Birthday and Bats and Blah Blah Blah

So Jonathan turned two yesterday. Two! It seems like he's been two for a while now, and not much about him seemed much different than the day before. Although I am realizing that I will have to do some potty-training in the next few months, the thought of which surprisingly brings very little emotion. I remember dreading it with Benjamin, being amazed at how early I was doing it with Lily (she insisting on climbing on the potty and going - backwards - at 18 mos.), and laughing at how easy it was to do with Abraham and Miriam (appoint Ben and Lily as personal coaches and reward the pee-er AND the coach for success). I don't even remember doing it with Eden, but she is potty-trained, so I know it happened.




Anyway, Jonathan's two. His favorite thing to say right now is, "I DIDN'T" even when he did or when he was supposed to ... as in, "Jonathan, stay in bed." "I DIDN'T."

Or the time he came to the door of Ethan's study with brown and green marker all over his face and hands, looked at his hands, looked at us, and said, "I DIDN'T." The marks on his face begged to differ. Ethan held him up to a mirror, where he blanched, paused, and then reiterated, "I DIDN'T."

He's a silly little guy. He has a really advanced sense of humor (which means he thinks I'm funny) and rarely (read: never) takes me seriously. We enjoy hearing his chatter and spot-on mimicry of the other children. And he has this strange ant fascination. He will drop to the ground to watch an ant closely, and when I hear him crying only to find an ant biting his arm and then go to help remove the ant and squish it, I am rewarded by a, "No, Mama! Bad Mama! Bad Mama!"




In other news, we moved out of the large upper (air-conditioned) conference room because there was a conference last week, and we are now staying in a cabin. And I am so glad, because thirty to forty bats have decided to inhabit the Upper Room. Their numbers are diminishing, though, due to the combined efforts of Kenley the Caretaker, Ethan, and a Large Rat Snake. The last left a slimy pile of fur and bat wings surrounded in foam on the floor of the Upper Room. Ethan used this as an excuse to throw in an extra science lesson for the kids, and I used this as an excuse to GET THE REST OF OUR STUFF OUT OF THERE PRONTO HURRY UP AND SHAKE IT ALL HARD!!!

Ewwww.

And the last news is that we are working with a new lender who looks a little more promising. We've turned in the conditions they've requested, and we should know in the next few days whether they say go ... or no.

And that's all for tonight.