Feline Foto

Today Alec has show and tell at preschool. He's supposed to bring something that starts with the letter C. He wanted to bring one of our cats, Molly or Oliver. I said we couldn't do that, so he agreed to take one of his many stuffed animal cats. When we were trying to decide which one to bring, we came up with this idea! He's taking this photo for show and tell. Cute, right?

Funny Man

I took this picture of Alec reading the funnies at my parents' house over Labor Day. This little boy has become such an individual lately. He's always been an entertainer and just genuinely charismatic. But he's reached an age where he is really aware of his surroundings and his verbal skills are right on target. It seems like every time I pick him up from preschool or from a bible school class, his teacher is smiling or laughing at something he has said or done. It's always been like that, from the time he could talk. But lately, I'm hearing things like, "Alec is such a charming young man" (Said his Bible class teacher yesterday morning.)I'm also hearing, "Alec says such great prayers." I have been told this by three different people at his preschool. I must admit, I can't think of anything that is more rewarding than having my four year old praised for his ability to talk to God. It's a great skill, right?

He came home from church yesterday all fired up because he'd learned about the 10 Plagues in Bible Class. While we drove home, he told us all about the ten plagues. ALL TEN of them. And this morning, he still remembered. And he was still talking about them. I'm not sure that I could name all ten of them without cheating, but he can.

Last night as he lay his head on his pillow he said, "Jesus never closes his eyes in sleep, Mama." I said, "I know kiddo, but you have to." He smiled, sleepily, and said, "Yeah, I have to sleep. But Jesus will watch over me and Zachary and keep the monsters and ghosts away. Right?"

And my answer was simply, "Right."

Family Time: Labor Day

We were able to take a quick trip to Oklahoma over the weekend. For the first time in about eight years we are living close enough to actually drive home to see family. That is an amazing blessing to us, especially with my mom's condition worsening.

There always seem to be new developments with my mom's Alzheimer's. This trip was surprising because she talked nonstop. When I went home in July she said very little, maybe a few words a day. This time she talked and talked and talked. The problem was that she was usually talking to people who weren't really there. She would talk to the pillow and tell it how pretty it was. She would talk to the woman in the mirror and tell her how pretty her shirt was. And she would talk to the bad people who kept coming to her house and upsetting her. This was the most disturbing thing. She would be looking at something and telling it over and over that it wasn't being nice and that she just couldn't let that thing come to her house and be mean. And she would get more and more upset and tears would spring up in her eyes and then she'd tell my dad that he needed to take care of those people. And he would pat her on the hand and say, "Now honey, you know I'll take care of it." And she would smile and nod and everything would be okay. . . for awhile anyway.

She may not know who I am, but she certainly knows who my dad is. Her entire existence revolves around him. She'll sit and talk to you about "my man, my Jim." He is her lifeline.

Anyway, I'm getting all emotional. Let's just say that it was nice to be home to help take some of the burden off of my Dad. It was also nice to spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law.

The boys enjoyed playing basketball and digging for treasure and showing Grandmom how to do puzzles. She ooooohed and aahhhhed over how smart they were. And they were very sweet to her. Alec has figured out that Grandmom is like Dory on "Finding Nemo." Occasionally he'll say something like, "Grandmom can't remember her memory, can she?"