We just got home from spending 10 days with our family down in Bama. I can say with complete sincerity that it was a fun, fulfilling, trip.

Were there melt-downs? Yes, especially me, okay. I was the one with the melt downs.

Was it insanely hot? No, actually.

Did the children fight? Some.

Did we get stuck in traffic? Yes, in the expected places. Why do we ever drive through Atlanta?

But also…

There were breakthroughs!

#1. John David is officially ready for kindergarten.

John David went down a water slide at Water World about 35 times, not even exaggerating, proving that maybe, just maybe he’s bigger than I realize. He can surely handle kindergarten.

#2. I got to watch my mom in action in all her super-executive glory. I’m so proud of her. 

Watching her manage her career reminded me that maybe I’d do better at my own job if I treated it more responsibly.

Did you know that in the census records of the 1800s, they listed each person in a household by name, job, and various other statistics? Each grown woman in a household was not listed as a “stay at home mom” or “unemployed.” They were listed as “keeping house.”

“Keeping house” sounds so much more accurate to me than “stay at home mom.” Children are in the house, so they are part of the house you are keeping, right?

I should treat this more like my job. There should be to-do lists, a sense of job satisfaction, and an alarm clock. During the summer I almost never set my alarm.

#3. Three times a day is how often you should water tomato plants in southern Alabama.

I learned this from watching my dad tend his always thriving tomato garden. His vines go from the porch all the way past the porch ceiling, and he uses no poison at all.

Yes, the tomatoes were delicious.

Maybe, just maybe I can have a garden like that too someday. Someday. Not today.

#4. Back to School Shopping

If school starts tomorrow, everyone will have something to wear.

That mannequin I stripped down because it was wearing my son’s size of deeply discounted Under Armor shirt will be just fine. Yes, I accidentally knocked him over and kicked him under a rack (the mannequin, that is), but I put him back on his pedestal as quickly and clumsily as I possibly could, so I’m quite sure he’s fine.

#5. “Doing nothing always leads to the very best something.” (Pooh Bear)

….Our hilarious trip to the movies…

Mom and I took the boys to see Christopher Robin, as I am a huge Pooh Bear fan. It was a sweet movie, but sharing it with my children was the funniest part.

There was the son who bought himself an over-priced Icee with his own money, drank 3 refills, and then held his tummy and groaned for the next hour.

The same son “whispered” across all 3 brothers to me during the movie, “Pssst Mom!….Pssssssssst Mom!!!… Mom!!!  This movie is boring.”

It was not. If he hadn’t kept getting up for refills and of course the restroom, he’d have found the movie to be very funny and heart-warming.

Then as the movie ended and we exited the theatre, I found the same son’s wallet left under one of the theatre seats. You’re welcome, dear son.

Oh, but that’s not all.

I shuffled past a sticky floor and stray popcorn kernels to find 2 pairs of flip-flops, belonging to my 2 youngest sons.

“Ewwwww! Really, boys, no one takes off their shoes at a movie theatre. Gross.”

But my whining couldn’t change the past. I helped John David back into his shoes and walked him out, assuming Daniel was right behind me.

I have no idea what took Daniel so long, but I ended up waiting quite a while for him to collect his shoes and catch up with us out in the hallway. A very patient and tickled movie theatre worker stood there holding the door for our seemingly never-ending family.

As I stood there, several boys asked me for Icees, while John David jumped up and down in front of me saying over and over again, “Hey Mom! hey Mom! Mom! You said if I be good…Mom, you said if I beed good. If I beed good you said…”

Something about buying him candy…which I most certainly did not say, no matter how good he “beed”, I had not promised that.

As John David continued to jump and talk, Daniel finally made it to the doorway and the laughing movie theatre worker, where he proceeded to stop, kneel down in the floor with one flip-flop on and one flip-flop off, and wipe his shoe down with the bottom of his t-shirt. Because you see, while Daniel may not be too clean to take his shoes off, he will certainly not tolerate anything sticky touching his skin.

