Ian and Aidan both have strep. Ian has it so much worse than Aidan that he hasn't been able to eat anything today because he says his throat stings. Collin and I were trying to spray some Clorets in Ian's throat and he was crying and trying to run away. Aidan said, "Ian, if you let them spray your mouth I will give you a prize. Do you want a toy prize or a candy prize?" Ian wanted a toy prize and promptly opened his mouth. Then Aidan went to his toy box and got out three toys he thought Ian would like and said, "Since you got three sprays, I will give you three toys." Ian said, "Wow, FANKS (not a spelling error, that is how he says it) Aidan!"
You know, I am sometimes so focused on the less positive aspects of having kids so close in age (constant bickering, tattle-tailing, physical violence) that I forget how sweet they can be to each other and occasionally helpful to their parents. This is our fourth or fifth bout of illness this winter but I am going to try and be more positive and praise the kids this week and not let this slew of winter blues and bugs get us down.
I especially want to focus on Aidan. It is true that he is usually responsible for mischief around our house. Yesterday he put on bright red lipstick, decided that it looked dumb on him [what, all the 8 year old boys around town aren't wearing Revlon's Ruby Sparkle?] and then smeared it on a white wall in the basement. But since he is the oldest we expect the most from him and discipline him the most. I think I should ease up on him because he is like the nursery rhyme about the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When he is good, he is very very good and I'll just overlook the last line of the rhyme.
3 comments:
Oh how sweet is he? I love when our kids show their loving sides. When we're in the car I often look back to see Kendall and Gage holding hands. It helps him when he's fussing.
Oh man, did I have a night with a sick baby! Starting at 1:45 AM and between trying to feed my sick newborn, putting my oldest back to bed after my newborn woke up the whole house, heading to the store to buy one of those snot sucker things, subsequently sucking the snot out of her, and again trying to get her to eat something, I got about 2 hours of sleep total. I hate having sick kids. And on top of that, the missionaries called here too early, and once I got back to bed, the JWs came knocking at my door. It's going to be a long day.
Okay... that was hilarious AND sweet! Also... I know what it's like to get the lion's share of the discipline. Not only was I older than my brother, but because I was always the "good girl," if I did ANYTHING wrong, my mom came down harder on me. When he did something wrong... it was usually pretty bad. When I did something wrong, it was something like putting lotion on in the livingroom when I wasn't supposed to... big deal. She'd really yell at me, though. I finally asked her why she was so much harder on me, and she said "Because I expect more from you." You know what? That answer did not make me feel better. If anything, it made me feel worse. I knew I was better behaved, and yet she was tougher on me. That doesn't make sense to me. It didn't seem fair then, and it doesn't seem fair now when I think about it. As far as Aidan being the oldest... he's still just a kid, and he'll always be the oldest, and Emma and Ian will always be younger. You know what I mean? I know you expect different things from him because he's older than Emma and Ian, but he's still only 8 years old. He's still just a kid. I remember how mad my mom would get at me for some things and I didn't understand because "I didn't do it on purpose!" I used that line a lot, but it didn't help my case. Man... I'm starting to sound like I have issues! Oh well... we all know I have issues!
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