Jonah

Of all of my children, Jonah keeps me on my toes the most. Matt has likened him to Peter from the Gospels. He is the first one to speak or act. Sometimes he is right on the money and others, well, he just needs some correction. But without a doubt, our Jonah is a man of action. He is the most likely to disobey, destruct, and give me sass. But he is also often the more likely to share love, concern and empathy for others. He gets into so much stuff, but is so independent. As challenging as Jonah is, we are ridiculously thankful for his depth of spirit. He is always saying and doing things that I try to remember to write on here... mostly for myself. As a record of all the great things the boys say and do. I imagine myself old and grey, drinking a glass of Merlot, wrapped up in a leopard print snuggy, reading all of these posts and crying tears of pain, that it passed so quickly, and of joy that I have had the gift of raising these amazing young men.

All of that is to share a couple little adorable Jonah moments that have squeezed my heart this week...

We went to the circus on last Friday (which is a post all it's own with adorable pictures to follow, stay tuned)... We have been looking forward to the circus for approximately a year. Since the last one packed up and headed out of town. Last year, Jonah was enamored by the elephants. He really wanted to ride one, and we were ready to let him... but as soon as he stepped in line, and realized the size of the giant creature, he promptly said he did NOT want to go through with it. I let him know that that was just fine, and that next year, when he was 4, he may just be ready then to ride the elephants. I kid you not that all year he has been talking about it. All.year.long. I have heard about how when he is 4, he will be big enough, and brave enough to ride the elephants. As circus time grew closer, so did Jonah's confidence. And, I might add that confidence is certainly not something that Jonah lacks. Our time came last Friday to see the annual circus... Oh, Jonah was delighted!

We parked the van. Unloaded the boys, and feasted our eyes on the grander of red and white strips and the festive smell of dung and sugar, all in one whiff... it was here. It was time. Jonah held my hand, looked up at me with his gorgeous chocolate eyes and said...

"Mama. I think I need to wait until I'm five. Or... the elephants need to get much smaller."

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I worked this morning, and I have to say, I have a mound of laundry in the laundry room that would rival that of a Motel 6. Can I just say, I think my laundry is like a bunny farm. What is it about laundry, and how it is never, ever really done. Matt would have a great solution to this... I KNOW he would tell me, in the quiet of our own home. Church members not present. Children in bed.... "Well, Christine, you know... if you just stopped wearing clothes, we wouldn't have such a laundry problem." He would. I bet money. And lots of it, cuz I know I would win the bet. Anyway, Matt called me today while I was working to say that he was SO proud of Jonah (I knew by the sound of Matt's voice that Jonah was listening to every word his Daddy was saying. 'Cuz Matt spoke in that amazing Daddy way, that makes my heart swell. You know, the one where you know he made the call more for Jonah, than for me.) But he was so proud of Jonah... Jonah had gone down into the laundry room, emptied the clean clothes out of the dryer into a basket, and cleaned out the lint catcher. Then got his Daddy to show that he was helping Mommy.

Another side note:

Dear Jonah's Future Wife,

I want you to know that I love you. I have waited a long time for a daughter, and I just know that you must be amazing. But in truth, I want you to love me too. I want you to think of me as your Mom. And because of this desire, for you to love me, I want you to know that I am dedicating myself to honing this skill of Jonah's. He has obviously shown an aptitude for household chores early on, and I recognize that it is now my job to nurture those skills.

You are in my prayers, even now.

Love,

Mom.

Okay.... with that said, once I got home, I praised Jonah for helping me, and thanked him for being such a Big Boy Helper. To which he responded:

"Well, Mom. You didn't come home right away. And since you didn't do it, I wanted to get it done for you."

This has been a super long post. Very wordy. You think I am done, and then I'm not. I have another story... But now I really have to go because Jonah has just gotten into the cupboard and is trying the make the cat a sandwich.