Count Your Many Blessings

Buddha's bedtime prayers tonight went as follows:

"Heavenly Father....Dad, do we say 'dear?' Dear starts with D."

At this point Buddha started pointing things out for The Chief, like Mommy and Bugga, and The Chief would thank Heavenly Father for the indicated item/person. Then Buddha started to verbally prompt The Chief, waiting after each phrase for The Chief to repeat after him:

"We thank Thee for snacks. We thank Thee for milk. We thank Thee for juice. We thank Thee for water. We thank Thee for pizza and quesadillas and cheese. We thank Thee for Sharkies. We thank Thee for shakes. We thank Thee for macaroni and cheese and rice. We thank Thee for movies (The Chief repeated, 'We thank Thee for wholesome movies' and Buddha said, 'No, Dad, they're just movies.'). We thank Thee for the little toy house and the orange car and the red car and the open car. We thank Thee for the slides and the little slides. We thank Thee for the animals up there (pointing at the stuffed animals on the shelf above his bed). We thank Thee for the stars on the wall and the yellow star too." And then he muttered quickly, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I thanked Buddha for reminding us that we really do have so much to be grateful for.

Bugga's spotlight moment:

I've been meaning to write these things about Bugga for so long, but I just can't seem to get around to it. Bugga has the cutest personality. He is so lovable and hugable and I just can't get enough of him. He does this thing where if he's done something commendable and you praise him for it, he gets this look on his face that says he is just pleased as punch and he swings his arms back and forth like he doesn't know what to do with the praise, as if "it ain't no big thang." It cracks me up. You can read him like an open book. Bugga also has a Brooklyn accent. He doesn't pronounce R's the way you and I do. He pronounces them as E's. Here are some examples: more is moee, door is dooee, water is wahee. It even affects the way he says his own name. I love it. He's such a good talker now and communicates fairly well. He and I have these hilarious seesaw disagreements at night when it's time for bed. I still nurse him sometimes, but it's erratic. However, he'll use nursing to stall his bedtime so sometimes I'll sit down with him in the rocking chair and he'll immediately poke my chest and say, "moke (milk)." Then I say, "no." And the rest of the conversation proceeds as follows:

Bugga: "moke"

Me: "no"

Bugga: "moke"

Me: "no"

Bugga: "moke"

Me: "no"

And so on. This goes on until we're both laughing and I'm tickling him and I've completely forgotten about getting him settled down for bed. :) Buddha usually just watches us like we're crazy or falls asleep during our little routine. Sometimes, if I don't play too long with Bugga and I just put him in his bed, he'll cry and carry on like he's been trapped in a cold dungeon with inadequate food and monster neighbors. Then I'll hear Buddha saying, "Shhh, shhh, shhh." And he'll talk to Bugga and quiet him down. It's so sweet.

When Bugga spots bugs, he'll point at them and yell, "Ew, ew, ew, ewwww, ew, ew ew, ewwww!" He'll do this until I acknowledge his find. And then when I kill the bug, Bugga will say, "DIE!" in this really gravelly, dark voice. It's hilarious. I guess "die" is what I say when I kill bugs and he picked up on it and personalized it.

Bugga is a passionate young man. If he doesn't get something that he really wants, he'll scream and yell. But he brings this same passion to everything, cuddling included. He plays hard, loves hard, runs hard, hits hard, and, thankfully, sleeps hard.

Bugga is now 18 months and has graduated from roaming the halls with The Chief at church to playing with other kids his age in the Nursery. Sniff, sniff. Actually, this advancement has been much-anticipated...mostly by The Chief since he always takes Bugga so I can fulfill my Primary duties. My little man is growing up!

I just love my boys so much. Today we made brownies together, with the boys lifted up to counter height by squeaky, old chairs. Buddha wanted to do everything himself, but I'm still a bit of a control freak, so we compromised and helped each other out. I told him that he could make some brownies all by himself soon. He really was an eager and willing helper. Then we all cleaned up together and after the dishes had been washed, I left the boys playing at the sink together for a few minutes. They had a blast pretending to be all grown up. By the time they were finished, Bugga was soaked all down his front. When Daddy came home, we drank our power shake and took off for the park to walk (stroll, really, since we're trying not to push it while we're sick). We ended up letting the boys out of the strollers and they pushed them all over the park. It was a blast. Buddha had a meltdown when it was time to go, of course, but we had succeeded in wearing them out for bed, so it was totally worth it. Today was a good day.










P.S. Somewhere in all the hubbub of the past few weeks, I forgot to mention that my awesome husband got me a Bosch mixer and blender combo for our anniversary. I am so thrilled with it! It is amazing. I can make five loaves of bread at one time!!! That's 12-13 cups of flour, people. Sheesh! Thank you, Papa. I am thoroughly enjoying my new toy...as you well know. :) I love you.