We're Back and More John-isms

We are BACK from California! Man, two weeks is a long time to be away from home and your familiar surroundings. I was kinda getting used to it. For the first 5 minutes our house looked weird to me. It looked foreign. Like I had forgotten what it looked like.

Thanks again to Mamaw and Grandpa for taking such good care of us on our trip and for taking John for a few days so Kyle and I could have a mini-vacation within a vacation--even if we did still have Anna with us, it was easier. We very much enjoyed visiting with you and enjoying the Carmel house and beautiful weather.

Let me just reiterate that on this trip it was apparent that John absolutely, positively, without a doubt LOVES his daddy with a capital L-O-V-E-S. Loves. Loves to pieces. John is Kyle's shadow. Probably because he's not used to being around Kyle so much like he has been this past 2 weeks. Kyle is John's hero. This picture says it all....

It's really cute to see them cuddle, play rough, invent random games, and just generally enjoy eachother. A lot of it is by default because someone has to take care of Anna and that's usually me so John and Kyle do a lot together but I did feel a little left out of the boys club sometimes. Especially when John and Kyle are having fun and I try to join in and John frowns, waves his arm at me and says "Go 'way, Mommy!" It reminds me that John isn't a baby anymore. He's a little rough and tumble boy with his own ideas and personality. But despite the fact that the little guy is growing up I absolutely love this stage with John because he is communicating and is so smart and funny in the things he says. He also has a crazy good memory. It was so interesting how he would remember something (you had told him maybe once) days or even weeks later.

Today I had to write down a bunch of John-isms because I didn't want to forget so bear with my stories here:

Whenever I ask John to do something and he ignores me/doesn't do it I say "John, you need to obey" or "please obey Mommy (or Daddy)". Today was the first time he reversed the phrase on me. I was doing something in the kitchen and he asked me about 3 or 4 times to play trains with him but I was distracted and didn't answer. Finally he rose his voice very loud and said "Mommy, OBEY!" He kind of smiled like he thought he had finally wielded some power. I had to laugh. Finally I said "John, I am the parent, you are the baby. Mommy and Daddy tell you to obey. You don't tell the parent to obey". Then about 20 minutes later we were playing trains and you could tell his little wheels were turning and he slowly said "par-int....I the baby". It was so ridiculously cute. I just want to hug him to pieces when he makes me laugh like that.

Today I was holding John up to the kitchen sink to wash his hands and he was grunting saying "uuuhhhh, my stunk....my STUNK!" Then I realized he was saying "my stomach"....I was squeezing the life out of his "stunk".

This evening I was trying to get his PJs on and he was just standing there, challenging me to do something by not obeying me. So when he didn't obey immediately I gave him a pop on the butt with the paddle. After I put the paddle on the floor and was reclosing the diaper he very cordially picked up the paddle, handed it to me and said very seriously "Here y'go, Mommy. Put it up"

Oh, all these little random things add up to the fun things in life. I don't want to ever forget them so y'all are just going to have to put up with me recording them here!