The Kids

#1 - I can't wait until he gets home from school.  Our final shipment of goods came today and his football was in there.  It's really hard for a boy who is planning on being an NFL football player to be satisfied with hitting a volleyball back and forth with his Mom (although he's been a good sport about doing it just the same).

#2 - I went to an event that required me putting my hair in something other than a ponytail and #2 was so excited she couldn't get out from underneath my feet.  She brought me everything I needed for my hair and then some.  Her final touch was to put a fake-pearl bracelet around the bun in my hair.  I really think she's a fun girl and she just might motivate me to look a little more done-up a little more often.

#3 - Yesterday we played Settlers of Cataan Jr. together.  He totally beat me the first round so I, of course, had to ask him for another round.  He said, "Sure."  And then he said, "I'll play with you again Mom because you don't get to play games very often because you work a lot and I want you to be able to have fun."  That's #3 right there, logically sweet and sweetly logical.

#4 - This girl has been going around writing "I love you" notes all over the place.  The other day she got a bunch of paper out and then came and asked me for some tape.  Using black electrical tape, the only tape I could find in this place, we taped together a piece of paper wrapped around another piece of paper that she very adamantly didn't want me to look at because it was a surprise.  She carried her electrical-tape package around the house for the next hour telling everybody, with her big brown eyes wide with excitement, that she had a surprise for the family.  At dinner time she stood up and announced she was ready to give us her gift and undid the tape to pull out a sign that said, "I love you" and then listed all the family members' names.  She nodded her head at us, grinned, took for granted that all of us were as thrilled as she was (which I love about her!), and fully enjoyed her big surprise.  I love her heart full of love.

#5 - The boy stumbles out of bed wanting to know if I want to play Star Wars with him.  He is Luke Skywalker.  He's not Han, or Yoda, or Chewy, or O-Ben, he is Luke Skywalker with a period.  We color together every day in a Star Wars coloring book and he can tell me what color each Jedi's light saber is supposed to be.  What is it with boys being able to so easily absorb Star Wars facts?  The kid has seen the movies maybe once.  I've seen them way more than once.  And all I can say is I think Darth Vader's light saber is red.

#6 - So I've been working on helping the littlest boys learn to sit quietly.  Every day I have #5 and #6 sit on small blankets and look at books quietly so they can earn candy.  We started with 1 minute and have worked our way up to 7 minutes of quiet stillness...well lets be honest, #5 has been the only one to acheive either quietness or stillness.  After repeated efforts at stealing one of #5's books, #6 ended up in my lap today and we considered his work a success when he whispered half of the time.  We'd go along whispering "There's a ball.  Red umbrella.  That's a monkey."  Then he'd turn a page and shout, "What's this Mom?  What's this?"  And I'd whisper back, "I can't tell you until you whisper to me."  To which he would reply loudly, "Bumbrella!  Bumbrella!"  And I'd persist in a whisper, "That's right.  Now can you whisper it to me?"  And then he'd touch my face and say, "Sorry Mom," in a whisper.  Then he'd continue on quietly, "Bumbrella," until five words later when he was yelling, "Monkey!" again.  I think it will be a minute before the boy sits through an entire sacrament meeting.