Soakin' It Up

We here in the Williams' house are fully aware of the harsh winter that is sure to be upon us any day now, so we are outside enjoying every pretty day we have left! Of course, our Michigan friends have informed us that we are weaklings and the winters here are mild...and I return the favor each summer as I recall summers that blessed us with 120+ temps for days on end and something like 300% humidity. You know me, I like to get the facts straight. No exaggeration at all. Nope. Not me.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, but I couldn't pass up posting them.

Heidi Sage is an outdoorsy girl. It's funny, I don't recall myself ever being outdoorsy, per se, but me and my kids sure do enjoy it now. Miss Priss isn't mobile yet, so she is usually happy observing from a stroller or the wagon. She is so intrigued by every noise--the birds tweeting, kids hollering, the UPS truck braking hard because a certain two year old appears to be foot loose and fancy free, and even the cows mooing in the pasture nearby. She is in constant motion looking for the source of the sounds and getting excited with each discovery. Below she is gnawing on her stroller while watching her brother run amuck.

While Clinton often runs away from us as fast as he can, he also likes to play with Heidi Sage, too. Below you can see he has approached her about sharing a toy, the only toy I brought outside for her. Upon my inquiry regarding his intentions, he turns to give me a "tend to" look. He then runs off with her toy only to find it will not fit in his pocket. After deciding he would not be caught carrying a pink flower around the neighborhood, he returned it promptly.

Some of my favorite moments are just watching Clinton get to be truly carefree. It's in these moments I see the joy I imagine God wants us all to get out of life. Just happy to be alive. Not worried about a calendar. Not worried about a mortgage payment. Not worried about how many calories were in that 4th piece of cheesecake that just fell in my mouth. I love getting to see, and almost remember, what it's like to just be blissfully unaware.

Ever since Clinton was able to point and grunt, he's been finding airplanes in the sky. Sometimes so tiny to the eye and so faint to the ear, I have a hard time finding what he's talking about. But, sure enough, there's always one to be found....and he seems to be equally excited about each and every one. This past weekend we walked outside as a blimp was going right over the top of our house. You can just imagine how excited he was about that! "WOW! Mom, look! Mom, look! Mom, wuts dat?" "Oh wow, Clinton, that's a blimp!" "A bee-ump?" "Mm-hmm...that's a bee-ump."

In this picture Clinton has found another airplane (pee-pane), and is not content until I, too, have found it, pointed it out, and expressed my own joy for seeing such a sight.

My conversations with Clinton are expanding everyday. His vocabulary is growing and his conversational skills improving. He loves talking about monsters right now. He loves that they're scary. He loves that they roar. He does not love that he thinks they live in any room with the lights turned off. Every day we talk about the fact that mommy does not let monsters live in her house. "Not mommy house?" "Nope. I don't let them in." He still doesn't get that they're not real because he doesn't understand that all those characters in his television aren't real.

I love the different expressions his face makes as we talk. That's how I really know he's understanding me. In this picture I told him to return Heidi Sage's flower or he was going to have to sit in his room. He replied with, "Kay, Mom." and kept walking. Pretty sure he didn't get it...that time.

Next post will be all about little Miss Priss and all the exciting things she's been doing lately. It looks like she may be much more like her brother than we had planned!! Scary!

Enjoying the sunshine (even if it goes down at 5:30!),