Reasons Why I Love This Child...

Some of you may remember that this is my youngest child...Mr. Funny.

You can clearly see why I call him Mr. Funny...he didn't get his resemblance to Groucho Marx from me.

I decided to do a little post about each one of my children, because I haven't posted about them recently and I miss them due to the fact that I see them for about 30 min a day now.

So here is my Top 5 Reasons that: I LOVE MR. FUNNY

5. He "pants" his 12 yr brother on the playground today and when I asked him why he did it he said, "Because the girls told me to...You have to do what girls tell you to Mom".

4. He can recite almost every commercial he has ever seen and finds a way to insert them into almost every conversation he has...today's commercial was for mouthwash. As he breathed onto his father's face to prove that he had indeed brushed his teeth before bed, he says "Freshens your breath while it kills germs!"

3. Last week we broke in the new fire pit by having a weenie roast for dinner. Mr. Funny slaughtered everyone else with the number of weenie jokes he came up with(it was an obscene amount of weenie jokes overall)...and covered his mouth and giggled at every-single-one-of them.

2. Every Sunday morning when I emerge from my bedroom after getting ready for church he gasps loudly and says "You are beautiful, Mama!"

and the #1 reason why I love Mr. Funny:
...every time I look at him my heart swells and I get a lump in my chest that makes me want to stop time right now while he's still small enough to crawl up in my lap and keep him like this forever :)

Dear Mom.....

I should be asleep. It's after 2 AM, and I actually have plans to go into work early in the morning instead of in the afternoon because of Hubby's ongoing medical issue. I should be asleep, but I can't.

I'm thinking of my mother. She passed away 4 years ago, as of May 30th. Normally, I spend that day thinking of her, talking about her, remembering, reminiscing, and generally wallowing. This year my life had been so crazy that I didn't acknowledge it at all. I didn't have the luxury of wallowing. I didn't have time to reminisce. I didn't have anyone to talk to about her. I feel like I pushed her memory away because I didn't have time. I want to acknowledge her. It may seem too personal a thing to post, but I want to share it with my friends. This is my acknowledgment:

Dear Mom,
It has been 4 years already. Does time pass in heaven the same as for us? Probably not. How is Daddy? I miss you both so much that it's physically hard to breathe sometimes. I have so much that I would want to talk to you about. So many times I wished there were phones in heaven! What it would be like to be able to pick up the phone and ask your advice or to hear you laugh again. I hear your voice all the time...you're still telling me what to do. That's what makes you such a great mom, even death couldn't make you keep your opinion to yourself. I wish you could see the boys. I know you both would be so proud of them. The Quiet One is turning 15 this year...can you believe that?? He's studying to get his permit. God help all of us. I can't send that child across the grocery store and have him bring back the brand of peanut butter I asked for and I'm supposed to be giving him my car keys in three weeks?? I don't think it's going to happen. I don't know how you and Daddy survived my teen years. Honestly, he's such a better (more obedient) kid than I was...if I had been you, I'd be dead right now!

The Mouth has become the one that I have to keep my eye on. He turns 11 on Saturday and last week at the river he was being accompanied around the park by a high school freshman...a cheerleader no less. I'm not ready for all that. These little girls are going to have to give this mom a break. You'd be surprised though. He's a more responsible little person than he should be. I regularly give him tasks before I give them to his brother, because he is so dependable. He gets that ethic from you.

The Sweet One has your smile....big as the sky and wide as the ocean. Smiley Smiler Smilington, that's what I call him. He's so smart, Mom. He scares me a little and I sometimes catch myself intentionally holding back certain things to teach him because I know he would grasp it and I'm not ready for that. I want him to stay young and innocent. If I pushed he would probably be at least a year or two ahead in our homeschooling but I am so content with these simple days. I hope that's not wrong of me, to want his youth to last forever. I suppose moms are all the same, aren't they? I don't want the days of cuddling and giggling to stop and I somehow think that if he becomes too "brainy" it would. Maybe that's wrong of me. I want days filled with playing in the sprinkler and marveling at the bean plant we are growing on the kitchen window sill to last forever. I know that they won't, but I certainly am not doing anything to slow them down.

You would be so proud of Hubby, Mom. He's been so faithful to God. I'm so grateful that you got to see him come to know his Saviour before you left. Being the only Christian in his family has been hard on him. He doesn't see them much and when he does, there is always ridicule, but he has stayed the course. You knew that he would. But, he has found a wonderful family in our church friends. Real men that value him and point him in the right direction. He's been a wonderful husband and father because of it. He's been sick, Mom, and I'm scared. It's nothing really that bad, it's just the nature of it has weakened him and made him need me more. I wonder if I am enough.

I am working again. I am incessantly tired, but I think of you. I think of the double shifts and the swollen feet you endured for us and I plug along. My life now is so blessed compared to what you had when we were small that I dare not complain. I know how much worse it can be because I was raised in worse. Worse was our neighborhood. I am going back to school. I know that would make you happy. You always said I made a better student than anything else I ever tried to do. I guess you were right...professional student it is. I'm getting baptized. I wish you could be here.

So much time has passed, and I know that all we have between us is time, but I miss you. I miss your crazy laugh, your big warm hugs, your ability to kick my butt when I needed it, the help you always gave with the boys without me even having to ask (you don't know how much I took that for granted), I miss coffee-time, Patrick Swayze Movie Night, and your potato soup. I think what I miss the most is your face. I know you don't want for anything anymore and your not in any pain, but I wonder if you miss me too. It's hard to explain to people who still have their mothers how deeply it hurts. You knew me. The me no one else saw, the stories that even I don't remember. You took them all with you when you left.

I can't wait to see you again. For my sake, I hope that is a very, very, VERY long time. Tell everyone hello for me...I miss them too.
Love,
Mellie

Thank you friends, for letting me share that piece of myself with you. You are appreciated greatly.