Today's Top Ten

I'm assuaging the guilt I feel for not yet writing a Christmas post by writing a totally random post full of  morsels that are completely unrelated to the holidays.

1) A few weeks ago, Jones started wanting to pray for himself - at every meal, at every bedtime, whenever we pray, Jones wants to be the one to do it, which I think is awesome. Generally, when we say it's time to pray, he'll just start praying. Then, afterwards, he'll say, "I pray. Not you pray. I pray."

Like Camden, who prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank You that I'm strong, and I run fast, and I have toys" from the age of two until about five, Jones says the same thing every time, but most of it is indistinguishable. "Dear Jesus, blahblahblah get ready, blahblahblah get ready, blahablahblah get ready. A-men."

Not surprisingly, Freddie is now wanting to pray all the time, too - "I pay. I pay," he says. Like Jones, his prayers are also indistinguishable, but they are easier to transcribe, "Dee dee dee dee dee A-nan." This means that meal times often involve three prayers - Daddy's (or mine, if he's not home), Jones's, and Freddie's, after which I always tell them, "God loves it when you talk to Him!" just so they'll always know that, and then I silently pray myself and ask God that they would ALWAYS want to talk to Him.

When I leave his room, Freddie will inevitably keep saying, "I pay. I pay!" and I'll tell him, "You can keep praying as long as you want even when I'm not in the room."

2) Jones has started saying, "Yo-ho, let's goooooooo!" whenever we go somewhere - or when he walks from his playroom to his bedroom or when he's riding in the car buggy at Food Lion and is ready to move to the next aisle. I completely LOVE that he does this - quoting Jake and the Neverland Pirates, of which he hasn't really been a fan since very early on - because it's the first time I've heard a definite Southern accent, and I think Southern boys SHOULD announce their special heritage by the way that they talk, so it thrills me to hear that Jones Pressley does.

Here's an example from sitting in the car at The Pressley Group yesterday.  You can also hear it spontaneously come up in another video in this post, too (in that video, Freddie tries it, too). I should add here that he always winds his arm up like Jake does when he says it.

I'm sure I'd say the same thing about girls if I had a daughter, but I just can't imagine anything in the world that's better than little boys.



3) The boys got multiple guitars for Christmas this year. Yesterday, Jones wanted to play with the one Freddie got from his Nan. I showed him how to turn it on, and he immediately started singing, "Bullseye," which is on the Riders in the Sky CD of music inspired by "Toy Story." The boys and I listen to this in the car a lot, but I was amazed with how well he'd picked up the lyrics. There I go underestimating him again!

"Bullseye, my pony! Bullseye, my prize! Bullseye, mi amigo ..."



4) The architects came to take measurements for our remodel (there aren't enough exclamation points in America to express my excitement about this). While they did, the boys and I sequestered ourselves in the den. Insanity - and photography - ensued (also, the fact that my boys are wearing shorts,          t-shirts, and sandals the week of New Years' is the best Christmas gift I've ever been given).

Jeremy didn't think they'd use those bean bag chairs,
but every morning, they are the first thing the boys
pull out - the "Wildcat peel-ow" and the "Tarheel peel-ow."

Bulls-eye was a total Christmas Eve impulse buy,
but he's made a GREAT addition to the menagerie.
The boys LOVE him - and so do Jeremy and I. We
both recline on the little buckaroo!

"Mr. Sun, Sun! Mr. Golden Sun,
please shine down on me!"

5) When Freddie pitches a fit, as soon as I say, "Okay. We're going to your room," he will IMMEDIATELY shut up and say, "I 'kay. I 'kay." It's kind of ridiculous how adorable it is ... and just as ridiculous how quickly he turns the waterworks on and off.

6) A couple of weeks ago, I was singing to Freddie before bed when he all of a sudden

put his lips on my left cheek. He blew on it and then came to the middle and said, "Zerbert." Then he went to the right side, pressed his lips on my cheek, blew, came back to the middle and said, "Zerbert." He did this MULTIPLE times - going from one side to the other, proudly saying, "Zerbert" in between blows. I didn't even know he knew that word! We use it with Jones, but Freddie had never said it himself, so for him to randomly use it, interrupting me as I sang, was hilarious. He still does this some - though not every nite - and I love it.

Along these lines, the other day, I was laying on the couch. Freddie was standing between me and the back of it. He tooted. When he did, he immediately looked at me and said, "I zerbert!"

7) Freddie calls pizza "putz-a."

8) I'm sitting in the den right now, watching Freddie play and steal the "gapes" (grapes) that a still-napping Jones didn't finish this morning. He just walked one over to Bullseye and gave him one. Thomas Frederick Pressley is a special kind of precious. 

9) Jones's potty train totally stalled out, because of my complete lack of commitment to it. He wasn't interested in GOING in the potty (though he loved SITTING on it), and I wasn't in the mood to force it yet. Well, turns out that may have been providential (OF COURSE, it was providential). Out of nowhere, Freddie has started telling me as soon as he's "wet" (after which, he'll crinkle his nose and say, "yuh-yuck!") or "'tinky winky." Yesterday, he kept wanting to go sit on the big potty in my bathroom, and overnight, he stayed dry for the first time, so it looks like I'm going to get to train them both at the same time, which I've, deep down, assumed would happen all along. 

Freddie's readiness definitely seems to be God's answer to my longstanding prayer about timing of training, so BOTH Pressley boys are about to begin potty training bootcamp, and I'm going to start thinking of ways to spend the extra $120 / month we won't be spending on diapers!

My prediction is that Freddie will be a lot easier to train than Jones will be, but maybe Freddie's willingness to train will inspire Jones to follow suit? 

Here's hoping!

10) Finally, here's one more rendition of "Away in a Manger," mostly because I cannot believe how my boy is starting to sing along with things and also because "Da weetle Ward Jesus ..." is about to kill me from its cuteness. This "singing-along" thing means big changes for our Hymns of the Month starting in January - but that's a post for another day ... like, after I write the Christmas post I have GOT to sit down and do!