Date Night with Andrew

Once upon a time, I use to regularly do date nights with each of the boys, but then things got busy and I got out of the habit.  Sometimes we did big events like the time I took Aaron to see Veggietales Live.  Other times we did low key stuff like playing card games over hot chocolate and coffee at our local Caribou. 

Confession:  Last night Andrew & I had a hard night.  Picture a temper tantrum, some yelling, tears and endless frustration.

Even worse confession:  Our fight was over the memorization of Bible verses for Awana. 

Its a long story, but I didn't grow up doing Awana.  Andrew had busted his butt to learn 8 sections of verses the week before, but I had goofed and didn't teach him that he just had to say them one after the other without any hint word (like say verse #4 or section 3 now).  So, he didn't get through all of them and was super frustrated that he had to resay all the same verses again this week.  And that's when things went downhill. 

When I admitted there was a big temper tantrum and some bad behavior, I should admit, it wasn't just Andrew.  It was me too.  Ok.  It was a lot me.  It wasn't my best parenting moment by a long shot.

We did regroup.  I apologized.  He recovered from the frustration.  I took him upstairs away from the chaos of the other three and we practiced in the quiet.  I told him how proud I was of how hard he had been working and was continuing to work.  After he got home from Awana, I asked him if he wanted to go on a date with me tomorrow.

Its no surprise that sometimes its difficult to connect on-one-one with one of your children in the midst of caring for several little bodies and the demands of day to day life as a family of six.  Much like Jon & I need date nights to communicate with each other, I find that "date nights" with each of the boys individually can do wonders for our communication, their confidence, and my parenting skills. 

In that on-on-one setting, I have the freedom to tell Andrew the things I love about him without his brothers becoming jealous.  I have the time to ask him questions and listen to all his stories without interruptions or distractions. 

I surprised him with heading out to get cheeseburgers at Barleycorn. On a side note, we use to go to this restaurant all the time when they a daily special of Kids Eat Free.  Since they stopped that special, we haven't been back (big surprise).  Recently, Andrew said he wished he could go there again because they had the best cheeseburgers and spicy pepper fries.  So we went.

Over dinner, we discussed all sorts of things classes at school, future dating, favorite vacations and places we'd like to visit.  He brought up the fact this his middle-school aged cousin has a "girlfriend" so then we starting talking about liking girls and dating.  I'd also like to take a moment and document it here that Andrew insisted that he wouldn't be dating until he was 36 years old.  I told him that I was 33 right now and had been married for almost 10 years, so that meant I was dating his dad when I was 22 and 23.  Despite that, he is sticking with his story that he's gonna wait until he is 36 years old.  I asked him what kind of dates he'll go on like seeing plays, going to dinner, seeing a movie, etc.  He said that he'll be renting movies from redbox and watching them at home (his home).  So, again, he insisted that he won't be dating until he's out of our home and living on his own.  Hilarious!

After dinner, I decided we should check out the newly opened Yogurtland by our house because frozen yogurt makes perfect sense when its 10 degrees outside.  We taste-tested several flavors.  Andrew landed on the red velvet cupcake with an assortment of candies on top and I went boring and just had the original tart yogurt.  It was so cold, we had to keep our coats on while we ate dessert, but it was worth it.  Next, we made a quick stop at the library on our way home to get some movies and Wii games for the weekend.

They have 10 flavors and they let you sample as many as you want. 

It was a sweet two and a half hours.  My heart is full of new memories with him.  The sheepish, embarrassed smiles that he gave me when we discussed girls and dating when he grows up.  His belly laughs when I told him funny stories about things my siblings & I did as children.  His preference to sit next to me instead of across the booth while we ate dinner.  Asking each other silly questions while we shared french fries.  My hope is that his heart is filled up too. 

Now to find time for two more dates in the next week for those two other boys who so patiently stayed home tonight.

When you have cream colored carpet...