Somehow we managed to collect our little crew and walk to the car. They all brightened when I told them we were headed to the Circle K for the 79 CENT Icees that are exactly the same as the $6.75 movie ones.

Another life lesson well learned, as the kid who bought the expensive Icee sat in the backseat and clutched his stomach and moaned. Ah, but those are the lessons you learn the best, right?

Oh yeah and…

#6. Alan and I succeeded in getting Nonna as hooked on the Jeopardy app as we are.

You gotta download it. I’m telling you. Hours of educational fun await.

It was a delight to see everyone that we got to see!! Thank you all for taking time to hang with us!!

The post The Bama Vacation & One Hot Mess of a Movie Trip appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

John David enjoyed looking out the airplane windows. What a fun experience to have as a child!

So the move has been highly successful, though it was…a hectic nail-biter. You don’t move a family of six across the country without a boogoodles of planning and elbow grease.

nom nom nom

Tonight is the most special part. After 2 weeks of being all split up, we are finally all sleeping under one roof! We are in our new house, and everyone is in their own bed. It feels so good to be together as a family again, even if the two little boys do have insomnia tonight. Oy.

building with Lincoln Logs at the grandparents’ house

DaddyO (their grandfather) kept the boys overnight, by himself, so that Nonna could come help us unpack boxes. He told a funny story:

Daniel asked to take a shower. DaddyO asked him, “Do you know how to take a shower?”

“Yes.”

And he does. When you have 2 bigger brothers, and you’re a go-getter like Daniel, you know how to do all sorts of things by age 5.

So DaddyO asked him, “Oh. Where did you learn how to take a shower?”

“At my old house, in America.”

“In America!?”

“Yes, we lived in America,” Dan explained.

“Oh, in America? Do you mean in California?”

“Yes, in America, California.”

“You mean in Monterey, California?”

“Yes, Monterey, America, California.”

That cracked us up.

I promise to have a comprehensive photo blog of Alan and the boys’ big road trip on the next post!

Roll Tide, y’all!

The post Old House in America: Moving a Family of 6 Across the Country appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Pretty allum crystals: The boys grew these on an eggshell at their weekly Classical Conversations science lab.

It was an unusual week of home schooling, mostly because Alan insisted I spend a large part of it teaching standardized test-taking skills. I made a go of it, but you can’t teach someone how to have a type-A go-getter personality. Either you have it or you don’t. My second child does not.

“Caleb, you missed every single question about this story. You did not read the story. You absolutely did not.”

Caleb replied, “Well, it had a picture, so I just used that.”

“Go read it, and then you are starting over again. Don’t ever do this on these standardized tests, Caleb. You HAVE to read the stories.”

(Oh my goodness. When I was a kid I loved taking those tests, and I always scored well. I cannot even imagine not caring!)

He read the story, and then he answered 4/5 test questions correctly. That’s a vast difference from 0/5. Caleb has no problem reading and comprehending on the 3rd grade level. Sigh.

Now they could call it “Standardized Effort Tests,” and that’d be accurate. It accurately displays who puts forth great effort on standardized tests. Although even that wouldn’t be quite right, as some kids might put forth great effort but simply have not been taught everything on the exam. So I’m not sure these tests are useful at all.

hard at work

I wonder how many schools full of Calebs have lost funding because their students just wrote something down and then ran outside to play. I think we all need to stop letting these tests carry so much weight, especially when you’re talking about eight-year-old kids. Gracious.

Daniel, my number one kitchen helper

Daniel spent his Christmas money today. He bought a new Nerf gun. It came with eight bullets. He’s been playing with it for about two hours. He has 3 bullets left now. He explained it to me:

“Mom, it came with five ‘bullethts’, and now I onwy have thwee. See? Right there. Thwee.”

“Oh no! Already?? Where are the others?”

