Sunday, February 22, 2004

A New Day!

Let's start the day off with a PayPal donation link:


This Morning
Woke several times in the night. Tommy's (the 13 yr old) stirring about this morning had me up at 7:20. The wife asked if she could enjoy the favor of getting to sleep in and naturally I said yes. She doubts she will be able to because she expects Tommy and I to end up in a fight and the baby to end up crying. The correct side of me wants to give my wife these opportunities as frequently as possible without any expectations; the selfish side of me wishes a favor in return. The selfish side fo me doesn't hold that much weight. It's like 90% unselfish/10% selfish because I get a whole lot of reward out of making my wife happy. Nothing in life feels better than doing for others!

I want to get some cleaning done before the baby arises but it isn't going to happen.

Yesterday
I was just a poor blogger yesterday. I really enjoy this outlet and hope that my readership does too!

The highlights:
Noah's (the 7 yr old) maturity level often concerns me. I'm freqently torn between letting him be a 7 yr old and correcting the behavior. I know he can make good decisions. He is a smart guy! But it often seems like he just turns off his brain. His incidents at the pine wood derby workshop. We arrive and immediately start eating pizza. I'm talking to the adults and I turn around to see that Noah has gone over to the group of boys and put this plate with his pizza on the floor so that he could take the hood of one of the boys sweat shirts and is putting all his weight into forcing it over the other boys face. I'm appauled and drag Noah out to have a discussion with him about why were are here and how to behave. Just a few moments pass and one of the younger siblings launch a Nerf football from the playarea into the eatting boys. As an adult asks the children not to do that, Noah, the boy furtherest from the play area, deliberatly sets his plate down, runs through the older boys, grabs a plush toy (stuffed animal like a beannie baby), and violently hurls it over his shoulder like throwing salt over your shoulder, and almost hits in the face the same adult that was reprimanding the kids. Noah's energy and intent had me thinking he was going to alternate hands just wildly throwing as many toys as he could so I dragged him out again and asked if he wanted to go home.

I must make more attempts to get him around other kids. I want him exposed not just to the same group of children he always sees but more and more boys his own age.

The baby arises so I will cut to the evening. At the mall I shock everyone by saying that Noah needs to stay with us and spend the afternoon with me. It was totally selfish because I wanted to fly his kite with him (his request). I felt like I flabbergasted the grandparents. They were also concerned I didn't intend to bring to their place so they could take him to church in the morning. On the ride over there, Tommy (the 13 yr old) is in rare form and being particularly rude; I was being reactive and not smart in my handling of him in the car which irritated the wife because she just wanted a peaceful evening. We spent longer at the inlaws than she intented but I found it quite pleasant. The baby slept in my arms and eventually rose to play with the grandparents. The wife, Amy (the 20 mth old), Tommy (the 13 yr old) and myself returned home for the evening routine and sleep.