Julian I can't get enough of your cuteness

So it was Elmo Lost His Blanket book this morning, as getting up and reading a book is becoming routine now. This is a flap book and surprisingly now he is really good about not tearing them. Another sign that he's getting older! Sometimes he asks my help to lift them but then I realize that where he is pointing there is no flap.

Today was a day that I continued to be impressed and even stunned by what Julian is saying and what he has learned. I remember a few of them. After breakfast he was pointing to my shirt designs and this is the shirt which has circles on it and every other circle has a sparkly stone. I didn't realize that my little routine I do was sinking in. So he pointed to the circle that didn't have a sparkly and he says "no sparkly" which was a little hard to make out, but then he points to a circle with a sparkle and says "sparkly". He did this a couple times and I was stunned that he could differentiate between the two little designs like that. I've said that to him many times but had no idea he was picking it up. Later in the afternoon, I went to our garage freezer which is down a couple steps so Julian was standing above me and as I turned toward him he began a little mini lecture in Julian speak replete with pointing gestures, then changing his stance, then putting his hands together and apart. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Lanty was around so he got to witness it too. After we got groceries he saw me holding the graham crackers and again it was a little hard to make out but he actually said "graham cracker?", his way of telling me he wants one. I was impressed that he knows the difference between the animal crackers I give him regularly and the graham crackers which he gets less frequest. He could just ask for cracker but he is starting to combine words now. Later when we were getting coats on he says "churchy?" which is how I say church and yet I hadn't told him we were going to church. So again more signs of him growing and developing but seemed like a lot to me for one day.

Today I was reading 1Samuel 22. David continues to be pursued by Saul. Saul finds out that the priest Ahimelech helped out David by giving him a sword and supplies and he is so furious that not only does he have Ahimelech killed, but all 80+ sons too (only 1 escaped) and these men were beloved priests of the Lord. Such a vile thing that Saul had done. Again it speaks of how hardened his heart had become in his anger and jealousy of David. Even his own guards disobeyed his command to kill the priests, he had to get another (Doeg) to do it. Beth Moore notes David's response to this horror. He takes a stand for God and reminds himself that God is not responsible for destruction. That God repays evil and placed his hope solely in God.

Lanty and I had some time to ourselves today to catch up. We have realized that it has been hard to keep our marriage relationship a priority so we are making time every week to debrief and check in. Our goal is to be accountability partners for each other. Sharing what some of our challenges or struggles have been personally or with each other and then checking in with one another to see how that has been going. We also want time to confess and pray for our marriage and parenting of Julian. We have realized that if we don't have this open line of communication things can build up and then we end up dealing with resentment or bitterness. This was a good time to unload a little bit and then pray about it.

Tonight was bath time for Julian and I don't think I have ever seen him do this. He actually laid down on the changing pad so I could get him ready for his bath! He loves bath time and playing with his bath toys; his seahorse, walrus, hippo, Nemo fish and also coloring on the walls with his washable crayons. Tonight was the first night he'd draw a little circle/scribble and point to it and say "fire truck" to which I, of course, say what a nice fire truck!