Oh Silas. Three has brought about so many wonderful (and difficult) things!
Several weeks ago, Silas stayed for a good portion of the day with my good friend Lisa. She has two hysterical little girls that sandwich Silas in age (and an adorable little boy who is just a month older than Jewel). The three older kids are silly to the extreme. When I picked Silas up he was snuggled on the couch with Lisa, reading nothing other than Thomas. As she asked him about each character he would reply every time with "Oh, Silly...." as if anything she asked was just common knowledge. Lisa asked "How can you tell Thomas and Gordon apart? They are both blue" Silas answers "Oh, Silly! Thomas has a number one on the side." Thankfully Lisa can find this sort of nonsense entertaining and not offensive. She also told me that the kids had been chanting some funny phrase the whole night. After some coaxing, Silas repeated it. "Look like a Chadillac, Look like a Beaver." I was totally stumped. Where in the world did that come from? When I got in the car I told Jordan about it. Only a fellow man, a movie line memorizer, would have any idea where this came from. Oh yes, it's Cars. Lightening McQueen can "Float like a Cadillac, Sting like a Beamer." We tried to correct the words, through much laughter, but the best we got was "Look like a Chadillac, Steam like a Beaver."
Last week the kids and I were out running errands. This is a tricky thing to do between morning and afternoon naps. We are always rushing around as fast as we can. Our last stop was at an Albertsons near the house that happens to have a Starbucks inside. I was assuring Silas that it this was the last store and pulling out all the final snacks in my bag to hold us over. He must have been able to tell that I was exasperated too, because as we passed the Starbucks he very sympathetically asked me, "Do we need to get you a coffee, Mom?"
It is shocking to me how much Silas is listening. Sure I know he picks up repetitive things like movie lines and phrases from books that we read over and over, but often he says things that make me wonder what else he as heard and just hasn't repeated back to me yet. We generally have some kind of hot breakfast at our house. Eggs of every kind, toast, pancakes, french toast, and whatever else we can think of. But, every now and again we opt for the fast route and have cereal. We had one of those mornings earlier this week. When Silas came into the kitchen and saw the boxes of cereal on the table he dropped his jaw in amazement and exclaimed "Cereal?!? We haven't had cereal for breakfast since before we were married!" Being that Silas is a boy, I am relatively certain we have not had conversations about marriage with him yet. He just isn't interested in that kind of stuff. So I am just as certain that when he picked up this phrase, it was a two way conversation between Jordan and I. Frightening. This is a serious level of accountability!
Silas only prays out loud on a blue moon that falls on the third Wednesday of the month during the leap year. He does, however, have input on things that should be prayed for. The last couple months we have had a friend of ours living with us. I use the term "living" loosely as Chris is very busy with work and a local girl friend, but he does hang out now and again and when he does it is always memorable for Silas. He is willing to play and read with Silas, and frequently has some kind of treat to surprise him with. Silas is totally comfortable with Chris and I catch little pieces of their interactions over the monitors now and again. I have to laugh as Silas asks Chris to dance to the music that Jewel's exersaucer plays. There will be no fake dancing going on, he says "No, not like that, really dance, like this Mr. Chris!" Chris bought Silas his first piggy bank and now leaves little coins hidden all over the house for him to find and add to his savings. At night when I am tucking Silas in we pray for whatever is on his mind. It usually consists of his buddy Aiden and the rest of Aiden's family, often for toys he is thankful for, and always for our family. Since the day Chris moved in, Silas has not once forgotten to include him in his list of family when we pray. It is so precious to me because Jordan and I have asked that God use our home as a way to add to our family. Without ever using that terminology in front of Silas, God has been preparing his heart to accept the extended family.
