Picture this.  Levi and Lincoln sitting in matching black bottoms and blue shirts, sitting in their foldable camp chairs next to the front window, pretending to be pilots—of course. They flew to Utah, Colorado, looped to D.C., then returned to Austin. They took a long flight to China to visit Shu Xu’s family (Wes works with Shu. He’s from China and has come over for Thanksgiving and FHE).

Levi: “I’m the pilot. What’s the word for what Lincoln is?”

Mom: “Navigator.”

Levi: “Right. I’m the pilot. He’s the alligator.”

Lincoln: “No! I’m a crocodile and you’re the pirate!” (which sounds pretty close to pilot!)

For mutual on Wednesday, the young men came over to our house to make cookies before making visits. The boys loved it. I hear, “Now, I am the young men…” all day long. We made puppets on popsicle sticks in the shape of Levi, Lincoln, and Keller. They are all young men.

During the day when Levi starts playing the piano, the little brothers sing loudly. Their favorite game is still “Name that Tune”—they hum a lot of “Jingle Bells,” “I Am a Child of God,” and “How Firm a Foundation” (Lincoln’s current favorite). I love when we sing because one of them usually jumps up to lead the music and the other pretends to play the piano. During singing time in nursery today, Lincoln stood up in front of the singing leader, turned around, and lead the music confidently. I should teach them to do it correctly. They’re so cute. While their music has no limits, mine does. I started singing while we worked on the fruit. Levi sighed at me patiently. “Mom, please making that noise.” He practically sniffed at my inconsiderate nature. “I’m trying to focus.” Oh. Oops.

Levi has helped a ton all week. His parents finally realized that 1. He wants to and 2. He can! We’re a little slow. He’s been putting all the utensils away and setting the plates on the table. He helped cut the strawberries in half with a butter knife then make strawberry jam. He peeled a ton of peaches when we canned them Saturday. What a worker! We cleaned a sister’s house on Tuesday; under Levi’s direction, the boys put on plastic gloves, pulled out the rags, and rubbed a few walls before playing. They obviously have a spectacular life. I wonder why the house still resembles an eruption?

Lincoln claims his stuffed dog, “Doggie” pronounced “Dogdie,” is his baby who does not have a mouth. He swaddles it and hums to it and puts it down for a nap. He doesn’t have to feed it; it doesn’t have a mouth. Or a gender. He told me the dog might grow a mouth when he’s bigger, but maybe not. One morning, he looked at me over his oatmeal to say, “Dr. Edgar is a daddy. And a nice grandpa. I like Dr. Edgar!” pause. “I like daddies!” (Dr. Edgar is Wesley’s advisor). They voted to name the van “Tom” after Dr. Edgar. Yesterday, Wes lay down on Levi’s pillow. As this seemed unacceptable, Levi took it away. Lincoln quickly brought his own pillow, “Here’s a pillow for you, Daddy!” Lincoln has also gone another successful week in underpants—even on public potties! Go Lincoln! Practicing for parenthood, I guess.

Keller slithers, inches, smashes. I’m trying to convince him to use his knees, but he’s not willing to have even a temporary slow-down. He rolls, coos, sings. Sings very loudly. He loves the park, especially the swings and the slides. He cuddles his blankets. He crawls all over the floor, then drags himself to the kitchen or wherever I am, puts his arms out, and drops his head between them before wailing. We can go from giggling and smiling to horror-struck in less than a second. Oh, the dramatic emotions of my children. It’s a gift: this means they can embrace all the facets of life, right? Despite the lathered sunscreen, even Keller sports some pretty awesome tan lines. 

We go to the park. We come home drenched with sweat. We started a playgroup a few weeks ago. One of the older kids played Frisbee with Levi and Lincoln—so they all ran and ran and ran. For Lincoln, running = joy. He loves Frisbee. We met our friends Laurie and Eli at the nature center. This is a free mini-zoo with birds of prey, reptiles, and a few foxes, opossums, armadillos, etc. who cannot go safely into the wild for various reasons. Lincoln loved them. He wanted to touch them all and take them home. He couldn’t; instead he tried to hold conversations by screaming at them. I don’t think they want to be friends anymore. Laurie found out that their new baby is a girl. We gave her a Book of Mormon to celebrate. Levi was so excited to share it.

Wesley pulled everything together after his conferences, researched his own projects, submitted a paper, and worked, worked, worked. I found another spot with white hairs. I think that sums up our life happily!