Alright, boys, it's your turn!

Nora has been the talk of the town lately, but I wanted to make sure I got some of these cute little stories about the boys on the blog before I forget them.  Because I will.  Today when I was writing thank-you notes for baby gifts I started realizing that I I'm pretty sure I sent two thank yous to a couple of people.  So, if you get two or zero thank-you notes from me, I apologize.

Anyway.

First, a few of the adorable things we have overheard them saying about their little sister.

Roman:
"Having a baby is such a miracle."

Judah:
"Who's my sweetest girly?"

Silas:
"Nora's my buddy."
"I love my baby."
He is also a very good little helper when it comes to Nora.  One day when she was fussing, he went running into the other room and yelled "I'm gonna get Nora's binky!  I'm gonna protect my sister!"
If Nora is crying, Silas will come to me and say "Will you please feed Nora?"

And now for the funnies:

Roman: 

• A couple of weeks after Nora was born, Roman told me "Mom, I think Nora's twin is still in your tummy."           ...            Why, thank you, son.
• Roman just recently learned to tie his shoes.  I know, we're a little late on the shoe tying and it's totally my fault.  But, one day when he was practicing he was getting quite frustrated and finally exploded:  "I'm never going to be able to tie my shoes until I'm 40!"  You guys, I laughed until I cried.  I promised him that it would not take him that long to learn.  The beautiful irony is that he finally got it...later that same day. 
• he is really into running.  I have actually been making him run laps around the house between school subjects and we both enjoy that.  :)  We have been on a run/walk together a couple of times since Nora's birth - I'm hoping that will be good motivation for me to get back into a workout routine.
• he loves playing war.  What was I thinking?  I forgot that it is a never-ending game. 

Judah:

• he has been full of funnies lately!  Many of which are rather graphic, so I'll just tell you that we have had many conversations about boys and girls and anatomy.
• When Tony came to visit for the first time after Nora's birth, he got here really late at night.  The boys ran down to wake him up in the morning and starting telling him "you have to come see Nora!"  Tony asked them "Who is Nora?"  He was expecting them to respond "She's my sister."  Or "She was just born".  He said all Judah could come up with was "He's a girl."
• Somewhere along the line, I made the mistake of telling the boys that "If you do that (I don't remember what THAT was...there are so many options), you could die".  So, now every time I ask Judah not to do something dangerous he asks "Will that make me died?"
• I also sometimes tell them that certain things are not just my rules, but God's rules.  So, he has gotten into the habit of questioning me.  About everything.  For example, I will say "Judah, go brush your teeth."  He will respond "Did God say to do that?"
• Since Nora's birth, Judah has kind of been acting like a teenager.  We hear a lot of responses like this:  "I never get to do that!"  or "I need some space!"  or  "you're making me angry!"
• The funniest/not funniest angry outburst came one day when we were leaving the park.  He didn't want to leave.  I told him to do the monkey bars one more time and then we would leave.  He said no.  Then we got to the car and he said "I want to do the monkey bars one more time".  When I told him that ship had sailed he got even more upset with me.  We stood by the van going back and forth for a while.  I'll tell ya.  That kid has some endurance.  He is relentless.  I'm sure this will come in handy for many things in his life.  For now, it's forcing me to grow in virtue (or fail at growing in virtue, depending on the day).  Anyway, I eventually came to the point where I said "Judah, if you don't get in the car, I will have to take your Larry Boy costume away".  He yelled back at me "BUT THEN I WOULD BE NAKED!"  Oh my.  I obviously didn't mean I was going to take it off of his body at that exact moment, but it made for a good laugh in the midst of the frustration.
• One day the boys were playing hide-and-seek while I was nursing Nora.  Judah was having a hard time finding Roman.  He finally came up to me and said "Do you think Roman is dead?'
• For our family prayer time, each person gets a chance to pray spontaneously and then we all say the Lord's Prayer together at the end.  These are always really sweet.  I'm always impressed with the people and things they pray for.  At the end of the Lord's prayer one night, Judah started asking about what some of the words mean.  "What does evil mean?"  "What does temptation mean?'  And then he asked "What does bread mean?" He meant it in reference to "Give us this day our daily bread".  So, I started explaining that this is when we ask God for the things that we need. I told them that God is our father and he wants to provide for us.  He wants to give us good things.  And so we ask him for the things we need.  We ask him to give us enough.  Judah thought about that for a while and then he said "But sometimes we eat macaroni and donuts."     

Silas:

• is so proud of Nora.  Everywhere we go - grocery store, park, target - he will announce (to every stranger we see "We have a baby sister!  Her name is Nora"  and then he will ask "Do you wanna hold her?"    Uh, no thank you, Silas.  Awkward.
• One day I overheard Silas telling Nora "Nora, Father Jeff is going to come baptize you.  And it's not gonna hurt.  It's gonna feel good."
• he is currently very concerned about raccoons.  We can be in the middle of the city, but if it's dark out he will be in a panic to get to the car.  "We gotta hurry so we don't get 'tacked by raccoons!"
• Things that the word "trigger" is the word "sugar".  He will bring me a Nerf gun and say "Can you pull the sugar for me?"