The innocence of children...

I told you earlier how much of a flirt my son is. But I didn't realize we would need to start some lessons in chivalry and modesty so soon. I guess it is my fault. Or my mother's. I can blame this on my mother, right? After all, she was the one that taught him the word. And mothers can be blamed for everything, right?

"the" word is 'opendoen'. The Dutch word for 'opening up'. Joseph used it mainly in the context of his buckle. He wanted the buckle of his high chair opened, not just to spring out, but mostly because he wanted to fasten it again. Opening and closing things are Joseph's greatest delight! He has actually caught the meaning pretty accurately, using it when he wants a door opened, or a box, or even his shoes.
Joseph's version 'ohthetoe' of course puzzles the English speakers around him, and usually we gladly translate as proud parents of our bilingual baby.

Last weekend though, silence was probably the better part of valour my husband thought. Our parish had an after church breakfast of shrimp and grits with other Southern treats and we all joined in. Anyone who has a todler, knows that expecting him to sit still for an hour after he just HAD to sit still for an hour at mass would be cruel and unusual punishment. So while mommy waited in line with the plates, dada let him run around. Our Parish is blessed with many children, and for some reason Joseph always is an atraction. Like a little prince he atracts people to him. Especially if they are female. Even more so if they are female and under five.
So when he was running around in the hallway, probably looking for some stairs to climb on, a little girl tried to get his attention. She pointed at him, called baby, baby... but unlike his usual behaviour, Joseph did not seem to be too interested. That changed when she came closer. They stared at eachother, pointed the way todlers of like age do. Probably touched eachothers hair. But it were the buttons on her dress that really fascinated Joseph. He was very clear about what he wanted and stated it proudly. "ohthetoe".

Oh my... they start so young these days!

Animal lover...

A busy week it has been with plenty of cute moments, and the usual todler terrors!
I forgot to mention it in my previous post, but friday morning before we headed off to Hilton Head we went to Edventure's childrens museum where they opened a new butterfly pavillion. It took Joseph a minute or two to realise what it was all about, but then he was absolutely entranced by the beautiful creatures sitting right there, all around him where he could actually touch them. Not that we LET him touch them of course. But he was fascinated.

He is a pint sized animal lover who knows all the dogs in the neighbourhood and who does not understand why the birds near the playground in the park fly away when he runs up to play with them. He loves kitties as well, points at all the squirrels gleefully chanting 'khoo, khoo' (from the Dutch eekhoorn) and will rush up to the television for any commercial in which there is an animal visible.

A few days ago he spend minutes sitting in the street watching a beatle scurry past and trying to follow him, something the beatle did not seem too enthousiast about. Yesterday in the garden, to his utter delight there was a big, fat bee zzzzzoooming from flower to flower in the confederate jasmine. He crouched down and amidst mommy's warnings not to touch he just looked fascinated at the little flying fuzz and informed me, while pointing with a small chubby finger bij... bij... bij (from the Dutch word for bee).

How long do you think before he will ask us for a puppy?

Grandma's are mommy's with lots of frosting

That sentence crowns the mothersday gift I selected for my wonderful mother in law. I have been blessed so much, not just with my wonderful husband, but also with his parents and actually his entire family. This weekend we are luxuriating in their company near Hilton Head for a mini vacation. Joseph adores his "Mimi" and "Gra-Pa". Even if they did not bring their dog with them, which was a big dissapointment. However he is spoiled with attention, love, favorite foods, trips to the playground, new clothes, new shoes and whatever a young boy can be spoiled with. And mommy and daddy are spoiled with enthousiast baby sitters who just urge them out of the door to go for a nice dinner together or a trip to the movies or to go shopping or anything.
So last friday, my husband and I went out for a dinner together to a place I found in the local restaurant guide. I would say it was one step up from a dive, but really.. it wasn't even a step up. The food though was REALLY good. And there was lots of atmosphere. Including a reggae version of "Country Roads". We had such a great time: a wonderful date under the full moon.

