Big Hugs, Strong Bond

We are very grateful that our boys have a strong bond with each other.  We had wanted them to have a good, solid relationship and at the moment they really do.  We only hope it continues as they get older.  When Josiah left for Trail Life this week, Henry told me he was sad.  He said he missed Josiah, but then added that he was glad that Josiah got to go to Trail Life.  A little later I checked my phone and Todd had texted me that Josiah missed Henry.  Josiah was talking about Henry as they were driving to his meeting and wanted to let him know he missed him.

Sometimes their enthusiasm for each other does seem a little intense.  We started our new P.E. class this week.  The instructor has his own karate studio and so he is the typical martial arts instructor - very orderly, no goofing off, the kids stay on task.  It is good!  He teaches them to be respectful as well, both to him, to each other, and to the facility.  They meet twice a week.  They really liked it, but on Friday, when they met outdoors, the boys kept hugging each other.  A lot!  These are not just little, friendly hugs.  These are giant bear hugs, long embraces, lots of squeezing and neither wants to let go first.

Our boys on the right.

We played a fun game with ice cubes for Henry's school.  The object was to melt your ice cube the fastest, but it was all based on the roll of the dice.  If you rolled a one, you sprinkled salt on it; rolled a two, you held it in your hand for 10 seconds; rolled a three, and you put it in a dish of water; rolled a four, and you had to stick it down your shirt; etc.  It was pretty fun and it was interesting what made the ice melt fastest.  The salt really helped, especially if it went in the bowl of water soon afterwards.  Definitely a "keeper" game.

adding salt

We have been working a lot on pronouncing our words, letters, and letter pairs.  Josiah has been working on saying the "th" sound correctly, he tends to substitute the "f" sound for it.  Because I am always working on this with Josiah, I was trying to make sure Henry pronounced everything correctly to be more proactive!  It was a bit more difficult with him since he's missing his one front tooth.  We use those teeth a lot when we speak, especially the "th" sound!  Henry also uses the "w" sound for all his "L's."  Caroline likes to get in the mix as well.  Whenever we go over the sounds of the letters using a little rhyme from Henry's book, Caroline likes to say it with us.  I am over-joyed that she wants to say it with us, because if she can learn all the correct sounds at 2 then we are going to be doing well when she's 6.  She, however, has a tendency to over-use her tongue when pronouncing the letters.  Sticking it very far out, even when it is totally unnecessary.  Again, having front teeth would help her as well.  Unfortunately, Henry gets super mad when she joins in because he fears she will know more than him.  Typical sibling issues, I suppose.  I had a younger sibling always tell me that he was smarter than me and I'd often respond with the ultra-mature, "Oh yeah, well then why are you in 3rd grade and I'm in 6th grade?"  No one wants their younger sibling to be smarter than them.  (Of course, he is now an anesthesiologist, so there may have been some truth to it.  I only say, may, though.  I haven't seen his SAT scores.  He hasn't seen my MCAT scores either.  :))
    
Henry had a great time at Awana this week.  When I picked him up, he had such a big grin and said he had a surprise to show us when we got home.  He wanted to make sure everyone could see what he had made.  He kept hinting at it on the way home, clearly proud of his creation.  At home, he finally took it out to show us.  It was a picture of Moses and the burning bush.  For us, it looked like his other pictures, but it was really something special for him.  It is now hanging up in our bedroom.  :)

Josiah has been wanting to go to Sweet Tomatoes with just me, so we finally made it happen this weekend.  I think he liked the company a just fine, but he loved the food.

Especially dessert.

Trying to meet some new people at our church, we went to a Super Bowl party this afternoon.  The kids all played really well (huge sigh of relief) with the other kids and we all had fun.  We all seem to really like this church.  Except Henry.  Oh, Henry.  He did not do well at drop-off in the morning and we didn't get a very good report at pick-up either.  We are going to be praying hard for him this week, to actually enjoy his class - to participate so that he can enjoy it.  Of course class isn't very fun when you choose to sit and do nothing for 2.5 hours!  If only we could convince him that class would be much more fun if he participated and played and colored and played on the playground instead of just sitting the entire time!

Maybe Caroline needs to read her Bible to Henry.  She was sitting down and reading it by herself today.  I could hear her telling the stories as she turned the pages.  Then at one point she said, "I need my Jesus."  Yes, sweet girl, we all need your Jesus.
We're praying for a little more of Him each day this week.