When you are childless and move into a new house, you will pick out cream colored carpet for your living room, dining room and hallway/stairs. You will think cream colored carpet is pretty until you have children little balls of energy that make crazy messes, then you will regret that carpet every single day.

When you first have children, you will swear that they will only have snacks in the kitchen sitting at the table, then you will get lazy when the amount of children outnumbers the mom and give up that rule and let them eat anywhere as long as they aren't fighting with each other and you can run on the treadmill in peace.

When you have cream colored carpet in your dining room and you like to host dinners,
you will be surprised at how many times your husband adults spill on the carpet and curse the person who decided carpet even belongs in a dining room (probably the same person who puts it in master bathrooms--yuck).

When you have cream colored carpet, you will implement a "no shoes on the carpet" rule, it will not work, somehow dirt from shoes will still end up on your carpet.  Also, your mom will think its "funny" that you have this rule since you never followed it growing up in her house.

When you have cream colored carpets, you will try not to drink coffee in the living room, but you will fail at this rule too (because you have many children and need lots of coffee each morning). When you're not looking for two seconds, the toddler will reach over and dump your coffee on said carpet.  He will look pleased, you will not.  This will happen more than once.

When you have cream colored carpets, you will get sick of the stains and finally pony up the cash to have your carpets professionally cleaned.

When you have those carpets professionally cleaned, two of your four children will throw up on the carpet within 48 hours of having those carpets cleaned.  You will not be surprised.  You will question how someone so little can vomit so much? You will laugh at the irony of the flu's timing.  You will lay towels down on top of the upstairs hallway for a few nights just in case either of the other two children decide to throw up on the carpet.

When you have cream colored carpet, you will dream of having hardwood floors someday and you will warn any couples (without kids who intend on having them) to NEVER, EVER get cream colored carpet.

The End

Aaron's Good News

Two weeks ago, Jon was gone on a last minute work trip to Germany and I was home alone with the boys for too many several days.  It was my longest time being alone with all four boys and included SIX bedtimes.  Did you hear me?  When Jon is gone, I count the days based on bedtimes as that is often our most difficult time of day.  If you're a mom of multiple little ones, there is no need to explain this further.

I knew my friends and family must have been praying for me because I had way more patience than what comes to me naturally during that week.  The week went great until Tuesday night when the 24 hour stomach bug hit me.  I was up all night (11 pm-6 am) throwing up.  I am always sure that I'm dying when I have the flu and then amazed at how just hours later, you feel a thousand times better.  The flu is the worst.  The flu when you're solo parenting is beyond that (feeling sorry for me yet?) but I survived.  By the time morning rolled around I was so weak.  The boys did a great job of getting dressed, finding their own breakfasts and getting in the car.  I managed to get lunches packed for the twins (with a few breaks to rest while moving around the kitchen) and drive them to school.  I briefly contemplated just keeping them home, but then I realized having 2 of the 4 kids gone for the day was worth whatever level of effort I had to summon to get them there.  I also stopped at Target with the two little guys and got myself 7up, popsicles and saltines.  When we got home at 9 am, I laid on the couch, turned on the TV and let Aaron & Caleb watch as many movies as they wanted while I laid there in and out of sleep.

That afternoon while Caleb was napping, I summoned the energy to practice Awana verses with Aaron.  He had been sick the week before, so he had two verses to learn this week.  The first verse was John 11:25- "Jesus said...I am the resurrection and the life."  The second one was Ephesians 5:2-"Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us."  When I practice memorizing the verses with the boys, I always ask them what they think the verse means and then we discuss it.  I asked Aaron what he thought it meant that Christ gave himself up for us.  Aaron replied that it meant Jesus died on the Cross for our sins.  Over the last six months when we've talked, Aaron often says "Jesus died on my sins" which I just love.  In my mind, I picture sins as a grenade or bomb and Jesus laying his body over the explosion to protect us from the death of sin.  Its one of the favorite things that Aaron has said.  Aaron has thanked Jesus for dying for/on our sins many times over the last year during his bedtime prayers, but each time he has said that he isn't ready for Jesus to live in his heart.  Each time,, I've said that's okay.  You can't push someone else to Jesus, they have to come when they are ready in their own timing.

