Mommy to do her business, you announced encouragingly that one day "You'll be able to go to the potty all by yourself too!" to Mommy. She's happy to know there is an end in sight.

This year you went to Saint David's Episcopal School two days a week and were in Ms. Amy's class. You really loved your school and by the second half of the year, you'd really found your stride. Your two best friends were Mary Wesley  and Audrey. You are kind of a big hit with the girls. However, on Valentine's Day when all the kids in your class were helping your teacher decide what she should get her husband for V-day, you piped up very excitedly. You hopped up and down and said, "You should get him a big....big....biiiiiiggg.....*pause for affect*......CRAP!" Your teachers were luckily able to hold it together long enough to tell you that that was a good idea, and then they couldn't WAIT for Mommy to come pick you up at school to tell me what you'd said!


While you are very very good with the english language there are still a few things you haven't quite mastered, and I have to admit I kind of love how you say some things differently....for instance you said "Brooming instead of sweeping", "Gunning" instead of shooting and "work-outing" instead of "working out". Also in learning about Pirates you learned about their mascot the "Jolly Rodger"...you got it a liiiiitle backwards and spent a goodly amount of time calling it the "Jolly codger" and when we then taught you what "an old codger" is ( no idea why...) you said "Cold Roger" instead. Fun times.

You still love books and usually have at least 3 books read to you at nap time and then two more, plus your bible story at bedtime. This year you've really gotten into "Lego books" which are easy-reader books with pictures of legos that we get from the library. This isn't surprising since you got Legos for Christmas and will send happy hours at the dining room table playing with your legos ( anything other than towers we build for you). You also like super hero books ( also little easy readers with pictures of comic book heroes) you learned about various super heroes from school and will spend a lot of time playing dress up or playing pretend fighting bad guys. The best time of the day is after dinner when you run around shooting bad guys and protecting Mommy and Tabitha. You enjoy saying, "this is very danger" in a gleeful sort of way when we are pretending.

Your other favorite books are the Bernstein Bears. One day you asked to read the "Crack House" book and at first Mommy was a little taken back. She didn't remember The Bernstein Bears and the Crack House, but then she remembered they'd been reading a lot of The Bernstein Bears and the Worst Vacation Ever, sure enough, the house with "all the cracks" was the one Ransom wanted to read!


You were continually surprising me this year with the things you picked up, for instance I didn't know you had any concept of money until one day you saw a stand selling Spurs championship shirts on the side of the road while we were waiting for a traffic light, and you announced, " I wish I had some cash. Id buy two jerseys one for me and one for lily ( my friend Lindsay's daughter who came to visit this year). Do you have any cash? When I get some cash I'm gonna buy a jersey....

considering mommy usually uses plastic, I have no idea where this conversation came from but it was pretty cute at the time!

You actually really started enjoying sports this year. Daddy took you to your first year baseball game with the San Antonio Missions playing the Rough Riders. You LOOOOOVED the mascots and that is what you talked about for days. You also discussed the players as the "good guys in red" and the "bad guys in black".....you liked to pretend to be the guys in black ( its more fun to be the bad guys, I guess) . I was wondering if you'd learned anything about real baseball from the experience, but apparently you did! You and Daddy play catch and hit a lot, and you're actually remarkably good at hitting the ball!

You also saw several basketball games on TV ( thanks to those Champions the Spurs!) and also The World Cup introduced you to soccer as well! You now have a basketball hoop and a soccer net in the back yard! What a lucky boy you are!

You and Tabitha get along pretty well for the most part, while there is some violence on your part when she takes something that you wanted to play with or even look at certain toys, and you're also continually taking her stuffed animals and putting them in your bed ( you are very much "connected" to any and every stuffed animal that you see....whether its at a friends house or visiting family, if you see a stuffed animal you strongly suggest that maybe it wants to come home with you, and that it will "miss you" when you leave....we have to keep a close watch on you! You've already got a healthy dozen sleeping in your bed right now! Currently "Panda ( who you 'adopted' from Mimi when you were visiting Nana's house this year) and Bear and Lamb are still the favorites, but all the others are important too).

But in general you enjoy Tabitha's company and you're always dragging her along for your various games. It is helpful to have her around because you do not like to be in a room by yourself. It doesn't matter if the other people in the room are necessarily interacting with you ( though that is the hope!) but you definitely don't like being alone!

