Wow, having 2 extra little bodies in the house full-time has been interesting for sure! I don’t necessarily think it’s “harder” but just different really. The girls behave very well for the most part and seem to respond to me well so far. Danielle and I have “conversations” sometimes over her bossiness and noseyness. She seems to think that EVERYTHING is her business and frequently asks questions about why one of the boys may have time out or whatever. I don’t mind letting her know that it really is none of her concern unless I’m talking to her. She takes it pretty well most of the time. I just need to get better about how to answer “Why?” and “How come?” questions. 🙂 I don’t mind them so much when she’s just an inquiring mind, but when she answers me that way when I’ve asked them to do something I nip it in the bud. I do NOT want Qade thinking it’s an appropriate way to respond to me.
I already have plenty to deal with in that quarter. I was telling my mom the other day that I didn’t expect to run into certain attitudes and expressions from my son until he was much closer to being a teen!! Recently though, he has picked up a nasty habit of “sassing” and even pointing at me or Stuart as he get’s this totally teen expression on his face that says, “you can’t tell me what to do!” Oh yeah. I’ll tell ya that it’s not working out so well for him, but his little strong will still has yet to be broken over this one. Poor kid comes by it naturally unfortunately. I know our kids are born depraved little sinners, but sometimes I’d like to think that they aren’t really “that bad.” It’s wrong thinking though, and I just need to pray harder that God will help us get through to our little 3 yr old rebel! Qade gets his stubborn streak from me, I’m afraid, but has also inherited his Daddy’s temper. I’m so glad that God has given Stuart victory over that part of his character. I’m not sure if I have victory over mine yet. 😉 But at least since we’ve each had to deal with those struggles ourselves, and seen what God can do in us, we’ll be able to help guide Qade as he has to begin to deal with those same struggles. Right now those parts of his personality are working against him, but I know that they can become some of his biggest strong points if rightly controlled. It’s just the process that’s painful. There are some days where I honestly do just want to throw my hands up in the air because I just do not know what else to do. Then there are sweet days where we are working together, it seems, and can see some good progress. Hopefully the bad days get fewer while the good days get gooder!!
Having 4 little kids in the house does bring up some amusing moments for me though! For instance, Qade is totally “into” going pee outside! He and his cousin Aiden had many bonding moments with this particular activity. I need to apologize to the girl’s mom though because they aren’t used to boys. One day Danielle thought, “Well if he can do it, I can!” I’m sure you can predict the outcome there. 😉 We had to change her pants due to the “accident” as she called it. I was smiling to myself over it, but just let her know that if she needs to go while we’re playing outside to let me know and she can go in, because girls can’t go outside like boys can. Ha ha ha!!
Myles has been getting much better with his words lately. I don’t know if it’s the infuluence of the little jabber-jay bird who comes to our house now or if he’s just “getting big” as Qade would say about him. Myles loves a couple special songs and will “sing” them around. One is “If You’re Happy” song that I sing to him when I’m changing his diaper. He gets lots of tickles when I do sing it, so he’ll climb up on his table and grin at me while he starts to sing, “Happy-know” over and over! 🙂 Cracks me up!! but it’s not nearly as funny as when he sings “Jesus loves me!” When he sings that one it sounds like this, “Ee-suh uhh-me, iss ah-no! For, five six!” Ah, ha ha ha!! I laugh every time he does it!! His favorite “movie” in all the world is this “Farmer Dillo” thing that came with a book. It’s a counting book so he’s learning to count pretty good!
The preschool part of life is going well. I was a little overwhelmed at first because there is SOOOOOO much packed into that curriculum, that I’d be doing school all day to get through it all. Not a possibility right now. But it even tells you at the beginning of the teachers guide that you have to taylor it to your own “school” needs and gives great guidelines on how to do that. I’m just an over achiever. 😉 Yeah, we’ll go with that! Anyway, I’ve been keeping it as simple as possible and focusing on the MAIN concepts. For example today the kids were supposed to color some triangles and then cut them out!!! Well this is the first time that Qade has been legally allowed to touch scissors so of course he wasn’t even going to come close to cutting the lines of the triangles out. Rather than put that stress on both of us by trying to “help” him cut them or “make” him cut them, I just let him get used to holding scissors and figuring out how they cut without getting his fingers! 🙂 We got lots of little pieces of paper, and not one triangle out of the deal! 🙂 BUT he was really concentrating, and I could tell that he was proud of his “accomplishments” anyway. Plus he knows what a triangle is. Success!!! 🙂 The boy really does astonish me with how well he learns, but I don’t want to push him beyond what he’s really ready for right now. The other day I read the kids a story about the city mouse and country mouse. It was a short blurb from the curriculum so no pictures! Then I asked some yes or no follow up questions just to see how their comprehension was. Qade got EVERY ONE right!!! I was shocked!! He’s a good listener…. sometimes. 😉
One more Qade story and then I’ll quit. 😉 The other night Stuart asked Qade if he wanted to pray for dinner, and Qade said okay. So Stu prompted him a little bit and then Qade added, on his own, “Thank you for mommy and Daddy and Myles and playing outside.” Awwwww! I love to hear him pray or hear Myles chirp up “AMEN” at the end of a prayer! It’s neat to see the way that bringing them up thinking about the REALITY of God really does make an impact on them, even at this very young age.
Have a great week friends!