“In the beaver holes. I lost them in the beaver holes.” (He’s referring to the hundreds of gopher holes in our yard. Apparently he and his buddy Carter were trying to shoot the gophers with their Nerf guns.)

Daniel should give lessons on how to be absolutely, ridiculously adorable.

Caleb’s science lab for Classical Conversations Week 20 : Both boys love science.

Nonna bought us this set of educational DVDs that I have totally under-utilized!

I had a morning full of phone calls to make, in preparation for our big move, so this was just the trick to have the boys all learning quietly. I made them write and illustrate two things they learned from the video to keep them engaged in watching it and deter movie time from turning school into a party.  It worked! I’m going to remember this trick, for sure! I have four more of these videos on other topics.

If you want to play cards or a game at our house, you are out of luck. Pieces are usually missing because I use them to keep the small people busy. Who knows what he does with the cards, but he’s quiet, and I guarantee you he’s learning something, though I have no idea what.

peanut butter cracker sandwiches

This week I shared my favorite childhood snack/lunch with my little people: peanut butter cracker sandwiches. Of course, we have a red hot peanut-allergy kid here, so we made ours from Sunbutter. MMMMmmmm, sun butter!

JD calls this his Alabama football shirt. Yep. We don’t even have to teach them this. We watch it so much on t.v., they just know.

I love, love, love to watch him color.

I had to buy one of these. I am officially old.

You know remembering to do things or take medicines was never my strength, so owning this is essential with my newly discovered heart problem. This week I realized that if I’m going to keep going downhill in a hurry, I should do it with more grace. What do I have to fear?

And why am I not more happy? No, I’m not stellar at home-schooling. It stresses me out, y’all, it does. But I only have to get through eight more weeks of it, so I will try to enjoy it. I promise I will try. I love the boys, but teaching…..ohhhh groooooaaaan mooooaaaan….

Only 8 more weeks!

You know we are all designed differently from one another. Some of you are paintbrushes, and you wouldn’t use a paintbrush to hammer the nail on which to hang the painting. You could try, but you might break the paintbrush. You need a hammer for that job.

But what about when you are painting? Well, you wouldn’t want a hammer for that. A hammer is not capable of the beautiful strokes that can be rendered with a paintbrush. We each have a time and a place to feel needed and useful, and when we try to fill someone else’s role, it just isn’t pretty. People get hurt. Expectations are left unmet. It’s disappointing. While it can be done in a pinch, let’s not live in a pinch when it is not warranted.

I’m more of an ink pen, and it about killed me trying to be both an ink pen and a chalkboard. Sometimes I was more like nails screeching on a chalkboard. Let’s not have any more of that here. For me, home schooling was like walking around in ill-fitting shoes. Only eight more weeks, and then I’m simplifying. I’m going to just be mom again for a while.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, fulfilling your own God-given purpose.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Pet. 4:10)

The post Home school Week 65: Beaver Holes, Effort Tests, and Ill-Fitting Shoes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I’ve been talking a lot about my hermit problem, and I want you all to know that things are getting so much better around here. The boys are finally opening up a little more at tutoring. I had to practically drag them away from there today! Even John David doesn’t cry when I drop him off for the tutoring childcare! We have all met plenty of people that we truly like, and the fact is that I haven’t met one single person here that I can’t find something to like about.

I’m starting to remember. Oh yeah! I do like people!

Transitions are just hard, aren’t they? John David and I seem to have the hardest time with them. Every time I see him pitching a fit over some great new change in his life, I just remind myself, “This child is me.”

Moving across country and beginning home school all at one time was a huge transition. We’re over the hump. We still have rough days. I still make regrettable parenting errors, but I’m feeling hopeful.

That’s why I could never name my blog “Biblical Homemaking” or something like that. Can you imagine the pressure!? Ha!

