Play With Me!

.

We've been working on treating others they way you want to be treated. All of the kids understand the concept, but sometimes the execution of this wisdom falls short.

All Samuel ever wants to do is play with his older brother. Of course, Connor doesn't always want to play with him. Sometimes Samuel is okay with this and will play with something else. Other times, Samuel feels the need to hit him over the head until he decides to play with him--some might call it a bit cavemanish.

This morning I built a set of train tracks for Samuel in an attempt to keep him out of the other kids way. Samuel loves the trains and happily sat there "choo chooing" around the track.

Connor immediately wanted to play with the tracks, but not with the brother. Samuel didn't care that Connor dismantled his tracks and rebuilt it so that Samuel only had a tiny section with which to play. But Samuel did care when Connor took the rest of the tracks and moved about three feet away. When Samuel followed, Connor moved again. When Samuel followed again, Connor started to move again, but Samuel wouldn't hear of it.

"Owwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!" Connor cried (have I mentioned that he has the most irritating whiny cry ever...he really does.)

"Samuel, don't hit! Connor, just move your body, not the tracks." I said calmly from across the room. Samuel merely wanted to play at the same track set as Connor...he didn't care if he was on the other side of the tracks, just as long as they were together.

Connor ignored my sage words of advice and again tried to move the tracks. Samuel hit him with a train.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!"

"SAMUEL! DON'T HIT! ...Connor, share with him!" This time I followed up my admonition with a lecture to Connor.

"Are you treating Samuel the way you would want to be treated?"

"No," he whined. He knew where this conversation was headed.

"And what is happening as a result?"

"He's hitting me."

"Do you think that if you played with him instead of trying to be selfish with your toys, that he might stop hitting you?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Then play with him."

Now you might think I am being unfair to poor Connor...after all, he's the one who keeps getting hit. But he has two factors against him: a. he was the one who originally came over to play with Samuel's tracks-- and Samuel was wanting to share with him--Connor was wanting to steal the tracks for himself... a natural response for a sinful 2 year old is to hit. What other recourse does he have??? and b. Connor is five and Samuel is two...although Samuel was wrong in hitting, Connor is old enough to learn how to change his behavior to keep from having fights in the first place, so that I am not constantly having to play policeman...

But I digress...

Two minutes of quiet followed my lecture. Then... "OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!" However, this time I had been watching. Samuel hadn't hit Connor, he had just moved the track and accidentally bumped him. Connor was just worked up because he wasn't getting his way and when he does that, he tends to throw unnecessary fits. The next step, if I do not intervene and calm him down, will be Connor either hitting Samuel or biting Samuel--and he does both of those maliciously. It takes a lot to get him worked up, but once he is there, it is just an accident waiting to happen.

So, I intervened.

"Connor, go sit in the corner until you are calm enough to actually play with your brother...or at least until you are calm enough to play somewhere else without having a meltdown. And no whining!"

Connor immediately stopped the siren sound that irritates me so much and sat quietly crying in the corner. It is my version of counting to ten and he is free to leave the corner as soon as he feels he is under control. All of the kids take turns in the no-fit corner, but Connor might as well have his name written in gold on the wall.

But Samuel wasn't done playing with his brother.

"Samuel, stay away from him, Connor needs to calm down."

So Samuel did the only thing he could think of. He went and sat in the opposite corner.

Poor Connor...it must be horrible to be so idolized.

.

What I Learned from Thanksgiving/Ariana's Birthday

.

Ariana turned four yesterday...my baby girl is growing up so fast!

Well, I thought I would take advantage of Ariana not really understanding Thanksgiving, but desiring a party. So...Thanksgiving at cousin Brandon's house became (to Ariana's little mind) Ariana's birthday party. She didn't care...there were lots of people to play with, and she got to eat pie. It was a perfect day for her.

Ariana really enjoyed her day overall. She helped me bake her birthday cake, which was the highlight of her birthday....she got to lick the bowl. We also did other fun things like open presents and skip nap.

Yes, you heard me correctly...we skipped nap.

So, without further ado, here are some of the things I learned yesterday:

• Ariana REALLY likes cake batter.
• Telling small children that they should stay away from tiny infants is like telling flies to stay away from honey--it's not going to happen.
• Pecan pie is the best food ever made.
• Children are not very reasonable when they skip their naps.
• Although the food coloring LOOKS red, if it has a yellow cap, it is probably yellow.
• Blue and Red make purple...Yellow and Blue make green (okay I already knew that, but Ariana's cake sure didn't look right with green frosting...)
• Girls don't care if their frosting is green...as long as the sprinkles are pink.
• Grandma (in Iowa) likes to send the most obnoxious birthday cards ever. The kind with little singing people that the kids absolutely must play with over and over and over again....and fight over.
  
• Cake for dinner works well when you eat lunch at 3:00.
• If kids skip their nap, they think they are staying up late when it gets dark outside at 6 pm.
• From now on it is either Thanksgiving or Ariana's Birthday Party...Mommy gets too tired when it is both!

.

New Bedtime Song

.

Samuel recently chose a new bedtime song, seemingly at random. The song is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". I really have no idea where he learned this song, but he started asking me to sing the "baseball song", and this was the only one I could think of. He liked it when I sang it and it became his new favorite bedtime song.

The last couple nights, he has attempted to sing it with me. Here is his version: (words that are capitalized are the ones he yells with a huge grin on his face)

Take me.....BALL GAME

Take me........mumble

Buy me PEANUTS AND CRACK-ER JACKS

I ..... care .... BACK

Root, root, root for .... .... TEAM

If they don't win, THEY SHOULD SHARE

.... ONE, TWO, THREE mumble mumble

mumble BALL GAME!!!!

.

Educational Television

.