We did a video interview with you again this year and this is what you said:

Your favorite color: Blue
Favorite food: Strawberries
Favorite book: "I can't decide."-  Bernstein Bears Have a Sitter
Best friend: Audrey and Mary Wesley
Favorite show: Little Bear
Favorite Movie: The Incredibles
Favorite thing about School: My teacher and the playground
Favorite thing to play: Trucks and cars
Favorite toy: Teeth ( silly boy!)

Thursday, August 8, 2013

3 years old

Dear Ransom,

You are going to be 3 years old tomorrow. Right now you are in your room singing to yourself. You do this a lot. Sing to yourself. And to anyone that will listen. Lately you've been making up songs or just singing random words. Like your babysitters name over and over again or how Baby Jesus was a little boy once ( hmm) or how you'd like to be a dinosaur. All classic Ransom songs. You particularly like to sing if you have your guitar handy. In fact, that little orange Ukulele that we got for you over a year ago has not had a single day without being played with! You definitely love your music.
You now know several "adult" songs by heart and will sing them along with us if the mood strikes you. Your favorite and most requested is Amazing Grace. But you also like Take My Life and Let it Be and How Deep the Father's Love for Us. Those are your favorite for sure.

In looking back over this year I feel like the best way to describe you is going from a toddler to a little boy. It probably moved the process along that you had to spend three months without your Mommy and Daddy while we fought for Tabitha's life. During that time you experienced many new things and adjusted very well to new situations and people. We were so very proud of you! It helped that you always knew that you were loved and safe-being with Papa and Spicy and Nana is really not a trial! You probably had way more fun than if you'd been with Mommy all that time! But you did get to spend most weekends with me at the Ronald McDonald House ( or the Ol' MacDonald House as you called it) and there were just TONS of fun things there!

After your months of spoiling, you got a little sister, Tabitha. You were very sweet to her right away and definitely understood that she'd been in Mommy's tummy all that time and she was finally out! You very much appreciated the fact that she gave you a truck and a race car for being born. She is now 7 months old and you have varying interest in her. Mostly you just make sure we don't forget her when we're going places ( not that we would!) and you always pray for her first in your nightly prayers. You will periodically ask to hold her, but a few seconds is more than enough. You are not very excited, however, about her being about to reach your things or sit near you when you're playing. We suspect that it will be quite the horrible shock when she becomes mobile! But we pray that you will love and take care of her like a good big brother!

This year you definitely learned about geography! You learned about Georgia and Texas when we moved for Fort Benning, GA to San Antonio Tx. You definitely are enjoying some of the fun things to do in San Antonio and you very much like how much closer we are to Nacogdoches! You miss your family there a lot!

Some of your little quirks that we're currently enjoying are that you've moved from asking where various people are, to asking what we're going to do next. I have to give you a running itinerary of the day continually. You also like to ask "Why?" ALL. THE. TIME.

You love your Bear and Lamby and Paci. Incidentally, Bear is a boy, Lamby is a girl and Paci is also a boy. Its a little bit upsetting that you have personified Paci-especially since we'll hopefully getting rid of 'him' soon. While you are currently only allowed paci in bed, you will often visit him many many times during a day. If you are being particularly quiet or have disappeared, one can almost always bet that they'll find you lounging in your bed snuggling with your stuffed friends and getting a drag off of paci.

You are constantly saying funny things and have a very extensive vocabulary. In fact, pretty much everyone you talk to comments at how advanced you are in the speech department. You are very easy to understand which is also nice. I'm not sure why, but I'd hazard a guess that your love for books hasn't turn this particular advancement. I recently counted your books-the ones you read regularly-and you have 117!! We average reading out loud about 15 books a day and you're currently a big fan of the Bernstain Bears and the Little Bear books.
You also enjoy watching the Little Bear show and Mister Rogers Neighborhood in the mornings on the ipad. Your parents, who are NOT morning people, appreciate that you are also a "slow morning person".  Your routine is to wake up around 7, yell that you want to get up ( you never get up on your own from naps or mornings), go to the potty ( we started potty training in June and you're pretty much 100% accomplished with only a few accidents here and there in August), then climb into bed with Bear, Lamby and Paci with the ipad. Watch an episode of ( currently Mister Rogers) then yell that you want Oatmeal. You are reminded that you have to ask nicely. Then you have your oatmeal which has usually been made and is cooling for you while you've watched your show. What a nice life you have!

