Laughter...

Swimming at Otter Beach with Olivia and She She

is the best medicine. Bronson and Kyle are two of the funniest guys I know. Kyle and I are amazed at the sense of humor that is contained in our toddler's body. He makes up jokes on a daily basis and will do nearly anything to make someone laugh. This week has been a rough week, but so worth it! On Tuesday I decided that Bronson was plenty old enough to stop drinking bottles and took them away cold turkey. He has done amazing. Here is the following minor snafu...(Please keep in mind that he learned this bad word from me after I stepped in some dog poo while wearing flip flops) This is a lesson in don't say anything in front of your kids that you don't want them to repeat.

Wednesday Morning riding to Ya-ya's house

Ya-ya: Bronson, what do you want for breakfast?

Bronson: I would like a bottle.

Ya-ya: I don't have bottles at my house. You only drink from cups now.

Bronson: Please have a bottle.

Ya-ya: No honey, we don't have bottles anymore.

Bronson: (under his breath) oh Sh*t!!! Just lovely, but you can tell his frustration. She chose just to ignore it since he didn't think she could hear it. We have decided that some things are better left ignored than making a big deal about it.

Other CUTE things that Bronson has said recently:

• Holy Mackerel, Holy Cow
• I want to give you slobbery kisses
• Mama, I really really love you
• I can't find it anywhere
• Why are all the cats naked?
• Olivia is my cousin (this is his most favorite sentence to repeat over and over again)
• That is super cute
• So so Silly
• Those are my girls (speaking of Mary and Gina)
• I have a brother named Jackson, but I call him Jack
• I am a baby genius

Jesus has highlights

Bronson says the funniest things lately. He also says some of the sweetest things too. Recently he started telling us that he loves us without any prompting. He will also tell me that I look pretty or that something is very cute. My other favorite thing that he says is thank-you whenever you give him any compliments. This past week he started responding with, "Yes, I do" whenever you ask him a question. I love watching his language take off.

While I was pregnant with Bronson for obvious reasons our attendance to church began to decline. After having Bronson it has been incredibly hard to keep a regular Sunday schedule. Our number one concern is that we don't want to get him sick. It seemed that whenever we took him to a large crowded indoor environment we would end up at the doctor's the next week. We finally settled on taking turns going to the service and leaving when Bronson began to squirm too much. It has been one of my biggest struggles as a parent, because I get a new boost of energy from being able to worship with my church family. Kyle and I both have a strong relationship with God and want our son to grow up to also have  a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Despite our lack of attendance of church, we know that we are teaching Bronson about Jesus. This past week as I was putting Bronson to bed he asked for me to tell him a story about Jesus and then immediately asked if we could pray to Jesus for all the babies. He also is very quiet and well behaved during his prayers. We have been praying together as a family since the day he was born. We started the tradition of praying over him while he was in the NICU and still pray each night as a family. He loves to put in his own prayer requests. I have found lately that he will remember to pray for things that I have forgotten about. He has such a desire to serve other people.

This morning when we woke up I told Bronson that I had a great dream with him in it. He politely told me that he had a dream about Jesus and him vacuuming all night. He still has a huge obsession with vacuums. When I asked him what Jesus looked like, he told me that he had long hair with highlights. Kyle and I cracked up. He overheard Alex and I talking about highlights the other day and now constantly talks about who has highlights. He told Kyle and I that Jesus has blond highlights. I thought this was story for the babybook. I am looking forward to hearing all about his many dreams tomorrow when he wakes up.

My brother, Jackson

Ultrasound July 26, 2007: Found out we were having twins!!!

There has been lots of new conversations in our house lately. Bronson is quite the talker and says things that I didn't think I would hear for years. His most recent topic of conversation is heaven. He told me that his grandma is in heaven taking his brother Jackson and baby Lindsay to the park. Apparently when he asked his Ya-ya a few months ago about where his grandma was she told him that she was in heaven. He came up with the rest of this on this own. Kyle and I aren't really sure how to approach the topic of Jackson with Bronson, but it is a part of our life. I am not really sure how much he understands, but he is very interested in talking about Jackson lately. He also tells me several times a week that we "need to pray for the NICU babies." A co-worker of mine made some blankets for the NICU babies and Bronson was so happy that he had "Dees" (name for blanket) to take to the NICU babies. He told me that the babies were cold and needed their dees. This boy has such a heart of gold and is so caring about babies and others.

Saturday morning when I got him out of the shower he boldly stated to me that he had a brother named Jackson, but he calls him Jack. I have never even said anything like that to him, but he now talks all the time about baby Jackson. Right after this his words were, "My name is Bronson and my brother is Jackson." This comment melted my heart, but I really don't know what to do about this. Kyle and I are praying about how to approach this issue when Bronson is at an age that he understands. It is a tough topic. As you can see from our ultrasound, they began life together. How do you explain to a child that their identical twin is in heaven?