Dear Max & Jake,
This has been quite the memorable month seeing as how we’ve made multiple trips to Care Now. We were having a garage sale at Nona and Papa’s house and you were both in the house playing with Dada and Papa. I knew something was wrong when I saw Papa running towards me with Jake in his arms. Max, I ran inside to find you laying in Dada’s arms crying and your shirt soaked in blood. You were horsing around, as usual, and apparently slipped when jumping off the ottoman and hit your head on the coffee table. The gash was right in the middle of your forehead, almost identical to the one that Jake had less than 6 months ago, except yours was longer and we immediately knew you needed stitches.
We quickly got in the car to take you (Max) to get stitches. Your head would not stop bleeding and you were crying. Dada held you in his lap while I drove to Care Now. Unfortunately, we’d done this before and I knew that we could get into Care Now right away and that it wouldn’t take as long as if we went to the ER at the hospital. By the time we got there you weren’t really crying anymore but you were worried about what the doctor was going to do. I just explained to you that the doctor was going to sew your forehead back together with some stitches. Then I told you that you and Jake were going to be twins because Jake busted his forehead open too. You thought that was funny and you started laughing. Then I told you it was going to look like you had a spider on your head when they put the stitches in, and you thought that was cool. I told you that you could scare everyone and say, “There’s a spider on my head!” The more we talked about it the cooler you thought it would be to have stitches on your head. Max, you did really great when they stitched you up and only cried a little bit when they had to give you shots around the gash to numb it before stitching it up. When they actually put the stitches in you were totally fine and we didn’t even have to hold you down, you just laid there and stayed still until they were finished. Then you got a sucker (that I had with me, you never know when you’re going to need a sucker!) and picked out a few stickers. You told everyone that you had a ladybug on your forehead and that you and Jake were twins!
All of this occurred while we were in the middle of a meeting with Bruce Roebuck. Max, you seemed fine once we got home and we were able to make it to church that night. We did decide to put a band aide over your stitches just to make sure that you didn’t mess with them or accidentally pull on one of them while you were sleeping or something. We ended up having a great meeting and I even got both of you to take a picture with Bruce while making your “Roebuck face.”
At the beginning of the month all the pumpkin patches opened and Max, you were very excited! Jake, you were also excited and loved seeing all the pumpkins. We went to the pumpkin patch in Grapevine at least twice and I let each of you pick out one small pumpkin and one mini white pumpkin. When we got home Max asked me if we could draw a face on their pumpkins. You two aren’t old enough to carve a pumpkin yet so I decided I would just get a Sharpie and draw on them. Max, you told me that you wanted your pumpkin to look mean. Jake, I made your pumpkin smile. Then I wrote both of your names on your pumpkins and they pretty much lived on the end table in the living room until this week. I also decided that it would be fun to go to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch. Although we had to drive a little ways to get there, they had so much stuff to do and it was all free! You both jumped in the bounce houses, we took a hayride, went into the “jail”, and looked at all the different characters that they had.
Even though my birthday is not until the end of November, I decided that I wanted a professional camera. I did some research and found a great deal on Amazon and even got a free $200 lens. Anyway, I didn’t know how long the promotion would last so I went ahead and ordered the camera for myself. It is awesome. I admit that I don’t really know how to use all of the settings and stuff, but I’ve been taking tons of pictures of you two. It is amazing how clear the pictures are, and even though I don’t know how to edit them yet, they are such great quality. I’ve taken pictures of y’all at the park while playing and feeding the ducks. Here are some of my favorites.
Jake, I think you are absolutely adorable dragging your blanket around and sucking your thumb. You aren’t particularly attached to one blanket, there are pretty much 3 blankets, so as long as you have one you are fine if the others are being washed or something. However, if all three blankets are available, you will drag all of them around. We have one blanket that we leave in the car and it is also your blanket at church. It’s funny because you will have a blanket and I will tell you that we have to go and that you need to leave your blanket because you have one in the car. You immediately drop your blanket and walk out the door, it’s a good thing that we leave that blanket in the car! You have started saying “tag” and when you get your blanket you will say “tag” and start turning your blanket and searching for it, as soon as you find it you start rubbing it and sucking your thumb. You are so precious.
