Daddy has a hippo.

Russ has been sick with a really bad head cold. He was sick in bed most of the day on Saturday. Jaylee kept asking where “Russ” was. Yes - she calls us Russ and Kel. Sometimes we are Mommy and Daddy, and sometimes we are Russ and Kel. It is so funny how upset other people get when they hear this. I have had friends say things under their breath about it. I love that she does it. She is just pretending to be one of us. She hears us call each other that, so she does too. It has gone up a notch. Since I have started babysitting a little girl named Riley who calls Russ “Uncle Russ”; now sometimes Daddy is referred to as Uncle Russ by Jaylee. This is really going to start confusing people, who don’t know us very well!

So all day Saturday I kept telling Jaylee that Daddy was sick with a bad head cold. She helped me bring him soup and crackers. At one point she was playing pretend with her Elmo doll. She started telling Elmo that Daddy was really, really sick. Elmo asked what was wrong with him and Jaylee exclaimed that Daddy was sick with a hippo. Headcold, hippo....I can kind of see it. I wish I had it on film. That will always be engraved into my memory. I can still hear her little voice saying it with such sympathy; like he had some incurable hippo disease.

We started putting Marshall in his walker lately. He has totally mastered the whole crawling thing 100%. But he isn’t satisfied with it. He wants to be upright and mobile like his sister. He gets so frustrated when he finally makes it into the same room that Jaylee is in. By the time he gets there and starts playing she leaves. And he gets so mad. The walker makes it so much easier for him to keep up with her. She runs and he runs right behind her in it. Jaylee even hitches a ride on the back and he is so strong that he can take her from room to room.

He isn’t always the most polite driver though. He crashes into your heel with such force that it brings tears to your eyes. The dogs and Jaylee run in terror trying to salvage their feet from being run over. And if you have food, forget it! He rams you over and over until you share.

Marshall and his love of food are amazing to me. He stared at the Thanksgiving spread in such awe. I swear he had a tear in his eye. He tried and liked everything. Even the pickled beets! He was such a mess afterwards.

Lately I have definitely learned the power of living in the “now”. Stop worrying about the future and stop thinking about the past. Stay in the now. That is all that matters. Now is when these little moments happen. That is how children and animals live their lives, and that is why they don’t have a worry in the world. If you start looking at things in a new light you will see that life is good!


Peace and love....