Friday, April 6, 2012

Proud Mama

My babies make me proud to be their mama. Examples:

 Because Lowell has been working first shift for his training, I have had to send the kids to a series of babysitters. On Friday the kids don’t have school, so someone has to watch all 4 of the kids. Last week they were with my friend Lauren. She has three children of her own including a 14 month old. When I picked them up she confessed that she had been a little concerned about watching 7 kids, including two toddlers, but she was pleasantly surprised. She said it wasn’t stressful at all, that the kids played so well and they helped a lot with Wyatt so there was no problem at all.

We have a rule when we’re at the playground in McDonalds. When there are toddlers in the toddler area, the big kids skedaddle. I am always so proud of them.  A lot of the time they will see the smaller kids and head over to the slide themselves but the times I have to remind them sound something like this, “Minions!” (That’s what I call them.)   They all stop what they’re doing and look at me. “There’s little ones in there.” Immediately, I mean i-m-m-e-d-i-a-t-e-l-y, all three of them head straight to the big kid area. There’s no whining, no complaining, no hesitation. They make me so proud.

 Completely her own idea, Jillian has taken it upon herself to write messages on her lunch bags. On Sunday’s we make lunches for the week and then put them in a bin for the kids to grab in the mornings. Usually they just write their names on the bags but recently Jillian has taken to writing “God Bless …” and then putting in the name of one of her classmates and her teachers. For example, today’s was “God Bless Karina”. Tomorrow is her kindergarten teacher – “God Bless Mr. Piper”.

During Saturday clean up last weekend, Nathan found $.13 on the floor. I wasn’t watching what he was doing so he could have easily taken the money but instead, he turned it in. The money was his sister’s but because of his honesty, I have him $.13 of his own. This also gave us a chance to talk about the price of integrity.     

 A couple nights ago, I went in to take a shower and then Lowell and I spent some time catching up on our schedule for the coming week, Wyatt’s doctor’s appointment, school, jobs, etc. While we were busy, they decided to go outside and play in the field, newly full of irrigation water. They are not supposed to do this because its reclaimed water. When I came out to check on them and get them ready for bed, they were solemn faced and “wanted to talk to me”. They confessed that they had played in the water extensively before remembering it was forbidden. And Nathan added that he had fallen in the water quite a few times and, since he knew he would have to anyway, he took a shower before being asked. (Remember, we don’t have hot water, so this was a completely cold water shower. In the past, Nathan has expressed extreme dislike for this process.) The kids were contrite, feeling guilty and, apparently scared of my discipline. I was so proud of their integrity, their honesty even when they knew they were going to get in trouble and their obedience that I commended them on their choice to talk to me and didn’t punish them a bit. I even went in and told Lowell about it – his response, “We have such good kids”. J  Yes we do, and they have a proud mama. :)
*Pictures are from the Easter party downtown

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What awesome kids. :)

-Linda

Stony and Brit said...

You DO have amazing kids!! And every reason to be a proud proud mama!