One morning we were getting ready to leave and since I am currently having to park my car outside until we can get rid of some things in our garage, I usually just lock the bottom lock as I pull the door shut. As I was walking to towards the car I realized that I didn’t have my keys in my pocket and I pretty much freaked out. Thankfully I had my phone and so the first thing I did was call my mom since she has a key. Of course I couldn’t get a hold of her at home or on her cell phone. We have gates that are locked so I was considering jumping the fence, but what would I do with you two if I did that? Jake, I did not trust you to stay on the porch and I was worried, if unattended, you might run into the street or something. So I went to one of the gates, and I managed to pull it open wide enough that Max could get through. Max, I told you that I wanted you to crawl through the dog door, open the gate to the kitchen, and unlock and open the front door for me. I knew this was a big task for a 3 year old but I was confident that you could do it. Sure enough, by the time I walked to the front porch you were standing there waiting for me! I was so excited and told you that you were awesome! Then you asked me if you were a super hero, it was so cute!
Whenever we get home and you two are waiting for me to unlock the front door, y’all always sit in the little windows beside the door. While we were locked outside, the second time, I took pictures of y’all. Yes, I locked us outside twice in one month. Thankfully my mom was home and came over to unlock the door the second time. I took the opportunity to take pictures of you two as you played in the front yard while waiting for Nona.
You two are best buddies and one of (Jake) your most used words is “Max.” You say it very clearly. I did manage to get a video of you saying your body parts and other random words as the two of you were horsing around in your underwear (diaper for Jake). I think it’s hilarious when you two dance, and Jake, for some reason you started doing flips, I guess you think that’s dancing too. I love how playful and silly you both are, this is such a fun time. There are still occasional fights, Jake is finally beginning to understand the idea of taking turns. It’s funny because sometimes you just want whatever Max has and you are the annoying one, and other times Max will just want what you have and he will be the one that is irritating. At least you take turns.
The big news this month is that you (Max) are wearing underwear ALL the time now! No more pull-ups at naptime or bedtime. One Thursday morning you woke up with a dry pull-up for the first time. After that I knew that it was possible for you to stay dry all night so I decided that we would just put you in underwear and see what happens. We’ve had to really limit your water intake in the evenings and make sure you go to the bathroom before bed, for the most part it hasn’t been a big deal. I think it helps that you already get up in the early morning hours to go #2 because then you know you can get up and go to the bathroom whenever you need to. You and Dada have a morning ritual of eating breakfast together because you are usually up going to the bathroom while Dada is making his lunch and eating his breakfast. It’s cute that you two have your special time together, but it has led to some random roaming around in the morning. I have found you doing various things like, sitting on the couch playing with your iXL that we bought you, sitting on the chair in the living room eating cotton candy that was left over from the fair, or even sitting at the end of my bed just staring at me like a little creep. One morning you decided to let Jake out of his room and when I walked into the living room I found DVDs all over the floor and you told me that you and Jake wanted to watch a movie. Needless to say, there have been some spankings and you now know that when Dada leaves for work you better stay in your bed/room until I come and get you. You are allowed to get books off your shelf and when you eat breakfast with Dada he will give you your iXL so that you can play with it until I come get you. It’s just nice that you and Jake do not dictate when our day starts, I’m the one in charge of that!
I almost forgot to talk about our trip to the State Fair! I can’t remember the last time I went to the fair, but I really wanted to take you two this year. I decided to go on a week day so that it wasn’t as crowded and Papa went with us. We drove to Dallas and then rode the train to the fair. It was definitely a big thrill for y’all to ride the train. I had a game plan once we got to the fair because I had talked to some of my friends that had gone and they told me what activities they had for little kids. We went to the dog show, fed the animals, did the interactive barnyard, and rode an airplane ride! We ate some fried Frito chili pie, corn dogs, funnel cake, and got some cotton candy as we were leaving. We had a blast! It was so much fun and it completely wore all 4 of us out. Thankfully we went in the morning and by the time we got home you two were on the verge of completely passing out. I absolutely love seeing both of your eyes light up with excitement when we do something fun and if you both have fun, then I have fun!
Every month it seems like time is speeding up. You are both growing up so quickly and I’m trying not to miss anything. I’m really enjoying being your mama and staying home with you. Now, more than ever, I feel such an enormous responsibility to raise you right. I can’t wait to train you until you are teenagers or even school age, I must teach you NOW, while you are young. You are forming your personalities and learning how to behave and speak and I know that I must put in the work and training now, I can’t wait. It’s of the utmost importance. It’s urgent. It’s going to take everything I’ve got and everything Dada’s got, and we must be successful. I pray that God will bless us with wisdom in raising you two, and that he will give us the strength and perseverance that it will take to train you to be obedient children. I’m thankful that you are both sensitive and sweet loving boys and my number one goal is to spend eternity in Heaven with my family.
Love,
Mama