TV: Nine

(shows an image of a finger drawing a 9 with a circle and then a straight line down.)

Ariana: That's not a NINE! That's a P!

.

Fly Swatter

.

Honor to fly:

"Come here fly so I can kill you. It won't hurt. Hold still!"

.

Do Unto Others

.

Samuel is the best example ever for Luke 6:31

He is a complete mimic of his older siblings. If he gets hit, he will hit back. If Connor plays swords with his toy, Samuel plays swords with the same toy exactly the same way. If the kids share with him, he shares with them. If the kids play with him, he plays with them. If the kids yell at him, he yells at them.

I'm telling you, God couldn't have given me a better object lesson for my older three than their baby brother!

.

Good Answer

.

We encourage our kids to lock their door when they are trying to sleep so that their siblings do not attempt to disturb said sleep. Their rooms are in the basement...in their play area...so they often get up when they are not supposed to and play before we get a chance to catch them in the act. (We have a key for each of the rooms so we can get in and out, but the kids cannot.) Before we started having them lock their doors, when one sibling would wake up, the first thing they would do was try to wake up all the rest. Not very condusive to a good night's sleep!

Well, today during naptime, I heard doors being open and shut downstairs. Livid, I went storming down the stairs. Of course, both Connor and Ariana were in their rooms with the doors locked (Honor sleeps with me at naptime so I can make sure she takes a nap). I knew for sure Ariana had gotten up because I had heard her little voice in the basement only moments before, but I thought Connor had gotten up as well. Because both of their doors were locked, I tapped quickly on each of them--without saying anything--expecting them to jump up and unlock it for me like they usually do when they are awake.

Ariana didn't get up at all.

Connor responded like this: "Leave me alone! I'm supposed to stay in bed!"

He thought I was Ariana trying to play with him. He won the prize for obedience today!

.

Time is Relative

.

I really need to work on explaining time better to my girls...

Honor: "Aw, Mom! We've been waiting for a minute!"

Ariana: "When I grew up, when I was a baby, I slept in a cradle." (she didn't by-the-way, but that's what her dolls do...)

Honor: "Last week, when I was a baby, I was really cute!"

Honor: "Grandma is coming yesterday!"

Ariana: "Next week, when I am a Mommy..."

(I may add to this list...they say a lot of these types of sayings...these are all I can remember off the top of my head)

.

"Laughter Through Tears is My Favorite Emotion"

.

The kids and I came home from a playdate just in time for a good nap. While I was changing Samuel's diaper, I heard the girls in the bathroom getting into stuff they knew they weren't supposed to be getting into. They knew they were in trouble when I caught them. Ariana went running downstairs. I decided to finish putting Samuel to bed and then I would talk to her about it when I put her to bed.

Five minutes later, I was walking downstairs. I went to Ariana's room...the door was locked. "Ariana?" I called. No answer. I looked around the basement calling her name. No answer. This was very unusual--Ariana always answers. I figured she must be hiding, not wanting to get in trouble. I went upstairs and looked in all the closets and the pantry, calling her name. No answer. The backdoor was locked. The front door was locked. The garage door...was unlocked, and the actual garage door was open since we had just gotten home. I panicked. I ran outside and looked in the truck. No Ariana. I started screaming her name. No answer. I ran around the property, screaming her name at the top of my lungs. No answer. I thought for sure a cow and stepped on her.

By this point, Honor and Connor were also getting a little scared. They were helping me call for her. Still no answer. I grabbed the phone, about to call Daddy and then the police. I screamed once more at the top of my lungs inside the house. This time I got an answer.

Ariana came walking upstairs yelling for me. She had been hiding in Connor's room, playing "hide from Mommy". It was the one room in the house I didn't look in because I thought his door was locked like Ariana's had been.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" I yelled. And then I started bawling inconsolably. I picked up Ariana and hugged her to me as tight as I possibly could. She started crying too and promised me she would never hide from me again.

I put her down in bed for nap and tucked her in. Once I could form a coherent sentence without blubbering, I knelt to pray. I thanked God for keeping her safe. I thanked Him that we found her and that she was unharmed. I asked Him to comfort me and calm me down. Then I asked Him to help Ariana take a good nap.

Honor: Can I pray too?

Mommy: Of course!

Honor knelt by Ariana's bed solemnly and spoke in a very serious little voice:

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you that Ariana was in Connor's room..."

I burst out laughing. I must have looked really silly to the kids. In their minds, Ariana was just in Connor's room. What's so scary about that?

And with the laughter through tears...God comforted me and calmed me down, releasing the burden of panic I had felt. I love it when He answers prayers immediately.

.

Play Dough

.

I won a small fight in my never-ending battle to escape the holds of obsessive compulsiveness/ perfectionist tendencies today. I am actually quite proud of myself. Until recently, I was a bit paranoid about play dough colors mixing. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I have actually spent time taking specks of the "wrong" colors out of the play dough cups. sigh.

But today I had a break-through. Guess what? Play dough costs less than $0.50 each....even less if I were creative enough to make it myself! If the kids want to mix it together...that's... OKAY.

Take a deep breath. It's just play dough.

I think I shall make this my new philosophy on life.

.

MOOOOOOOOOOOM!

.

Do you know how many times a day I hear the word, "MOM" whined at me??? I'm starting to cringe any time I hear the word.

"Moooom! I don't WANT to eat that!"
"Moooooooooooom! Connor is biting Samuel!"
"Moooooom! Honor just took the peanut butter jar downstairs!"
"Mooooooooom! Ariana is LOOKING at me!"

...it's enough to make me want to scream. Which I did the other day. I screamed and threw the dry mop up the stairs. My kids looked at me like I had gone crazy...maybe I have.

I need a vacation.

.