Yay, You!

One of our most recent library book aquisitions is the book Yay, you! by Sandra Boynton. On one of the pages, there are two pictures side by side. One

reads, "Do you want to be terribly busy?" and includes a pictures of the bear character sitting at a desk covered by papers, typing on a computer, clutter all over the room etc. The other page reads, "or not?" with a picture of the bear floating in an inner-tube with a glass of lemonade on his tummy.

I've read the book to all three boys individually now twice and they've each answered in the same way each time.

Micah- Wants "to be terribly busy," Elijah? "or not", and Isaiah just wants the lemonade from the off of the bear's tummy as far as I could tell. :)

Conversations...

Me: (calmly) Elijah, do not ride down the sidewalk again. We're going inside.
Elijah ignoring me.
Me: (Still calmly) Elijah, I know you can hear me. We're going inside. DO NOT go down that hill.
Elijah still ignoring me, turns his bike around to face downhill.
Me: (Raising my voice a little) Elijah! You heard me!
Elijah finally gets off his bike and walks over to the step where I'm standing.
Me: Why aren't you listening to me?
Elijah: You were talking so calmly, I didn't think you really meant it.
Me: What? Every time I ask you to do something I mean it. I shouldn't have to get angry before you obey.

I was really annoyed by his comment and I'm still thinking about what this means to us as parents in teaching our children to listen, but it also got me thinking about how often we as adults don't really listen until it is urgent. How often does God have to "raise his voice" to get my attention? Do I practice listening to Him all of the time instead of just when circumstances get difficult? Ahh the lessons of parenting.

Bricks, rocks and boards? or boat?

Uncle Garth and Dillan, these pictures are for you. Does this look at all familiar? It should. How many hours of our childhoods were spent building things out of the scraps in the brick yard and the shop? The boys found a bunch of scrap wood and bricks behind our shed and have been busily building on what used to be our lawn for several days. The grass was dead long before they started, but I think it's lost all hope for recovery at this point. They reminded me of us.
This is Isaiah contemplating mass destruction while his brothers are gone. When it was finished Elijah insisted that it was a boat complete with motor, sail and seats.

Pictures

We weren't even going to attempt a group picture, but they were all doing really well so we got lucky with this shot.
Elijah at 5 years and 4 months old.
Isaiah at 2 years and 2 months old.
Micah at 3 years and 4 months old.
Picture day with the boys was actually about a month ago, but I've been slow getting them uploaded. The guy at Sears did a great job!

Raven Run Nature Preserve

Hoooray!!! The weather finally cooled off a little this weekend. We were down to a high of only 92 today, and the humidity was bearable, so we had to find a good reason to spend some time outside enjoying it. We decided to take the boys hiking this afternoon. Elijah, of course, needed to know the plan and as many details as we could provide about the park. He was skeptical to say the least. How could a park with no playground be any fun at all? Raven Run Park is about 20 minutes from Nicholasville. There are quite a few trails and a little nature center with stuffed, wild animals and some live turtles in a tank. You would have thought it was the Cincinnati zoo. Kids are so easy to please. We were really thankful for our off-roading stroller- the one we haul behind the bike for Micah and Isaiah. A regular stroller could never have handled the trails, and Isaiah needed to be pushed most of the way. Actually, Micah surprised us by walking almost the whole way. Elijah rode more than Micah did. We ate a picnic dinner after our hike, and on the way home in the van Elijah said, "Mommy, I guess nature parks can be fun," so I guess that means it was a successful trip. Incidentally, we saw a family there with like 8 kids, the oldest being maybe 15. The dad carried a 2-3 month old baby on his arm both times we saw them, and the 10-11 year old son had a Baby Bjorn on carrying a baby that looked to be about 9 months old. They were enjoying the FREE entertainment of the nature preserve as well. Does is seem like big families are more common than they used to be, or is it just me?