This year you learned your letter sounds to go along with your knowledge of the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. You also know how to spell your own name and how old you are. You love to play doctor, playing with your brand new train set, your cars and trucks on your road rug, and riding your balance bike ( which you are incredibly fast on!).

Tomorrow I will interview you about your favorite things, and who knows what you will say, but this is what *I* would guess is the correct answer:

Who is your best friend: Kilsyth
What is your favorite book: Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Richard Scarry
Favorite movie: Winnie the Pooh
Favorite TV show: Mister Rogers
Favorite Food: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Favorite Drink: "Juice" ( which he rarely gets)
Favorite things to do: ride his bike
Favorite Subject in school: just getting to go is pretty exciting
Favorite Song: Its a Beautiful Day in the neighborhood

You are a very happy little boy who is continually exclaiming "My isn't it a beautiful day?"...whether its daytime or nighttime or whether its raining or sunny or cold. It is your saying for when you are particularly happy, and it never fails to make ME happy hearing it come out of your mouth. Thank you for always posing it as a question and therefore making me stop and realize that it IS a beautiful day! Especially because we get to have you as a son!

We love you so much,
Mommy and Daddy

Sunday, June 30, 2013

This morning...

We recently read about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and not getting to eat for 40 days during Ransom's bible story. This morning Ransom was eating some yogurt and he asked if Jesus was hungry. At first I was confused. Then he said, " did Jesus not get lunch or dinner or breakfast?"
That made more sense since that was almost a direct quote from the story. 

"Yes, Jesus was very hungry because he didn't eat for 40 days." 

*pause*

"I think I better share my yogurt with Jesus."


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Ransom always says the time is "forty-forty-two"... We are not sure where he got this from.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

30 months

Dear Ransom,

One of the things I love that you've been doing a lot lately is thanking me for things. Little things like, "Thanks for pushing Tabitha and me in the stroller!" or "Thanks for driving me to the museum!"
and even "Thank you for feeding Tabitha!"....who said being a mom was a thankless job?!? Not when I've got you around!

Thanks for being my favorite son,
Mommy

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Texas Time

Dear Ransom,

The last few months have been truly different for our family. For one thing, you are currently separated from your Mommy and Daddy and are staying with Papa and Spicy in Nacogdoches.

When we first decided to come to Texas to give Tabitha the best possible care, we thought that you would get to stay with Mommy in Houston. However, things changed and you are now living in Nacogdoches at Papa and Spicy's house. You spend Monday's with Nana and you go to school on Tuesday's and Thursday's with Kilsyth. And then, on the weekends you usually get to go visit Mommy at the Ronald McDonald House, which you call the "ol' McDonald House".

As your Mommy I cannot tell you how proud I am of you and how well you have adjusted to all of the changes that have taken place in your little life these last few months. One habit you have developed is to ask what people are doing over and over again. It usually goes like this:
"What's Daddy doing?"
Answer: "Daddy is at work."

"What's Mommy doing?"
Answer: "Mommy is at the Doctor ( or as the case may be now...)  she is at the Ol' Mcdonald house."

You will ask these questions many times in a day, even if you just so happen to be with us, sitting across the table from us! But you are always happy with a simple answer and I am grateful that you seem comforted by an answer that you feel like you already know is coming. In fact, if we answer something different from "Daddy is working" you will correct the person and tell them that, no, Daddy is at work! You are a funny fellow!

As hard as it is to not get to see you every single day, we are so glad that you're having so much fun with the rest of your family. You are such a talkative little boy and you now can easily tell us about your day in pretty good detail. We are so proud of your extensive vocabulary. You still love fire engines and ambulances and anything else that have lights and loud sounds! And you are one lucky little boy, because since your birthday in August you have gotten to visit a Fire Station, you've "driven" an airplane, motorcycles and even a real race car!  We are lucky that you love cars and trucks so much because traveling with you is really quite fun! You point out all the different cars and big rigs and construction equipment that you see along the way and have a grand time telling everyone about it.

