John Timothy

John Timothy.  Third in line of a variety of spotlight seekers…. this guy likes to slip into the background and light things up back stage with his sweetness, joy, and humble hilarity.    It's true, a lot of people notice John's endearing silliness, easy to enjoy personality.  

He's usually pretty chivalrous too but every now and then he takes a crooked big brother pleasure in making Vivi scream and seeing her try to hit him or chase him down.  She never wins and he loves it.    

Down deeper, he has a heart of fierce compassion for the broken and hurting.  When we were in Hong Kong, his heart crashed for beggars we saw.  Their pain was too painful for him.  We walked by one place a twice, seeing horribly scarred, broken bodies, poor people begging both times.  The third time we walked that way, John decided he would not go there again.  It was too sad, to hard for him to see.   One man in particular, had been burned more grievously than I could ever describe.  I am praying, believing that the Lord will grow this child's heart of sadness for pain into a man's heart of action, moving him with faith and love and compassion for the sake of the lost, the poor, the broken.  

Oct 2013

John likes a good compliment.  If I make a tasty meal it's never "nice" or "good,"  it's "the best meal ever!"  And when I made Yellow Chicken (adapted from this post) for the first time this summer, he said that line and asked if I would make it for him "a hundred times."  (You betcha.)   For the restaurant across the street from our complex?  John improved the name so that it's "Bai Xing Awesome Chufang."  

He's pretty into superlatives too, especially about God.  "God has the biggest sandbox ever" (ever, usually spoken like a native Bostonian) and "God can lift up the tallest building ever." and "God knows everyone's hairs... like maybe if there's seven or ten or something."  

This too…  In an effort to seal the deal and swing the vote on the crunchy vs. creamy battle between the boys and Marian, he just told his little sister  "Vivi, even God likes crunchy peanut butter.  You should too!"

Once, I thought that what our son was choosing was a bit odd and surprising.   He asked if he could do my hair.   "Alright"…  but as soon as I sat down in front of the couch I imagined that Matt wouldn't be so excited that I let our son play hair stylist.  Then, pretty quick into my hair styling session, John divided my hair into two camps:  Pharaoh's army and the Israelites.  There was even a battle between the two fists of hair.  I knew then that Daddy would let the hairstyling slide this time...

And kisses…. watch out for these kisses.  Actually, never mind.  I think I'm the only person on the planet who gets them.  But my, oh my.  He's a slobbery kisser.  He'll reach for my neck, pull my face close, kissy lips ready and puckered with goo to leave his mark on my cheek.  I wipe it all clean, but I do absolutely love it.  Just love this boy…

He just loves some favorite clothes….  There's the pair of camo shorts passed down from Isaiah that he's loved so well the bottom is mostly shredded.  He wears them every day he can find them (when they're not in the wash) with his Mr. Met shirt, so he calls them "my Mr. Met shorts."  He's not allowed to wear them out of the house, or if there's anyone else at our house.   And I'm pretty stoked we're moving soon so they can get tucked away for safe-keeping since we'll be landing to much cooler weather indoors and out!

John's not too terribly interested in letters.   Several of his close peers are reading now but on the grand scale, he's not behind at all.  He'll be five this summer.  He's bilingual.  And he's still not totally solid on his letters and sounds.  He's usually pretty ok with it, except that he knows Vivi's coming close, if not surpassing him in phonics, and I think that spurs him on….  But tonight, as I finished reading aloud, he told me that he was writing a book.  He finished chapter one and titled it with the name of his favorite chapter from Little House on the Prairie, "Scream in the night" (about a panther screaming outside.)  We read that book a few months ago but that favorite chapter stayed with him.  So he's loyal too...

And affectionate.  But five love languages really doesn't cut it for us Ks.  One of John's love languages is definitely Punching.  As soon as Matt sits down at the table, if John is in his seat, Matt can be sure of a swift thump on his left arm.  Pure affection and admiration from little boy to dad.   Father and son both light up with joy for that punch love.  

And they share a joy in sports too.  John is naturally quite athletic…. easiest to learn to bike ride, fast runner, tough batter.  And when, at basketball practice recently, a coach explained that the littlest kids wouldn't be held accountable for no traveling, John grabbed a ball and ran the whole length of the court.  Goofball.   

There was a time one afternoon recently when he laid down to rest and he asked me for his "special blanket" and I went and found it for him.  Then he asked for another blanket.  When I told him he could go and get it for himself, he lost his manners.  (John has a bit of a problem with fussing right now… we're working on it and we're seeing very (very) little improvement yet... but we really are working on it and one day he'll move past this, right!???)  John started in with his classic fuss:  "I don't want to go and get it.  I hate getting things by myself."  I asked him to be quiet and then I had to mention that there would be consequences if he continued fussing.  That's when he expressed himself most clearly:  "I don't like consequences.  I don't ever want consequences."    At that point, there were certainly enough words from my end to explain to him what's what about consequences…. but I'm pretty positive all he heard was "…let's cuddle once you calm down."

And that's all the stories I can think to share of our little big boy, the wonderful treasure of a son, John Timothy K.    We praise the Lord for you, John Love.