"Dada new beeg car"

After two and a half years as a single car family, we finally have a second ride again.

And all God's people said ...

AMEN.

That alone wouldn't really constitute a post, but this sweet little story does:

We've prayed for several months that God would show us the right car and the right time to buy it, so as soon as Jeremy pulled the trigger (last Friday), we thanked God for His answer to our prayer. Yesterday, before we took our first ride as a family of four in the new car, I said to Jones, "Who gave us that car?" He looked a little confused and then answered a somewhat tentative, "We praaaayyyeed." "Yes, but Who answered our prayer and gave it to us?" "GOD!" he said.

Then we went outside to load up. Jones looked at it and said, "Dat preety, Dada new beeg car" (everything that isn't a Hot Wheel is a "beeg car," but SeaSea's double decker conversion van is the "beegest" of all).

For his part, Freddie kept calling it "MY car." I don't think Dada will be down with that, given how long he's been waiting for wheels of his own.

Our first ride was to Cataloochee Ranch.

I love it there, and since they usually hit peak fall color a little earlier than we do, we thought it'd be a good time to see some leaves. It was. It was also a good time for Jones to run around saying he was looking for treasure. I called him "Jake," as in "the Neverland Pirates," and he said, "I no Jake. I just JoJo." Then, he referred to me as "Mama Pi-ut," which I love as much as when he calls me "Mama Pehpees."

When it was time to leave, we drove around the grounds to look for horses. We saw several on a hillside, and when he saw them, Jones said, "Day hoosies (they horses)! Mama, take a cheese!" I'm assuming he means I should take a picture, and the "cheese" comes from all the times I tell him to say it when I want him to smile for the camera. I have a feeling this is one of those phrases that will become part of the Pressley Lexicon:

"Mama, take a cheese!"

On the drive home, Freddie asked to hold my hand: "HEEN!" he'll say from the backseat. If I'm in the passenger seat, I typically reach back and do as he asks. Well, yesterday, he took my left hand in his right one and started patting it with his left hand. He then held my hand up to his cheek and started very tenderly rubbing it on his face. That action alone made up for the less-than-comfortable position I had to contort myself into in order to hold his "heen" in the first place.

This was the scene when Jones asked me to
"take a cheese!"