Sweet Sundays

Earlier this afternoon....
I love Sunday afternoons.

Church is out at noon and the rest of the day is ours.

It's our family practice to make this a family day. That's hard sometimes as friends are so very important-especially to my teens. But they suffer through.
Right now Kambree and Austin are enjoying the day on their roller blades on the Parkway. Rylee and Alex are playing with and building more of their Monkey House. Devree is out on the trampoline perfecting her flip and enjoying this beautiful day and I have dinner in the crock pot and a cake made and just caught up with my friends blogs.

We have a family in Ukraine right now adopting their two boys. Reading her post these past few weeks have reminded just how far we've come with Alex. Not just in his language but in his overall behavior.
However, there is one thing Alex does I hope never changes.

Today in church he was getting restless towards the end of sacrament meeting and laid his head in my lap while I tickled his back and neck. Then he rolled his head looking up at me and sighed and mumbled something. I couldn't quite hear and whispered,

"What did you say?"

He said "Never mind."

"No, I want to know, what did you say?"

He grinned at me and sighed again and said, "My mom."

I teasingly said, "Who's your mom?"

"YOUR my mom!"
"That's right I AM your mom."

Yeah, that's what I never want to change.

The sweet sigh of contentment that he has a mom. That he is still in awe of having one. That he just has to whisper it out loud to confirm it is true.

It's been a few months since the last sigh and whispered confirmation.

In time, he will probably stop sighing and saying it altogether. But while he still remembers and appreciates....I'm just going to savor it!
Continued later....
Eventually my older girls ended up asleep on the trampoline while catching some sun, Austin crashed on the couch, and I dozed off between Alex and Rylee while they watched "The Parent Trap".
See why I love Sundays?
Austin gave us a Family Home Evening lesson tonight. Yes, I made a deal with him that he can go to a sleep over LATE tonight but only if he gives a lesson. He did the whole thing, assigned songs, prayer and read a story and lead a discussion.
On another Alex note-no pun intended-he loves to sing yet he's just not quite on pitch. I love that he sings out while singing hymns, he sings around the house on his own and to the radio. I just figured he's trying to get the words and the notes will come but today we were singing a chorus that he knew well and the notes were just not there. The notes were loud but they were not on pitch.
After FHE tonight I sat down at the piano with him and we tried again. Bless his heart he tried so hard but he can't hear the note and match it with his voice. He can't hear the difference in what is being played and what his voice is doing. We just made it fun and I sang along with him to help him not feel so self conscious. I did notice a bit of improvement by the end of our half hour sing along but he will still need A LOT of improvement to even be on pitch half the time.
The other children were trying to help with suggestions of vocal warm ups, and ideas. We all sing. Even Austin-he sings in choir and sings ALL THE TIME around the house. (Last night when he got home at midnight he started singing while getting ready for bed and he does not sing quietly! I had to remind him that singing is for daylight hours when the entire family is awake!)
Alex told me I was a wonderful voice teacher and I should teach everyone voice lessons. (My girls all take once a week and Austin's even taken a couple lessons to cover for Kambree when she's been unavailable.) Which is sweet of him to say. I think he just loved sitting there by me and having my undivided attention. I tried so very hard to not make him feel dumb or inadequate as it would hurt my heart if he stopped singing all together out of embarrassment or frustration.
Anyway, Alex ran upstairs to get his PJ's (We were going to watch The Sound Of Music but apparently we don't own that movie? I love how things disappear in our house-like my primary music book.) Anyway he was upstairs and I walked into the kitchen were the other children had been a ear-witness of our little music lesson, I commented quietly that I've never had a tone deaf child before to which Austin quickly quipped.
"Well, it's YOUR fault.....you bought him!"
I was drinking water at the time and had to spit the water in the sink to avoid choking, I was laughing so hard.
He was kidding of course.
Ahh....life with Austin-it's full of funny one liners.
Well, since there's not school tomorrow I let the kids put on "Hook" at ten o'clock tonight. All five of them are glued to the show right now and I think I shall go join them.
Hope you all have a lovely three day weekend!