Screaming

Just as I sat down to write this my little Erik began screaming over something and then proceeded to hit Joel, lol! Not that I find his behavior amusing. It is anything but. But it is humorously evidence of the fact that our Erik is a wee bit groucier than his older siblings. What really is amusing is that Erik has a very mellow, easy going side. He is always so well behaved and quiet in the nursery at church. But at home I think being the youngest, and often being not heard or misunderstood or mistreated by Joel or Elise has resulted in him taking extreme measures to be heard. Words...what are words? Why use them when you can scream at the top of your lungs? We have been working for some time with him to break him of this bad habit, but so far no luck. We will continue to try and pray that the screaming ceases (man, it does get loud here!). But until then we are trying to learn more about this little buddy and how to relate to him, realizing that each of our children are so uniquely wired and there is a whole world to discover about each one of them.

Locks of Love

A couple of years ago we decided to cut Elise's long locks. It was so long I realized that we could do locks of love, but that would mean that her hair would end up very short. I asked her what she wanted to do and she was totally up for it! So my friend Joy came over and helped me chop off the little lady's hair. She was left with an absolutely adorable hair cut. But more than being excited about the haircut, she was excited that she could donate her hair to a little girl in need of a wig. A few weeks later she received a post card from locks of love in the mail thanking her. She has kept it ever since.

Fast forward 2 years and once again our girly's hair had grown so long - almost to her waist. Again she really wanted a haircut and decided to do locks of love again. Again this meant a super short cut, but I love how she was totally game! She has not once made a comment about missing her hair or not liking it so short. But she has talked about doing locks of love. I love that she is so excited to be able to do something like that. I also love her adventurous side that is up for making such a drastic change without even an afterthought. She is a special little lady!

The Tender One

Joel has always been a very "feeling" person. He is extremely passionate about things and feels things very deeply. Recently his sensitive side has been emerging in even greater measure. We recently watched the movie Elf with a friend of ours. At the end I caught my little buddy crying. He immediately denied it, claiming that his eyes simply have water that comes out of them every hour :). I told him how much I love his sensitive side and that it is a wonderful thing - nothing to be ashamed of! Two days later we were watching the Magic School Bus. I looked over and found my little buddy again crying, eyes all red. My prayer for this guy is that he grows to be a man comfortable with his sensitivity. This is how God has made him and it is a beautiful thing indeed.