I also splurged on a dress. I found it at Steinmart which means it was seriously discounted, but still more than I would usually spend on a dress. When I put it on however, it made me look like a Greek Godess. My husbands eyes lit up when he saw it. Only, it was a bit too long, and more than I had planned on spending. (though not out of our budget of course. I am just a pinch penny) I put the dress back on the rack and left without it. The next day we went shopping in the outlet mall but nothing really 'hit me'. I had a dress that looked nice, but when I looked at myself in the mirror in it.. it did not make me look like a Greek Godess. I only spend money on clothes when I absolutely love what I see in the mirror, because I think it is part of my duty and priviledge as a wife, a mother and a daughter of the King to look atractive. I hung that dress back as well and only bought the two camisoles that I wear under some summer dresses.

But the first dress kept sticking in my mind. How often do you find a dress that makes you look like a Greek Godess, especially after you have given birth and with still five pounds that seem to belong to someone else? When before dinner my mother-in-law and I went to the grocery store, I asked her to come into Steinmart with me for just a moment and give her opinion. She convinced me to buy it. I will just need to have it shortened three inches or so. And I promise you some pictures of me wearing it!

My son, the charmer...

Joseph is a flirt. We have long established that. Maybe it is because he watches his father flirt with his mother quite often, but whatever the reason, he spreads it around. He flirts with waitresses in restaurants, with ladies in passing shopping carts in the grocery store and with any children he can see. He always has done it. With cooes or glances, or cute little smiles. Now that he has more and more words at his disposition, he even starts using those to charm others. He should be behind in his speech development due to learning two languages at the same time, but vocabulary wise I don't notice too much of that.
Never the less, I had to admit, I was laughing when my wonderful husband told me the following story after he came back from a walk with Joseph while I cooked dinner.

Joseph and dada had been walking towards a house not too far away where a dog named "Bogie" is often outside. The dog has an electrical fence but is very friendly. Joseph is utterly devoted to Bogie. He wants to go and visit him several times a day and would if I let him. The owners allow us to go unto their driveway and visit with Bogie, pet him and talk to him. Joseph asks about "Boh" several times a day and is very dissapointed if we walk by and he is not outside.
Unfortunately, Bogie had not been outside, to Joseph's great regret. After having walked a little bit further they encountered a mommy with a girl of about two. Joseph immediately ran to her, calling out "behbeh! Behbeh! Behbeh! (his version of baby). They probably exchanged smiles and such, but Joseph wanted to tell her something impressive. So pointing back the way he came, he kept saying "behbeh... Booh! Booh! Behbeh.... Booh!" clearly intent on telling her all about the wonderful dog that could be found a few houses back.

I am not certain how the girl reacted, but I am sorry I missed the exchange. A few more years, and I am going to have to beat the girls off of him with a stick. Who am I kidding? I need that stick already! He spent fifteen minutes of mass last sunday on the lap of another lady who happened to sit next to us in the pew, happily playing with the buttons of her vest, and she was beaming all the time....

Body Painting

Today was one of those days. It kept on raining, and if we tried to go outside in a moment of dryness, it would start to rain again before we were halfway down the street. Joseph was going stir crazy inside. He is in terror mode of late. Not really intentionally bad but so much into everything and not sitting still for a moment that mommy is ready to lock him up in padded room. Or herself. We tried colouring, but for some reason Joseph never seems to be interested long in his crayons. We tried blocks. We tried memory. 'We' were at our wits end.
Then mommy had the brilliant idea to try fingerpainting once more, even though the first try out a few months ago had not been an overwhelming success. Joseph loved to put his fingers in the paint and mix them together. The idea to put those painted fingers on a sheet of paper though seemed not that interesting.

