Child Labor laws

 Am I breaking them if stuff doesn't actually end up getting cleaned by the children? Does it count as labor if they love every second? Does it count as awesome if it keeps the little people in one spot while I get the cleaning done? Cleaning the bathrooms has never been so fun!





Five!

{The next million (give or take a few) posts are going to be retroactive in an attempt to get even remotely caught up around here. Hey, in order to have moments to blog about we have to be living them first, right? That living often leaves little room for documenting, but I'm going to try to bring everyone up to speed on all of the crazy antics we like to call "memories".}

We like to do birthdays up big around here and it was great fun to get to celebrate our sweet Ben as he turned five. The kids love it when their birthday falls on the weekend since daddy gets to be here celebrating with us, too. So today was Ben Day, complete with all of his favorites.

Ben is our quietest, least needy, most likely to have a melt-down if he "hasn't had a chance to play alone in a while" (true situation) kid. He doesn't often ask for anything specific and has always been pretty easy to please. Watching him develop specific likes throughout this past year has been really fun. He's beginning to come out of his shell a little bit and letting us into his world more and more. And what a funny world it is! It's a world filled with dinosaurs and legos, knights and castles, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (neither of which he has seen, both of which he's dying to see). It's a world of paper guns made by his big brothers and purchased by Ben with money he's earned doing little jobs for me around the house (and he proudly tells everyone that he's their best ~ and only ~ customer). It's a world of made up stories involving characters named Benny and Booba that tell of their dingo hunting adventures in the Outback. It's a world of basketball games with daddy by day and love talks with mommy by night (Mommy: "I think you're wonderful...", Ben: "I think you eat bloody eyeballs!").
It's a world in which he has a deep and true understanding ~ maybe better than anyone else in the family ~ of Jesus, who came to the world to be our Rescuer, and he prays diligently that the people we love would understand it too.

Sweet Ben is a delight and a joy and never fails to make us laugh with his kooky, off-the-wall, random thoughts. He is a smart and eager learner. He is a just and loyal friend. He is a sensitive little soul. He can't start the day without even just a few minutes of snuggle time (and he wakes up early to ensure that he gets it).

Happy fifth birthday, Benjamin Wesley! We're so glad God put you in our family.


















Birthday date with Ben

When this boy can get a word in he has a lot to say! Ben the Loner comes out to play anytime he knows he has your ears all to himself. He brushed me up on all of the Hero Factory characters (the good guys have the "H" on their chests, because "Why would a bad guy have the letter for Hero on him?"), reenacted his favorite scene from an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates and told me he'll have 155 children one day. All boys.

Birthday dates are the best.




loving his neighbor

Recently some neighbor friends had to do something pretty hard and scary. As the day got closer, the kids wrote them notes of encouragement to let them know they were being prayed for. It was one of those situations we could have chosen to shield and "protect" our kids from, but Sam's letter reaffirmed to us how valuable it was for them, and for their friends, to be brought in and allowed to help carry the burden a little bit.




Jack... again.

It was recently suggested to me that I start a separate blog for the sole purpose of documenting Jack's escapades. I'm still living under the delusion that he's going to drastically mature overnight and they will come to a screeching halt, so until that happens you can feel free to check back regularly for the latest installment of, "Jack.... again."

This time it came in the form of water. During "naptime".

About 30 minutes after I tucked him sweetly into bed he began calling me. "Mommy! I wet!", is what I heard from upstairs. Assuming he had not been able to get himself up on the potty, I called to him that I was on my way and to just be patient for a minute. As I started up the stairs I heard water running... I followed the sound into my bathroom, where I found the bath tub completely filled with whatever belongings he could reach and on the verge of overflowing with water. I said, "Jack! Did you put everything in here?!" He replied with, "Well, not eveyfing exactwy." True enough. Not eveyfing exactwy.

He was, indeed, quite wet, and had only called for my help because the water was close to the top and he couldn't turn it off.

At least he knows his limitations.