All it would take was one time for a neighbor to overhear me losing my patience with my family, and I would be completely discredited. Nope. Not trying to act like something I’m not. We’re just a family, trying to do what is best. We listen to God. We make mistakes. We get back up again. 🙂

I have some really great news for you. John David has successfully made the transition to toddler bed!

Oh! Do you see those black out curtains? I’ve been storing those for 3 moves, and they finally came in handy! John David slept until 8 am for three mornings in a row.

I know! I hope you’re okay. Didn’t mean to make anyone choke on their coffee here. I was shocked too…

Happy JD. Happy parents. Sometimes he still wakes up at 1 am for cuddles though. yep. cuddles. I know. You hard-core folks would never put up with such, but hard-core we are not.

I was sitting in his recliner yesterday, and I chuckled at his neediness, “Oh, JD, you are so spoiled,” and as soon as I said it, I felt so sad! This child is not spoiled. This is the FOURTH baby. He rarely gets Mommy to himself. He gets a fraction of the amount of time with me that Joshua, or even Caleb or Daniel, got. With Daniel, I sent the big boys to school, and I was his all day long. JD doesn’t get that, so let the world shake their heads. If my baby needs some 1 am cuddles, then that’s just what he will get.

….And that’s why I have a strict policy about going to bed at 10pm now. It has changed my life! Over Christmas, I did all of that relaxing and sleeping, and I came home feeling like a new person. I decided then and there that I will never kill myself with sleep deprivation, stress, and unrealistic expectations again.

Do you remember my psoriatic arthritis theory and this thumb nail?

Well, it got a whole lot worse than that by Christmas, but guess what. You won’t believe it. My thumb nail is now completely NORMAL.  It’s all GONE!

So is my shoulder pain! You cannot convince me that the two are not related. I am quite sure that stress and sleep made a difference. I don’t want to end up with those nails, popping Advil 800, ever again.

In other news….Apparently, sleep is important to Alan too.

Caleb came home from the Spongebob movie Saturday and said, “Hey, Mom, just to tell you, at Spongebob Squarepants, Dad fell asleep through a lot of it.”

haaaaaaaa I asked Alan about that. He looked a little ashamed. hehehe

Alan and the boys have a few things in common, when it comes to deciding what is interesting and what is not. The other night, they were taking too long to eat their dinner, so I whipped out a magazine article on glaciers and started reading it to Joshua, Caleb, and Alan. Alan protested and started digging around for the Childcraft book on great battles for freedom.

I thought the glacier article was fascinating. Halfway through, I stopped and quizzed them all, “Wow, so what animal lives in this glacier?”

Three blank stares.

Alan said, “No idea. That was boring. Can I read my story now?”

humph!  Caleb said, “Polar bears?”

“No! Didn’t y’all hear me say the part about the little black worms that feed on the invisible algae!!???”

They all sort of giggled and started making worm jokes. I still made them listen to the rest, though. The boys said they liked it, so at least we know they’ve learned to try to make their momma happy!

I wonder if they liked Alan’s story about the Battle of Tours better.

It’s 9:45, so I’d better get to sleep. Guess who is coming to visit this week!!  We are all so excited!!!

As Joshua said, “Aunt Jennings is coming!!  You remember, Caleb, she has the glasses. Don’t you remember? She gave us the Hank the Cowdog books!”

The Hank the Cowdog books are a hit. I even enjoy them!

Hope you all have a great week!   We’ll be having a ball showing Jennings our favorite California spots!

The post Making Transitions and Solving Sleep Problems appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Sometimes I wondered if my life would become less interesting as my children get older and “more mature.”

BAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Nope. When people say that there is never a dull moment in raising four boys, that is a very literal, literal statement.

