My son Andy thinks I’m incredible.

Well, he hasn’t used those exact words, but I’m sure he does. He thinks I know how to translate baby cries and coos. Seriously.

Every time Evan cries, he asks, “What’s Evan saying?” I generally know if it’s that she needs a diaper change or it’s time to eat, etc. He thinks I can understand her noises!

Someday soon, I’m going to answer his question like this:

“Oh, she’s wondering what impact the Biblical explanation of the flaming of the tongues at the day of Pentecost will have on our current situation, both spiritually and globally.”

Think that’ll throw him off?

Our tiny preemie is growing, more every day! She’s finally hit the stage where she likes Mommy better than Daddy (she was a Daddy’s girl until last week).

She’s been sitting up for a couple of months, but I wanted to share this photo of her sitting on our bed. I surprised her with the camera, so her eyes are huge.

In the past few weeks, she’s been pulling up. On EVERYTHING. Here she is in her porta-crib. She can barely see over the edge!

She’s a tiny girl. She weighs just 14 pounds, but she gets around and makes her wishes known. A baby boy in our church is turning three months old this week and he and Evan are the same size. She’s nine months old. Oh, well. She’s healthy and we’re happy.

We have a very small entryway off of our front door. It’s our main entrance. With four small kids, the clutter can easily spill into the living room, or dining room… or down the hallway. Shoes, coats, library books, etc.

So, I came up with this “method” for reducing our clutter. Each child has a wooden box (I bought mine at Target, but they sell similar ones everywhere). It’s for shoes. All the shoes for that season are in there. (Right now, my daughter isn’t old enough to need 48 pairs a season. ) In the summer, the kids have sandals, Crocs, tennis shoes and church shoes. In the winter, the sandals and Crocs make way for boots. You get the idea. (The boxes in the photo look a little full because we live in Indiana. October means boots in the morning, sandals in the afternoon!)

When we come in the door, I just gently remind them to hang their coats on the peg above (see photo) and put their shoes in their “shoe box.” It works great. Even my newly two-year-old has been putting his shoes away for more than six months!

For more great Works for Me Wednesday tips, see Shannon’s Rocks in My Dryer blog. Also be sure to get your suggestions in for naming our baby. We need help!

I took computer programming in high school. (Save the nerd comments, thank you.) I know what an infinite loop is. I’m sure most of you do, too, with or without programming. For those of you who do not know, let me submit this example of a conversation Connor and I keep having.

Connor: “Hey, Mom… Guess what.”

Me: “What?”

Connor: “I tell you somepin’.”

Me: “OK, tell me something.”

Connor: “Um… Guess what.”

Me: “What?”

Connor: “I tell you somepin’.”

Me: “OK, tell me something.”

Connor:“Ummm… Guess what.”

And so it goes… Over and over again. Several times a day, for the last week or so. Get it now?!

I’m sure in his tw0-year-old mind, he’s just ecstatic to have my undivided attention. And when he gets it, he realizes he doesn’t have anything profound to say. I’ll just wait. One day, he’ll say something brilliant that will change the world. I want to be listening then.

I’ve been in the Christmas spirit today. (My friend Jamie would be so proud!) I’m actually working on our Christmas card design. I know, I know… It’s still October. But I say work when you’re inspired to do so!

At any rate, I was thinking about where we were this time last year and I remembered having an amusing conversation with Andy. Of course, last year, he was not quite four at this time of the year. The three boys (Evan wasn’t born yet!) and I were shopping with my Mom, Nana. We were at Sam’s Club and Andy saw this trampoline:

His little eyes immediately lit up and this conversation followed:

Andy: “Oh, Mommy! Can we get that?!”

Me: Aside from knowing they cost hundreds of dollars, I immediately envisioned Brady (aka: Evil Canevil) jumping from the trampoline and landing on the roof. My quick response: “Oh, no, honey. No way.”

Andy: “Why not?”

Me: In a moment of brilliant logic, “Because Mommy’s not dumb.”

