Laughing with your 2-year-old is such a gift

This morning was different. It was a really mixed morning. Part of the time, J seemed prone to cry super easy like when he'd ask for something and I'd say no. But then we'd get into these periods of silliness with each other and we couldn't stop laughing. We had been playing his leap frog phonics letters and I started singing the letter song with my nose plugged. J just loved it! He tried doing it then and we'd just crack up. Or he was making clucking noises with his tongue while driving his little car on the furniture and I started clucking back and it just made him laugh which got me laughing. He also had to see the marching elephants from Jungle Book several times (2 frames from the movie). I decided not to do the library story time today. We were out yesterday most of the day and then tomorrow to Sunday we're going camping PLUS it was a nice rainy day which is perfect for staying in. We had fun doing Tot School. Our focus was on the alphabet. As you see in the post, he wasn't that keen on lining up the blocks in ABC order. I tried explaining Tot School and then he did a little more saying "I'm doing Tot School mommy." I liked watching him play with his little people. He lined them up on the couch and put a couple in a car. Then he'd make up a story about where they were going and what they were doing. He got upset about something and then says "I need a nap mommy" which I knew was near so he willingly went upstairs with me so I could lay him down. We read a story from his Jesus Storybook Bible about God giving Moses the 10 commandments.

He ended up taking a 3 hour nap so I was able to have time alone with the Lord and also time on the computer and a little reading. In my time with the Lord, the focus was from Phillipians 3:4-6 Paul having no "confidence in the flesh". I notice Beth Moore (I'm reading To Live is Christ) is using his early name Saul so that's how I will refer to him for now. She is talking about the influences upon Saul's life growing up like the Pharisees. The word Pharisee was meant to represent genuine piety and deep devotion to God. In the days of Jesus and Saul, the term had become synonymous with hypocrisy and cynicism. See Matthew 23 where Jesus addresses the teachers of the law and Pharisees. Beth underscores the need for loving God, being loved by God coupled with obedience. Without the love, we are just trying to be good. Saul fell into the pitfall of the Pharisees trying to live out the law faultlessly; not out of love for God but to follow the letter of the law. Saul's heart begins to turn away. She refers to Isaiah 29:13,
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
I pray that I would never fall into that trap! It's so lifeless and empty. I find the more I become aware of God's love and majesty, really letting that in, the more I desire to follow him and his ways. Not just following a set of rules because I want to be a "good Christian" or something. This was really good to think about.

The first thing J wanted to do after his nap was see the marching elephants again. Daddy had just come home so right away he joins us marching around the living room. It was cute. J was asking for muffins for dinner and when I told him we were eating as a family mommy's tuna casserole he started a cry which I thought could be a melt down and then he just stopped. He would only eat a few bites though and then said he was all done. Even after sitting there a while he didn't eat anything more. After dinner, we stopped at the library where I had some holds come in. Then we stopped at a friend's house to pick up song books. We're going camping at Devil's Lake in Baraboo this weekend and L is bringing his (borrowed) guitar. She has a real fondness for J and he let her hold him and he sat on her lap while she read a couple books. Once home, it was time for a bath and then bedtime. It was nice, he went up without much ado and enjoyed the bath (except for getting his head wet). Then he wanted Daddy and he came to read a book or two.