Are you back-talking?

Serif's been going through a phase that he gets a little smart with his words, back-talking. Jeff's been quick to correct him. Serif's been wanting a whale from the toy store, so we told him maybe we could find one in Florida in 2 weeks if he's good. . . and that means no back-talking.
Tonight, on our way home from the Sounds game, they had a conversation that ended like this:

Serif (in an angry voice): no!
Jeff: are you back-talking?
Serif: no.
Jeff: that sure sounds like back-talking.
Serif: no, it sure doesn't!


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Serif

We were grabbing some dessert with some friends at the Jeni's Ice Cream about a month ago.  They have this great little chalkboard wall for the kiddos to use while waiting in line . . . or waiting for the adults to finish their ice cream and/or conversations.  Serif has been enjoying writing and especially likes to write his name.  He asked if I would write his name on the board, so I did.  Then I gave him the chalk and asked him to write it.  I think he a pretty great job, don't you?

The Gloves

I'm sad that I never posted this.  This was from the end of Serif's ice skating lessons back in February.  We made a chart for him to check off each week of lessons so he could get these hockey gloves.  He had been eyeing these in the sport shop since day one of lessons.  He was glowing with excitement.

Full Service

A super breakfast

Jeff went to work early this morning. When Serif got up I told him I'd make some banana pancakes for breakfast. He helped mix them together then wanted down to play (see post below). I laid out his clothes for him on his chair in his room and told him that I'd need him to get dressed before breakfast so daddy could pick him up for school when he's done eating.
He played while the pancakes were cooking then I reiterated that he needed to go get dressed before breakfast was ready and he comes out with this on and says, "Mommy! I'm a Super Reader!" He was so excited and ran right over to the table to eat!
It was so hilarious that I just let him get by with it. Sorry, honey, that he wasn't ready.


Any time we ask him to get dressed himself he always puts his shirt this way and he never wants it corrected. It's so funny. I can't imagine it being very comfortable but he enjoys it.
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Future rock star

Serif went to bed last night singing and playing along to Justin Townes Earle YouTube videos. We got some pretty good video too. For some reason he didn't want to sleep in a shirt last night. He goes through spells of his sleeping attire and what that might include: pants make him "hot and sweaty", he doesn't like sleeping in socks, his favorite as if late is to sleep in his "Boston" t-shirt from Uncle Don and Aunt Shannon. Jeff calls it "the harbor" shirt (says it with the northern accent). Serif corrects him every time, "No, it's Boston! See, I told you!"
The first thing he did after waking up this morning was this (photo above).
Serif is learning song lyrics and it's awesome and uh sets a tone of caution on our part. His favorite songs right now are:
Riders in the Sky - Jingle Jangle Jingle (Serif calls it the "Spurs" song) Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues (singing this one in this photo.)
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3 year old theology

Serif telling me about God tonight:

guess what god did? he got a bone and put it in his sling and he hit juh-lie-eth (Goliath) over the head.

guess what happened to jesus? god was very mean to juh-lie-eth (Goliath), and he made a big long boat and a big fish jumped in but god did not come in, he stayed out there because god is in trouble.

Monkey Love

Let's Go Predator's!


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Tonight's quotes

We finished our books and turned out the moon light, he cuddled up with me a minute then hugged me and said, "I love you, Mommy. You're my best friend." Then he kissed me on my cheek. He melts my heart.

He has a silver glitter Jesus bank that's been sitting on his bed, watching over him to keep him safe. After our prayer tonight, he asked if Jesus was up there (on his bed). I said yes, then he said, "Is Jesus on the front porch?"


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A Special Drawing

A few weeks ago I ordered a book, How to talk so your kids will listen and how to listen so your kids will talk. It's a mouthful to say and surprises me that they actually titled the book that and had room to put it on the cover.
Tonight, I was in the playroom with Serif and he was playing with his little hockey players. Cheryl's coming to clean tomorrow so I decided to go ahead and take down his shark tent in there (we had set it up in there this weekend). When he saw what I was doing, he burst out with, "No Mommy! Do not take that down!" I stopped and tried to explain why I was taking it down and told him that we could put it back up tomorrow night. That wasn't good enough. He was mad and wouldn't stop crying and he began to yell and started swinging his arms to hit. I grabbed his arms and tried to calm him but nothing was working. He was getting hysterical and I suddenly remembered something I read in the book.
I went in the kitchen and got his art paper and three crayons. I took them to him and asked him if he could draw me a picture of how he was feeling. He looked at it and told me to do it. I told him that I didn't know and needed him to do it. After about a minute, I finally scribbled on the page and said, "Is this how you feel?" He just looked at it and slightly nodded his head, yes. then I drew sharp lines and asked, "or is it more like this?" He continued watching and tried to take I all in. I then drew a calm soft wavy circle and said, "or this?" He had calmed down a good bit and and almost stopped crying. i asked him if he wanted to try drawing to tell me how he felt and then he looked at me and as he started to speak, his voice cracked and he had such a sad face and said, "But I don't know how to draw a sad face." I was shocked! I was speechless for a moment as my eyes welted up with tears. I took the crayon and asked him if I could show him how to draw that. He shook his head yes and I began to draw the face. After drawing it, he asked me to draw tears, so I did.




