Thursday, April 30, 2009

(Over-)Sharing Time

I can't decide if, when he's older, Ethan will think this story is funny, or humiliating. I'm going to take a risk and document it anyway.

Some background: When he's engaged in any activity (TV, games, playing trucks, etc.), Ethan cannot be bothered to stop and go to the bathroom no matter how urgently he needs to. He gets in trouble if I tell him to go (because the signs are obvious), he ignores me completely, then has an accident. Completely unrelated (in my mind, but apparently not his): when I've been dropping him off at primary lately he hugs me and doesn't want me to leave. I say, "I'm going to my class. Don't have any fun today!" He always laughs and runs off to sit with his friends, and reports after that he did have fun despite what I said.

Which brings us to Sunday's junior sharing time. Here's the email I got from one of the primary counselors:

Today I taught about how we follow Jesus' example, and after discussing various gospel art pictures of Jesus serving, praying, reading, etc, I invited the children to share how they were trying to follow Jesus' example. Ethan raised his hand. “I'm following Jesus by listening to my mom, and I listen to her and do what she says,” he stated loudly and clearly so that everyone could hear. “But sometimes I'm having too much fun and I forget to listen and I pee in my pants.” Strong emphasis was put on the word pee. Stifling a laugh, I tried to move to another child, but Ethan persisted, “My mom told me not to have fun at church, but guess what! I'm having fun AND my underwear is dry!”

Jason and I were concerned about how the other kids reacted, but one of the teachers told me that the best part was that the other kids were all nodding in complete understanding.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Easter weekend

I've decided Easter is my new favorite holiday. It doesn't have all the stress associated with the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's season, the weather is gorgeous, there's still a religious aspect to it (though the things we do to celebrate aren't really related), and kids love it!

We started Saturday morning by having a neighborhood Easter-egg hunt. There are only 9 houses in our "neighborhood", but we had 10 kids, which was perfect. They came to our house to decorate baskets while some of the adults hid eggs at the houses down the street. I contributed 2 dozen eggs, thinking that would be perfect, but some of the other women went a little overboard and we had over 500 eggs for 10 kids.

I tried to get some pictures of Ethan, but I couldn't keep up with him. He had a blast. Colin was very hesitant at first, then totally got into it. After a while he would wander off on his own into the wooded areas, bring back eggs and drop them in the basket Jason was carrying. He was so cute. Then he discovered that there was candy inside, and he would bring each egg to us to open for him. Easter morning started with a hunt to find the eggs we had dyed earlier in the week, easter baskets, then breakfast before rushing off to 9 am church. After church Jason and I made dinner while the kids played. We had my family over and our friend Anna with her two kids. Dinner was yummy and relaxing and fun. It was a perfect, gorgeous, fun weekend. Everyone was healthy and happy, which we needed after March!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Dyeing Eggs

We are all alive and happily healthy. Colin is cutting 4 new teeth, but that doesn't seem like a big deal comparatively.

The boys had a ball dyeing eggs and covering them with "Lightning McQueen" stickers. Colin took it very seriously. Love the tongue sticking out in concentration.

We have an Easter egg hunt planned for tomorrow morning with our neighbors...hopefully we don't get rained out!