Jimmy Poppers

Jimmy had his cardiologist check up today (it's been a year already.). They have you arrive 20 minutes early (which I find absurd!) When we arrived at 9:40, they took a quick history and did an EKG. They stuck 13 stickers on him, then let him help attach the electrodes. He also helped remove the electrodes and the stickers - (only 1, then he realized those HURT coming off - but no complaining.) So by 10:00 we were in a room and the doctor would be there "in a minute." At 11:59, (yes, TWO hours later), I was gathering my stuff to walk out when the doctor came in. Of course, there was really not anything for him to tell us. The hole is still there, it still can't get any bigger, it still doesn't affect Jimmy in any way, it could still go away - but becomes less likely to leave as he gets older. TWO HOURS in a tiny room with a two year old!!!! All for a 5 minute review with a doctor (who we adore and think is phenomenal, though). Jimmy did a great job entertaining himself. When the doctor came in, he was precious! Answered all the doctor's questions with "mmmhmmm" through his cheesy little "I'm nervous" grin. He did tell the doctor he was 2 and told him "Thank you" before we left. He was such a good boy. We don't go back for 2 or 3 years. I was finally able to hear the murmur. All his different doctors keep trying to show me with their stethascopes, today, I finally got it. I thought I was hearing him breathe. Anyway, when we think it has gone away (if it does) then he'll do another echo to confirm. But today, the EKG was all he wanted.

Once we got home, Jimmy thought he'd check the strength of his heart by playing with his left-over poppers from the 4th of July. Fun, Fun, Fun! I got the video because he was being so funny! He'd hold the popper and I'd say, "OK, throw it." and he'd grin and say, "mmmhmm," but do nothing - over and over. Like he was working up his nerve. Such a silly boy!

My Poor Baby

I don't think I'm cut out to be a little boy's mommy!!!! All the bumps, bruises, scrapes, and lumps are KILLING me! My tough little trooper just smiles and heads off to his next near-death experience. You think I'm kidding, but it's really gotten bad lately! Last Wednesday, at the zoo, Jimmy flipped a chair that he was standing in and landed flat on his face (split his lip wide open, made his nose bleed, and gave him a few little scuff marks on his lip and chin). Tuesday, he fell on the sidewalk while we were walking downtown in Fort Worth (one knee scraped pretty good, the other just scuffed.) Then, yesterday, he stood on the couch and fell into the wall behind it (busted his lip really badly - lots of blood, and scraped his chin), then to help recover, Daddy wrestled with him on our bed and he head-butted the footboard (another knot on the forehead), then he came up under the window sill and bonked his head (just a little - but enough already!) Then, at Home Depot, he slid forward on a tractor seat and it dumped him onto the floorboard of the tractor hitting his lip (yes in the same spot!) and cheek on the steering wheel. I'm telling you, the kid looks like a veteran boxer!!!

I do find it interesting, though, that on all three of our injury days, he did not take a nap! The first 2 incidents happened before naptime, but yesterday - the lack of nap caused all of the bravery. I was in a hurry to get him into the safety of his bed before we had to take him to the emergency room!!!! I don't think I can take the stress! All of these injuries were with us within a foot of him. What's he going to do to himself when he's out of reach, or better yet, out of sight! I think we'll look into homeschooling!! (Just kidding - not a chance!)

Jimmy's Catechism

Jimmy has been memorizing so well, lately, that James and I decided to start helping him memorize spiritual things. The Bible says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." (Psalms 119:11) At church we got a kid's version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
"The Westminster Catechism came out of the English Reformation in April 1648. The purpose of the Shorter Catechism is to educate lay persons in matters of doctrine and belief. The WSC is in a simple question and answer format to facilitate memorization. Typically, the parents and the church would use the shorter catechism to train their children in the ways of the Lord. New converts are also given the WSC as well as the Confession of Faith and Holy Scripture to study. Various denominations have used the Westminster Confession and Catechism to instruct their members." (Wikipedia) The catechism is composed of 107 questions and answers. The first 12 questions concern God as Creator. Questions 13-20 deal with original sin and the fallen state of man's nature. Questions 21-38 concern Christ the Redeemer and the benefits that flow from redemption. The next set of questions, 39-84, discuss the ten commandments. Questions 85-97 teach concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. The final set of questions 98-107 teach and explain the Lord's prayer. This organization mimics the earlier Heidelberg Catechism of the continental Reformed churches.
The most famous of the questions (known to a great many Presbyterian children) is the first:
Q. What is the chief end of man?A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
We are in the process of joining our new church. It is an Orthodox Presbyterian Church. (NOT Presbyterian Church USA - the common "Presbyterian") It is VERY conservative in it's values and beliefs. We will be formally joined on July 12th and will be baptizing Jimmy at that time as well. If anyone is interested in attending - we'd love for you to join us. Just give us a holler.

Granted, it's only the first 4; but there's just something so sweet about a child talking about God! He may not fully understand what he's saying now, (although, he seems to understand what the first 2 mean), one day he will, and he'll be glad we memorized while he was young and it was easy for him. Right now, it's harder for James and I to memorize the questions than for him to memorize the answers!

Giggles

Just in case anyone out there needs a good giggle today - here you go. Be careful, it's pretty contagious. Just try to watch the whole video without giggling!

Here's one of Jimmy's birthday toys that Papa and Nana Morreale sent. It's really cool!

My, how he's grown

OK, so I took Jimmys monthly picture last week and had to open the old monthly pictures to make the new page the same. I can't believe how much he's changed just since April!!! He's gotten SO big, he's constantly singing songs (often that he's made up!), he has full on conversations, he makes up stories - he's just WAY cool! I knew his activities and behaviors were changing - but I had no idea how much he's changed physically!
This weekend, the Indy car races were at Texas Motor Speedway, right down the street from us. So Sunday, on our way to lunch, we saw this cool racecar in the mall parking lot - totally unattended. Can you say, "Photo Op?" Jimmy really enjoyed "Driving" the racecar!

Jimmy started asking me to, "Sing Jesus" a couple of weeks ago. We heard him singing a cute song about a month ago, but it sounded like he was saying, "Yes, Jesus Lord" over and over. Now, I'm guessing it may have been Jesus Loves Me.

This is from Mother's Day (which was wonderful this year). Jimmy seemed to really know what he had written on the card. (This is a repeat - he explained it all to me that morning when I first opened it.)

Cutie

This past weekend, we went to Houston to celebrate MeeMaw's birthday. Jimmy got to "drive" NoNo and PawPaw's new boat, (the flotel - it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms!) We all had a really great time!!! Happy Birthday MeeMaw - whose birthday is next? Oh wait - MINE! (Not really, Jerry's and Uncle Steve's, and Karen's and Kelly's and . . . oh my, there are a lot of May birthdays!)

We're still docked - that's why there's no lifejacket!!!!

My Aunt and Uncle sent this picture to my mom from when we were there camping. Ok, so we weren't really roughing it, but I ask you, why rough it when you can hang out in the pool and visit with family? We also grilled Saturday's lunch on their grill and ate inside. Yeah, we wussed out a little, but we did cook Friday's dinner and Saturday's breakfast at the campsite and we did sleep in the tent, (although, I thought about moving into the garage apartment at one point as I caught a knee under my chin!)