it's the small things

Clean Teeth
When it's time to brush teeth, Vaughn is very willing because he knows he gets to say hi to all three of his friends, "Choo Choo, Melmo, and Babies". Interpretation: He has three different toothpaste tubes (don't ask!) which are Thomas the Train, Elmo and Fruity Animals. Once his friends come out, he gets to choose one to help him brush his teeth and then this is where it gets tricky. He typically clenches his jaw shut or keeps trying to grab the toothbrush out of my hand. For the past week, we have found a solution in which he's the one that chooses to do this - he lays on the floor while I brush his teeth. It's definitely a weird site, but I'm just excited it works!

Grammy
Grammy is here visiting from Pennsylvania. Vaughn has sort of said her name, but has definitely struggled with it until now because he has adapted it to Vaughn language. For now, Grammy is now Mammy and it's the cutest thing ever. Last night after I got home, I asked him what he did because he got to spend the day with Mammy and Molly. I said, "Did you dance?" And he responded by dancing. Then I asked, "Did you sing?" His response was belting out, "Mammyeeeeeeeee" in song. Priceless!

Prayer
We have a well-established bedtime routine. Our last thing we did was pray, but that was causing rebellion so we decided to switch that as the first thing we did. Last night, we jumped right into reading then songs and totally skipped prayer. After our last song, Patty Cake, Vaughn turned out the lights and wanted to be rocked. He has never been a baby who likes to be rocked, but sure loves it now and so do I.

The lights were off, the waves were rolling in the distance (thanks to a sound machine), and Vaughn and I sat together, heart to heart, while rocking back and forth. I began to whisper a prayer to Jesus with Vaughn's face next to mine. After almost every sentence or two, Vaughn responded in a hushed voice, "yes." I think at one time he even whispered, "Jesus." These are moments I just live for.
"And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." ~Matthew 18:3-5

Mommy
For a while when Vaughn first started to say words, I was Mom. Just plain mom. For the past four or five months, I have been, "momma" and just love it. This morning after dropping Vaughn off at Preschool as I always do, I told Vaughn bye and that I love him. Typically, I'm totally ignored as he plays with all his (much cooler than me) mom. But this time, he responded with, "Bye, Momma,"then proceeded to blow me a kiss all without any prompting. I have such a sweet boy.