So on that cold January afternoon, we talked about these verses for a few minutes and then Aaron told me that he wanted Jesus to live in his heart.  Our conversation went like this:

Me:  Do you know how to have Jesus come live in your heart?

Aaron:  Yes, I just need to ask Him to come.  And love Him.

Aaron prayed the simplest of prayers "Dear Jesus, Please come live in my heart"  I was so glad to be a part of Aaron's first and most important step in following Jesus.  He's young, just four and a half, but he understands (at his developmental capacity) that he sins and Jesus can take away his sins.  I don't know if he'll remember this exact moment but I know that he will remember Jesus being with him from a young age. 

Since that moment in the afternoon of January 16th, Aaron has been telling everyone his "best news ever" that Jesus now lives in his heart.  He called my mom and told her right away.  He told his big brothers James & Andrew when we picked them up from school.  While they were both happy, they also in typical "big brother fashion" were quick to say that they already had Jesus living in their hearts for the last year.  On a side note, my super independent oldest boys BOTH have salvation stories with lots of details about where they were when they asked Jesus to live in their hearts.  However, neither James nor Andrew shared those moments with us (and one of them was evena at home).  I'm thankful that they've made those decisions, even if they didn't include me in them directly.  Aaron loves Jesus and is so excited, he has told his grandparents, family friends, sunday school teachers, aunts and cousins.

He realized the other day that he hadn't told his Pa Lynn directly so he made a video so that I could text it to Pa Lynn since he was at work.  Here's the video.

Aaron loved the response text back saying "Aaron, I watched your video several times.  I am so happy that Jesus lives in your heart now! Grandpa has Jesus in his heart also.  That means we have forever to Praise God together.  Love, Pa Lynn"

This milestone in Aaron's spiritual life is one that Jon & I have prayed for since before he was born.  I'm grateful to have shared in that precious moment with him and I'm thankful for the community of believers that Aaron rejoiced with over the phone, via text and in person about his decision to invite Jesus into his heart.  I'm most thankful for a Savior that humbled himself and came to rescue us from our sin.  Thank you Jesus!

The Freezing Cold Half Marathon

Here we are before the race modeling our running tights.

"I am excited to wear my new tights and hat" said my husband.  Add that to the list of things I NEVER dreamed I'd hear my husband say in a million years.  Of course, he meant his running tights and hat, but still.  Years ago if you had told me that he'd wear tights of any kind without it involving a dare or monetary compensation of some sort, I would not have believed you.  Its just more proof that our definition of fun has drastically changed.  Don't get me wrong, we still like dinner and a movie date nights and eating pizza.  The difference is that we ALSO like new stuff like running marathons, arranging babysitting so we can do long training runs together, and if you've been watching my recipe experiments lately: we like zucchini and squash, A LOT.

Maybe we're growing up?  Maybe a house full of little boys and their endless energy has been wearing off on us?  Who knows? 

Last year, I saw that there was a half marathon in downtown Chicago in January. I mentioned it to Jon, who scoffed.  I briefly contemplated it, but let it go.  Fast forward a few months and we are officially training for our first marathon  marathons.  Our training was going well and I was hyped up after a successful 20 mile training run in September, so I casually mentioned to Jon that the January half marathon was happening again this winter.  I had a whole arsonal of reasons why we should do it:

1. After two marathons, how hard could a half marathon be?
2. It wasn't that cold last January, I mean, we ran 6 miles outside on the day of last year's race.
3. It would keep us training through the holiday season instead of taking December & January "off" like we normally do.
4. Maybe we could even get a date night in the city out of it by having the kids spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa's the day of the race?

