When Little Soldiers Make Good Choices

While Eliana is asleep I am like the Drill Sergeant of Quiet.  I am constantly "shushing" my two older kids so that our little one can get the rest she needs to carry on through the second half of the day.  

Today is no different, and maybe even more true, because it took her FOREVER to go to sleep, and I would be really sad if she woke up prematurely.  Of course, this is the day when it's 60° outside and they want to play dress-up, or actually they want to dump out all the dress-up clothes and get into the dress-up clothes bin, and they want to do this in the bedroom that is right next to the room where Eliana is sleeping. 

So far, things are fine.  In fact, Christian just came through our computer room (which is nestled in between our kitchen and dining room) and said to me,"We were playing a game, but we were arguing.  So, I stopped the game," hand gesture indicating the stopping of the game, very serious face, head tipped to the side.  "There was a game and if we kept on playing it, we would be arguing, so I said,'Michaela, we are going to stop this game!'"  He looked at me, with a very intense and stern look on his face, knowingly, as if to say,"You get what I'm saying, right?"

I said to him,"Christian, that was a very good choice.  I'm very proud of you.  Thank you."  He smiled and turned around and headed back into the other room.

Moments like that make me want to give him a medal.

Having a Ball

Christian's soccer team played their first game of the season this afternoon.  He has been looking forward to this day for weeks, excited to get back on the field with his friends, and try to score a goal!  They played a great game, even though the other team won the game.  They did a better job of spreading out this time around, and hopefully as they play a couple of more games they will get better at keeping the ball and taking it down the field to score.  Don't hear me wrong-I don't think it's all about scoring.  But they looked pretty bummed that they were not able to get a goal this game.  I think they have it in them, though. 

Here is a slideshow of the pictures from the game; Christian did a great job and got in some really impressive kicks.  It's hard to get a photo of that, really (at least for me at this point as far as my photography skills go...I was holding Eliana, too, and unfortunately when Mike came and she wanted to go to him, my battery died!), but I tried to get him in action.  Several times, from the other team's end of the field, he kicked the ball hard, with the inside of his foot, and it went flying back down the field (the right direction!) in a pretty straight line.  It was fun to see him doing so well, and enjoying himself too. 

After the game, we were headed to the car when Mike reminded me that the soccer balls were still on the field somewhere (each of them brought a ball to the game).  So we turned around and headed back to find them.  They were missing!  We circled the two playing fields, looked around the playground, checked around the entire park, but discovered no balls.  As we were about to get back in the car, Mike noticed one ball sitting by a goal, so Michaela ran over to see if it was ours; it was.  It was the one she brought.  So, Christian's ball was still missing; he was upset by this, and didn't want to leave without his ball.  We finally convinced him to get in the car, with the hope that someone from the team picked it up, thinking we were gone, and would bring it to practice.

Mike stayed an extra few minutes and gave one last perusal. 

I got the kids home and in the bath and was about to start dinner when I heard the doorbell.  I was puzzled; I went to the door (no one comes to visit us, so this was pretty unusual, especially at dinnertime) wondering who in the world it could be.  One of Christian's teammates was at the door with his mom.  She said,"(Teammate-I'm refraining from naming because of privacy) has something for Christian."  I smiled and said,"Did you find his ball?"  Teammate stepped forward with a soccer ball, but not Christian's soccer ball.  He said he heard that Christian had lost his ball, and was sad about that, and so Teammate wanted to give Christian his own ball. 

It was all I could do not to cry.  This is a six-year-old boy, sacrificing something that you know is special, for a friend. 

He really wanted to come in and give the ball to Christian; unfortunately my son was on the potty waiting for his turn to get in the tub (sans clothes-not so dignified for receiving guests bearing gifts).  I wish that he could have come out to get the ball from Teammate himself, but it didn't work out that way.  I thanked them again, and said how special it was.  Mike walked up to the front door just as they were walking down the front steps, and said,"What's going on?"  So, Teammate's mom told the story, and Mike of course said how great that was, and gave him a "five".  They said good night, and Mike came in.

He went to talk to Christian.  His hands were behind his back.  He told Christian that Teammate had just come by, and Christian immediately said,"Did he bring my ball?!"  Mike tilted his head to the side and explained that he had run into the mom at the park, looking for the ball, and told her the story.  She must have relayed it to her son, who then decided that he wanted Christian to have his ball.  So, Mike pulled Teammate's ball around from behind his back, and told Christian that Teammate had brought him this ball to have.  I wish I had had a camera for the expression on Christian's face...at first he was like,"No....," as though there had been a mistake.  Then he smiled so big, and we all said again how very kind and thoughtful that was for him to give up his ball.

This is the kind of thing that lays a foundation for a life of service and sacrifice.  Little man saw a friend who lost something, and he wanted to help out his bud.  This is a profound thing for a six-year-old to do.  It points to a greater sacrifice, one that involved an innocent man who saw that there was a world full of people who were lost, and knew the only thing that could help them and rescue them was to sacrifice his life.  His life for their life. 

I pray that Christian will remember this act of kindness forever.  I hope that he will recognize the significance of a seemingly small act, and that it will move him to act likewise in the future.  I long for him to know the One whose ultimate sacrifice was even greater, whose love is great, and whose strength is great.

I would love to see the boys score goals this season, but the goal I will pray for is that they would know their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Phillipians 3:7-14

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ— the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Fun and Games

Eliana recently started taking long afternoon naps.  It has been wonderful, for her to get some good rest and for the rest of us to be able to hang out together-particularly Christian and myself. 

