Reasonable Ransom

Ever since his “baby brudda” was born, my sweet little 4.5 yr. old Ransom hasn’t had a proper blog post dedicated solely to him. It’s high time for a little Ransom update.

Ransom is now 4.5 yrs. old. He’s has a few speech delays & will start private lessons soon with a speech pathologist. It was good for my soul to finally establish the issues and know how to address them with him. He says lots of words, knows plenty of age-appropriate concepts but for whatever reason can’t articulate them properly. He’s now aware of how his speech issues keep him from playing with other kids and their ability to understand him. It’s been very sad for all of us, but we are looking forward to some changes.

Ran is a great kid. I know every parent says that but I’m for real! He says the sweetest things and increasingly cracks us up. Case in point:

Today, when I was modeling a new purse my husband got me Ransom said, “Mama, you look beautiful in that purse. And that makes me love you, Mama. I wouldn’t want any other Mama but you. Your beautiful inside and out, Mama.” (Something I often tell him).

The other day while we were walking he was taking a long time -basically enjoying the walk- while I was trying to get to a destination trying to rush it. I finally got irritated and spoke sternly that he needed to hurry up.

His reasonable response was, “Why are you talking mad to me, Mama? I can see if I was being disobedient to you, or talking disrespectfully to you, Mama. But I’m not doing any of those things, I’m just taking my time to pick the flowers for you, Mama.” I apologized immediately!

A few weeks ago we saw a larger woman in the store and I was absolutely mortified when Ransom said with excitement, “Look, Mama! That woman has at least two babies in her belly!”

A little while ago while we were reading a story in which there were “good guys,” and “bad guys,” Ransom said, “I’m so glad there are no bad guys in the whole world.” A statement that feels true to him but couldn’t be farther from the truth somehow gave his child-like faith and innocence a real beauty in my eyes.

Last week, we were reading the story of Jesus calming the sea in Ransom’s Bible. After we were done reading he smiled and said, “Oooh, Mama, can I have the power that Jesus had to calm the sea?” After some explanation he seemed to get it, but then after a long pause, he countered with, “just once? Please!”

Yesterday, Ransom had Dave & I cracking up when decided to sing us a little tune about finding treasure. As he held up some of his pirate treasure he sang:

“When the days go by… you will find GOLDEN! If you look with your GOLDEN eyes you will find treasure! If you find TREASURE it will bring you lots of toys! And then you can buy GOLDEN eyes, and golden hands & golden boobies!” (Which we unfortunately made Ransom comfortable with the word “boobies,” by constantly referring to Rhys’ breastfeeding times, as “time to get Booby milk.” Note to self and blog: must stop now before Ransom uses the word ‘boobies’ with someone else).

The song was so cute and I’m kicking myself that we didn’t get on tape. It was just hillarious with all his arm motions and creative thinking, which he gets from his Daddy.

-He loves spending time with his Daddy, which they do a lot. They plan trains together, they wrestle together, they load & unload the dishwasher together and they love doing Mr.-fix-it-tasks together. Ran grabs his tool box and hard hat and they go outside and fix stuff for hours and hours. He adores his Daddy.

Every week or so they go on longer hikes in some pretty beautiful trails not too far from our house.

He’s one of Dave’s greatest admirers always telling me if I can’t do something to “just wait until Daddy comes home, because Daddy can do anything.”

Ran & Dave have been going through The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe (book 1) of the Chronicles of Narnia book series. (Actually, they may in book 4 by the time this post takes flight). Despite Mr. Sleepy here in the above picture (he was sick), he is usually very engaged, asking questions and listening for about an hour at each session. Ransom has a sharp mind & a killer memory!

Ran is a great big brother. He loves Rhys a lot. He doesn’t spend a whole lot of time with him for obvious reasons – they are a full 4 years apart- but when he does he’s very good with him, very gentle and kind.

If Rhys is getting a little fussy most times Ran will stop what he’s doing to come over and talk to him or make him laugh. Or if Rhys happens to get one of his toys he’ll come over and take it away very nicely while calmly telling Rhys if he choked on one of his toys he could die. (Even if it’s something quite large that Rhys could never even get in his mouth in the first place). 😉

Almost every day tells Rhys he loves him, asks where he is when Rhys is napping, always thanks God for Rhys when he prays and is very sad if Rhys goes to bed at night without Ran getting to give him a hug and kiss goodnight. He loves Rhys very very much.

Is he sometimes a little rough with his baby brother?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

I’ll let you…

…be the judge…

…of that! 🙂

He also loves spending time with his Grandparents. “Grandma B,” Dave’s Mom, Sara comes over twice a month or so to watch the kiddos & help us out. (She’s the BEST mother’n’law EVER!) Ransom love love loves his Grandma B!

We have been so touched by how Ransom cared for the people in Haiti since the earthquake last January. We were purposeful to spend time explaining to him what happened and since then he prays for Haiti almost every night for dinner. He made certain he gave some of his money to buy things for “kids who don’t have any toys,” and he loves to hear Haiti updates.

Tonight we read one of the most recent updates World Vision sent us. It had the story of a little 4 year old boy named Schneily who lost a leg (just below the knee) when a wall collapsed on it. The picture shows Schneily trying to learn to walk with his new crutches. When I explained to Ransom how it happened by showing him with his own leg he said he wanted to pray for Schneily right then. He prayed:

“God, help Schneily to walk again God. God, help him to run, because he’s only 4 years old God! God, heal Schneily and give him his leg back God. Help everyone in Haiti to have their legs back God.”

It was incredibly touching. He knows God hears our prayers and shows this by going to God regularly on behalf of Daddy’s headache or a random toy he might want. At times, he will only be comforted by us praying for him when he’s just had a nightmare in the middle of the night.

I could go on & on with how sweet and lovely a person that Ransom is becoming. He’s such a creative, kind, wonderful gem.

And yes, sometimes we let him sleep in a laundry hamper for 20 minutes. He has all sorts of creative ideas and we try to allow them so long as it’s not too crazy — like, say, having the power of Jesus to calm a raging sea! 🙂