The Amaus Way of Thinking

Amaus, our youngest son, has a different way of seeing things. This four year old lives in a constant state of make-believe. I'm reminded of this daily, as I was once again during church this morning. I looked over to see him stretching the bright red, adjustable waist elastic out of his khaki shorts, and each piece had become an instant ninja. His right hand held a strip. His left hand held a strip. Then I heard, "One, two, three..FIIGHT!" in his loudest whisper, as he stretched each piece of elastic higher than his head and crossed them back and forth as if they were taking part in all out combat.




Earlier this week, I started Amaus a bath. He knows how to turn off his water, and I told him to turn it off when it got to a certain point if I wasn't right back. I ran to the other bathroom to help another child, and then another. I went back to the bathroom where Amaus was, just in time to see him run and cannon ball into an overflowing tub where the water had already left the bathroom and began to soak the carpet. He knew how to turn it off. He just didn't. I have no doubt that he was lost in some world of make believe and thought this all seemed like a really good idea. While he has had a pretty good record with turning the water off, he will not be trusted with this duty for a while longer yet.
Needless to say, this incident cost us pulling up the flooring and replacing wood underneath. The toilet was also placed in the tub temporarily while the wood beneath it was replaced. Danny has spent the week working on that project. One day Danny came into the bathroom mid-way through the floor project to find Amaus using the toilet that was in the bathtub. Augh! It was the Amaus way of thinking again, which I can imagine would have sounded something like, "Oh. This is where the potty is now. Oh well. Cool."
Recently, as I was putting away laundry, Amaus came into the room where I was working and began talking to me.
"Mama, we meed (need) to feed this turtle. He'th (he's) a good worker. He'th a real good worker. Th'ee (see)! He workth (works) on wall'th (walls)!"
I turn around to see our box turtle hanging onto the crown molding chair rail that goes around the middle of the room. The turtle was hanging on by his front claws. Who knew turtles could do that?! I was pretty amazed that turtles could "work on walls," too, but had to let Amaus know that turtles probably don't prefer to climb unless they absolutely have to.
Feeding our Keurig coffee maker pecans (because the water basin resembles a mouth, and this thing is bound to get hungry), or filling up our make-shift squirrel cage with water so Joshua can "swim," are daily happenings for Amaus. (Josh survived. And contrary to popular belief, squirrels can swim!) He is constantly thinking along a different line. While that stacks up to a lot of clean-up and some occasional scares, this kid keeps us laughing. I cannot imagine what a hoot he is going to be as he grows!




Scotch tape snobs. I would laugh my head off for hours doing this as a kid. Amaus shared my sentiment for this activity. Plus, it's always fun to put really attractive pictures of yourself on the Internet so the general public will question your sanity...further.
Lately:




Danny and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and got to take our first afternoon away in months! We had a blast!




We've been enjoying some cooler Louisiana temps and were able to cozy up to our first fire of the year!




This is a Craig's list photo of the amazing antique crib I found for a great bargain! It's going to go so well in the vintage baby nursery I've been working on. I'm pumped about this baby room!




This is my love muffin. He looks like a saw dust monster here. He has been working hard to fix up some things around our house. We have done a lot of changes for a next to nothing expense! Can't beat that! I cannot wait to post pics of our redone kitchen and boys' room. I only have one more thing to do in the boys' room before it's camera ready. (iPhone camera ready, that is!) Speaking of cameras, this upcoming weekend will be the annual Great Mississippi River Balloon Race, and the first balloon race in about four years that I haven't been able to chase down the bright colored beauties with my Canon Rebel and try to outdo the previous year's shots. I'll be iPhone-ing it since my canon went kerplunk in Peru. I'm not sure if I ever updated on that, but basically it would cost more than my camera body is worth to have the shutter fixed. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to replace the beloved Canon before baby #5 enters the world in January. So if you've noticed my pictures not being quite as clear as they used to be, that's the reason.
Nonetheless, I'm so excited about the festivities this weekend! And we have an additional perk! Our friend Trent who I've written about who is serving the street people of Iquitos, Peru with his wife and children, is going to be visiting us this weekend! Trent will be here with his son Zadok. We really wish his wife Shawn, and his other children would have been able to come along as well. The amazing Shawn is holding down the fort in Iquitos, which includes heading up feeding the homeless, addicts and prostitutes of Iquitos, along with making sure things run smoothly at the Safehouse, (a home for men who are turning away from the street life and can spend a year growing in the Lord and getting on their feet) not to mention taking care of their other children. So I'm sure they'd really appreciate your prayers! We are really looking forward to hearing about all that God has been doing there in Iquitos from Trent.
The last edit on my book has been finished. This week, with the help of my wonderful step mom Leslie, I will begin plugging in the changes and fixing the errors. As soon as that's finished, I will immediately send my finished query to a few slated out publishers, and we'll wait and see what happens! Prayers would be greatly appreciated there as well!
Fall is here! And it's crazy to think that Christmas is only 10 weeks away! I love this time of the year. Also, in only about 13 weeks, we'll be meeting our newest family member. That's nuts! Good things are surely ahead!