Boys Club

Yesterday, Ben taped a sign to our door that says:

     de
wolla
slrig on

in his scrawling 5 year old printing. I came home church (Mindy had gone to first service and brought the boys home earlier) and as I came in the front door, I puzzled over this new sign. They were all real letters, not some random lines that Ben sometimes makes, but I couldn't figure out what it said.

Ben opened the door and said "Dad, did you see my sign? It says 'no girls allowed'. This is our boys club! We're gonna sleep in here."

"Yeah!" chimes in Kyle.

I take another look at the sign and sure enough if you read from bottom to top and right to left, it says exactly that: "no girls allowed"

My Little Angels (of Chaos)

Don't they all look so sweet? It's so much fun to be a dad to three boys. Ben and Kyle are so adorable cuddled up under their fuzzy blanket on the futon. They really are sweet boys. Especially to their younger brother. This little 4 month old cutie is rarely at a lack for attention. Ben just loves to dote on him, often a little too close. I don't think Owen has a huge issue with personal space yet, so I guess it's ok with him for now. And Kyle has his own way of doting that usually includes talking to Owen in a high pitched sing-song little voice that mimics the way we talk to him sometimes.

But these angels bring their own brand of adventure to our house. Owen can even get in on the chaos some days with his proliferation of little wet spots from either drool or (more likely) spitup as he scoots around the floor. The older 2 have gotten a little more ... what shall we say... chaotic. Over the past week, I've discovered paint chipped off the walls, a 3-inch string of carpet pulled out on the stairs and the glove box door pulled from it's hinges. (That's the last time they are allowed to mess around in the van while we're working in the garage, that's for sure!)

But, I guess as they say, "boys will be boys!" And they're all very kind at heart and aren't being mean or malicious in their actions. It's just that when the play, they play hard and if they're curious (like their daddy), they'll just keep picking at something until the figure out how it works or it breaks. What can I say?

Can I Count on You

The other night I was asking the boys to clean up some toys and I said, "Can I count on you to pick up your trains?"

Ben agreed quickly and went into the other room to get started. Kyle said no and just stood there looking at me. I asked him whether he wanted me to put the trains away which would mean they would go in the garage on a shelf for awhile and not be available to play with. He didn't like that idea either. So I asked him again.

"Can I count on you to pick up your trains?"

"Um, ya!" And then he stood there expectantly.

After a couple seconds it dawned on me that he was taking my question very literally. He thought I needed to actually count on him before he picked up his trains.

So I counted to 5 while tapping his head and then he went running off happily to clean up his trains.

Scary Dreams

As those of you with kids know, they have an innate talent to come up with lots of reasons to come out of their rooms at night. Ours are no different and Kyle (who's a night owl anyway) seems to use any excuse he can to come out of his room.

So one night while Mindy and I are watching TV, Kyle comes out of his room and says, "Guys, I had a scary dream."

This isn't a rare occurrence, but on this night our patience had worn kind of thin and I didn't really have the energy to go upstairs to talk with him. And let's not forget that he hadn't even been asleep yet.

After trying to reason with him for a couple minutes that it was time to go into his room and sleep, he kept insisting that he had had a scary dream about a lion that tried to eat him.

In a moment of sarcasm, I said "Kyle, feel free to have a scary dream after you have gone to sleep."

Dead silence from upstairs. I would have loved to see his face as he tried to puzzle that statement out. Shortly he went back into his room and shut his door.

Meanwhile, Mindy and I tried not to laugh loud enough for him to hear us.

Kyle prays

Kyle has started to really put his personality into his prayers. We've been praying for the leader of a home church in Cuba that one of our missionaries supports. So at night he prays:

"Dear God, thank you for Luis Perez to keep learning more about you. Amen"

Kyle's recently learned a prayer that they use at Ben's school. It's very sweet to hear him pray it and he's very sing-songy with it.

"Dear God,
Thank you for the world so sweet.
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing.
Thank you God for everything.
Amen."

And now he just plugs his own thing into it:
"Dear God,
Thank you for the world so sweet.
Thank you for Luis Perez to learn more about you
Thank you for the birds that sing.
Thank you God for everything.
Amen."

Very sweet.