Stumbling into brilliance, Praises, and other silly things

So, today I found out that my children are brilliant. Ok, so I'm bragging, I'm not trying to brag, really. It was just one of those days that I thought to myself "wow I'm blessed". It didn't help that I ran into a few familiar faces at the library today, one of them looked at me a said, "your children!" (this is when I swallowed hard and thought, oh dear Lord what have they done." After a pause just enough for me to worry she says, "you have the most beautiful children. Just beautiful" So, I swelled a bit with pride and said my thank yous.

In the library later my mom was sitting on the floor in front of Finn and she gave him a puzzle. This puzzle was 6-8 pieces with farm animals. He could do it. I don't mean just jam the pieces in till he got lucky, I mean he would look at the piece then look at the puzzle, line it up on one side and slide it in, one movement. Now, ok, I must tell you I'm not a big puzzle fan. I don't mind a good puzzle, I just don't enjoy the pieces all over. So my kids have very few, ok, they have like 3. Finn has never done a puzzle before, not sure he's even seen one. He's 15 months old, have I been slacking by not offering the boy puzzles? Obviously he's got skills. Can puzzle-doing win you an Olympic medal? How bout a high school letter?


On to Dax. Tonight, at dinner we were having a long discussion about the lunch time hunger of my children and how many chicken nuggets from McDonald's they ate at the library. (again, note the great mothering with the offering of such a nutritious lunch) They were sharing a big box of nuggets and Nana had given them a few more. I asked how many Nana had given them we then figured between the two of them they'd had 11 nuggets. Lily says, I'm the one that had 6." Dax follows with, "yea, and I'm the one that had 5" We all looked at each other. So, he's he some sort of math whiz? Did he somehow know that if they started with 11 and Lily had 6 he had 5? Or does he have an amazing memory and was keeping close track? I don't know, either way it was a little spooky!

And Lily. Oh my Lily. Nothing escapes that girl, never has, even if she wants you to believe it has. I just laugh at her checking out 15 books (big ole chapter books) to take with her on vacation to add to the pile of 10 or 12 that Nana has for her. Thing is, she'll read them, every one. But what I find brilliant about Lily lately is the sharpness of her wit and sarcasm, because it's really starting to get funny. As a mom, I'm just grateful for that, cause she's not gonna make it with Mike and I unless she can get the sarcasm and make it funny. Tonight Mom and I were giving her a little lecture about going on a walk and how she couldn't ride her bike or scooter because the boys would want to ride something. She'd just have to walk. I made some comment about it being a stroller walk and she replied, "I'd like to see me fit in the stroller." Now don't get me wrong, I know there is a fine line between talking back and appropriate sarcasm, but in this house, humor is what God gave us to get us through and funny gets you way further than whining and drama!

Praise time...

I am so glad to have my mom here with us for a few days! I love having her around and I love watching her love my kids!

I also love that she does my dishes.

Mike and I went to the movies alone tonight! First time since January! It was totally spur of the moment, we decided 45 minutes before the movie started. We haven't been able to be that spur of the moment in 10 years! (if only mom would move here!)

When Dax got up from nap today Finn wrapped his arms around him and hugged him with all his might. It was the cutest thing ever!

Watching Finn copy everything Dax and his little friend, Seth did.

This week there have been no liquid or semi liquid items on my floors. There was some applesauce on Finn's hair, some yogurt on the fridge shelves, and several bowls of cereal on random floor surfaces, but so far it hasn't compared to the last few weeks!

Laughing. Really, truly laughing so hard that I made no noise. Not once, but several times today. Try it, it makes you feel like a kid! At dinner everyone at the table was about to fall off their chairs, I love nights like those! If you need a jumping off point, trying reading this.

The boys got haircuts! You can now see both of their eyes!


Dax is so excited to go to Ohio and tomorrow we hit the road!

Realizing that my children are brilliant and beautiful. Then realizing that I had nothing to do with that. These are God's children, he blessed me by allowing me to be their mom and it's only by his grace that I haven't screwed them up too badly yet. What an amazing gift!

And as I promised, other silly things...

Last night during the DVRed version of So You Think You Can Dance Mike was busy doing his own thing on the computer while Mom, Dax, Lily, and I watched the dancers do their magic. Dax lately has been very into dancing thanks to VBS and educational programing such as the above mentioned show. This was no exception. He watched the dancers closely and seemed to be very drawn into this dance...



About 2/3 of the way through the dance he walked over to Mike at the computer and with total innocence said, "daddy, can you teach me to dance like that..." and pointed at the screen.

Ahh, Mike told him he didn't know how, to ask Lily. But I would have totally paid money to see Mike do that dance! Any of you that can get him to do that while I'm gone this week I'll pay big bucks for the video footage!