As I was reading to the boys before bed last night, Melia was wandering around the room...sometimes sitting in my lap to look at the book and sometimes entertaining herself with the boys toys. At one point, she climbed into Logan's bed. Logan was laying on his back, and Melia plopped herself hard onto his stomach. As she did so, she "did a stinker" rather loudly. Being boys, Logan and Cael totally cracked up. Being a girl with big brothers, Melia got a large, proud smile on her face and said, "Burp!" (Which made me laugh out loud. Thank goodness she doesn't know the word "fart"...yet.)

"More than anything, I want my kids to be happy."

I nearly wrote that line in my journal several weeks ago as I was describing our experience of taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. I didn't write it. Instead, I ended up thinking about it. A lot. For days. And, I have come to the conclusion that there definitely are things I want for my children MORE than I want for them to be happy.

If my chief concern as a parent was the happiness of my children, I would give them everything they ever asked for. Every toy in a store that struck their fancy. Every item on a commercial that caught their attention. If my chief concern as a parent was the happiness of my children, I would never discipline them. I would never do anything to cause them confusion or sadness or pain. I would never tell them "no." If my chief concern as a parent was the happiness of my children, I would never make th ...

On our way home from school today, Logan was picking on Cael...just really annoying him. At one point, Logan pinched Cael on the arm. Cael was wearing his winter coat, so it certainly didn't hurt him, but he immediately began to whine about it.

Cael: [whining] Mooooom, Logan pinched me.

Me: Cael, what do you need to do before you tattle to me?

Cael: Pinch him back?!

(In case you are curious, the "correct" answer was that Cael needed to tell Logan, "Please stop pinching me. I don't like it when you do that." But, hey...pinching him back sounds like a better option, doesn't it?! I was cracking up. Cael just sounded so hopeful when he said it, like he knew that wasn't the right answer, but it was what he really wanted to do.)

The boys were watching "Ice Age" yesterday. During the opening credits, they show cave painting representations of the characters in the movie. The following "conversation" took place between the boys...

[drawing of Manny appears]
Logan: Manny
Cael: Manny
[drawing of Sid appears]
Logan: Sid
Cael: Sid
[drawing of cave man appears]
Logan: Cro-Magnon man
Cael: Cro-Magnet man

I was impressed that Logan knew such a sophisticated term for "cave man",
and what Cael repeated was just so cute. :)

A random collection of recent conversations with the boys...

We were all shopping at Target. Todd and the boys were looking at action figures. Each boy had chosen a few that they wanted. One of the figures was just really ugly and creepy looking. Realizing that I shouldn't say, "Do you really want this ugly one?"...because I know that I don't want to teach them to value worth based on physical appearance... I merely asked Logan, "Are you sure you want this guy?" Without missing a beat, he said to me, "Of course I do. What's a hero without a bad guy." Who was I to argue with that logic?!

****************

Last night, as I was putting the boys to bed, I told them to both go to the bathroom. Logan said to me, "To be honest with you, I don't have to go right now." (The funny part is, that is a phrase I realized that I use myself fairly often...altho ...

The directions were to make bold whichever ones you have done, so this is what I've done.

 1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ron stopped at our house yesterday morning to give the kids some small Christmas gifts. One of the things in Cael's bag was a pair of socks (those low "no-show" kind...I don't know what they are called, but you know what I mean, right?) with bright green tyranosaurus rex dinosaurs all over them. He immediately put them on...wore them all day...took off his shoe to show them to the girl who cut his hair yesterday afternoon...slept in them...

I made him wear black socks with his black pants to church this morning, to his dismay. We had not been in the door after church for two minutes when he took off his coat, shoes, and black socks...ran upstairs...and came back down (still in all his church clothes) wearing his green t-rex socks. What a hoot. Who would have ever known that he would fall in love with something like that? You just never know what's gonna float their boat!

In the middle of the night, very early Tuesday morning, we got about an inch of snow. It was enough that I had an hour delay from school that morning. The boys were so excited about the snow. It was all they talked about while getting dressed and eating breakfast...

How long has it been snowing?
How long will it snow?
Is it snowball snow?
Can we make a snowman?
Can we play outside?
Can we use our sled after school?

And on and on. As I was trying to finish up the things I needed to do to get us out the door, I told the boys they could go out and "play" in the snow in the driveway. They enjoyed that immensely and spent about 10 minutes laughing, running, throwing snow, and stomping around making tracks. It was fun to listen to as I packed my lunch, bundled Melia into her coat and hat, put her in the carseat, and loaded my stuff into the car.

As we were dr ...

When Todd went to pick Logan up from Children's Church on Sunday morning, Sharon Bowers told him about a funny incident...

She was telling the class the story of Jonathan and David. They talked about how Jonathan and David were best friends. Then she was telling them how Kind Saul became jealous of David because he was worried that God might want David to be the new king.

Logan politely raised his hand and said to her, "I hate to tell you this, but David DOES become the new king!!!"

Sharon said it was just so funny. I was proud of him for remembering the story from when we'd read it with the boys from their children's devotional Bible.

Sweet, silly little boy.

To properly get a picture of this story in your head, you need to visualize exactly what Cael is talking about. Picture a plastic hanger...the kind that kids two-piece clothes are hanging on in the store. The kind where the whole thing is made out of plast. That has the hook at the top, then the curved or straight part where the shirt goes. Then there is a straight plastic part down the middle, then the bar with thelittle clips or tabs where the pants or diaper cover goes. Am I making sense here? Here is a link (I don't know if it works) to what I am talking about if you really need a visual...

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/200041172/Children_infant_Clothes_Hanger_Frame_Hanger.summ.jpg

I was cleaning out Melia's closet last weekend...taking out summer clothes, putting in fall clothes. I had a bunch of plastic store hangers of all types ...