"Hope"

"SIDGE"

When Linda took a series of family pictures shortly before we left Turkey, she assigned a word to each child. Isaac was faith. Quite appropriate because my faith had all but run out when we were asked to be his parents forever. Elijah was hope. Again a perfect fit as we had definitely given up hoping for a biological child. And Abigail was love. Again, amazingly appropriate. As if the Lord just gave us an extra dose of goodness -- a little girl to cherish and fall completely in love with.

Mr. Hope is halfway through his fourth year today. He is three and a half. I thought I would take a minute to document the baby he is no longer and the grown-up boy he is becoming.

• Has decided, in no uncertain terms, that his name is Sidge now. In fact, he can spell Sidge but cannot as of yet spell Elijah. This stemmed from Isaac calling him Sidge-uh before he could say Elijah. JB and I started calling him Sidge and a few weeks before we left Turkey, he started getting quite opinionated about the matter. He is so adamant that if I introduce him as Elijah, he will correct me. If I call him Elijah, he will correct me. If someone else asks him his name, he says Sidge and they give me a funny look as if to say, "I can't really understand him. Can you translate?" We finally had to make a decision how to spell it and came up with Sidge.
• Has a nearly limitless vocabulary but can still be difficult to understand. I read somewhere that by 3 years old, non-parental figures should be able to understand 50% of what the child is saying. I think that is pretty right-on for Sidge.
• Is weighing well over 40 pounds and closing in on 45 I think. VERY heavy.
• Is just a tad taller than Isaac but wears the same size shoe as Isaac (10).
• Is wearing mostly 4T clothes now. Shirts are especially problematic because his head is so large.
• Is riding a bike with training wheels and a scooter sometimes. Still loves his three-wheel bike though.
• Can say his ABC's.
• Can count to 10 in English, Turkish, and Spanish with very few errors.
• Can sing the USA states song (but with a lot of errors).
• Will successfully recognize and name nearly all letters -- just has a few he still has trouble with.
• Is learning memory verses with incredible ease. (Now has seven learned.)
• Can spell his name: Sidge. Knows that Elijah starts with E.
• Is very good at puzzles. Easily does 24 pice puzzles and some 48 piece puzzles without needing any help.
• Still loves to play with cars of all kinds and sizes.
• LOVES to be Daddy sou chef.
• Lays down and rests every day but probably only successfully falls asleep about one-third to half the time for a nap.
• Can write some letters a little bit but not very good at any of them yet.
• Appears to be left-handed (like my mom and Uncle Rob).
• Can put on his own underwear, shirt, and shorts but needs help with buttons and zippers.
• Can put on his own shoes but has trouble with socks.
• Is more aggressive than Isaac. Really working on him not using his hands when he gets upset.
• Is still very passionate: cries hard and loves hard.
• Is swimming at least halfway across the pool; still can't take a breath yet but he is now fearless.
• Is a bit lost when he doesn't have Isaac to play with. Isaac is his leader, and he does most everything Isaac says.
• Is definitely the "little" brother in their relationship with Isaac.
• Probably still prefers Mom to Dad a little bit.
• Loves Abigail but can be too rough with her sometimes. He so wants her to interact with him and is a bit jealous of Isaac's ability to do so.
• Absolutely LOVES to eat. He is constantly hungry. Will eat almost anything. Will try everything. His favorite line, when Isaac says, "I don't want this," is to say, "Then give it to me."
• Doesn't like milk.
• Very helpful. Wants to help with everything and anything all the time. He is the easy one to redirect when playtime has gotten volatile.