I am able to get her to sleep before he is home from school.  Once he's here, he often has a snack and then we play games.  Since I packed all of the board games that we have (because we are moving one day), we are a little limited...but we have card games a-plenty.  We've played a lot of cards; we've played Go Fish, Crazy 8's, War, Crazy Aces, Old Maid, Crazy Jacks (you get the picture...).  He's creative in every aspect of his life and this area is no different.

Another game we've played involves several decks (sets?) of flash cards we have.  They have a word on one side and then on the other side the word again with a picture.  Very basic flash cards.  What he likes to do is hide the cards from me, give me a clue about the one on top, and then let me guess the word.  It is quite fun, and he comes up with really clever hints.  For example, yesterday we were on the couch (and ironically Eliana had taken a 45 minute nap and was already awake, but still sleepy enough just to sit on my lap so that we could still play this game for a bit) and he gave me the clue:  "Eliana is holding one."  Can you guess what it was?  Probably not.  But I looked at Eliana and started giggling, and I said,"A hammer?"   For some reason, she was holding the plastic hammer out of Christian's play tool box.  He started laughing and said,"Yeah!"  It was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, but seriously, it was funny.  We laughed pretty hard about that. 

Let's see if I can remember some of his other hints...The rain falls on it (umbrella); it's at the beach, in the sand, and in the ocean (shell); it's in the bathroom and the kitchen (sink).  Oh, I wish I could remember a couple of the very funny ones, but my memory...

We did have another good laugh because of these cards.  He discovered that two of the sets (different brands) had identical pictures for their words (for example, the lamps on the "lamp" card were exactly the same; there were several others he found that were this way).   We had never noticed this before, and I said (oh, this is really telling one on me...),"Hey, we could play a matching game with these cards."  My thought was that we could turn the cards over and then flip them, "Memory" style, and match the pairs.  Um, then I burst out laughing because I realized that, well, it would be the easiest game of "Memory" ever.  The printed word without the picture is on the flip side of each card.  They both thought it was very funny that I had such a crazy idea.  Eliana laughed just for the heck of it.

Back to the guessing game...I love this activity.  It is good for his reading (he doesn't always look at the picture side), and he has to come up with a way to talk about the object without naming the object.  He's quick, too.  He likes being "in charge", the one giving the clues, the one who knows the answer (wait, isn't he always the one who knows the answer...?).   I occasionally throw in the wrong object, like when he said,"You clean the floor with it," and I said,"A toothbrush!"  It makes him laugh (and Michaela, too, who was listening in while reading).  Next I said,"A broom."  He shook his head.  "A mop."  That was the right one.

I like to spend this time with him each day; I can see in a vivid way that he still wants to be with me and do fun things together, sit in my lap, be close.  There are moments most days when things are a little harder, and the times when we can laugh and snuggle help to remind me that what he needs most is love.  That may sound funny, that I would need that reminder.  I guess what I mean is that when he's pushing buttons, or pitching a good one about not getting his way, I can think of the goodness of that together time, how obvious it is that he is cherishing those moments, take a deep breath, and try to help him through the rough spot.  And really, at the end of the day, when he still wants me to lie down with him for a while, the snuggle moments rocket into first place, and boot those stinker-y moments out the door. 

And just for fun, here's a word he coined tonight.  I think it's brilliant-camoflaser (a laser that blends in to its surroundings?).  He is a funny boy.

March 1, 2009

(Christian, after looking at his dinner plate)

"What is this?"

Me-"It's mexican pizza kind of thing."

Christian-"How did you make it?"

Me-"I don't know...I just made it."

Christian-"You didn't use any ingredients?" (I figured out he meant a recipe when he made a motion with his hands and he said something I can't quite remember.)

Me-"Right, I just made it up."

Christian-"You made it up in your mind?!  And it turned into this?!"

He then told me it was the best thing he had ever eaten and I had to make it every night. 

But he didn't want seconds.

Changing Patterns

Sleeping patterns change a lot around here.  Something or someone is always shifting...this week, it is Eliana.  She has been taking two hour naps.  Do you hear me?  Two hours.  Straight.  Asleep in her bed. 

I have been standing beside her bed until she's sleeping, which doesn't take too long.  It's a sweet time, and often she will want me to hold her (she says,"Hous-shoo, hous-shoo,"-hold you, in this quiet, asking little voice.  Who can resist?) but will still lean back into her bed to actually fall asleep. 

My time with her, however, means that my other two kids are working on things by themselves quietly.  Sometimes I give them options, sometimes they are already engaged in an activity (separate or together). 

Today, I "discovered" Christian in our schoolroom/playroom with our pattern blocks.  The kids love these colorful, versatile math manipulatives.  And Christian, who is quite engineerish, can come up with amazing designs. 

This particular time, he not only designed rocketships, he was actually playing with them, moving them around, making the boosters blast off and other things rockety.  Look, around here it is rocket science. 

Christian's creativity will never stop amazing me.   He's very good at putting things together symmetrically.

I love watching him think, seeing him figure out where his game is going next...

watching him concentrate on the pieces, carefully arranging them...

Michaela is just as drawn to them...their lure is powerful!

It is also interesting to watch how their designs unfold in such different ways.  Hers are often delicate, like flowers; rockety flowers, but flowers nonetheless (I don't have a photo this time!).  And she gives them her undivided attention. 

It is great to know they take pride in their work...I found this when I imported the pictures from the camera...

This, however, I have no real explanation for.  It's just funny.  And kind of cool.  Just like my kiddos.