What I've Learned About My Kids in the Past 2 Days

Our family scattered into 3 different directions this past weekend.  While I was at a women's conference where I got to share about one of my favorite passions, our son spent a night at Nana and Pops' house.  Meanwhile, my husband and daughter had a grand adventure at their first Y Princess spring retreat at a beautiful campground by an inlet.

Now that our family unit is back together again, I have received dramatic and enlightening reports from each child about his/her weekend.  Here is a smattering of what I have just learned about our kids:

About the first born:

• Like her father, our daughter is a gifted marksman.

• While she is a natural with a BB gun, her weapon of choice is the bow and arrow, which is more of a challenge for her.

• She is a perfectionist.  When she shoots an arrow, if it doesn't land dead center on the bullseye, then she thinks her shot was a complete failure.  When her father's shot pops the balloon in the center of the bullseye and hers doesn't, she gets more than a little upset.

• When she has just experienced one of the best weekends of her life, she sobs uncontrollably.   When I welcomed her home today, she just cried.  I asked her if she had gotten hurt and wondered if she had not enjoyed her weekend at camp.  Then she sniffed and snorted and finally said,  "A whole YEAR, Mom! I have to wait an entire year to go back!  I did not want to leave! (sniff, sniff)"

• When she is really tired, instead of speaking articulately in her usual poetic fashion, she becomes unable to communicate in complete sentences. When she tried to describe her weekend, she said,  "Screened windows ... screened doors ... cabins ... bonfires ... fireballs ... fireworks ... fireflies ... fabulous friends ... digging for shark's teeth ... paddling canoes ...must find superhero cape ... dancing on the boat ride ... should have ridden zip line one more time...."  Then she crashed onto the floor and napped for the next few hours. 

  

Cabin's screened windows

Look at you in a canoe

Zip line ride to river drop

About the baby in the family: 

• Our son is quite the conversationalist.  He seems to have a knack for knowing how to talk to people of various ages at their level.  When he's with little boys his age, he talks about Batman.  At church (and at home), he talks about the Bible and sings praise songs.  When he's with me, he often mentions chocolate.  Around his father, he speaks of computer games and golf.   When he spends time with his 7 year old cousin, he talks about what his cousin likes best, Scooby-Doo and soccer. And when he greets my parents, he talks about the weather.  As soon as I left him with Nana on Friday, he asked her, "Did the recent tornadoes cause any damage to your home?  Do you know anyone who was impacted by the tsunami?"   Nana said that talking to him was like talking to someone her age.

• Nana informed me that he can count past 100.  He counted each truck he saw during the drive to Nana and Pops' house and ended up counting over 100.  I don't remember teaching him to count that high, but perhaps he learned to count in English when his Spanish teacher taught the older kids in his class to count to 100 in Spanish.

• When he prays aloud in public restaurants, strangers notice, but he is oblivious to others who may be watching him since he's so focused on praying and has his eyes closed.

 

• Our 4 year old likes to mow the yard, especially when mowing involves riding Pops' Cadillac style riding lawnmower.

• He will remind you to trim your nails if they get too long.

• He has an interest in landscaping.  On the way to meet Nana, he informed me that the person living on the corner of an adjacent neighborhood "really needs to spruce up his yard".

• He occasionally uses hyperbole and does not believe that our house will sell anytime soon.  He told Nana, "My sister and I will each be married and have children of our own before that house sells."