siblings

When I was pregnant with Jewel I remember wondering what it would be like to have another baby to love. Silas was my world, how could we both learn to share? The one thing that gave me hope for the new relationships was knowing what a precious gift I have in my siblings. I longed for Silas and our next baby to have the same opportunity.

I was anxious when she first came, wondering if he would be jealous. Although the transition was rocky at times, he never directed his misunderstandings toward her. As she got bigger and began flashing smiles every time he was near, he became more fascinated with her. Then she started sitting up. It was fun for all of us to see her from a new angle, and for her to have a new perspective on her little world. But I knew that soon sitting would lead to crawling and she would start to invade his space. I feared for intricate train tracks and treasured toys to cause frustration and bitterness. Just a few weeks before she started crawling, Silas transitioned his main interest from trains to airplanes. Thank you God for knowing the perfect timing for these things. Trains are a ground toy, airplanes are naturally airborne (or landing on a couch or table). And, God gave Silas a sweet and gracious heart. Not only is he rarely upset by her intrusion on his activity, but he is quickly learning that if she does take something he doesn't want her to have, simply offering her something else generally solves the problem. In fact, he actually shares with her. I am not kidding. It blows me away. If he is playing with airplanes and she crawls into his area, he starts by getting upset. If I say to him "It's OK Silas, she just wants to play with you, can you pick a plane to give her?" he generally complies happily. He sometimes complains that he knows she will eat it, which she will try to do, but he still picks one for her to have and then lets her sit by him to play.
The above was the scene I found yesterday afternoon. Jewel was waking up from her nap and Silas asked if he could go get her. I was emptying the dishwasher so I told him he could go turn the light on for her and I would be right up. Usually this means he goes in, flips on the light, greets her with his regular "Hi, Jewely, Jewely, Jewely!" and then he moves on to play with something in the room while she watches from her crib. Well, over the monitor I heard the greeting, but then it was awfully quiet. By the time I got up there to see what was going on, he had climbed into her crib, reached the shelf above the crib, gotten the Russian stacking dolls off the shelf, and he was instructing her not to eat the little pieces. She was in HEAVEN!
Our most recent purchase was this bike trailer. I was initially a little wary of putting the two of them in there together since neither Jordan nor I would be able to see exactly what was going on. I mean, he loves her, but he is a three year old boy. He wonders how eye balls work and what fits in ears and thrives on action + response learning. Once again I have been pleasantly surprised. He feeds her snacks, gives her toys, finds her "pie", covers her with the blanket, and talks and laughs with her all the way down the road.
They look the same size in the above picture, and really, it's not far from reality. She is nearly 25 pounds and off the charts for height as well. Thankfully this makes her durable for tackling, rolling over, wrestling, and tug of war. She deals with a lot and mostly views his roughness for exactly what it is, an expression of his love for her. He pinches her cheeks, blows in her face, squeezes her legs, and bear hugs her.
As you can see, his affection is genuine, whether that is the way she is looking to feel loved or not. But, this picture brings tears to my eyes. Not just because these are my precious kids, or because of the display of affection, but because I know exactly how Jewel feels. There is nothing like a big brother. There is nothing better than being the object of his affection. Maybe the expression is rough or tough or it may come at an inopportune time...but, us little sisters, we don't really care. I know because that is how I love my big brothers. When I am loved on by my brothers, no matter what the venue or motivation, it just fills me up. Thank you Lord, for giving me my own big brother and little sister kids. I am so blessed.

Grammy and Pops

I have some catching up to do...I know.

In May Grammy and Pops came out to stay with us for a few days. We were spoiled to have them; delicious food, fun family trips, help around the house...and just some good entertainment :)

One afternoon when the sun peeked out we headed to the Oregon Zoo. The animals at the zoo are fun to see, but just the landscape of the park itself is worth the trip. It is settled on the west hills of Portland, tucked back into the trees. It is a for sure work out chasing a three year old while pushing a stroller, down one hill and up another, dashing from animal to animal. This specific trip was special since we got to take the zoo train. And, we all know how Silas feels about the train.
From the beginning he was determined to find the train using the map. Pops is directing Silas with his hand since he would not take his eyes off the page. We had never taken the train before, so this was serious business.

Well, not too serious if these guys were the ones in charge of directions.

