Oh, Henry!

We have been trying to make it to our neighborhood playground more lately.  All the kids like the one swing that they have (one!), so we have worked on taking turns.  I have decided that I am no longer going to push the boys.  They just have to learn how to pump their legs.  Josiah has fought me on it in the past, but this week he seems to have finally gotten the pumping legs thing.

Unfortunately, Henry has not.  I push him until he has gotten pretty high, all the while telling him, "kick your legs out, pull them back, kick your legs, pull them back."  Then I tell him I'm going to stop pushing and it's up to him to keep pumping his legs.  This is the point at which our playground trips have been cut short.  He has followed up by telling me (with increasing volume), "You're the worst, Mommy.  You're the worst!  Push me!!!  PUSH me!!!"  But the thing is, I can see that he's actually making the swing move when he pumps his legs.  He just gets out of whack or forgets or does it too softly, which slows him down physically, but speeds up his anger.  He is not a kid who likes the "training process."  He is only happy when he has perfected the latest feat.  He doesn't like failure (or what he perceives to be such).

What? You want me to swing myself?  You are like the dirt on my shoulder. I brush you to the ground. The worst!

Henry has some of the best prayers though.  He is typically sincere, albeit not always.  There have been many prayers that have left me in silent laughter.  One evening this past week, he was praying.  He began by mentioning all the people he loved, he thanked God for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  He emphasized that He died for all of us, everybody.  He said he was happy He rose again three days later.  He followed that by counting to 30.  Then he listed off just how much he loved us.  He said, "I love Josiah 4,000. I love Mommy 5,000.  I love Caroline 6,000.  I love Daddy [what we all expected to be 7,000, but he said...] 7. And I love God 17.  Amen."  I started my silent laughter, but it was the type that makes the whole body shake even though it's quiet.  The problem was, I had both Josiah and Caroline in my lap so they were starting to violently bob up and down with my laughter.  Henry, for the most part, seemed oblivious as he was up on the bed with Todd.  I always mean to record his prayers.

We had our last day of school this past Friday.

Happy-he-finished-pre-K

They get four weeks off and then we start up again.  There is no reason to take the whole summer off and have them lose all their knowledge.  We ordered new curricula for the new school year which arrived this week.  It is not something I would ever have guessed, but when the boys saw their handwriting books, they were so excited.  We had to get in a few pages this week before our break.

Josiah had been reading short little books for most of the year.  When it came to chapter books, he just wanted me to read them to him.  Then, a week ago or so, he picked up a Rush Revere book and started reading it.  Since then he's read another chapter book completely and has started two others.  It's amazing!  We went around to all the bookstores this weekend to pick up all of their summer reading program registrations.  He is ready!  He even reads books in digital format:

He is still loving swim practice.  Unfortunately, I made these last few classes in the afternoon.  This proved not to be a good time for Henry and Caroline.  They are just a bit cranky during the class, not-so-cooperative while Josiah changes after class, and then this is what it looked like when we got home.  Late afternoon naps are never good.

The kids were also happy I finally went out and bought some produce.

I made Josiah cry, bawl really, because I told him that he cannot take anything to heaven.  In the end, it all burns up.  But it's because heaven is so wonderful that we don't need to take anything with us; this was meant to be a good thing.  But all I heard between sobs was, "My [stuffed] doggie.....is....going to.....burn?!"

Saturday.  7:30 a.m.  The kids wanted to paint.  They painted normal pictures, but then said they wanted to make thumb prints.  Thumb prints.



The boys have been working on their artwork (in a neater format).  Josiah has been wearing his new Astros hat nearly all the time, which prompted a few Mascot-themed drawings.


Then Henry decided to draw members of our family.



We were able to tell the kids about the meaning of Memorial Day as we remember all of the soldiers who died for our freedom.  Our local Chick-fil-a had a basket of army men.  The kids all took one to remember those who sacrificed their lives for us.  The real reason Daddy gets a three-day weekend!

Let summer vacation commence!