Andy: Grasping at straws, “But Mommy, we’re dumb!”

Needless to say, we do not own a trampoline… and Andy has since been taught what “dumb” really means.

My husband Nathan and I were joking the other day about the “milestones” we’d add to our baby books if we had published them. For instance, Evan discovered the little springy doorstop behind our bathroom door today. “Bo-o-oing!” Each of our kids have gone through a phase where that particular doorstop has fascinated them. So, our published baby book would read:

Discovered door stop in main restroom: October 24, 2007.

The other one I add specifically for Evan. In case you’d forgotten, she was born 9 weeks early, exactly two months before her due date. As is the case with most preemies, she was TINY. She weighed just 2 pounds and 12 ounces at birth and 4 pounds and 7 ounces when we brought her home from the hospital a month later. Her preemie clothes nearly swallowed her at first. Even now, at nine months old, she’s comfortably wearing 3-6 months clothing.

So, her latest milestone is that her feet now actually touch the end of the main part of her baby bathtub! She sits up well enough to take a real bath, but she’s so tiny still that it seems like such a huge amount of water for such a tiny girl. So, I was thrilled tonight when I realized that she’s grown that much. Baby steps.

Feet reach the end of the baby bathtub: October 27, 2007.

Nate would be happy if I added this one:

First returned a boy’s glance: June 3, 2050.

Just teasing. But we do enjoy celebrating the small things around here — even when the small thing is an impatient baby girl.

Here’s Evan at about 5 weeks old, ready for her first church service. Notice how her head is barely bigger than her newly 4-year-old big brother Andy’s hand!

It’s 3:56 a.m.

I just nursed Evan and put her back to bed. But I can’t sleep.

With every pregnancy, I’ve gone through this. These crazy times when I sleep better in the middle of the day (during nap time) than at night.

So, what can I do in the middle of the night to not wake up the rest of the family?

I just ate a bowl of raisin bran and watched part of a re-run of The Brady Bunch. And I have this unusual desire to clean my house. The desire is only unusual because it’s rare for me. My house isn’t ever clean, really. But right now, I’d like to vacuum.

Oh, well. I guess I have the excuse not to clean right now.

So, what do other people do in the this situation? Anyone out there have a suggestion for quiet hour times?!

In the past few days, Evan has started babbling a real syllable: “Ba-ba-baaa-ba.” Thankfully, we know she’s 100% human and 0% sheep.

I thought it might be time to start working on her vocabulary some more, so I’ ve been stressing the “Ma-Ma” variety. Tonight, she did it! She’s done it a few times now and it’s always short-lived, but at least she said my name first.

We have friends who are missionaries in China. I do a lot of design work for them here and mail out their monthly update letters. This is partly to protect them from the Chinese government, who might not like the “work” their seeking to do there. At any rate, they have small children also and Andy has enjoyed learning tidbits about China because of them.

Today, he was again talking about the need to go visit his friends in China. (This was prompted because I was stuffing envelopes with their monthly prayer letter to update supporting churches.) We again talked about how far away China is, the fact that it’s dark there when it’s light here, and how maybe someday God would send Andy there.

His response? “Maybe we should buy some money so we can go soon.”

Buy some money?! “As in, here’s my nickel, I’ll take two twenties?” If only it were that easy!

I have a habit of making up silly songs and singing them around the house. Often, they don’t make much sense. They usually rhyme, but they are always (always) sung off key. That’s just the way I do it.

Andy and Brady have slowly started to enjoy these insane songs, but Connor hasn’t come around yet. I was just singing this:

Anybody want some lunch, lunch, lunch? To munch, munch, munch? Anybody want some lu-u-u-u-u-u-unch?!!!

(I know… my talent astounds you. This song isn’t published yet, so don’t write to request the sheet music.)

Connor immediately holds up his hand and says, “Mommy, no!”

So, I asked him, “Why don’t you ever let Mommy sing?”

“Because,” was his default answer… but then he continued, shaking his head. “It’s not pretty.”

Ouch. Truth hurts, doesn’t it?!