Exasperated delight!

BigMan is growing up so quickly. He is most assuredly in the ‘Terrible Twos’, but those moments of exasperation are mellowed by the sheer delight of seeing our once ‘baby’ grow into a real little person. Some of the highlights of the past few months:

·         A couple of times recently (including at 6:20pm last night!) BigMan has taken himself off to bed, along with Woof, and waited patiently for us to say goodnight. He has also *finally* decided that he can sleep with the quilt I made him on his bed!

·         BigMan loves playdough, and has a vivid imagination. Last time he was playing with it he very proudly brought me his ‘turtle’ creation. That turtle then turned into lots of baby turtles, then morphed again into a kangaroo.

Telling Mummy that this is something yummy for her to eat...

·         While gazing up at the sky from the new trampoline, BigMan saw a couple of whispy clouds, “Arrrgh! Arrrrgh! I can’t reach them! I can’t reach the cowds [sic]!”

·         BigMan loves carrying around Mummy’s baby doll from when she was a little girl. He’s a good ‘Daddy’, but when he tires of it the doll gets dropped unceremoniously on the ground.

Just having a cup of Chai Green Tea (minus the boiling water).

·         Buzz ‘Likeyear’ is his hero. BigMan yells out, ‘To infinity and beyond!’ many times a day, with his right arm outstretched and then runs around the house. He has a number of quotes from the movies, and it’s a bit scary to hear him say, “Buzz! You can’t (think ant, not aunt… good little US accent) fly!”

Someone's happy!

·         Pirates are also a favourite for role playing. He holds his hand up as though he’s brandishing a sword and says, “Grrrr I’m a pirate!” 

·         Of course we still love all forms of wildlife. “I’m a big snappy crocodile!” “I’m stonking like a dinosaur” “I’m an elephant!” 

·         At ‘Footy Fever’ day at Playgroup, BigMan told me that he couldn’t participate in the footy match because, “No Mummy, it’s too dangerous. It’s too dangerous.”

·         When BigMan saw me after Bible Study this morning he came to me and said, “It’s so great to see you Mummy. It’s so great to see you.”

·         Tonight at bed time, “I really love you. I really love you Mummy!”

·         I’m teaching BigMan how to spell his name (ok, I know that it’s not going to mean anything much to him at this stage, but there’s no harm in getting him to recognise his own name). When I start spelling it to him he says, “Don’t forget it! Don’t forget it Mummy!” Like I’m ever going to forget my precious boy, or his name! :)

I love my precious BigMan.

I love that he’s learning every single day.

I love that his favourite story is Noah’s Ark.

I love that he loves his baby sister, tells her that he loves her and gives her cuddles as he asks, “You alright LittleLady? You alright?”
 

I love that he asks me to sing the ‘star’ song to him before he goes to bed. Nope, it’s not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it’s much more precious than that. It’s the song my mum used to sing to me at bedtime when I was BigMan's age:

When He Cometh

When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His kingdom

All the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Like the stars of the morning,
His bright crown adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

He will gather, He will gather
The gems for His kingdom;
All the pure ones, all the bright ones,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Like the stars of the morning,
His bright crown adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

Little children, little children,
Who love their Redeemer,
Are the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Like the stars of the morning,
His bright crown adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

And I love telling BigMan that HE is one of those jewels.

B.F.F.

Well, my better half had to complete a form for work. One of the 'BIG' questions on it was about what his/our plans are beyond his contracted time up here in the Big T. That's gotten us talking. Well, really, we talk/pray about what our plans are and whether we should stay/go back to Brisbane/move somewhere else in a 5-hour-drive-radius of Brisbane pretty much every day.

One of the things that I've remembered about moving around a lot as a little one is that I never had the 'this is my BEST friend and we've been BEST friends since we were [insert born/2/3/4/5 etc here]' type friend. And that can be tough. I won't lie, it's hard moving schools and always being the newbie. But, on the plus, I did have a wonderful family and I have so many good memories of fun times playing with my  brothers (and occasionally my sister... who incidently is now one of my BEST friends).

Back in our carefree days... (actually, if my memory serves me correctly I was feeling incredibly ill with morning sickness when this photo was taken).

So why this? Well, I just want to acknowledge the very special BFF in my life. She's an incredible woman: an amazing teacher, a wonderful wife and mother and the best friend I've ever had. We haven't known each other our whole lives. In fact, I've only known her since 2007, but I feel like I've known her forever. We share many things, our lives have many similarities, and I'm so thankful that God ordained that our paths would cross.

I'm seeing a distinct lack of dark circles under the eyes here!

And this also gives me hope, and reminds me that regardless of where we live, what far off places we may (or may not) travel to, God knows what friends my children need and he will go before us.

Incidently, I ought to say that one of the big and I mean BIG reasons in the 'FOR staying in the 'Ville' column is the wonderful friends that our family has up here.