Cubbies & Sparks

NFL Season began with a win for our local team.  The best part of the NFL season, in my opinion, is that when our Texans win, Papa John's puts their pizzas at half-price.  So there will be many Mondays that I don't have to think about dinner, I don't have to cook dinner, I just get to eat some pizza.  It is wonderful.

Henry has had some highs and lows for this week.  He rocked it walking straight into his room at church this morning.  Todd said he just walked right in and stood next to the teacher whom I'm sure was surprised that he was upright and not attached to a parent.  He did the same for me at WAM.  I dropped him off in his room and he just walked right in.  Later he said that he had noticed two of his friends in the room, and so long as they were in there, he would walk in without issue.  We are currently praying for these two friends to never get sick!

Then he's had moments of not being happy with his position in life.  He just broke down one afternoon because he was upset he was born second.  Josiah was always going to be older and do everything first.  We talked for a long time.  I told him I was third to do everything when I grew up and that sometimes it isn't always best to be born first.  We make all our parenting mistakes on Josiah and then learn to do better for Henry!  :)  Plus God put him in our family right where He wanted him and we are blessed by having him in our family.  He's such a sweet kid.  If anything, he seems to have the best position in our family because he's close with both Josiah and Caroline.

We read about the Code of Justinian in history this week.  It was a code of laws for the entire Byzantine Empire (because many of the lands it ruled had their own laws which caused problems, so this code covered all the land).  We decided to make our own Code.  We came up with some laws we have in this country.  We started with traffic laws, stop on red, obey the speed limit, etc.  Then we moved to laws/rules within the house.  We came up with no running in the house, no hitting/kicking each other, no whining, etc.  Then we decided to come up with consequences.  Josiah had some interesting consequences - 30 jumping jacks for running inside, 15 push ups if you don't share your toys, write an "I'm sorry" card if you speak meanly to a sibling.  Then Josiah showed me the Code he had written, complete with his own consequences.  He was kind enough to give a choice: they could either get punched in the face, or they could draw a picture for the victim.  I don't know if he feels this is a difficult choice, but I think most are going to pick the picture.

Consequences in the form of pictures on the right.

Another day, I told Josiah and Henry to bring a game back upstairs that we had just finished playing.  It was their game.  They were playing it.  They brought it upstairs and then a few minutes later Josiah handed me this sheet.

He was taxing me for making him put his own belongings away.  He said I could pick whichever value I wanted to pay him.  I assured him I would be paying him no such money and that if anything, I should charge him if I have to pick up his things!

The kids had a friend come to play midweek.  It was our friend, Bobby, who sadly, Caroline no longer called Be-Bop.  He brought several Mario and Luigi stuffed animals and the kids played with them the whole time.  Then the next morning, Josiah got to work on their costumes.  Classic Josiah.

For Awana this week, Todd and I got to drop off all three kids and we had about 90 minutes all to ourselves.  Josiah suggested we play Go Fish and get some Dairy Queen.  We scrapped the Go Fish, but we did walk around Hobby Lobby at a leisurely pace without concern of a child breaking anything or asking for anything.  Then we followed Josiah's lead and got milkshakes.  When we picked up the kids, both Henry and Caroline had earned their new books, vests, and bags.  Caroline looked so grown-up coming out of her classroom all dressed up.  They were very proud kids (as they should have been).

We're working on our picture smiles...

Josiah's suggestion of playing Go Fish was kind of funny given our week.  Early each morning, Caroline has come in our bed and laid back down for about an hour.  Then when she's ready to get up, she'll sit up, hand me the pack of Go Fish cards, and whisper, "Can we play Go Fish?"  So, every morning before I even get out of bed, I've played a game.  We've played it most nights as well.  All the kids are really into it.

Todd brought out his Muay Thai pads and had the boys practice their karate.  The boys loved showing him their kicks and punches.  They are still really enjoying karate.  After the boys practiced, they wanted to hold the pads for Todd.  Josiah held them and one punch from Todd pushed him backwards.  Josiah stayed on his feet, but was cracking up the whole time because Todd's punches were so powerful for him.

For the CC presentation this week, the boys have to demonstrate how to do something.  Henry is going to demonstrate how to build a volcano.

Josiah is going to demonstrate how to draw the Angry Bird, Red.  He even had us go to the library this weekend to make copies to give to all the kids in his class.  They've been waiting for this week all semester and came up with their ideas on their own.  It is hard to believe we are already going on week 5.