One of my poor kids is sooo cute. He hasn’t been allowed to watch TV in about two weeks (did something annoying/wrong and got into a heap of trouble by not stopping after the first 5 punishments). He told me that he was crying because the other kids in the family are addicted to TV and he never gets to see them anymore. He’s resolved to do whatever it takes to get off punishment so he doesn’t have to miss his siblings anymore.

The clever boy almost made me cave! But I already know he can cry whenever he wants because he pulled a joke on me that way once (giving away what could have been a mighty weapon in this battle called child rearing).

My poor four year old daughter gets the voice of an 80 year old smoker when she doesn’t get good sleep. And last night she did NOT get good sleep. My other daughter had been crying a lot and since they share a room the four year old caught quite an earful. My boys also didn’t get sleep for awhile. Since I went to a movie and came home to a silent house well after bedtime, I didn’t know about this until this morning when I asked each of them how they slept. The chorus of “Not very well” was broken only by the voice of the crier who replied in her light fairy voice, “good”.

My son told his classmates today that it takes him 2 and a half hours to fall asleep each night.  I said he was exaggerating to make a point and that technique is called hyperbole.  He said, “Oh, I thought it was called lying.”

Yeah, that too.

When a child is old enough to understand the significance and meaning of communion, they are fully joined with the rest of the community in Holy Communion. Send out the ffirst communion invitations and celebrate the occasion with a party. Invite all of the friends and family. After all, you can only celebrate a few of the sacraments. Make this one of them.

So when I was a kid my parents had certain gifts they gave to each child based on their age. Not everything worked this way – so you didn’t know everything you would be getting ahead of time but there were certain things that followed the pattern. For example, when you turned 9 you got a watch for your birthday and a camera for Christmas.

Now that my oldest is 9 I kept up with this (it being one of the few things I can remember clearly from childhood). He got his watch last birthday and this Christmas I’ll be looking for digital cameras that are 9 year old appropriate and won’t break the bank. Back in my day it was a kodak camera with 110 film. Now I’ll have to consider letting him use the computer to download his pictures.

I tried to explain seasons to my kids the other day. I got out the globe and asked who wanted the role of the sun and no one wanted it (who knew that was the dud role in this play) so I assigned my older daughter who can stay pretty still.

I glossed over (actually I totally omitted) the part about the sun rotating. Just seemed easier. I assigned the role of Earth to one of my sons and the role of the moon to the other. Then I attempted to get one to constantly face the second while the second turned in circles while going around my daughter and leaning slightly askew.

You can imagine how well that worked.

Then I tried to show them how the rays of the sun would be more direct at one time of the year than at another in out part of the world but the awe of knowing WHY winter is colder than summer didn’t light up their little eyes like I thought it would. I can’t imagine why.

They made it home alive and relatively unscathed in the notoriously evil social department.  No one was mean to them and the people in my second boy’s class were directed to fill each others buckets with nice words (actual mini buckets on every desk).

I guess I don’t need to rip them out of school and shelter them yet.  It’s probably for the best since I’d never be able to find a babysitter while I’m at work.