I love my toots. Don't get me wrong, these toots bring lots of stress and ruffled feathers in this house for not picking up, cleaning up or beating each other up. But in the long run, they are awesome. What I love even more is ages 8 and now 11. Five is, of course, fabulous because that precious baby does everything possible to stay in his momma's good graces. He is still angelic. He is smart as a whip and he is cute as a button. But 8 and 11 bring about the good conversations. The REAL people that are inside of those little boy bodies.
Ages 8 and 11 are showing me the kind of boys my boys are CHOOSING to be and not necessarily the boys their mom and dad have told them to be. I am so fearful of teenager years and smart mouths and sneaky boys....but I am also catching a glimpse of the good side and I am thrilled beyond measure.
This precious middle child really doesn't have any of the middle child qualities you would expect. He is a perfectionist and a competitor who is driven like none I have ever known. With those qualities....the funny part is that he usually wins. He has straight A's. Not
just straight A's. His A's are 99, 98, 100, 99. And it makes him mad that those are not all 100's. These are stories for a future blog, but he wants to be #1 on the math program at school....not in his class or even his school. He is looking at the numbers in the school DISTRICT. He's #5 in the district. Seriously. They are learning cursive at school, but they can't bring their practice book home, so he asked me to buy him one. I found him after I tucked him in, in the dark with a HEADLAMP, teaching himself cursive from his book. He is just compelled to succeed like nothing I have seen before from a child. And he has ALWAYS been this way. Remember....riding a bike without training wheels at two?
Anyway, a few weeks ago we had Benchmarks at our school. In Texas this is huge. I don't know why it has become such a big thing, but it is. It simply measures where the child is and if they are meeting expectations for the year....a benchmark. Gratefully, at our new school there is less emphasis on success. At our old school, parents were stressed and passed that on to their kids. Heaven forbid if they were SICK for Benchmarks. Lawsy. I didn't know we were having Benchmarks until the week of. No biggie. I told the boys, "Good Luck" and kicked them to the curb ;)
JLS came running up our driveway after I saw him bound off the bus. "Mom! Mom! I took da Science Benchmark today and I made a 100!!" I am so grateful for this child, but I am so used to this that I often take it for granted. "That's great, baby. Good job!" And our day went on.
About an hour later, we were sitting at the bar working on homework when JLS told me a story. "Mom. You know dat everyone was so nervous for the Benchmark today. They were all talking about it so I got a little nervous, too. You know what I did? I just prayed." Admittedly, JLS' stories get a little long and I am often only half listening, but I stopped everything I was doing and asked him to repeat his story. He was so proud and so excited to tell me that he prayed before his test....AND he related his 100% to praying before his test. I was blown away. I am certain that when I was in second grade, as good of a kid as I was, I didn't stop to pray before a test.
I am so proud of this sweet boy. I am proud of the boy he wants to be. I am proud of the role model I can see him becoming. Thank you LORD for the sweet peeks we get of Heaven in our house. Thank you so much for our JLS.
Mona has become anything BUT invisible in this house and slowly over the past year has established herself as queen of the castle, second only to moi. As indicated last night when I came to bed and she had taken my side of the bed. All of it. I thought, "Oh surely you are just warming my side of the bed for me." But she didn't move. I crawled OVER her and under my sheets and pushed my feet down. No movement...just moans. I pushed my feet under her body thinking that would do the trick. She just looked up with a sleepy face, readjusted and sighed and plopped her head back down. She was irritated. Mona has no fear.
So, on December 15th, I surprised the boys AND Mona with a surprise birthday party for Mona. The boys got yummy cupcakes from Frost and Mona got a new bone. Everyone was so happy. We sang, "Happy Birthday" and the moment was complete. The vet THINKS she was three years old when we took her in, so this was her 4th birthday celebration. Who knows the truth? Only the shadow....
I was feeling under the weather last week and crashed after the boys got home from school. When all three get home, they love to play "army mans," as WHS would say. They get all their gear on...and it required a lot more on this cold day...and run all about our yard and shoot each other. There are truly not many things that make my heart smile more than them running and playing in my front yard together. 
Sadly, in our home, 3/5 members are allergic to dogs (among 500 other things). JBS is the one most affected by dogs because he has asthma and allergies induce breathing issues for him. God love this child, as he had problems from the moment he was born when, "they say", most children don't start with issues until they are 9-12 months old. We have had some very scary moments in his life and are so protective of him....yet, we don't want him to live in a bubble either.