I'm not sure which reason persuaded him, but Jon said we should do it and I signed us up.  Later that week, we told some friends who were over for dinner that just signed up to do a freezing half marathon in January.  They laughed.  I think they thought we were joking.  When we said we were really gonna do it, one of them laughingly said that we had crossed over "the line."  It may be true.  Some people think we also crossed a line when we decided to keep having lots of boys or when we bought our second minivan (yes, BOTH our cars are minivans).  I guess its just how we roll.

I tried to talk some other runner friends into doing this race with us, but I was not successful this year.  So, this morning, Jon & I bundled up and headed to the lakefront.  I pretty much wore all my cold weather gear at one time (running tights, running capris, two compression shirts, two pairs of gloves, a headband, a fleece hat and thermal socks).  All my black lycra on at the same time is definitely my best look!  Ok, maybe not, but I wanted to stay warm.  The forecast was 16 degrees at the start and 21 degrees at the finish. 

After we crossed the finish line, we're both smiling so it couldn't have been THAT bad.

I'm not gonna lie.  The first mile or so, my fingers and toes were kinda numb.  I actually pulled my fingers out and made a fist inside my glove.  By 3 miles, my hands were sweating.  I ditched my second pair of cheap gloves after that.  The race was beautiful.  Gorgeous views of the Chicago skyline, Lake Michigan, and runners dotting the lakeshore path for miles before and behind me.

I took this during mile 7.  I didn't want to stop running, so I took it while running, so its not the best.  It doesn't do it justice, it was gorgeous.  Sunny skies, the city skyline, and frozen pieces of ice bobbing up and down Lake Michigan--some of the best scenery possible.

The path had a few tricky sections where it wasn't pavement, but sand/grass/snow combinations that were a little slippery, but they were short.  Overall, it was a clear pavement path and not slippery at all.  The race was really well organized.  I went into the race with 2 main goals: to not fall and to finish.  My training the last two weeks was subpar given the sickness that my kids kindly shared with me.  As always, the race adrenaline kicked in and by mile 5, I realized that I had a chance to break the 2 hour mark if I could keep my pace up.  I actually picked it up the second half and was able to finish at a 9 min pace (my overall time was 1:57:55).  Not my fastest half marathon, but not my worst by a long shot either.

When we got home, I told Jon that I love races because they are like performance evaluations.  I love exceeding my expectations for a race.  Maybe I was able to this time because I always set them pretty low going into a race which may make me a sandbagger, but I don't care.  In this stage of life where my "performance reviews" involve statements like:  "You never remember to pack our snowpants or boots so we can play outside at recess (on the first day of snow)", "Why haven't you finished watching all the Star Wars movies with us?" and "I don't like what you made for dinner", its nice to have a positive performance review.  By the way, I didn't finish the Star Wars movies because of that horrible Jar-Jar Binks.  I did the original three with the boys, but then Episode I just killed me and I couldn't stomach finishing it or watching the horrible dialogue in Episode II.  So there! 

Many thanks to our good friend Steve who came to our house to watch the boys for an hour (when Grandma & Grandpa had to get to another engagement) so that we could go to The Cubby Bear and get our free post-race beers (the best part in Jon's opinion).

It's a little early to make it official but I think there is a decent chance that we'll be doing this race again next year.

Adventures in Cooking

I love baking.  For many reasons.  The first reason is because I have a hard-core sweet tooth.  If you think I'm kidding, you can ask my mom why the dining room sugar bowl was always empty when I was growing up despite rarely using the china dishes.  When I needed a little treat, I use to help myself to spoonfuls of sugar out of the dining room sugar bowl.  I'm not joking.  Recently, my younger sister also confessed to doing this, so a sweet-tooth clearly runs in the family.  The other reason I like baking is that if you follow the recipe, you're almost always guaranteed beautiful and tasty results. 

