Dreamer

This morning Lily was very excited to share a dream she had with us. She was getting her ears pierced, but it hardly hurt at all. She said that it felt just like a little pinprick. Then she said that there were a bunch of earrings to choose from and they all had gems in them. She got to pick out a bunch. On top of that, she got matching necklaces for all of it. I suspect she was talking about pendants.

The really great part? The total cost for all of this was only $10. Now that's a dream that dad can get behind too!

Chips Off the Old Block

Tuesdays are a different kind of weeknight for us. Lily has ballet from 5:15-6:15, so I usually pick her up after work. This gives me a chance to get a few things done like reading or sermon preparation in the hour of 4:30-5:30. However, in the past there have been some fireworks when Lily has disagreed with something.

Because of this, I thought I'd just check in yesterday with a quick text message to see how things were going. Apparently they were fine. Amanda responded, "Lily's doing homework on the toilet." That's my girl! Way to multitask!

We've been weaning Noah off of his blanket and I thought that we had really turned a corner, but he woke up last night crying. Amanda had to get it out and bring it to him. That seemed to settle him down. He knows that he will be giving it up when he turns 5. He can sleep without it, but he'd rather have it.

Properly Motivated

We have had a pretty set pattern for the evenings at our house. I come home and we eat dinner. We do our prayer and catechism time after dinner and then the kids have their treat. I play with the kids then they bathe and go to bed. I suspect many of you can relate.

I’ve learned that a little outside-the-box thinking is sometimes necessary. Lily and Noah have started showering instead of taking baths. For the most part, this works OK, but it can go a little long. What I’ve started doing is to have them shower before we do anything fun. Lately we have been playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. The last time I tried to play this with Lily she was terrified, but now she is really enjoying the story. Noah of course loves seeing the battles.

This seemed to motivate them to take a quick shower yesterday. They still left a mess, but I consider this progress. Noah seems to respond really well when there is a positive motivation and Lily is coming along too.

Busy Weekend

We had a particularly social weekend. On Friday Lily had a play date with her classmate Grace and she stayed for dinner, which was nice. I got pizza from Sam’s Club. I was a little embarrassed to find that Grace’s family attends St. Michael’s Catholic Church when I had bought pepperoni pizza, but Grace assured me that it was not a problem. 

Saturday I had my semi-regular early morning meeting with men from my church. We had plans to have dinner with the Amatos. Jerry is the other newly-ordained elder at our church. That required some preparation, mostly for Amanda. We also had to get things ready for Sunday. Saturday evening was a really nice time with them and the Stansberrys. The kids had a great time together, as usual.

Sunday we had another family from church over for lunch. We’re trying to practice hospitality more often, so this was part of that. Our goal with this church is for it to be a family and sharing meals is something that families do. Our kids had a great time together as well, so that was nice.

But when it was all over Amanda and I agreed that it was a lot of extroversion for us. Meanwhile, Lily had a great time. Noah had a good time too, but he doesn’t feed off the social interaction like Lily does.

The icing on the cake for me was when both of them begged me to play chess at the end of the day. Lily then wanted to play with my set rather than hers. The reason is that my set has two queens for each color (in case you promote a pawn) and that would be better for the games she plays with the pieces.