A-ja-liath the Giiiaaannt and other Bible stories

I don't know if I'll ever forget this, but I want to write it down just in case. Joel has been obsessed (I mean OBSESSED!) with the David and Goliath story for about two months now. We've been trying to get him interested in other stories, and our plots have worked for a couple of hours at a time, but he always comes back to David and Goliath. When I say obsessed, I mean he wants to read it, listen to it, watch it, act it out, sing about it, color pictures about it, spell it, and use stickers dealing with it. He asks his family members, friends, nursery workers, and random people we meet at stores and restaurants about it.

The conversations go something like this ...

Joel: Okay mommy, you be David the shepherd boy, and I'll be A-ja-liath the Giaaaant. [Cue man voice] My name is Ja-liath the Giant, and I am niiiine feeeet talllll.

Me: My name is David, and I'll fight you.

Joel: No, no, mommy. You have to say, "I will fight you in the name of the God of Ish-ray-ul!"

Me: Okay. My name is David, and I'll fight you with help from the God of Israel.

Joel: Huh, huh, huh ... no one can defeat me!

Me: I'll grab five stones and my sling. [Pretend to sling something at him]

Joel: Keeeeer-plunk! [falls down slowly] The Israelites won the battle!

Moments later ...

Joel: Okay mommy, YOU be Ja-liath, and I'LL be the shepherd. [We play.] Okay mommy, you be King Saul, and I'll be David. [We play.] Okay mommy, you be Jesse. I'll be David, and Judah can be the brothers. [We play.] Okay mommy, Judah can be the Philistine soldiers ... 

Me: Joel, can we play something else. Please!

Ridiculous, I know! But it doesn't stop there. I find slings with rocks (socks with random toys shoved in them) lying around the house at least twice a day. [Sidenote: I'd like to give a shout out to Uncle Butch for making him his first sling shot. The checker tied on a shoe lace has been used many times as a weapon.]

On the occasions we've been able to distract Joel from Goliath a little, he's told some really good stories. For example, he added the plague of the hippos to the ten plagues in Egypt. I also overheard him telling random children in the play place at Chick fil A, "You be Moses. You be Aaron. I'll be Pharaoh." How do you tell your child that's not normal?!  When pretending to be an Israelite in the bathtub, he sang, "I've been working on the bathtub, all the livelong day." I can't make this stuff up!

I also walked into the house one day to Joel telling his daddy, "I'll be Samson. You be dat durl! What's her name? Deliliah? Yea ... you be her." How promiscuous (you might be thinking), but when it came time for "Delilah" to trick "Samson" into going to sleep, Joel said, "Okay, let me read you a bedtime story so you can fall asleep and I can cut your hair off." What a funny kid!

Samson holding up the walls

The really funny/frustrating part is that is these stories always come back around to David and Goliath. I am honestly so tired of that story right now! I am very appreciative that Joel loves Bible stories. It's always worth the tenth time telling the story when he opens the door for an elderly lady at Belk and says, "I can do big things with God's help, just like David!"

Judah's Four Month Appointment

Ju Ju, as his brother sometimes calls him, was four months old on November 28th. He had a great healthy check up, weighing 16 pounds and 6 inches (75th-90th percentile), measuring 26 inches long (50th-75th percentile). These are pretty big increases since birth! As round as his head is, he was surprisingly only in the 50th percentile for head circumference.

Right now, Judah prefers assisted standing or sitting rather than being on his tummy. In fact, tummy time has been a challenge. He won't tolerate being on his stomach very long. He has been getting more and more comfortable each week, but soon I won't be able to keep him still. Judah has recently started to grab his toes, roll from front to back, and roll from back to front. I wouldn't call him proficient at rolling yet, but he's done both a few of times. In fact, he rolls to his side to sleep.

Judah also loves laughing and squealing. He gets so excited and kicks and squeals and smiles. He has sort of a man laugh, too. It's very sweet! His personality seems to be hot or cold (kind of like me), so when he gets overwhelmed or tired, he will quickly turn from happy squeals to an "I'm done" cry. This usually means it's time for him to go back to sleep.

Judah very much likes a schedule. He is like clockwork with naps. While they aren't always at the same time, I can tell you within about ten minutes of when he is going to need another nap. He lasts about two hours and will fall asleep within five minutes of me picking him up and swaddling him. (He's still liking his Love To Dream arms up, zip up swaddle. We'll have to transition him out soon because of him learning to roll over.) As part of his schedule, Judah seems to naturally be an early to bed and early to rise kind of kid. He wants to go to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 every night. This is very different from our night owl, Joel, who wants to go to bed at 10:00. Judah is still waking 2-4 times each night. He's been stuffy lately and cutting his two bottom front teeth, but when he's been healthy, the wake ups are much more manageable. 

Overall, Judah is a very sweet little guy. I'm trying to enjoy any alone time we get together. It may only be 10 minutes a day, but I cherish that one-on-one time. That sort of snuggly, quiet time is much harder to achieve the second go round.