March 21, 2007 | Mama Smith

a few rare sightings

Yes, it’s true. There have been a few Bigfoot sightings in our house lately. Or at least a risen Bigfoot. We’ve seen plenty of the Bigfoot in hibernation. I tried to capture a smile from him, per requests, but all I got was this sly little teaser-of-a-grin. None of the cooing, dimple-showing variety he was dishing out this afternoon, but it’ll have to do for now.

Working out, doing some neck crunches

Looking like his papa…in his pre-bearded state

Not so fast, stinker. Bigfoot trying to re-enter his hibernation state.

Each day more of this little guy’s personality emerges and the more changes we see in Brighton’s acceptance of his new bro. Yesterday he asked to give Levi a hug, so I sat with them on the floor and let B hold him on his lap. He proceeded to give him a big sloppy Brighton-style kiss on the cheek. Open mouthed with his tongue sticking out, (not quite sure where he learned this technique, when all his other buddies give dainty little pecks).

These are the tiny glimpes of grace for me, in the midst of observing Brighton’s struggle of learning to love another, when our hearts just want to protect ourselves and assume the world revolves around us. Brighton is no exception. I’m no exception. It’s just a part of being a fallen human. But it’s sweet to see the Spirit moving in him and teaching him to love.

On somewhat of the same, but more humorous, note, a recent obsession of Brighton’s has been this “game” he calls “Pray”. Never would I have thought I’d be telling my son, “No, we are all done praying. No more praying, Brighton. All done. No more praying until you eat your food.” But it’s gotten bad. We hold hands and pray together at our meals and first, it was just an obsession he had with yelling “AMEN!” at the end of our prayers. And that was it. He’d forget all about praying the rest of the meal. Now he stretches out his hands to Matthew and I over and over and over throughout the meal saying “Pray. Pray. Pray.” We maybe get a bite or two down before he wants to pray again. If we succumb, he mumbles softly as we hold hands, then yells “AMEN!” or waits for us to look up and cue him. If we weren’t so cynical, we might be proud and think we had some highly spiritual child, but I think, like all toddlers, he just likes any game that involves yelling.

Lastly, bear with me as I’m still sludging through all my old posts trying to give them categories, so that feature is actually worthwhile. For those of you dying to retreive all the thrilling minismith entries over the past year, like the great diaper explosion of ’06 or the documentation of each and every new food B began eating as a babe. Exciting stuff, really.