I like cooking, but its not as much fun.  When I first got married, I felt really threatened by the fact that my husband LOVED to cook and was good at it.  He prefers to be the one cooking.  Even now, he can hardly stand to be home and not be the one in the kitchen doing the cooking.  In my newlywed naivete, I called my mom and expressed frustration that Jon was trying to do my "job" (the cooking).  Some of the best advice she ever gave me was to not say anything and to never complain about Jon cooking.  She promised me that some day I would be glad that he wanted to cook.  Boy was she right!

When I first became a stay-at-home mom, I figured I would magically begin to love cooking and have dinner ready when Jon got home from work.  I was wrong.  Dead wrong!  4pm to 6 pm has always been The Witching Hours at our house.  The kids are up from naps, but not really happy or they are bursting with energy.  Either way, its not the calm, quiet cooking environment I pictured.  To be honest, my house is rarely calm or quiet. 

Fast forward a few years and a few more kids, I am still not the stay-at-home mom that has dinner on the table.  At least not more than once a week.  I do cook but my mainstays are tacos, wrap sandwiches, pasta (basically boiling noodles) and sauteing chicken.  Its not bad, but its not amazing.  Most nights, we feed the kids dinner and sit with them, but we don't actually eat with them.  Instead, we wait until they are all tucked into bed and then I sit on the couch and catch up on email while Jon cooks us dinner.  Its a good arrangement.  I like it and so does he.  But our dinners were getting later and later.

One of my goals for 2013 was to start cooking more for many reasons.  One reason was to keep us from eating takeout after the kids are in bed (at least that often) or going to a restaurant for both financial and caloric reasons.  Another reason was to get better at it. 

Another reason was that I wanted to eat healthier and more variety.  And, I really do like cooking, but I need a plan and I need to be able to prep food earlier in the day when its not CRAZY town at our house.  Last year, I discovered this website.  I tried a bunch of the recipes this past summer and they were all so good. 

I started this January with the goal to plan out our meals one week at a time with recipes from this website.  I'm not sure how long I'll do this.  Right now, we're still trying a lot of the recipes out for the first time, so once I know which ones we like and which ones we don't, I may not plan out menus on a weekly basis on an ongoing basis, but for now its working.  We already have several favorites including the Butternut squash, sausage & spinach pasta, Shrimp Pad Thai on the lighter side, and Spaghetti Squash with cheese.  And when I say "we", let me be clear.  I mean Jon and I, not the kids.  The kids do not eat shrimp and despite my many, MANY, many attempts, they do not eat squash, zucchini or potatoes (other than the french fry form).  They do eat lots of foods, but they are stuck on what they are use to and things without sauces.  I am usually able to adapt some of the food for them by leaving the sauce off of their portion, but sometimes with the casseroles, there is no adaptation.

I continue to have the boys try a bite of each of these new dishes, even if I'm 100% confident that they will not like it.  Let me be honest: Andrew almost always gags and runs to the trash can with his bite.  Yay!  Its a super fun element to our family dinners. 

Aaron is a little better.  I'm actually convinced that Aaron does like some of the foods, but that seeing his older brother throw it up in the trash can convinces him otherwise. 

James has taken to really trying to like whatever he is tasting.  His face will be all grimace but he'll say its pretty good, but not his favorite.  Sometimes he'll go as far as claiming that "it tastes good but that he wants to make sure he saves enough for the rest of us."  I'll give him an A for effort and for playing the game of verbal manipulation.

Most nights Caleb flat out refuses food (even ones he eats regularly) by shaking his head no and refusing to open his mouth.  Other times, he'll try it, spit it out and then throw it on the floor.  Tonight at dinner, he pelted me with his pieces of string cheese for several minutes.  Ah...the joys of having a toddler around at dinnertime.

Cooking is still somewhat stressful to me as its not intuitive and I seem to make the most ridiculous messes.  If there was a contest for who dirties the most pans and dishes while cooking dinner, I'm sure I'd win.  So, in addition to lots of cooking, I've also been doing obscene amounts of dish washing too. The good news is that we've found a bunch of new dishes that we really like and I'm having some fun too.  Jon seems to like it too, although I secretly think he is wishing he was doing the cooking. 

