Preschool is done.  MOPS is done.  I have sort of temporarily freaked out now that there is pretty much no routine.  I’m not used to not having somewhere to be at a certain time.  A regular activity for fourteen of the twenty weekdays in a normal month.  In the midst of the transition, like the slow shift of the tide, I feel like both of my boys’ personalities are changing.  They are getting stronger.

Carter is becoming more of a homebody–this I am not used to.  He doesn’t like to go out much anymore. . . says no to a lot of suggestions of places we might go (except the zoo, which he always says yes to).  He often asks to go back home again.  When we go places with friends, he hasn’t been interacting as much.  Prefers to hang out in the stroller–which is incredibly strange.  But then when he’s out of the stroller, he wanders like none other.  At home, he likes to play alone–likes to sit and look through books.  Plays the same activities daily–marbles, superhero guys, pirate.  He is like a broken record, and will repeat the same phrase over and over–literally twenty times, until I give him a stern talking to, which usually ends in tears.  He talks so well though–sure, sometimes he’s hard to understand (what twenty-seven month old isn’t?). . . but he talks in full sentences.  Nine or ten words at a time.  He answers questions in complete phrases, using because and but and I and all the right joining words.  He knows almost all of his letters, and some of their sounds.

Brayden is becoming more social, exactly the opposite of his brother, and I thought it would be impossible for him to become more social than he already was.  He struggles terribly when we are home with no friends and “nothing to do”.  His need for physical touch is more than I am used to–his love languages are incredibly apparent.  Quality time and physical touch.  He comments frequently that we should do more things with him. . . but this is even at a times when, like the other day, I was building a marble run with them for about fifteen minutes and he asked why I wasn’t playing with him.  Apparently, the physical act of putting the marbles in the marble run and watching them was playing with him, but building the actual set was not.  He likes to be touching me at all times–holding my hand, touching my head, sitting directly next to me, squishing me on the couch, hugging me and telling me he loves me fourteen times a day.  He’s becoming a bit more provoking with Carter. . . messing things up on purpose, taking toys that he knows Carter wants to play with.  I’m not used to this.  But one thing is for certain. . . he’s a very obedient boy.  We normally do not ever have to tell him to do something twice, which is incredible.  And a blessing.

And one more thing.  A couple weeks ago, Brayden “asked Jesus into his heart.”  He believes in God, and he wants to go to heaven.  What an incredible thing to rejoice in.  We made him a cake to celebrate.  If you asked him what he said on the day he asked Jesus into his heart, he will tell you I asked God to come into my heart, but I told him not to take me up yet.