Little Details on Little People

Eliza's really into playing this little "would you rather..." game - several times a day, she comes up with a new question. In the car today she asked: "Would you rather stay in the dark for 1000 years or go to a party where all the treats were made of mud and you had to eat them?" She comes up with some pretty interesting stuff. Her other favorite "game" is to say stuff like "you can't see my hands, right? Do you think I have anything in my hands?" Then you have to make a random guess and she's really really excited if it turns out that you're right! She's been bringing up lately how different moms do different things as well as being a mom and the other day she asked me what I do when I'm sitting at the computer. I explained that I do this blog sometimes and I do a lot of emails to help people know how to do good Joy Schools. Then today, Liza told me today that Frizzle's mom (Frizzle is her imaginary friend) is "just a regular mom who teaches Joy School but she needs some ideas so I've been paying a lot of attention at Joy School so that I can email her some ideas about how to teach better - isn't that nice of me?" Oh, this girl of mine is such a fun one!

The twins have really really great days - sometimes a few in a row. Yesterday they were angels and I was so in love with them. We had a wonderful time at the park and they stayed right by me and we fed the ducks and had a lovely little picnic and I was basking in the end of a long era of always being totally stressed out when I was in a public place with always at least one rambunctious and danger-seeking toddler in tow. But they also still have their really bad days - like today. Today they repeatedly tore all the pillows off the couch, turned a simple walk down to the mailbox into a stressful and crazy long trip full of danger and anger and trying to run after two kids going in different directions, sought out and ate all the leftover Easter candy in one fell swoop, wouldn't go down for naps, whined incessantly about EVERYTHING, ran out of the classroom and into the adjoining parking lot repeatedly and announced they had to "go potty" many times while I was supposed to be teaching the lesson in Eliza's pre-K class (luckily another mom pitched in and did a great job), and ran around and out of the church like wild monkeys during Ashton's Pinewood Derby tonight. There's no real rhyme or reason to their behavior - you just never know what sort of day you'll get with these little guys. But in general, they're doing much much better and I guess I should just expect some bad days and be glad the good ones are outnumbering the bad!

Silas has become very polite lately. He's always saying "excuse me" when we wants to say something - finally, one of my kids is getting this! He's been a good example to the older kids. And rather than saying "yeah" like most kids do, he always says "yes" with an emphasis on the "s" - very cute. Oliver has become very particular. He simply MUST sit on the same stool at each meal and the other kids, who really don't care, have been very nice to make sure and save that stool for him most of the time. He HAS to sit in the carseat in the back of the car and freaks out if Silas takes that spot. He's really mellow and easy-going about most things and quite flexible in general, happy to listen to an explanation and change his mind about most things. But he's got a few things he really must have - and we can respect that!

So there are a couple things about these three little people who I spend SO much time with that I didn't want to forget. I love getting to know them more and more and they have such fun little personalities. After a crazy day like today, I can still say that I wouldn't trade the chance to be their mom for the world.