AKA Bruce Banner

I think my son is the incredible Hulk. Lately, when he starts to get mad, he holds his hands just like that and his face starts to turn red and his whole body starts shaking. I'm just waiting for the moment when he pants begin to tear and he starts turning green. He must get this anger from his father!

We're a Little Murky

The other night when I was driving home, K was doing his typical 20 questions. He proceeded to ask me, "Mom, what happens to people who aren't clear?"
I didn't have any idea what he was talking about. So, I just ignored him.
He asked me again, "Mom, what happens to people who aren't clear."
So I responded with a, "I don't know what you mean."
This is what I got...wait for it.... "You know, when I'm in trouble and you yell at me, and then you say 'are we clear?' I don't know what that means."
I started laughing so hard. Apparently all those lectures I gave him, we really weren't "clear".

A Tough One

In my church, I get to deal with kids quite a bit. There is a 10 year old boy (lets call him J) who I have a very soft spot in my heart for. He struggles severely with ADD, and his parents are just recently divorced. His dad is remarried and is supposed to have joint custody of him, but he hardly ever seems to get to go there. During a lesson about fathers, the teacher suggested going home and writing a letter to the kids' fathers and putting it in their shoe so they would find it when they went to work. She said to the kids, "We need to thank our fathers for what they do for us, because our dads really love us."
J raised his hand and said, "My dad doesn't love me."
The teacher reassured him that his dad did love him. Then, under his breath and in the saddest tone J whispered, "Well, he sure doesn't act like it."
This broke my heart. I went home just wishing I could go tell his father what I thought of him. I can't help but wonder, do our children really know that we love them? Even when there are some days that it is very difficult to love them, we need to constantly reiterate to our little ones just how much they are loved. Although I couldn't give J a big hug like I wanted to, I did go home and give my little man one.

I took K to watch his cousin's first wrestling match. He was so excited because he thought wrestling was a dirty fight with dad on the front room floor. No rules. When we got there, he was cheering his cousin on as loud as he could, and he then noticed that C was really struggling. K panicked and wanted to help out, he yelled as loud as he could, "Punch him, C!" Everyone sitting around us started laughing. I thought it was so cute, because he could see his cousin was in trouble and could see exactly what he needed to do to get out of it. He just wanted to help. I guess the next lesson I will have to teach my son is that punching is not the answer to solving problems. But what can you expect from a little guy filled to the brim with testosterone.

In Public

As my son came upstairs he said he was hungry. I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he said, "I want to eat... in public." I had to chuckle because everytime we are out in public eating and he is acting like his crazy self, I say under my breath, "We are in public!" I don't think he really know what "in public" means, but he knows it means good food and good times.

I Didn't Realize...

I didn't realize how much I say, "I didn't realize," until my son started saying it too. It's quite comical to hear a 3 year old say, "I didn't realize ghosts have names." He really does hear what I say, he just doesn't act like it.

A Lesson in Discipline

As I was trying to discipline my son the other day, he yelled at me, "I hate you!" I was taken back and just walked away. As I thought about this for the next couple of days, I wondered, How does a 3 year old know how to be so hurtful? I explained to him that I would never say that to him and that it really hurts my feelings that he said it to me. Then I had to look at what I am teaching him. Although I do not say I hate people, I do say that I hate certain things. "I hate this song, I hate my clothes, I hate my body." All things I'm sure he has heard me say. So, what am I teaching him; it's okay to hate things. Maybe we need to think about the small things we say in front of our children because they really are learning by example.