You also love this opportunity to go to school with your cousin Kilsyth. Every time you see each other, even if its only been a few hours, you always run and give each other a big hug and a kiss. It is such fun to see you play together and lately you've really enjoyed talking to one another on the phone. You have full blown 2-year-old conversations with one another! You love going to school and getting to play and see your teacher "Miss Allison". You've only gotten in trouble once, when you and Kilsyth ganged up on another kid, and you apparently threw such a fit when you got in trouble that other teachers were coming to check on your class to make sure everything was OK! You definitely do not like to get in trouble and usually try your best to "punish" whoever is punishing you with a huge spectacle.

You've had fun getting to spend time at Nana's house too. You love how much you get to play outside at her house and that she has a dog and a cat AND a tricycle for you to ride. We are so grateful that you've built such a strong relationship with your grandparents because of this particular situation. But with all the good that has come from this time, we can not WAIT to be back together as a family! Your mommy and daddy miss you terribly every single day we are apart!


We love you,
Mommy

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

2 years old

Dear Ransom,

You are going to be 2 years old tomorrow. Which means, that 2 years ago today I was in labor. Thanks for that.
That being said, I've been thinking recently about the sentiment that you often hear from mothers, how they wish they their little babies would stay little babies forever. I never understood this. I loved you when you were a baby, sure. But I really could hardly wait for the fun things to come. Well, I think I've finally reached the point. The point when I'd like to keep you like this forever. You are so very very fun to be around. You are constantly saying funny things, doing funny things. You are bubbling over with excitement for life and you can hardly contain it all.
I love how you so very much wish you knew more words. You can speak in short sentences now, but its quite clear that, in your mind, some things deserve to be talked about in paragraphs. Of course, your lack of vocabulary does not stop you. Oh no. You'll just repeat the words you DO know until they have adequately filled the proper space that is needed.
You have a very good sense of humor and are continually cracking yourself up. But this is not enough, you have also started yelling for Mommy or Daddy until one of us acknowledges what your incredible wit has come up with now. Why, yes, Ransom...two pacifiers in your mouth is hilarious. Putting a little piece of play dough into that lantern where a candle should go....pure genius. Of course, we laugh with you. We laugh because we are delighted by your discoveries of the world around you. We too, have renewed interest in firetrucks, motorcycles, mail trucks, ambulances, police cars, bicycles, pianos, guitars, dogs and anything else you might have come to love.
We think its great that you love the Wheels on the Bus song so much, that for a while you would ask us to put anything and everything on the bus. Not just normal things like people and animals (one could argue that they do not belong on the bus either) but airplanes and helicopters, pacifiers, showers, rain, various foods...all of them have been on the bus, and we have done our very best to come up with the proper sounds for each one.
We think its great that have recently started pushing two of your stuffed animals around perched on top of your lawnmower like it were a stroller. Every so often you will take one off, cradle it like a baby and bounce and "shhh" it. We assume that God is subconsciously preparing you for two sisters....but whatever the case, you are quite the little Daddy.
We think its great that you like to eat grapes and bananas, strawberries and you LOVE cheese. We love that you now understand bargaining and will at least try bites of new foods if you know that you'll get a bite of something you like afterwards. In this way you have found that you are actually not as picky as you may have thought you were...and that your food tastes really DO branch out past four foods. geez.
Yes, there are definitely things that are not fun about two year olds. 2 year old tantrums are REAL. And you have them from time to time. Especially if things change quickly or if something different from what you were expecting happens. Or if someone looks at you wrong and doesn't give you exactly what you want. ha! ;-)
But, honestly, the good outweighs the bad so very much. And I love that you are still my little boy. My little boy who gives the very best hugs and kisses. My little boy who is the very best cuddler and who likes to hang out in bed playing under pillows and blankets ( Mommy likes beds too). I love that your hair grows super fast and gets curly when its humid. I love your stinky little feet and how you like to hold hands when we pray. I love that you sing in your crib when you wake up in the mornings and before you go to sleep at night.
Your Daddy and I are so very grateful for you in our lives, above all you have taught us that we know very little and must rely on our Lord Jesus for all wisdom when it comes to raising you. We are thankful that you point us to Him every single day, and we pray that one day you will come to love Him as much as we do.
Happy Birthday, my little two year old!
Mommy