Monday, June 8, 2009

Growing Up


Yesterday, Bounce turned 4. Yep, the temper-tantrum-throwing threes are gone. YES! Thank you, Jesus! Only, they somehow have carried over, but that's a story for another paragraph. First off, since I'm too involved at church, Sunday is a meeting day for me as well as a "Day of Rest," so we invented a birthday weekend for our boys. Now, me, I get a whole week for my birthday (usually), but boys are expensive, and when there's three of them, you have to make provisions. So, we went to IHOP (culinary delight of 4 year olds and pancake-lovin' brothers) on Friday night as well as the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory because we weren't high enough on sugar already. After we returned home, we let them open the box from Grandmom and Granddad that had arrived that afternoon. Much light-sabering and double-duck-carrying went on before bedtime!







Then on Saturday, we took the boys to "My Cheeseburger Place" (not the real name, but it might as well be) and the park, then we went to buy more fish for our aquarium (again, another story for another day). Afterwards, on to home and birthday cake and baths (not in that order), throwing in a couple of Lego boxes on the way. I know, I know, I gripe about the Lego, then like a FOOL! go and buy more. I'm a sucker for these kids and the subsequent sore feet and tuchuses, too. When I put Bounce to bed Saturday night, I told him, "You'll be four years-old when you wake up in the morning. Did you know that four is a big boy age? Yep. Four year-olds don't throw fits, whack people or "huh!" hatefully. Four year-olds learn how to say what they want nicely, and they control themselves. Three year-olds are still babies, but not four year- olds. Are you ready to be four?" Solemn look and a head nod. Yes! Thank you, Jesus!
Finally, Sunday morning, we woke Bounce up with "Good morning, Happy Birthday, hurry up and get your clothes on, we're gonna be late!" Pretty normal, except for the "Happy Birthday!" thing. Because he's four now, Bounce was able to come upstairs to "Big church" where he was an angel. He doesn't/can't whisper because he is his father's child. Can. Not. Do. It. Only he did. Perfect, I tells ya. Perfect. After church, we went for a cheap lunch and then we did the unthinkable. We took a four year old and his much wiser, more influential, more manipulative almost-6 year-old brother to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday present because DH has fond memories of Scrap's Mom-Mom (his grandmother) taking them shopping at "Harry's" (she must have been a saint!). We had an hour; it took 40 minutes to narrow it down to a couple of Spiderman/Transformer things. Ridiculous. SWK did all he could to talk Bounce into Lego, and it was almost a done deal several times, but we safely navigated those aisles of dangerous territory to make our way to the other side of the store.
Sunday evening: "Mommy, I wanted those Lego! I didn't want a stupid (don't gasp...we're working on it!) Spiderman toy!" (I promise, people, we did not influence him...that much!) Follow all this with a bunch of whacks on my legs. GRRR!
So, we had the conversation: "Bounce, listen, you are four. Not three. You WILL NOT whack me, and you WILL NOT throw a fit. Do you understand? If you keep throwing fits and whacking me, I will send you BACK to three. Do you understand?
And you know what? It has worked...so far.
I don't know how I'll do it, but I will follow through with this threat if I have to. I will. And then I'll be kicking myself for going back to the temper-tantrum-throwing threes.
I sketched the following as I looked at his profile in church. He was so good! I am in love with all three boys' profiles. I don't know why, but I just love them, and I ache at the thought of the days to come when those cute little noses will grow and those chubby cheeks will thin out and become more manly. I love these boys!


Oh, and this one? He enjoyed the cake, to say the least!

2 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Bounce. Jana this one had me rolling. Big brothers influence is not always a good thing. I hope the "4 doesn't do that" speech works for a long time.

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  2. I hope so too...at least until he's 5!

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