The kids might not be as excited about my new cooking skills.  So, in closing, I'll share with you a dinnertime prayer that the boys were offering up pretty regularly a few months ago and that might make a comeback at our house.

Dear Jesus,

Please help this food to taste good.

Amen

Friday Night Family Swim

Its been a few years since Jon & I have had a membership to our community rec center.  Before I was pregnant with Caleb, we were members for several years and worked out pretty regularly.  Our three "big" boys loved going to the kids play area.  We loved dropping them off there and working out together.  Since Caleb was born, we've been so focused on running that we haven't bothered renewing the membership.

2013 has brought some changes.  We still want to keep up with our running (we are signed up for a marathon in May 2013 after all) but we also wanted to do some other kinds of exercise like weight lifting, biking, and bootcamp classes.  Okay...I think I'm alone on the bootcamp class, there is pretty much no way Jon would do that with me (he does draw the line somewhere with my crazy plans for us). 

Now that our big boys are all much more self sufficient and able to do some swimming, we decided to not only join our rec center's fitness membership, but also to get an indoor pool membership to Waterworks.  If you haven't been to Waterworks, its kind of like a mini indoor waterpark.  It has a regular pool, as well as three slides, a diving board, a zero depth entry pool, a spray playground area, some toddler slides, and a mini lazy river. 

Since we have the pass, we are motivated to use it as much as we can because we want to get our money's worth and also because its winter here and our boys are STIR CRAZY!!!  We joined last Monday night at 9 pm and I took the boys swimming the next day at 10 am during the daily "tot swim" where they are open just for kids not in school for an hour.  Its nice because there are no big kids during that time and the nursery is open so I was able to check Caleb in there and have an easy hour with the big boys playing in the pool. 

Since we've got this new membership, we decided that we're going to implement Friday Night Family Swims this year as often as possible.  In general, we don't usually have plans on Friday nights.  I think its because we're all worn out from the week (maybe that's just me?!?).  So, its a great night to go swim together as a family.  I'm also hoping the consistency of swimming at least once a week will help the boys improve their skills.  You know me, I always have goals and plans for everything, its just how I am wired.  And if you know Jon, you'll know that he likes the plan to go at least once a week because the more times we go, the more value we're getting out of our pass. 

Its a lot of work to get out the door (packing suits, towels, dive sticks and then pajamas to change into) but it was worth it.  The boys loved it.  Tonight was Caleb's first time at the pool.  I forgot my camera so I couldn't catch his initial confusion with wading through the water almost as if he was a drunk man.  Eventually, he figured out how to keep his balance a little more gracefully.  A few minutes after that his adventurous spirit came through where he would teeter on the edge of the pool, climb into the base of the tube slide and generally try to go as deep into the water as possible without having his head go under. 

James and Andrew spent a lot of time riding the "big kid" slides.  There are two winding ones that empty out into a pool.  Then they went to the deep pool where there is a very steep slide and a diving board.  They took turns showing us different jumps and flips off the diving board.  The rest of us sat on the side and watched. 

My favorite part was how Caleb would sign and say "mo-more" each time they jumped off the diving board.  Even Aaron loves watching his big brothers.  Its pretty sweet.  Each time they came out of the water, James and Andrew would ask Aaron if he wanted them to do a specific jump or flip.  When he confirmed he did, they'd go and do it. 

We finished off the night with me soaking in the hot tub for a few minutes while Jon took all 4 boys in the big pool where they took turns jumping off the side of the pool and swimming to him while he held Caleb.  He's Super Dad for sure and he found out tonight that he's leaving for Germany in less than 24 hours and will be gone for 5-6 days, so I think he wants me to be as relaxed as possible before he goes. 

