Ben has a sweet tooth - this is a known fact. At least once a day he asks for a piece of candy, and I usually indulge him, assuming it's not too close to supper and he hasn't just crapped in his pants. Leah, on the other hand, enjoys the occasional treat (usually requested after Ben walks up to her chewing on a sweet), but has had candy in her possession for literally weeks before I put her out of her misery by eating it myself (candy hearts. jelly beans. tootsie pops. I love you all.)
The kids each have a "candy bowl" on the counter, partially out of sight, where I deposit all the loot from birthdays and holidays. Lately, the bowls have been brimming, thanks to several birthdays (btw, I didn't put candy in EITHER of the kids' birthday treat bags), Easter and May Day (this one was a surprise. They both got quite a haul, and it was so dreary and rainy that I didn't bother to do anything ourselves.).
What I love is that when Ben says, "Can I have a piece of candy? Just one? Pretty please with cake on top?" (he hasn't quite got the hang of that form of wheedling), and we concede, the kids spend about 10 seconds hovering over their bowls, trying to decide what to choose - Large tootsie pops, small tootsie pops, toosie rolls, fun-size Hershey bars, Laffy Taffy, DumDum suckers - and they have lately been choosing the smallest thing possible, the Tootie Frooties, which I think cost about 10 cents for 100 pieces. That's just awesome.
And it leaves the bigger things for me.
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Leah and Ben are not allowed to leave their rooms before 7am. They have been taught this since they were able to match the 7 on a digital clock to the 7 on a piece of paper covering the digital minutes. (This keeps them in bed, but allows for sleeping in.) However, they don't have to SLEEP until 7am. As long as they are quiet, we don't really know or care what they are up to.
For the past couple months, their internal clocks have had them waking up around 6:30am. Well, that's BEN's internal clock - and then he wakes up Leah. Don't you just feel sorry for her? OH YEAH, I've had a personal wake-up almost every day for the last six years. Chickee doesn't get much sympathy from me.
Anyway, back to why they are fantastic.
Since I've been occasionally getting up at 6:30am for some quiet time with God and a cup of tea latte, I've been able to hear when they wake up. Sometimes there some loud squawking going on for quite a while, and sometimes they are looking at books together on Leah's bed.
The other day, it was all quiet, even until I went upstairs around 7 to shower. I looked into the room to check on them, and saw them curled up on Leah's bed. Leah was still under her covers on her side, but Ben was laying with his head on her hip and feet pointed towards the headboard. And they were holding hands. And chatting like an old married couple. It was about the sweetest thing I'd ever witnessed, and made me so glad that we'd had two kids close together.
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And then there are a couple smaller, more random things, but it's stuff like this that makes me impressed with my kids - and maybe reveal my own personal biases:
- the day Leah chose Rice Chex over all the other "sweeter" cereals in the pantry
- when Ben got super excited about vanilla yogurt out of a tub, which I'd never considered even offering and only purchased for Adam
How have your kids made you proud lately? Or, what is a little thing that can make your outlook sunnier?
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
1 year ago
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8 comments:
sorry, had to delete that one cause i mistakenly put a last name in there.
AND I CAUGHT IT! i'm getting better.
what i wanted to say is that the holding hands thing is the cutest thing in the world. i'm so excited to see you and the rest of the "xxx's" at our family gathering in june. i like that we don't need holidays to get together.
One of my age 6 & 4 moments came on Dec 31, 1999 when on eof the TV stations was showing fireworks from around the world and one of the girls asks "How come they aren't showing Fargo?"
This fortnight I've gotton to enjoy them participating in the church youth worship service, playing in a tennis meet, playing in a band concert, and winding up another good year academicly (finals still coming).
Love that you found them snuggling :) Hmm...Mackenzie will choose water over pop 99.5% of the time, although she is totally addicted to candy (thanks mom).
If miy kid chooses lights over reds, I'll be thrilled. ;)
Ruth - Good job! We just bought an air mattress for us and a mattress topper for the kids, to make crashing at Dave's a bit easier.
Noel - Well, why not? Doesn't Fargo rank right up there with Beijing, Paris, and New York City?:)
Stacie - Wow, I'm impressed. Leah loves soda, although usually she'll insist on watering it down, cause it's "too sparkly".
Aaron - Um, what are you talking about? Laundry?
Umm yeah, I have no idea what Aaron is talking about either.
Liz have I ever told you how growing up in the Nydam household meant all the sweets were locked up? Well they were, in the "goodie cupboard". Any items requested from said cupboard were carefully monitored by our parents to make sure we didn't take too much.
I thought this was completely normal, until I got to middle school and I started to notice it wasn't the same at my friend's homes.
Needless to say my parents did this to keep 5 kids from eating a week's worth of groceries in one day. I am amazed at the restraint your kids have with open bowls of candy left out. (!)
Lights and Reds are different varieties of Marlboro cigarettes. The lights (supposedly) have less nicotine, tar, etc. They do still give you cancer though.
It was a joke, hence the ;).
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