My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

Jimmy, holding up his stuck-together cereal: “Look Mom, it’s a dually!”

(For those who may be unaware, as I was a few short years ago, a “dually” is a pickup truck with two wheels on the rear axle.  Who knows what he’ll think of next…perhaps he’ll turn his carrot sticks into cement mixers!)

You’ve heard of helicopter parents.  Now meet helicopter brothers:

(Oh, and for interpretation purposes, at the beginning of the video, Danny is describing “doing donuts” in the Ranger “with Daddy,” meaning his Daddy was spinning them around and around on the snowy driveway in the ATV – I suppose donuts could have been consumed at the same time, but they probably would have gone flying!)

I have a lousy memory (hence one of the reasons I keep this blog – so I can have a written record of my kids’ childhood, since I can’t reliably recall their birth dates, let alone their antics!).  But one of my strongest memories from early childhood is reading my first chapter book independently.  I don’t know what the title was, but I think it had something to do with hunting for treasure.  I remember laying on the couch in the living room happily turning page after page, and I can vaguely envision myself finishing the book in near darkness as the sun set outside our large picture window.  As I have thought back on that memory from time to time, I didn’t understand how I could have been reading in the dark – I wondered if my memory was playing tricks on me.  That is, until the other day, when I walked into our family room in the late afternoon and saw Becky lying on the couch, happily reading her first independent chapter book in a rapidly darkening room.  I had to stop myself from turning on a light to help her see –  I’d let her memory think back fondly on her dusky book reading…or if she has trouble remembering the evening she first lost herself in the private world of a story, she’ll now have it recorded here!

Not even a storm can stop these intrepid motorists (they come prepared with power tools for all snow-related pit stops!)

Danny, pointing to my breakfast: “What’s that?”

Me: “An English muffin.”

Danny: “That’s not a muffin.  That’s bread.”

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Susie: “What did the banana say to the grape?

Grandpa: “What?”

Susie: “I haven’t thought of that part yet.”

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Danny kept saying he wanted “banana apple pie.”  It took me a while to figure out he wanted a piece of pineapple!

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Becky was sitting in her usual spot in the car beside Jimmy, who had kicked her for the thousandth time.  She sighed and said, “I’m tired of Jimmy.  He’s yucky.”

Jimmy just laughed uncontrollably and took it as a compliment.

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I was talking to Jimmy in the car about how much I loved the classical music we were listening to on the radio.  Jimmy suddenly exclaimed, “There’s doorbells in it!” 

I shook my head and started listing the instruments I heard: “There’s a violin…oh and there’s a harp…”

Jimmy: “…and doorbells?”

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The kids were being loud and wild, so I told them all to “pipe down.”  They quieted and then Becky smirked and said, “What do you do if you are stuck in a pipe?…Pipe down!”