Today started out the same. Joseph played a bit with the paint but did not seem that interested. Until... he tried to grab one of the buttons on my blouse. You see, Joseph has a rather strange fascination with my belly, especially my belly button. He likes to poke it, touch it, rub it... Frequently he will just start pulling up my shirt to get to the 'buh' (from the Dutch 'buik'.)
In order to protect my clean, new blouse, I quickly pulled it a bit up. Joseph stared fascinated at the belly. Trying to get his interest back to the paint, I dipped my own finger in it, then made two dots for eyes and a smile on it. Now that got his attention. He dipped his own fingers in the paint and started enthousiastically to paint this much more interesting canvas: mommy. And oh my that canvas could be cleaned with just a baby wipe, and then he could start all over again. Which is why I probably still have some paint in my belly button. But we had giggles and laughs on a rainy day. And that is what counts, right?

Seeing my earlier posts on modesty, I am certain you can understand why there is no accompanying picture of my son's artwork. I can assure you though, it was worth it.

Knitting update

My blog has not been the only thing that has fallen by the wayside these last few weeks, or even last month. My knitting too has fallen victim to an overscheduled agenda. (Note to self: don't DO that anymore.). The last three days I have actually knitted more than the entire month of april put together and guess what? It still has the same calming and soothing effect on me. I should not have let it be pressed into a corner. The result is though that I am still working on that first sock that I have been talking about for months. I am now very soon nearing the actual 'foot' part that I have been dreading and anticipating at the same time. We will see how it goes. The picture above however does not show the sock but a scarf I had great fun in knitting for christmas. After this sock, I have a shawl waiting. I need to make a baby blanket. And I need to start making baby socks. Amidst all that I need to manage a small embroidery project as I need to have a wedding hanky ready by next april.

Be soft of words and gentle of bearing

I will return to my series on attractiveness and modesty on a later date. I do not want to wear it out, so to speak, though there certainly is plenty still unsaid on it. My head however does not want to wrap around the subject today it seems. I guess this is one of these days in which I will blog about... nothing. Unless.. I would grab back to my "guide motive" as a woman so to speak:

Be soft of voice
and gentle of bearing
be kind of heart
and gentle of hands

be bright as the morn
and still as the evening
within you they'll find
God's love reborn.

Lately I have been rather disturbed by the tone of Christians on the internet, especially in the highly volatile topics of gay marriage and abortion. Now these are important topics and it is important to speak out on it.
Perhaps this qualifies me as a 'shrinking violet' but I often have great problems though with people who try and make a point about something they are passionate about in a sarcastic, or harsh way. If you hurt someones feelings, they will never accept what you are saying, no matter how right it is. So a question you may need to ask yourself when speaking on topics about which you feel strongly, especially on the internet is, do I mostly just want to be right? Or do I actually want to communicate something to someone.

At university we were shown at the beginning of a course the first very simple diagram of the communication process. You have a messenger, a medium, a message, and a receiver.
You(the messenger) speak (the medium) about a certain topic (the message) and a receiver actually get's the message and processes it. If while you are speaking though, you use a medium that the receiver can not receive, nothing gets communicated. For example, you could call someone who has no phone. Or you could speak really loud English to someone who only speaks French. Or you could say "Only someone who doesn't really care at all about what Scripture really says would believe..." or "That's not what I said, you idiot, I meant... and you well know it".
Whatever point you were trying to make has long gone past any receiver. If a discussion has gone to this point, you probably better just leave the subject because you are not going to communicate a message. The only thing that will happen is that you keep talking. And the more you talk, the further you will allienate the person with whom you are trying to speak. But the truth must be said, I hear some people argue, and other people may be too chicken to tell it like it is, but I am not. The truth can only be spoken in love. If your tone is angry, you are angry. If you are angry... chances are you will not only not be heard, but also speak in a way that causes you to sin.

"I call a spade a spade" is all good and well for gardening tools, but we can never allow forthrightness and frankness to be an excuse for unkindness in our words or our tone.