Who is the Rock?

When Gabriel was four years old he was going to be in a special children’s program at church. The title was “Who is the Rock”

I helped out with some video for it. We were asking the kids different questions about building their house. What should your foundation be like? And so forth…

The program is about the parable of the man who builds his house on the rock and the man who builds his house on the sand.

I was prepping Gabe for the answers for his turn on the video. And after much discussion and debate I decided he's just much too literal of a guy. I asked him, "what do we build our house on?"

He answers, "my train table."

I kept at it because that isn’t quite the answer we were looking for.

"No, WHO do we build our house on? Jesus, right?"

Gabe very seriously corrected me, "No, we don't! Jesus would get hurt! We do it on the train table!"

Chocolate

For my daughter's 5th birthday I brought her to JCPenny's portrait studio for some pictures. She looked like an angel.

I also brought my 3 year old son along with me. It had been a very long wait and the kids were both getting bored. You never know what might come out of their mouths in those moments.

I was due to have my third child in about a month so Gabriel was very excited and very interested in little babies.

While we are waiting, a black family walked in. They had an adorable little baby just a couple weeks old. Gabe wanted to reach out and touch. I was able to stop him from doing that, but I couldn't control what came out of his mouth.

He had great amazement on his face, and took his time with each word, “LOOK! IT'S A CHOCOLATE BABY!”

The parents loved it and didn't mind one bit about Gabe's reference.

Beautiful

When my son, Gabriel, was three years old we were shopping at Wal-Mart trying to come up with a last minute anniversary gift. We stopped to look at the movie bin.

Gabe was showing quite a bit of interest in all of the movies but stopped suddenly when a women in a wheelchair went by.

She looked a little different than most people and he said very loudly for all to hear, “Look at her, Mommy!”

I hung my head, trying to hide a little, certain that Gabriel was about to embarrass me.

The lady made it several feet away by now and I’m just praying that he forgets what he’s about to say. He goes on to complete his statement, “She’s beautiful!”

Immediately tears come to my eyes at the sweetness of my son. The woman stopped her wheelchair, turned around and with great appreciation in her own eyes said a heartfelt, “thank you.”

I know he made her day!

Hospital

Shortly after my son, Gabriel, was born, my daughter, Ariel, who is 2 and a half years older, struggled with the attention her new baby brother was getting.

One day, she climbed into bed with me, played around a little bit, and then very seriously said, “Mommy, we need to bring Gabriel back to the hospital.”

I was speechless. I didn’t think she even remembered bringing him home.

After a little bit she tried to convince me, “we’ve played with him for a long time.”

I then explained to her,”we don’t want to give Gabriel to the hospital. I like him.”

She wrinkled up her nose a bit and said, “I don’t want him anymore, Mommy.” That seemed to settle it for her.

So I explained that we also took her home from the hospital and did she think we should take her back too?

Very defensively, “I’m a beautiful girl, Mommy.”

I assured her that yes, she was very beautiful and it would make me very sad if I ever had to bring my Ariel or Gabriel back to the hospital. I told her I would be crying and saying, “Titus, I want Ariel and Gabriel.”

And she jumped right in and said, “yeah… cause I can feed myself and dress myself.”

That settled it. Nobody would be making a trip back to the hospital.

Halloween

When I was growing up I never went trick-or-treating. We always had a fall party instead. We would get candy and caramel popcorn, apples and dip, and watch movies all night. The tradition has stuck with me into my adulthood.

Now that I have my own kids we still don't celebrate Halloween. We have a fall party, eat special foods, and watch movies together snuggling under a big blanket. It's fun family time.

During this season, we are in the minority. For the past couple weeks, my youngest has been asked over and over again, "What are you going to be for Halloween?"

At first he had no idea what they were talking about. But after having the same conversation many different times, he would answer, "Nothin."

That was always acknowledged with great confusion. It seemed foreign to many people that we wouldn't be dressing up for Halloween. They would often look to me the parent, and ask, "What is he going to be?"

I always very politely responded, "We don't celebrate Halloween." The conversation would quickly be dropped, some would even apologize afraid they had offended me by asking.

I have never been offended by the question. They were giving my child special attention, and I've always appreciated their courtesy.

On Halloween, we were waiting in line for lunch at Chipotle when a gentleman asked both my boys in excitement, "What are you going to be for Halloween today?"

My oldest responded with the most pleasant voice, "We don't celebrate."

My youngest, however, got a little attitude to him and with both hands on his hips, in a loud somewhat arrogant voice, "Yeah! We don't DECORATE!!"

If I wasn't so humiliated by his rudeness, I might have laughed out loud.

Milk

When my daughter, Ariel, was two and a half, we welcomed our second child to the family, a baby boy named, Gabriel. We brought him home from the hospital and right away Ariel loved him.

The first day home she learned about breastfeeding. I was snuggled up on the couch with Gabriel feeding him, and Ariel wanted to know what was going on.

I explained to her that he was drinking milk, and she said she was thirsty too, and wanted a drink of milk. I sent her into the kitchen to find her dad so he could get her a cup.

Titus picked her up and immediately Ariel pulled up his shirt, leaned down and tried to nurse from him.

It didn’t work...