And then there's James

We have entered a new stage of parenting recently.

Bethany needs a watchful eye and is learning boundaries.
Nate needs lots of love and snuggles.
And James just wants to be a man.

A few weeks ago after our preschool friends had left, James came upstairs to find me:

"Mom, I feel like a grown up. I don't think that I should go to preschool anymore because I feel older.... Like an adult. Like.... 10 years old."

James' "feeling like a grown up" has come up a lot recently.

He announces almost every night that he does not think he should go to bed because he feels like an adult and should stay up late with the adults. He also announces that he will be waking up with us early in the morning.

He insists on bringing in all the heavy groceries by himself, portioning out food for Bethany so she doesn't choke, and "taking a look at" anything that needs to be repaired in the house.

I have always had the attitude of showing even little boys respect, but James stretches me even more! James genuinely wants to be treated like an adult. I get so much more out of him when I talk to him like a man and give him a lot of responsibility.

Just the other day, we were both having a rough time with our attitudes. We appologized and forgave, then I told James that when Dad is gone, he is the man of the house. He still obeys me, but it is his job to protect and look after the family when Dad is gone. It's also his job to be a good example to Nate and Bethany and show them how we do life in our home. I watched his attitude change immediately.

James is just like his dad. He thrives under the weight of responsibility and he's a no BS sort of person. Don't talk down to him. He gets it.

I'm amazed how children are so different from birth. Same home, parents, circumstances. We're finally getting to the age where the differences change how we parent - not expectations, but techniques.

And they're only 1,3, and 4!

A little about Nate

One of my favorite character qualities of Nate is his compassion.

When he plays with his toys, someone is always the mommy and someone is the baby. The baby gets hurt and the mommy gives it kisses and helps it feel better.

If Bethany falls down, he is the first to give her a kiss and ask her if she is ok. (Unless he was the one who pushed her over. Then he ignores her and acts like nothing happened!!)

When we went to an Oso fundraiser a couple weeks ago, I explained that the mud covered the people's houses so they didn't have anything left. I told him that a fundraiser is something that we can do to help people and give them money. He immediately got a bright look on his face and said, "Mom! I have money in my jar I can give to the people in the mudslide!"

Aunt Kim, James, Nate, and their buddy Luke at the Oso fundraiser. James and Nate put all the money from their jar into the donations box at the event, but were very confused about not being able to "go to the mudslide and rescue people". They both want to be rescuers with rescue dogs when they get older..... when Nate isn't being lazy.  ;-)

There is a man who stands on the corner next to our Fred Meyer holding a sign. We pass him 3-4 times a week and the boys always ask questions about him. I don't really know how to explain "homelessness" to the kids so I just say that he doesn't have a home, he is asking for money, and I wonder what his story is and why he doesn't have a home.

Nate and James are always very concerned and tell me that they have money in their jar they can give him so he can buy a new house. 

I walked into the boy's room to tuck them in last night and Nate showed me Rocky and Kevin (his trains with cranes).

"Mom, Rocky is holding a sign that says that he is homeless and he needs money to buy a new house for his family. And Kevin wants to know if you can give him money to buy a house that is on sale."

Well, here's some money, but Rocky and Kevin look like they could be good workers. What if we help them find a job so they can work hard to earn money for their family?

"But, this IS their job. They work hard holding up this sign so they can get money. See how heavy the sign is?"

This Girl.

In the last 2 weeks, Bethany has become such a kid.

She walks and is SO HAPPY walking.
She is also covered in bruises from falling.
She can wear pig tails.
She needs a bow in her hair to hold it out of her face.
She understands "no-touch".
She doesn't use a bottle, she uses her new sippy cup.
She drinks real milk now.
She eats real food. I haven't given her mushed baby food in weeks.
She runs and says "Hi Dada!" when John walks in the door.

Meet Awesome

We have had (don't tell the boys) a new pet! 

We were doing some gardening and I found a good pile of bugs for the boys to play with. Blegh!

James announced that he found a new pet for us!

Great! What should we name him?

James:  "AWESOME! Because he digs holes and when people do tricks, they're awesome!"

Awesome's new home is a tiny wagon with lots of dirt.

The boys took turns taking Awesome for walks.

Uh-Oh. Nate tipped Awesome's home over.

That's ok, we found him again.

Let's take him for another walk.

Uh-Oh! Tipped him over again.

I think we found him.  (No, I think we didn't.)

"Ok Mom, Awesome is sleeping, and when worms sleep they dig holes in the dirt, and we don't want to bug him while he's sleeping."

The boys checked on Awesome every hour for a couple days. The wagon filled with water from the rain and got knocked over by Hugo.

Every time, they talk about him, we just say that Awesome is probably sleeping so we shouldn't bug him.

James and Nate say that it's ok if Awesome "ran away". They can get a new worm-pet. And his name will be "Hider" because worms likes to hide in the dirt.

Missing our cousins

As I'm looking through pictures, I keep landing on this one at the beginning of the album and it makes me miss my girlies!

I have lots of pictures I never uploaded from our Wednesdays together. Love you, K & C!

We have a walker!

{It was all in the shoes. The pretty little sparkly walking shoes I bought her were too wobbly, but the flat-bottomed shoes from Auntie Keri did the trick. She's testing out this walking thing all day now!}

Bethy wants to walk on her own, but just won't let go!

Just picked some flowers for Mom

I should have *actually* looked when they said, "Look Mom! Isn't this NASTY?"

We see the sun!

Bethany's 1st Birthday

March 1st was Bethy's first birthday! We had a really low key day while John was at work and a family party in the evening.

 Happy Birthday sweet Bethy!