My mom found an old journal where she had written down some of the things Jared and I said and did in the early 80's. Here is what she wrote:
9/3/81 – Mike kept the kids tonight while I went to a
meeting. They danced while “Sha-na-na” was on TV. Megan loves to dance. She
says “da – da” and jumps around. She is very aware of music and movement.
9/6/81 – Jared went to Brittany’s birthday party. He had
lots of fun and won several prizes. He told us they had one game where everyone
took off their shoes and the one with the ugliest feet won a prize. Then he
said “I won a prize”.
9/13/81 – Jared told me about a bad dream. He said he was
chased by a big dog that jumped on him. Then he said he had to call an
ambulance and he had to have a shot in his “bloody injury”.
9/14/81 – Megan and I had our first girls’ day out. We went
to Cumberland Mall and had lunch at Piccadilly Cafeteria.
10/4/81 – Megan is 16 months now and busy! She (unlike her
brother) still likes vegetables. Her favorite is broccoli, which she calls
“ro-ri.” Jared spent the night and all
day Saturday with Andy Clark. They had a great time and came home in Ed’s
Corvette. Jared was on cloud 9!
11/4/81 – Jared loves school. He is doing fantastic in art
and music and says he wants to be an artist. He is also quite a musician. He is
playing the recorder in school and surprises his teacher with his skill. She
thinks he may have a learning disability already. We’ll wait and see but I am
working with him at night to reinforce what Mrs. Restler is doing. Megan loves
to sing. Her newest is, “ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC”. She actually has the tune right
to the ABC song. She loves to watch her daddy and Jared leave in the morning
and then talks about them all day. “Daddy go car” and “Jared school."
11/9/81 – in the past when Megan has picked up her diaper
pin I have said, “Be careful, that will stick you.” So now any time she hurts
herself she says, “Ow, stick you.”
1/4/82 – Megan put her first “sentence” together today. I
told her to go to Jared’s room and get the blocks. She said, “Blocks carry
heavy,” so I helped her carry the heavy blocks.
2/3/82 – Megan is 20 months old today. This morning Jared
was clowning as usual and rolled off the bed. Megan said, “Jared fall, hurt
self.”
3/27/82 – Mother had back surgery two weeks ago. Today after
we talked to her Megan said, “Mimi hopsial (hospital).”
4/28/82 – Megan has a cold and we are using the vaporizer.
Last night she said that I needed to turn on the “baker-roger.” We drove past
McDonald’s yesterday and she said “McDonald’s, Megan wove Donald’s.” Jared is playing first base on his T-ball team
and is very excited.
5/10/82 – The air conditioning man was here today and Megan
said, “Man fix Megan room upstairs, and Jared room, Mommy room downstairs.” Wow! What a sentence! Jared
fell off a wall and hurt his shoulder. Mike took him to the emergency room for
an X-ray, but nothing was broken. He has been making the most of his injury. He
can’t dress himself, feed himself or ride his bike. J
6/23/82 – Jared is on the swim team this year. He has his
first meet tonight and is very excited. He is a very good swimmer and loves it.
Megan had her second birthday this month. It hardly seems possible. She called
it her “birthday present” and called her cake her “happy to you.” She loves the
water and asks to put on her “baby suit” and go “baby pool”.
7/27/82 – Megan likes to be sung to when she is going to
sleep. Her latest requests is “Bible tells me so, Jesus woves me so-o-o.”
2/10/83 – it’s been a long time since I have written. It
seems I only think about it when I don’t have time to write, which is most of the time.
Megan is 2 ½ and Jared is 7 ½. Megan is at pre-school 2 days a week. She loves
it and sings school songs all the time. Her favorite is “had-a-woo-wah, pwaise
ye the woa-wud”. She also sings the alphabet song. She has all the letters, but
in her own special order. She always includes “Ellen-in-a-pea” somewhere.
7/27/83 – five months since I last wrote – wow! Jared is 8
and Megan is 3. We are going on vacation next week to Sea Island. Megan says we
are going to the “motel beach.”
10/16/83 – Some of the stones from one of my plants were on
the floor and I asked Megan what happened. She said “apparently Jared did it.”
she is three years and 4 ½ months old.
10/19/83 – Jared is 8 years three months old and is doing
well in school. He is in the L.D. program and finally learning to read. He
loves it and makes such good progress. Today he told me his favorite subject
was reading.
This prompted me to write down some of the things my kids have been doing/saying lately! Zeke is 4 1/2 and Adalynn is 17 months.
Zeke: James [from Thomas & Friends] is 5 like Sterling [our neighbor], Gordon is 4 like me, Henry is 3 like Christian [Sterling's brother] and Thomas is 1.
Me: How do you know how old they are?
Zeke: Their number is on their coal car.
Me: Oh, okay!
Zeke: What does Jesus eat in Heaven?
Me: I'm not sure...I guess whatever His favorite foods are.
Zeke: What will I eat in Heaven?
Me: What are your favorite foods?
Zeke: Banana chips, broccoli, "branola" [granola], hot dogs, sausage, and tomatoes.
Me: Well, I guess you'll eat those things in Heaven!
Adalynn has started saying, "Is it?" She loves to pick up things off the floor (even little tiny crumbs). Wynna started asking her, "What is it? She caught on!
She is not saying much else aside from Mama, Dada, Eee (Zeke), and we got her to say Nynna (Wynna). She LOVES to sing (like her mommy as indicated above) and dance. I recorded them watching a vacation Bible school DVD and Zeke was doing all the motions and singing as Adalynn attempted to do the same. It sounds like she says, "Amazing." as she's spinning around. It says, "He loves us oh so much with a love so strong, no one else could love us more, it's amazing" (referring to Jesus, of course!).
Zeke loves to do anything with Daddy. He loves to help and is still so full of joy and excitement.
The kids love to play together, even though it usually ends up with Adalynn crying. I have watched, though, and sometimes she just cries if she doesn't get her way. She also has figured out when she is not supposed to have something and will start running (more of an out of control waddle).
It certainly is interesting to see that sin nature kick in right away. Thank God for His grace and mercy. We continue to pray that our children will come to know Him as their Saviour at a very young age.
That's all I can remember for now!
