The Things you Say

The Things you Say:

Dear Austin,

As the beginning of April appeared, I was brought to the sudden realization that you are about to turn four years old! At the end of the month, it will be four years since I gave birth to you - my beautiful son. The past four years have been the most challenging and rewarding years of my life so far, and I have grown as a woman of God because of the things that you teach me on a daily basis. I am so honored to be your mom.

You not only stretch me as a person, you make me laugh out loud every day. I love our moments together, and there are so many Austin-isms that I don't want to ever forget. Here are just a few of your recent quotes:

- Nocturnal. You are completely fascinated with the word "nocturnal." Several months ago, you and I were reading a book about bats (I think) and I mentioned the word and meaning of nocturnal. You did not forget. Last week when I asked you to get ready for bed, you said, "Mom, I am not going to bed tonight. I have decided that I am going to be nocturnal. I am going to start staying awake all night and sleeping through the day instead." You were very serious about your plan - but I made you go to bed anyway.

Whenever you learn about new animals, you want to know if they are nocturnal. You also ask me on a regular basis to list animals for you that are nocturnal. I hate to admit that I typically give you the same list over and over again. "Bats, raccoons... um..." and then I normally change the subject because I keep forgetting to google "nocturnal animals."

Tomorrow morning is Easter. I love Easter. I want to do an entire post about our Easter traditions and meanings. Tonight, however, I simply asked you if you wanted to put your Easter basket outside by the front door so the Easter bunny could hop by and leave you eggs. You paused for a long time before looking at me straight in the eyes, "So mom, are you saying that the Easter bunny is nocturnal????"

So, from now on, my list will be "bats, raccoons, the Easter bunny... um..."

Inside-Out. This is one of my favorite Austin-isms. Instead of saying that something is inside-out. You say that it is "outside-in." I will ask you to go get dressed and you will come out and say, "Mom, can you help me with this shirt. It is "outside-in." I don't correct you because I absolutely love hearing you say it wrong. Well, the other day, I was watching the news and there was a news story about something being "inside out." You laughed out loud. You kept saying, "Inside out? What in the world does that mean? That is the funniest thing I have ever heard. Inside out.... Inside out..." I didn't tell you the truth because I don't want you to stop saying it like you do - "outside in."

New words that we have just started noticing you use this week:

- If I ask you a yes or no question, you always say "yes, indeed!" instead of just yes!

- This morning you started using the word "suspect." We were working on your train table and you said, "Mom, I suspect that you are going to need some more straight pieces."

When you use new words like this, Austin, I typically laugh out loud and say, "Austin, where in the world did you learn that word?" You catch me off guard! You typically shrug your shoulders and say, "I don't know, mom. I don't know where I learned that word." OR... you mention a cartoon that I recently allowed you to watch in order to get some personal time for myself and suddenly I no longer have mommy guilt about placing you in front of the tv on occasion. So, thanks for having such a great memory.

I love you, and I want you to know how precious and precocious you were at three!

Mommy