All the little details June 29, 2010

It has been so long since I blogged I almost couldn’t find it!! Oops, well I don’t know how often I really should be blogging, but if I can’t even find my page….It should be more often than that! I didn’t realize that I would get so busy! 🙂
I have been super busy since the boys were born: Change diapers, feed, do laundry, and cook dinner. Now that they are a little older it is still the same, just different conversations: Pick up your shoes, No you can’t eat again, Please take out the trash, Get out of bed. So in the midst of all of it, I have sometimes missed opportunities to enjoy their personalities developing.
My favorite part of that process is the recent development of their since of humor. I am sure that it comes along with the understanding of life as they start to get older. For example; there is a Staples Office Supply commercial on TV and there are 2 guys looking at price tags inside of the store. One of the guys screams, “THAT IS SUCH A LOW PRICE” and it goes on with them screaming about the prices. So David is watching that commercial and says, “MOM WE HAVE TO DO THAT!! I will do it with you, can we PLEASE go to Staples!” ~I laughed for an hour and promised him that we would go.
So my personal challenge to myself recently is to see allllll the personality developments they are going through. I usually do a pretty good job of being active, attentive, and involved but I want to do even more. I am going to take notice of them being more responsible, all the good decisions made, specific likes/dislikes….just to do more of it. I don’t want to miss it through all the busy. Now that I see the old saying is true, “Enjoy it while you can because they grow up so fast.”

If you repeat it, they will listen…. June 1, 2010

I am really enjoying watching my oldest finally see how his actions determine his freedoms. We stress heavily, if you make bad decisions you have bad consequences. If you make good decisions you get good consequences. We stress this so much that we probably say it 3 or 4 times a day. Kind of like the Field of Dreams; “If you build it they will come” So David, our oldest is coming to the age where he knows what a good decision is and what isn’t.
He really dove head first in learning this when he was 12. With a little bit of help from a heap of hormones and making some really bad decisions, he quickly understood what the bad consequences were. But it took him an entire year of not having much of anything to finally start understanding where he needed to change his decisions.
This year he has been a different person. We only have to tell him about his decisions 1x or 2x a week! He is doing great in school, very respectful, knows when he has messed up and is taking responsibility for his actions. It is amazing watching him turn into such a great young man!
I always wonder with the other 3 boys, is anything I am saying going to stick? Are they going to catch onto it eventually like David has? But I realized with David now, that he can tell what I am going to say before I even say it. He will finish my sentences, and doesn’t argue about consequences. So, all I can do is remain firm, and continue to repeat 400 times a day, “if you make bad decisions you have bad consequences. If you make good decisions you get good consequences” If I just repeat it, they will listen.