Case in point: MLKJ Day weekend:

We had zero plans, other than Joshua’s opening basketball game, which they lost.  Not a big deal to us. We are experts at losing. I don’t know what that says about us…..but it was our head coach’s very first loss as a coach!??!  Heh???  Bizarre, considering he’s been coaching youth basketball for years and years. I’m pretty sure he was disappointed. In all fairness, our 3rd/4th graders were up against a team of humongous 5th graders that dwarfed our kids, and yes, I am petty enough to point that out. 😉 hehehe

The rest of the weekend made my basketball attendance fail, mentioned in my last post, I Did Try, sound like a walk in the park.

Sunday afternoon, I went to choir practice. Midway through practice, my cell phone rang. I was so embarrassed because we had just finished joking about that happening in the service this morning. I grabbed my phone and silenced it, but I noticed it was Alan. Might be important. Better go find out. I walked outside and called him back.

“You need to come home right away.”

“Okay. What happened??”

“Caleb fell and broke his front tooth in half.”

(diagonally!!!)

“Oh nooo. I’m on my way.”

That still didn’t prepare me for the sight of my little Ca-bob. His mouth was swollen, actually it still is swollen, to proportions I’ve never seen before. They had gone on a family walk/scooter ride to the mini-mart in our neighborhood, and Caleb took a spill, landing square on his mouth. We never did find the other half of Caleb’s big, beautiful permanent front tooth. 🙁

Poor thing. He’s so sweet and so tough. He’s handling it all really well. I still haven’t actually seen what his front tooth looks like. His lip is so swollen that I can’t even get a glimpse of it.

Alan found a local family dentist that agreed to come in and look at Caleb’s mouth last night. The dentist said that Caleb’s mouth is too swollen to work on until next week. I personally thought surely it would look a little better by today, but it doesn’t. The dentist also said that several other teeth are gashed as well. A lot of work will have to be done.

Lots of dental work…hmmm…All of your birthday presents just got smaller…. hehehe just kidding…

I can’t show you a picture. I feel too bad for the little fella to share that with the world. Just keep him in your prayers. He can barely eat or drink anything. His mouth is cut to pieces.

So on a lighter note……a few more stories, all from this weekend:

1. We put JD in a big boy bed. Last night, at 1am, he suddenly figured out how to open his bedroom door, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Yeah….

2. At 11am this morning, one of the neighborhood boys knocked on our front door.  He handed Joshua a flyer he had made on the computer that said this:

“Help *Amazing Smith* find a new boyfriend. Come to the rally at the park at 12:00, or die.”

The “or die” part was scratched out with marker.

By the way*I changed the names…

*Johnny explained, “Here’s this flyer. This may be a little inappropriate. Amazing’s boyfriend (she’s like 7) broke up with her yesterday, so we’re all gathering at the park today, you know, to show our support.”

Now I call her Amazing because she is this adorable little blonde girl who has played at our house a few times. She earned the nickname (in my head) because when I’m giving, “Stop opening and closing the garage door,” and “The last person through always needs to shut the door,” lectures, she is always our only guest that actually RESPONDS.

“Okay. Yes ma’am. Did you know that we have a baby too?”

It’s so refreshing. Boys don’t do a ton of talking. Do you give people nicknames in your head, or is that just me?

Anyway, the whole rally thing was so ludicrous it was hilarious. As soon as *Johnny left, Joshua just laughed and laughed. He made sure he was there promptly at 12, though. 😉

Caleb and Dan, at the Golden Gate bridge, on New Year’s Day. I know that looks dangerous, but I can assure you that the wall only had grass on the other side. It was not a huge dropoff as it appears in the photo. I promise he was only up there for a second.  Also, blame Alan not me. I was in the car with JD. 😉

3. The dustpan

I swept the kitchen, but when I finished, I noticed the dustpan was not in its place. Wha??? Where’s the dustpan?  I looked everywhere. Then I began to question the children.

I started with Daniel. He didn’t know. I moved on to Caleb. Nope. I went outside to where Joshua lives, the trampoline, and asked him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was using it when I was being a vampire. It’s in my room.”

I didn’t ask for further details. I was just so thankful to find my dust pan.

