March news

Matt got back from his India trip safe and sound, but very tired from his travels. He spent most of his time on the campus of the Hindustan Bible Institute, which educates and trains Indian Christians on how to spread the Gospel throughout the Hindu population. He said that most Hindus believe in God and Jesus, and affirm His healing powers, but see Him as merely one god of many. Matt described the faith of the Indian Christians as such to make even devout Americans look heathen. He also said he has never seen so many people crammed on top of each other in his life. Chennai has 12 million people and is geographically much smaller than Houston. The average household has 5 children, most of whom live in absolute poverty. Here is a picture of a bathroom at a public school they went to visit:

This was in the city. They don’t even have toilet paper – they use a cup to dip water out of the bucket to “rinse” off.

We are very thankful he is home again. Ryan especially missed his Daddy – he saw pictures at my mom’s house and our house and would just say, “Dada, Dada” over and over. It was very sad.

I survived just fine while he was gone. I was home for a few days, then took the kids to see Matt’s mom at Thousand Trails Lake Whitney, where they were camping for Spring Break in a trailer. We only stayed two nights, but that was enough – I hadn’t packed much warm clothing for them, so the unexpected cold fronts were not pleasant. And poor Ryan isn’t quite ready for camping. He fell off the beds in the trailer a lot, fell in the rocks, got sand in his mouth and eyes, didn’t want to hold my hand ANYWHERE, and woke up the whole trailer every morning since he doensn’t know how to be quiet. Addie was running a fairly high fever the whole time we were there, and she wasn’t up for doing much. She slept fitfully at night, and didn’t nap during the day. We left after two days and drove up to see my mom in Dallas. Friday we went to the Arboretum and had a great time letting the kids run everywhere in the flowers. Saturday morning was cold and moldy, so we stayed in and then went out shopping later to get some new summer clothes for Addison. She also got a Princess roll-along suitcase. I figured it was time for her to have her own bag/suitcase for overnight trips. She LOVES it and so far has filled it with many animals that she wheels around. Ryan even took his socks off, put them in the suitcase, and started pulling it, saying, “Bye bye, Mama!” Sunday morning we woke up to …..SNOW!! It was icy cold. We bundled the kids up in whatever we could find, and went out for a grand total of three minutes. Addie threw a snow ball and attempted a snow angel, but then started crying about wanting to wash her hands. Ryan kept pulling his hat off, then started crying while staring at his frozen hands. He was so cold! We went straight in and had hot cocoa.

Ryan has been picking up words like crazy. Just this morning he learned, “Hey!” They are not always understandable, but he’s getting them with very few repetitions. I’m still getting used to the differences between him and Addison when she was his age. His slower verbal development makes me think he’s younger than he is, but he very obviously understands a lot. When I asked Addie if she was going exploring, Ryan immediately piped up with, “Dora? Dora?” He will say “Dora” all day. He has started to attach to his blankets. Oh, and he calls Addison DeeDee. She fussed about it at first, saying her her name was NOT DeeDee. So I told her that was just his name for her since he couldn’t say Addison. I told her that we could start calling him Ryan instead of Baby, since that wasn’t his name, and she said, “Yeah, but Baby is my name for him.” So we have DeeDee and Baby. He looks for her and calls her when he can’t see her. But man oh man, he has learned quick how to take care of himself. He’ll snatch a toy and run as fast as he can to a corner, then screech and scream and wave his arms and stomp his feet if you come near to try to get the toy back. He’s also started the lovely phase of “going boneless”, where the legs turn to jello and he flops on the floor about to crack his skull when he’s mad. I kept him by himself for a day while Matt’s sister took Addie and my nephew overnight to the farm. I took Ryan to the library for story time, which he’s never gone to, and it was SO different than with Addie. He wanted to stay in my lap most of the time. Addison would have been on the floor with the other kids. He stood a little, clinging to my leg, while they did the Hokey Pokey. Addie wouldn’t have been the first kid to dance, but she would have been the third or fourth. He is not as easy for me to read – I don’t know what he’s thinking a lot of the time, while it seemed like I could see Addie’s whole thought process unfold on her face. I don’t understand what sets him off, or what might draw his interest. Could be because I haven’t had the time to study him and get to know him by himself like I did with Addison, or could be because he’s a boy, or maybe it’s because he just has a different personality. However, I know that when Addie starts school, I’ll have two years at home with just him as a 3-4 year old.

My guy!

My brother and sis-in-law and niece Sarah are coming next week to visit. Sarah is 3 weeks younger than Ryan, and about half his size! I haven’t seen her since she was about 8 months old, so I am dying to hold her and see what kind of cutie she is. Addison will probably have a great time with her too.