I Don't Get It

I look him in the eye, state my instructions very clearly in plain English. He nods his head, in what I perceive to be a gesture of agreement. I turn my head for one tiny second and he does the very thing I said not to do.
I don't get it.
He inflicts pain on his brother. He torments the dog. He throws dirt on his friend.
Rinse and repeat.
I don't get it.
It could be an extremely long summer if Luke and I go toe to toe every single day.

Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Heather and Scott's birthdays over the long weekend. That's Amy sneaking into the picture. There is always an extraneous person peaking into a photo in this family. A real cropping adventure for this scrapper. (That's scrapbook talk, for those who don't partake in the world's most fantastic hobby). Anywho, the weather was beautiful for the party at Grandma and Papa's. It was a nice relaxing day. Steve manned the grill and mom put out a nice spread of vittles. I think we even all complained that we were too hot. How quickly we have forgotten the long, soggy days of spring.

Whew! We Made It!

Today was Luke's last day of preschool. Just like that, our rookie season is behind us. I'm not sorry to see it go. I am, however, a bit intimidated by the thought of summer stretching out before us with very few plans in place. Who will entertain him now? If this rain doesn't stop, it could be a long ride until September. Someone made a DVD of all the pictures taken during the year. It was fun to see how much everybody had changed since last fall.

The Titan of Tantrums

So disgusted I can't even show my face!
Let me outta this chair!

Meanwhile, Luke is busy preventing illness and building new structures...

This was actually an uneventful afternoon at our house. Summer lasted all of 3 days for us, now we're back to the mundane sogginess we've come to know so well.

Andy started throwing these giant tantrums a few weeks ago. Anything can set him off. On Saturday, he got so upset when things didn't go his way that he ended up falling on his face and scraping his forehead and nose on the sidewalk.

The good news is, Luke has sort of tapered off on the drama for now. He had a big day pretending to put out fires, checking my heart and teeth with his doctor kit and pausing to build a few towers with his Wedgits blocks. Oh, to have the energy of a 4 year old.

Big Fun with Grandma and Papa

I think this might be Andy's first mower ride. He looks a little uncertain, but he didn't cry.

Check out the face mask! I always liked to wear that mask when I was little, too.

A future farmer or master gardener is in the works, I think.

I took the boys to visit my parents and grandmother on Friday. All they wanted to do was play outside and ride the mower. I'm so glad it wasn't raining. Luke likes to wear Papa's face mask and help water the flowers. He calls it planting. "Mom, we have to plant!"

I wish I could get tulips to grow like that. So pretty.

The Buzz Cut

Steve took Andy for a haircut yesterday. "Make it as short as you can," he said. Well, she listened. I don't think it could be any shorter. I was a little sad when he came home. Where did my baby go? But he is cuter than cute, if I do say so myself. The preschool moms were very complimentary today and most had a similar story. I'm just glad it isn't hanging in his eyes anymore.

An Amazing Story, Grab the Kleenex

I'm typically not one to post about intense topics. However, I was surfing around my favorite blogs and came across the story of the Smith Family. I'm not very blog savvy, so forgive my ignorance in providing links. You'll find it, I'm sure. Their blog is audreycaroline.blogspot.com and I might suggest you click on the link at the left sidebar that says you can read their story from the beginning. If you just start with their most recent post, it won't make a lot of sense.
You can also go to http://withoutwax.tv/2008/04/28/rocked-to-my-core/ and watch a video presentation of their story. It is about 25 minutes long.
If you are a person struggling with issues of faith, loss, suffering and moving forward, you might be changed by this video. If you are a woman who has ever lossed a child or struggles to encourage one who has, this story is one you need to hear.

It is difficult to listen to and read about, but their attitude and willingness to be used by God is really inspirational. Get comfy and grab your Kleenex.

Yakkity Yak, Don't Talk Back

This is our new mantra. We visited a counselor this week to gain some insight on our beloved Luke's interesting and astonishing behavior. She was quite interesting herself and presented a few simple solutions. First, he needs 11 hours of sleep. I nearly laughed out loud. He gets about 9 most days and refuses to nap. Did I mention he usually gets up at 5 or 5:30 am on a regular basis? It's delightful. No one should have to parent a child at that hour of the day. But, we tucked him in at 7pm for two nights in a row. He was like a different kid the next day. I actually enjoyed being his mother again. Amazing!
The next recommendation was talk less and do more; no lectures, no warnings. This translates to taking action immediately when he behaves poorly. She said we were talking at him so much that he had probably just tuned us out. Since our consequences weren't very severe, he didn't really have a reason to modify his behavior. Hmmmm. Lazy parenting is a difficult habit to break. I'm trying, but I find myself falling back on the same old behaviors.
The last suggestion was a book called Raising a Spirited Child. I already owned it, but hadn't read it yet. I'll keep you posted on that one.
It feels so good to talk to someone outside of the situation. I feel as though a huge burden was lifted.