The post Broken teeth, the Boyfriend Rally, and the Missing Dustpan appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This boy has loved this third or fourth hand Nursery Rhymes book until it has completely fallen apart. The adorable-ness level fills my heart with joy.

Everyday. My friend Barbara once remarked that, “We can never truly get depressed because we have these children that keep us going. They make us happy.”

They do. Did I feel gloriously joyful this morning, when right as we were supposed to leave for church, I found JD soaked from head to toe with toilet water??? Um no. And he was drenched. Boy must have been dunking his head into the bowl.

ARgh.  He was wearing the ONE pair of non-jogging-type-pants that was clean too. I had him looking so adorable before the toilet bath, and instead he ended up attending church in an Alabama t-shirt and black wind pants.  : /

No. Elated isn’t quite how I was feeling, but underneath my aggravation, I was busy and happy. This job is fun. There’s no denying it.

Caleb was very disappointed in our tardiness. He likes to get to Sunday school early so he can eat a third breakfast. I think he puts up quite a fuss if he gets there late and they don’t serve him food. How do I know? Because we got a note the third or so week that we went to this church. It said something like this:

“Breakfast is served at 9:45. He has to arrive on time to receive breakfast.”

baaaahahahahaha   We shame-facedly took our note, tucked our tails between our legs, and took our obviously starving child home…ah punctuality, what families of little ones are known for…

AW. Isn’t he cute, playing with his dollhouse fire station? 😉 Actually, he is getting thinner lately. He paused on his dash into breakfast Sunday school this morning to ask me to tighten his pants. Now these weren’t big pants. These were hand-me-downs from Joshua. I tightened them as tight as you can possibly tighten them, and they still had a little room, but he just had to go with that.

Anyone have a great recommendation for pants for skinny but tall boys?

They keep us laughing. I laugh every single day. Yesterday I took Daniel with me to the grocery store, and I let the others stay home with Daddy. This was a mistake because without Joshua and Caleb there to help, I had to haul my two buggies around the store by myself, with Daniel happily making the first buggy (the race car one) heavier as he “drove” it.

People always smile at me when I take multiple helpful little boys to the store with me. People were more like scowling at me, walking all slow with those two buggies and just the one kid. I guess I looked slow and greedy. I needed a sign that read, “Feeding 6 people. Stop judgin’.”

Daniel always goes to the grocery store with me. Daniel will go anywhere you want to go, and he hates being left at home. Joshua and Caleb are the opposite. They seem to think that home is base and everything else is work, which requires them to wear real clothes.

Well, you know we moved this year, so I’m learning my way around a new place, which isn’t easy. I get lost. Also, I’m a day dreamer. Sometimes I miss even the turns that I do know. This is really bad because then I don’t know how to fix it. I only know the one route to most places.

Daniel knows this about me a little too well. He was apparently very proud of me for making it allll the way to the grocery store and back without getting lost.

As we turned onto the highway, Daniel said, “You made the right turn!!!  Good job, Mommy!”

: / “Thank you, Daniel. Let’s listen to the radio.” I turned on the radio.

“No, not this Mommy. Other radio!”

I switched it to our Classical Conversations memory work CD. It features history, learn the presidents in order, and skip counting songs, among other things.

“Yes! This one!” He did his best to sing along. So adorable.

We pulled into the grocery store. He was ecstatic. “You did it, Mommy! You got all the way here and no you get lost. Good job, Mommy!”

hehehe

“Me want race car buggy.”

We shopped, we left, and then Daniel congratulated me on all of my correct turns all the way home. It was a humbling experience.

Hope you all have a great week. I hope you all make all your turns correctly, get all the breakfast you want, and do not find anyone washing their hair in your toilet!

The post These Delightful Children appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

How cute are they, eating together at the picnic table? JD stole this show, but tonight let’s talk about Dan. Daniel, oh Daniel. The Dan Man

This little booger is so precious. He makes us laugh and smile all day long, and I adore it. I’ve been writing down some things he has said lately, just for the blog:

“Him want to go him house, Mom.  This ours house, Mom?”

