easing back in

Just easing back into this.  I wish I could actually "catch up" on this blog ... this family scrapbook ... since my kids enjoy reading and remembering some bygone days ... but much has passed me by.  In any event, I am going to try and start filling in some of the gaps :)

Conversation with G tonight:
He was singing in the van ...
"Your love never gives up me.  Your love never gives up me.  Your love never gives up Gunnar."
(modified from Your love never fails ... never gives up ... never gives up on me)
"You're turning into quite a little singer," I told him.
"We're turning?"
"No, I mean you are getting to be a good singer," I explained.
"I just saw a cute house, Mommy!"

Yesterday my husband was called to clean up blood outside our 5-unit apartment building ... someone had been shot ... in the hip.  He told me he's tired of owning rentals and tired of this piece of land we recently bought.  Nonetheless, he googled how to clean up blood and went to take care of it {and mow the grass there} with our sheltered homeschooled teenage son :)  After that, they stopped by the aforementioned "piece of land" to cut the grass ... and lo and behold ... someone had dumped a hot tub and cover on our newly purchased land which we are already tired of!  Big frown face.  So, today, Husband spent the afternoon sawing up the hot tub ... getting fiberglass in his clothes and pores ... and hauling hot tub chunks to the dump (with a fifty-five dollar dump fee, which is somewhat cheaper, not considering the time however, than the $315 the city billed him for hauling away a couch which was dumped on the land).  I could go on about the heavy vintage televisions that he had to haul off and the puddle that someone complained about ... and how much the city billed for the puddle to be pumped out ... but I won't :)  I'm tired of it too :)

I think G has had the most interesting language development (to me) of all of my kids.  For several months now ... he has made every effort to immediately mimic pretty much every word or phrase he hears ... not just the words/phrases he thinks will be useful to him ... but EVERYthing.  I've teased him that he says all the words :)  I said to a friend, "Thank you for the offer."  And right away G copied me, "Thank you for the offer."

He is also very funny.  One of my favorite stories is from about a month ago.  I was changing his diaper on our front porch and didn't realize I was going to need wipes.  "Honey!" I called to my husband.  "Honey!  We need some wipes please!"  I finally decided to refasten the soiled diaper and I told G I was going to go get some wipes myself.  "I'M going to go find Honey," he said.  And he headed towards where Daddy was working and yelled, "Honey!  Honey!  We need some help here!"