Chats with Children 3

BEN

Ben has been looking to exert dominance lately. The problem is finding something to be dominant over when you're only a kid. He seems to be striking out quite a bit. He just can't seem to figure out that SAYING something does not make it what he wants it to be whether it's reversing a punishment or granting himself a privilege. I'll spare you the oft repeated dialogue we endured this week, but I'll share that the week culminated in him getting kicked out of Sunday School today. According to him, he got kicked out because he was "talking like a parrot"... buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut that's not exactly the whole story. He thought his punishment was going to be missing Grandma's house for dinner today, but nobody went up to Grandma's tonight so he thought he was off the hook. Instead we went for a family walk which turned out to be a much worse punishment. Ben didn't listen to us about bundling up, so for about 45 minutes of our "pleasant, Sunday, family outing" Ben was wailing down the streets of our neighborhood like a funeral dirge. That'll teach him. He now gets 5 minutes of "family time" when he acts out.

KALLIE

Kallie gave her first talk in Primary today. This basically consisted of Mom helping her put together some visuals before church and me making up her talk as I "helped" her give it. She did a great job except for the part were she attempted to repeat what I was whispering while she picked her nose. Yeah, we're still working on some of those practices that aren't considered exactly socially acceptable. Anyways, she's been an ANGEL this week with Ben getting is so much trouble. I can't wait until they're teenagers and the roles reverse. She was EXTREMELY upset about not going to Grandma's today. So I took her in my arms and I said "Kallie, should we make chocolate chip brownies in little iron skillets for dessert tonight?" "Can, we make them with little powdered sugar hearts on top?" she asked. "Yes." "Can we make them right now?" "Sure". Problem solved.

ANDREW

Andrew started exhibiting a slight cold medication dependency this week when his fever finally came down and he realized we weren't going to give him any more Tylenol. It was pretty funny. I said, "But Andrew, you don't have a fever anymore." So he started coughing. We pointed out that a cough is not a fever. That's when he got a really consternating look on his face as he tried to figure out how to fake a fever. He gave up and simply tried to demand the medicine. "But you don't have a fever," I reminded him. He tried the coughing thing again, and got really frustrated as he tried to produce a fever for the second time. This morning Katie was really not feeling good and slept in a little. I spent the morning with Andrew who was having a hard time. When I asked him why he was so upset he said, "MOM'S DEAD!" I tried to tell him we could go prove she was alive but he wouldn't hear of it. He just kept repeating "mom's dead" and he didn't want to go up to our room. Kallie slept in to about noon, and it didn't take long before he was saying the same thing about Kallie. I'm not sure what got this kid so worked up about mortality all of sudden, but he sure was happy when they both woke up.

KATIE

Yeah, I know I'm more of a kid than Katie, but we have some pretty funny conversations sometimes. I don't have enough time or space to detail all of the funny things she's said this week so I'll share a bit of tonight that won't embarrass her. Kallie has been coughing hard enough at night that she's thrown up a couple of times by gagging herself. She did it again tonight. We heard it from downstairs followed by a "Moooooooommmmmmmm..... I threw up!" Katie goes, "It's your turn." So I said, "But she threw up." Apparently, that wasn't a valid argument.