Sunday, June 8, 2014

Hope For The Littles

The oldest left for camp today. He will be gone for 7 days and 6 nights. So many realizations come from this camping trip. There are times on this journey where I realize how far apart our children are and just how long we will be knee deep in this parenting adventure. This would be one of those moments.


Curt and I were standing there sending our oldest off to Jr. High Camp for the first time. And yet I was nursing an infant and Curt was corralling the other two littles.  There I sat worrying about my to be seventh grader... Would he make new friends? Will he have fun? Will he be picked on? Would he get there safely? And most important will he open his heart and ears to what God has to say to him this week? And all the while I sat nursing Baby Evan wondering if I'd brought diapers with me. 



Curt and I were talking and I was saying how we have a kid in every stage; a tween (I guess that's an age now), a grade schooler, a preschooler, and an infant. It's  hard to figure out what really works when you're in all these stages all at once. Discipline and building relationships with these kiddos looks different for each one. And they are so different!! I know everyone's children are different but our kids have polar opposite personalities with COMPLETELY different strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, it's exhausting constantly deciphering what's best for each one. As we're having this conversation the two littles are battling it out in the backseat because lately they're more enemies than frenemies. They've been getting used to being with each other all day every day this week and it's been a little rough for all of us. Meaning mostky mom. And so I'm kind of having one of those "I'm failing parenthood" moments and I'm also secretly feeling like I'll never have the energy to get Evan to the age of 18. 

Until the eldest gave us a redeeming moment....

Nathan had left me a note to give his brothers. After we got home from taking Nathan to the bus we gave his brothers the note. This special note proceeded to send his little brothers on a scavenger hunt. Each note led to another as they screamed and fought over who would find the next clue. At the end of the scavenger hunt there was a bag with cards for both of the boys. Nathan had made them cards with sweet notes inside about listening to their parents, not fighting with each other, and having fun with friends. He also left them 2$ of his own money along with a special dragon for each of them that he usually keeps  locked up. 

He is such a sweet brother and he has a huge heart. And he wasn't always this way. He was a monstrous toddler. I was just telling him the other day how we used to leave restaurants because of him and how if we didn't move everything away from him he would start chucking things across the table. He had horrible tantrums the kind that made you leave grocery  stores and have everyone stare at you. And yet he's such a sweet, sweet brother that's growing into a wonderful young man. His hygiene needs some serious help but that's a whole other blog post. 

I hope and pray that the little guys will begin to treat each other how Nathan treats them and that their hearts will be as big and full of love for each other as his is for them. But for now we are currently listening to the younger brothers fight over I don't even know what .....but  I do have hope for the littles.
Notes Nathan left..... He calls Carson #2 and Landon #3 😉
The notes were pretty long and I wanted to put up a picture of the inside of the notes but Nathan's getting older so I can't spill all his secrets anymore. 
But some of the things he said were "Youre not allowed to fight with Landon"
"Save your money for something"
and " Don't be the kid that stays in your room a lot"









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