He started calming again and then I asked if he wanted to trace it. He said no and then asked me to go away. I went in the bedroom to find this section of the book to show Jeff. He didn't know what just happened or why i was crying. After a couple minutes, Serif came in the bedroom and told us to stay in there and not to come in the playroom or bathroom. A few minutes later, he came back with the pad of paper and his crayon and said, "I want to show you what I did!" He flipped through the pages and showed us this:




I was dumbfounded! I couldn't believe it! This is the first truly recognizable thing I've seen him draw by himself. it was the most beautiful sad moment I have ever had. We praised him on doing such a great job and asked if he was still sad. He said no. We then asked if he was happy and he said, " Yeah! I'm happy!" We asked if he could draw a happy face. He took the crayon and turned the page and drew this:




Another night of amazement with him. Raising him is so challenging and yet so rewarding. The love never stops even though my frustration level skyrockets and I lose all sense of how to handle situations. I just read a lot and try to make sense of the most I can and pray that we all make the right choices.

Sweet Words

Serif's favorite part of the bedtime routine is when he gets to run through the house to give daddy a great big knock-over hug. Tonight he ran from his room to the living room for the hug. When they were done, Serif ran back to the bedroom frantically and jumped in my lap and said, repeatedly, "I want to hold you. He's gonna get me." Jeff was coming through the kitchen and when he got to the bedroom he said, "I was just going to give you a kiss." Serif smiled and got his kiss. Jeff went to put something away in the playroom and Serif yelled to Jeff, "I love you!" then he snuggled up to me and rubbed my face and said, "Mommy, you're my best friend."


Once we were done with everything and ready for books we got in the bed and read in his moon light. I got to a page in his "Flip Flap Fruit" book where it talks about grapes. I told him that when I was little, we would eat all the grapes off the vine and my mom would turn it upside down and sing (and I sang about Zacius was a wee little man.) He listened to the whole song and said, "When I was just a wee little baby, Grandma Musser was my Mommy and she sang Jingle Bells (and he sang it.)


Serif, you are the sweetest! You melt my heart and make me cry . . . in a good way . . . a very good way. I love you with all my heart and I'm so thankful for you.


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Do you know what I love about you?

I've started something new with Serif recently. Every day I will out of the blue look at him and ask, "Do you know what I love about you?" He always get this little grin on his face and he'll say, "Yeah." He doesn't really know what I'm going to say, it's his way of saying "What?" I then will say whatever I happen to feel at the moment. For instance, the other day we were at the dinner table and I asked him and answered with, "You're such a good eater."
He proceeded to ask me, "Mommy, do you know what I love about you?", he said "You're such a good drinker." One night at bedtime I told him that I loved that he was such a good sleeper. The next night he asked me and he said, "That you're such a good sleeper like me." This always melts my heart. He's so sweet.
Today we got home from work and his mood just seemed a little off. He was painting a picture for his Uncle Don, who just had knee surgery today, and he got paint in his hair. Jeff swooped him up and said that he needed to come look in the mirror and laughed. When he got down to look, Jeff and I both laughed. Normally this will get him to laughing but not today. He got this pouty, embarrassed, angry look on his face and I immediately apologized. I felt horrible! He looked as though he wanted to cry but he decided to get angry instead. I grabbed a peep from his Easter basket and called him to his room for a minute. I had him sit in my lap and when he got up there I said, "Do you know what I love about you?" He grinned and responded with his typical, "Yeah." I said, "I love that you enjoy painting and I love how beautiful your artwork is." Then I gave him the peep. He grinned and took the peep and asked if it was for him. I said, "Yes, I just gave this to you." He asked if he could eat it andIi said yes. He then looked at it, grinned and said, "Do you know what I love about this?" and he held out the peep. I asked, "What?" He said, "That I can eat his head."
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A beautiful day

Serif had swim lessons this morning and when he was done, we went out back and found a wonderful surprise . . . ducks and a tire swing!
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