It was a sweet evening.  No complaints.  No fighting.  Good memories.  And we left for home with everyone in their pajamas, so it was straight to bed when we got home.  They were all asleep within minutes.  Turns out my children can get worn out.  Who knew? 

Its all about Lunchtime & Recess

James and Andrew LOVE going to school.  Seriously.  When we drop them off in the morning, they literally run from our car to the school.  They cannot wait to get there and start the day.  I love their enthusiasm. They are still young enough that they are excited about doing their homework, to practice their math facts on the drive to school, and to read books.

That being said, if you ask them what their favorite part of school is, they are sure to respond with the same two answers: Lunchtime and Recess.  They are little boys after all.  Its no surprise that their favorite times of the day are running around with their friends and eating food. 

Earlier this week, we got home after school Andrew informed me that he had an early lunch and only ten minutes to eat, so he wasn't able to finish very much of his lunch, so he was 'starving.'  I told him he could open his lunchbox and finish what was left.  He wasn't kidding.  His crackers, strawberries, pudding and slim jim were still in there (the strawberries are in there to balance out the slim jim).  By the way, what kid doesn't finish his dessert?!?  Surely not one of mine!

I opened James' lunchbox and discovered every last bite had been eaten.  I was confused as to why they had such different amounts of time for lunch.  When I commented about the discrepancy, Andrew then told me that the reason James had time to finish his lunch was that James was the very last person outside for recess.  Aha!  The reason Andrew didn't have time for lunch was that he wanted to get to recess.  I thought it was hilarious and very telling about the twins' different priorities that while James is very extroverted, he cares more about being hungry whereas Andrew just wanted to get outside with his friends (forget the food). 

Tonight, the importance of lunchtime and recess came up again.  There is a sign language club that is going to be meeting during Monday lunchtime & recess starting later this month.  Each kindergartener and first grader is eligible to participate if their parent signs a permission slip.  I didn't really have an opinion one way or the other about the boys doing it, so I told them about it the other day and said they could decide.

At bedtime tonight, I asked them what their decisions about sign language club were going to be.  I explained that they didn't have to both do the same thing either.  They both were emphatic that they wanted to do the club, so I said I'd sign the papers and put them in their backpacks for tomorrow.

About five minutes later, James came downstairs crying.  He decided he didn't want to do sign language club.  I'm not sure if they talked to each other about it after we tucked them into bed or if he just had all the "cons" flood his mind after we left the room.  At any rate, he was worked up about the possibility of missing out on time with his friends during lunchtime recess and was very weepy.  We assured him that it was fine if he didn't want to do it and that he might be able to do it the next year, but that he had to make a final decision one way or the other.  I re-read him the information sheet on the club and he decided "no" saying that his friend Owen wasn't going to do the club either and would miss playing with him (the start of friends being more important than anything else?).  I'm not sure if his friend Owen is doing the club or not, so it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out for James.

While James was returning to bed, Andrew came tumbling down the stairs and said he didn't want to do it either.  He wasn't crying about it, just sad.  We told him the same things as James.  Then he asked me to read the paper to him again with the instructions.  After I did, he decided that he'd stick with his original decision to do the sign language club.  I'm not sure if its the idea of learning sign language or the idea of performing a song at the April school meeting that enticed him back in.  Or, maybe he just stopped second-guessing himself with James back upstairs.  I'm not sure.

After they were both in bed, Jon and I marveled (and laughed) at the drama that the tiny decision had caused in our house.  I'm sure this is just the beginning.

As a mom of identical twins, I find these moments where the boys are able to make different choices and have different interests from each other are awesome.  Its so hard for me to give them those possibilities at home with our schedule constraints and the demands of being a family of six.  So, I love that they are getting these chances at school to be different from each other if they want to be.  James and Andrew are still each best friends but they are learning how to make decisions apart from each other and to be their unique selves.  Its fun to watch even if it comes with some tears, second guessing and extra discussions.