But, lo and behold, we found it! One very happy little boy with his Dad and Pops. Grammy and Jewel were happy too, but I think they were more happy with each other than being on the train.
Later on their visit we took them to one of our favorite parks. Silas led everyone on an adventure, including insisting that we walk down toward the river at which point Pops nearly slipped on the slick mud about 14 times and we almost had a hiking casualty. Grammy and I clinched our teeth and held out breath as Silas marched straight through the mud puddles and Pops did a very cartoon like slip and slide all around them. Thankfully we all survived.And this is why we can endure the rain in Oregon. Yes, even rain into June. OK, it July 1st and it rained this morning. BUT, check out these vibrant green trees at our park.The visit with Grammy and Pops was so much fun. Silas played "Secrets" (otherwise known as the game "Sequence") with Pops about 100 times. Grammy had to stay close by to make sure that Pops was letting Silas have a few games here and there. These competitive Bury boys don't let up for anyone. It was common to hear Pops saying "Ah! I blocked you!", which Silas has of course picked up and now frequently says while we are playing. One night the Bury girls had to put those Bury boys back in their place. So, the grown ups (I use this term loosely about Jordan and his dad in respect to game playing) played a game of "Cranium". Needless to say, in a game about brain diversity, the girls kicked some booty. The best part of the game is the rolling laughter. It is so fun to share these moments with the family. We are blessed, big time.

Look like a Chadillac.

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.

Golfing

So, we have had to revoke back yard golfing privileges. Silas is getting too good. He hit one OVER our fence the other day, and I am scared for my window. We'll have to move the lessons to the golf course.

Bob The Builder

Silas is totally getting into singing lately. He has a great memory and I am always surprised to hear him singing the lyrics to a song that I thought he didn't care at all about. Here are two renditions of Bob The Builder...I will even sacrifice my own dignity to get him started.

Busting out the nick names

In the past I have been against nick names. I don't really know why, but I have even been so bold as to plainly hint to our extended family that we don't use nick names. We never did when I was a kid. Whatever our name was, that's what we called each other. I remember the naming process we went through with Silas Charles Bury, it was really hard to find a name we both agreed on. And, the name had such significance and meaning to me I didn't want anyone calling him anything different than what we had chosen...we chose it for a reason, to call him that! I guess another part of it is that my siblings and I don't have names that are easily shortened...Shadric (OK, bad one to start with, we call him Shad), Hessel, Sommer, Everett, Brenae, Vincent (OK, bad one to end with, we call him Vince a lot)*. But that doesn't stop some people (I have to just say that Jordan's family is the ultimate at nick names...I should make a list)**, they create nick names that are hardly (if at all) related to the name of the person. I just didn't get it. Until now.

For whatever reason, it is all making sense. Sometimes just a first name isn't enough to express the affection and emotion that a person stirs up inside of you. Maybe because Silas was a boy, we didn't do it as much with him, but our whole little family is on the nick name bus with Jewel!

Silas started it with calling her "Jewel-y". We all tried that for a while, but he is pretty possesive of it since it was his idea. He also calls her "Shooggy Baby" which is actually from Jordan's Dad who affectionately calls family members "Sugar" and has shortened it to (phonetically spelled) "Shooggy". I smile every time I hear him say that since I know it traveled from Pops, to Jordan, to Silas. Silas will also just announce at random times that she is a little princess, he says "that's what I call her, Princess".

Jordan has an array of options to draw from, "Ju Ju Bee" I think is the most frequently used. He also calls her "Shoogy" (the more I write this the more I feel like it isn't quite right...it's like saying sugar, but dropping the 'ar' and adding a 'y'). Jordan also has some names that will have to be short lived. They are too discriptive of her size and weight, not OK for a little girl (Rolly Polly, Chunky Monkey, Chubby Baby...just to name a few).

Surprisingly the affectionate names I use have nothing to do with her first name. Although to me, Jewel is an affectionate and perfectly fitting name for her, I also call her "Baby Doll" and "Lovey", and the one I get from my mom "Girly".

She has been really sick the last week. After two days of A LOT of crying (which is not like our little girl) I took her to urgent care and found out she had herpetic gingivostomatitis...which basically means she has little sores, like cold sores, all over her tongue and into her throat. This is brutal for an almost 8 month old baby who puts everything in her mouth. No nursing, no pacifier, no solid food...I was basically squirting milk from a bottle into her mouth and walking her all over the house until she would finally drift off for a short time. There isn't anything that can be done for her besides tylenol or motrin, and it lasts for several days. So, we feel very sad for her. The nick names have been used more than her regular name this week, there has been a lot of affection and emotion toward her...and I have to humbly retract my previous position...they are sometimes essential and always enjoyable.*OK, I have to be honest, we also call Brenae "B" a lot. And I do remember my mom sometimes calling me by my first two initials. If truth be told, I think Hessel was the only one who escaped totally nick name free, but I can't even be 100% positive about that.

**Jordan- Joby
Chris- Cribby
Mandy- Ders (or Dersy)
Abriel- Abbie- Abs
Brandon- B-digger
Ryan- Ry-Guy

Tulips