***********

Me:  “You just made bread, Daniel!!!”

Dan: very serious:  “You too!”

********

Alan walked through the kitchen wearing nice clothing.

Dan asked, “Mommy, Daddy going to church?”

I explained that that’s actually what Daddy wears to class. You don’t wear a military uniform to graduate school.

***********

The other day, Daniel was playing Legos with Caleb and Joshua’s creations, on the dining room table. He gets in so much trouble with his brothers for this. Poor thing. However, they weren’t in the room, so he was having a good ol’ time. He held up a little Chima Alligator-Man and said, “Mom, him going to the bafroom. Watch Mom.”

Once he said, “Watch Mom.” I got so tickled, I really couldn’t stop laughing. Oh come on, ya’ll!!  First, he had designated a Lego building as a bathroom–of all things– and second, he felt that I should watch this.  I’m telling you–boys think soooo differently.

Later on, Caleb was back to playing with those same Legos, and Daniel said something about the alligator. I turned to Caleb and said, “Yeah, Daniel played with them,but he played nicely and didn’t break anything.” Then I said, incredulously, “He kept making the alligator go to the bathroom.”

Caleb didn’t skip a beat, “Oh yeah, ‘cuz the bathroom’s right there.”

Right.

I mean, of course, where else would it be?

*********

Okay, I just thought this one was so precious: Daniel keeps picking up random books around the house, calling them Bibles and then singing from them. One day he actually had a very small children’s Christmas carol book, illustrated by Norman Rockwell.

I should also mention that he sings more on key than I do. This little boy CAN SING. I know. I know. I’m his mother, but I’ve never posted that about my other children, have I? Trust me. At the very least, Daniel will one day be doing special music at church.

His songs of choice:

“Oh, Lord,God! Sit in the bed, Oh Lord, God! Sit in the bed.”

…..and at the time, I had to keep a STRAIGHT FACE so the boy wouldn’t quit this new found delightful little hobby.

He moved on:

“Oh, Lord, God!!  Oh, Lord, God.  It’s Christmas. Oh, Lord, God. It’s Christmas!!  O, Lord!!!”

“Oh, Lord, God, Oh Loooooooooooord. Oh, Lord, God.”

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

“Dan, what’s your favorite thing we’ve done at school?”

“When I made the alligator. This is big alligator. Him live underwater. Alligators eat trash.”

“I think they eat fish.”

“Yep. Those eat fish.”

…..In case you’re wondering, Joshua’s favorite thing is “lunch and recess and a little bit of grammar.”  Caleb’s favorite is “when we get to eat at recess and then I play when I’m done with it and math.”

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

I wish I could just follow this little fellow around all day and write down everything he says because it’s all so stinkin’ adorable. The improper use of we/yours/us/ours makes him even more irresistible.

Do you know where he sleeps every night? He has the biggest bedroom in the house, and he sleeps in his doorway in the floor. Every night he drags his pillow and his blanket to the doorway so he can see us. Isn’t that sweet/pitiful?

He calls Joshua “Josh” now, and he just adores it when they include him in things.  Tonight all the boys had homework. Yes, I assign homework OCCASIONALLY. Anyway, Daniel wanted homework too, so I gave him a little worksheet on the letter A for him to trace the Aa and trace his name. Of course, he did a great job.

one of my favorite old photos, of Daniel hugging me and JD

I love each one of these boys of mine so incredibly much. Looking at Daniel reminds me how much I need to get those Xanga posts all downloaded before they are gone forever. That’s where all my Joshua and Caleb toddler memories are. You can just never get those chubby, little dimpled hands back, you know? You have to enjoy every sweet little moment, and in 20 years I can have all the clean carpets I want. For now, I’d rather have this.

The post Daniel’s Songs appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.