Asa the Protector

A couple weeks ago we were at the park (it was a weekend) and some kid was having a birthday party. They had a fire truck come in so the bday party kids could climb on and take pictures and that sort of thing. As the fire truck was leaving I was with Asa and Eli on the side of the playground closest to the street, and Keri was with her parents and Lydia over by the swings (not the kiddie swings but the nice sit-down and relax swings) on the other side.

The firetruck turned on the sirens as it hit the street (for effect not emergency). In a flash Asa's expression changed and he took off running at full tilt. It was mission-Asa running, determined look on the face and arms pumping and all that. I thought he was scared of the noise. He made a beeline for Lydia, not even looking at keri or her parents or anything else. Very determined. And he immediately went straight at her and cupped his hands over her ears.

He was concerned that the loud noise of the siren would frighten her or hurt her ears or something.

I found that to be SO awesome - the force of his protective instinct for his little sister.

(Along similar lines, a couple weeks later, he expressed concern about whether Lydia should come to his Awana  awards ceremony because he knew someone would be speaking into a microphone).

Asa's Typical Prayer

For a long time our nightly prayers include Asa beginning this way:

"Dear God, thank you for this lovely day. And we would praise you and like you. And the Bible is your word and your word is in the Bible. And you love us in the Holy Spirit..."

And then he would move on to other things. Just posting it here for posterity.

Wangles

This was a week or two ago, but needs to be recorded for posterity:

Keri was making PBJs for the boys for lunch. Eli came in and said he wanted "Wangles". Keri, not understanding, asked him to repeat his request.
"Wangles."
"What?"
"Wangles"

This went on for a bit before Keri finally said, "I'm sorry, buddy, but I don't understand what you're asking for."

Then Asa pipes up from the other room, "Mom, he said he wants triangles."

When I make sandwiches, I usually cut them diagonally, which leaves each half roughly in triangular form. Eli has developed a preference for that style, but had trouble communicating that preference. He is becoming easier to understand than he has been for the last month or two, which is generally a positive development, but we'll miss "Eli-ese" at times. Perhaps the best part of it was that Asa has been such a capable translator for his little brother.

Bath time

I told Eli tonight that he was going to get a bath.

Eli: "Wha-wha-what is Asa doing?"
Me: "He's probably going to get a shower"
Eli: "Oh," with evident disappointment. "I, I, I want him to take bath with me."

It was pretty cute. And yes they got a bath together.

Notable quotes

This morning Asa emerged from his class in church with a pocketful of goldfish. He had snagged them for Eli, which was really cute. When we picked up Eli, he immediately reached both hands out to Asa (resting on his shoulders) and began trying to tell him something or other - mouth agape, "I.... I.... I...." It was all pretty cute.

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We were watching Duke and Tech play in the ACC championship game this afternoon (the final 8 minutes or so - the first 8 minutes of basketball I've watched in a long time). Tech was wearing yellow jerseys and Duke was in White. It was a typical-looking Duke team (if you catch my drift... if not you will in a minute.) Asa remarked, "The yellow team is dark and the white team is light. Why?"

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We had a heckuva week where we thought we lost the house we were trying to buy, only to have a miraculous/crazy turn of events the next day where we thought we got it.... only to find out that in fact we lost it (again a surprise) a couple days later. Yikes, quite a roller coaster. Not a lot of fun.

Here we go.