Thursday, February 28, 2008

What makes Jeddy tick? Insanity or genious?

It has been a 2 ear infection, case of pneumonia, Thinking day for Carlsbad girl scout council, troop meeting, goal of the kids to dirty every thing in the house, go to Dr's appt with 6 kids under the age of 6, and scissors taken to library books and our sofas kind of week. This has been our life.

Needless to say I have not had time to post lately.

When I would call my mom from Virginia and try to explain to her how wonderful but active and insane my Jeddy was, she had 2 responses. No matter the story, the same response. Laughter so hard I am sure she peed her pants, and "Kim he is just like you", of course she said this through tears and nasal snorts as she tried to gain control of her laughter.

We moved to her house for our homeless summer, before Vegas. I remember pretty vividly my mom enjoying Jeddy, and saying you need to record all his adventures. She used the word adventure but really she meant the upheaval he caused just being an independent inquisitive boy. My first thought was, why would I want to remember him cutting up my fabric collection, or him "cleaning" the carpet with glue, or the vast times he has redecorated.

Luckily, I had a second thought, that my mom was right. I think I am well equipped with stories for when girls comes over to date him. Hopefully I will scare them off . . .at least until after his mission. A great benefit to this archiving is: I have learned to really love him. Not to worry, I have always loved him. He is my little Jeddy, we took naps everyday I was pregnant w/Bence (to insure we would get our rental deposit back. he was only trusted when sedated). I love to see his little mind grasp the world around him and to see his interpretation. I love him.

Let me explain. After breakfast a year and a half ago I told the kids to play upstairs in their room, I was going to shower. Jeddy asked for Hot Cocoa and I explained, "No Jeddy, I cant make it for you". So my wonderful Madisen did exactly as I asked. Jeddy did too, just a different interpretation. He took the brown sugar from the table and evenly spread it over the kitchen floor, practicing for his next bowl of cream of wheat. Then he scaled our 4 shelf pantry to the "out of reach top shelf". The cocoa powder fell and opened but hey no damage done. Its now opened for him and ready to be used. He proceeds to mix water in cups and the powder. He soon realizes the taste is better if you skip the water and just eat the powder. So with a full mouth of cocoa powder he comes to show off his self reliance to me in the shower.

Easy for me to find the crime scene as a chocolate drool trail was left on the carpet.

He took, "I cant make it for you", and said, "Ok I'll do it myself". Can you blame him. well I did. I cant say it has stopped him but at least I can get things cleaned up while he is in time out.

Jeddy and his skilled interpretation of life might drive the faint of heart into an asylum. But really I have just grown to love him more, I am graying fast and need more naps then ever. But I really love my little rascal. I mean my big rascal.

My point of the blog is recording History. I think through writing it down and thinking about it in a creative or logical way, I take out my freak frustration and some anger and can just love him for him. I find I am that way with biographies as well.

Many of you know Jeddy is named from Heber J. Grant, the J. is Jeddy, not Jedidiah, or Jed. After naming him after President Grant I read several biographies. I just think the world of him. same goes with Stonewall Jackson, Emiline Durkheim and George Washington Carver. What an interesting thing it is to really invest energy to get to know someone.

I urge all my fellow bloggers to fall in love, not romantically, with someone in their lives. A friend(good old Lynn Henry) shared on his blog hours spent with his dying grandfather in the hospital and getting to know each other that way. It got me thinking, and brought me to this post. I wish I had the time to just dissect and write about all my kids all day long, they are wonderful. After I brag about them, I seem to be a better mom to them.

We spend our days trying to digest and interpret millions of bits of information, but how rewarding it is to focus on human life, explore and understand those around us. And come to love them. The next time Ben drives me nuts, hopefully I will try to get to know him and Love him, instead of just focusing on getting my point across.

God knew what he was doing when he made us. What a life.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I check your blog almost every day, and this post is a perfect example of why. I have an extremely hard time putting my thoughts on paper or computer screen. Because of that I love reading your posts, because usually I can yes, that is exactly how I feel, well put. Now I don't have a Jeddy, but I do have three wonderful kids.
Ditto

Anonymous said...

Oh and yes I laugh too, everytime I hear the Jeddy tales. He is great I love babysitting him because he just always surprises me. Keep us laughing, it gets me through those awful days.

Ben and Kimberly McEvoy said...

Micheal is almost to Jeddy caliber with his 'naked chronicles' and anti potty training sentiment.

It is to easy to find frustration in kids, and people in general. I think
it takes more introspection and understanding to Love someone.
thanks for your comment, all of them!

Della Hill said...

Great post. I think you are awesome for being able to appreciate and love your son for who he is. He will be able to grow up as a stronger and more independent, as well as unique, individual because of that.
You asked what I do in VA.
Somewhat coincidentally to your post, I am a professional parent. (No, that's not a fancy euphamism (sp?) for being a homemaker). I work with troubled kids, usually teenagers. Technically I do foster care, but the kids I work with are more troubled than average foster kids, and need a higher level of care.
My husband and I have about 6 years experience doing this kind of work (we used to live/work in group homes) and are nationally certified as Teaching Parents.
Working with these kids is our full time job, and while we contract with the city to provide these services, we are technically self employed.
It's pretty much the best job I've ever had.
Um,... maybe you weren't looking for that much of an answer, but there you go.
Thanks for checking my blog. I only started blogging a couple of months ago, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite hobbies. I am especially loving meeting people that I would never have had the chance to know otherwise and making blog friends.
-Della

Rebecca Lynn said...

I am such a bad friend.
I did not even know you had another baby.
But now that I have a blog spot too...i can read yours everyday!
and hopefully keep up with your lives now!!
love you guys!

Salt H2O said...

I hope my children are as self-reliant. That's great that if mom can't do it for him he'll just do it for himself. Love it. You'll be SO grateful for that personality trait once he gets older

Harris Family said...

I love it Kim- I think pneumonia is similar to RSV so that is hard to go through- lots of energy you must have- I have just started to learn to appreciate James' wildness. I think it took him almost dying and a huge hospital bill to make me realize- I love this kids energy where did it go- now I stop myself everytime I feel ilike getting mad or frustrated. Littel boys are so great. Good luck with picking out a house too- I think no matter what house you buy or the price you pay you will be sick to your stomach- I think it comes with the home buying process. You will have to let us know what you end up finding- love ape

Lynn said...

Wonderful post, Kim. It's not always an easy road through this life, but I've found just in the last few days that writing stuff in this forum really helps me keep things in perspective. I love the antics of your children and the things they can come up with. I can't wait to see Madisen again and meet Jeddy and Ben the younger. Sheri and I are so happy that we found each other again and can keep in contact with one another.

But did you have to call me "old"?

Lizza said...

Hey, long time no see. Sorry I'm such a lame friend. It's been crazy! I'm pregnant? Did I tell you? Anyhow, I'll be better. I love this post. I want to have that perspective. I just get bugged when Zina does stuff like that.