Sunday, February 27, 2011

Benjamin and the Lions' Den

Tonight, Benjamin decided that he wanted us to read the story of Daniel and the Lions' Den. We read it and were talking about how Daniel got in trouble because he was obeying God. We've been working with him a lot on obeying Mommy and Daddy because God says we need to. I took this as a great opportunity to teach about the benefits of being obedient.
Ben sat and listened and then looked at me and said, "Does God come with his shoot-gun to shoot the lions and keep us safe?"
I said, "No, God made the lions so he can tell them what to do. He just told them not to eat Daniel."
Ben said, "Oh, Jer, do you have a shoot gun to shoot the lions and keep us safe?"

Apparently, he didn't pick up on my hints!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

My leg... my leg...

Benjamin was supposed to be sleeping. He'd called for us a couple of times, but neither of us had gone in to talk with him. Usually, he'll call for me because I'm the first to go in. When I get there, he says, "I need my dad. Can you send him?"
Today I was letting him go. He yelled, "Mom, I need you. My leg hurts."
I responded, "I'll come check on you in a minute."
He yelled back, "Mom, if you don't come and check it, my leg's gonna bleed!"
So, here I am blogging about it. Now I'll go check!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

leaning tower of milk

Benjamin, in all of his efforts to be helpful, was putting a container of strawberries away in the fridge. Somehow, this resulted in a gallon of milk coming out of the fridge. He carried the milk to the living room and told us that he couldn't get it back in the fridge. Jeremy told him to put the strawberries under the milk, meaning the shelf under the milk. Ben went back to the fridge.
After a few grunts and groans, he came trudging back into the living room with the milk.
"Jer," he said, "if I put the milk on the strawberries, it makes a tower and falls down."

I laughed until I cried. I hope everyone else finds this as funny as I did!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

holding a grudge

A few weeks ago Jeremy had some of the guys over to play poker. Ben always gets to play with the Jokers. At one point in the evening he was throwing the jokers back on to the poker table. Uncle Andrew folded those cards in half so that they would know which cards they were and they wouldn't get mixed in with the rest. As you can imagine, Benjamin was NOT happy and yelled at Uncle Andrew for breaking his cards.
For the rest of the weekend he would tell me about how he was mad at Uncle Andrew. A few days later (as we were getting ready for a funeral) Benjamin walked into the room and said, "I'm so mad at Uncle Andrew." Being that I am in a class about child discipline and communicating with your child, I decided to engage Ben in his feelings about his uncle.
"Why are you mad at Uncle Andrew?" I asked.
Ben's reply, "I'm really mad at him because he ripped my cards."
I knew that Andrew was home so I asked if he would like to call Uncle Andrew and discuss it. I really was interested in what he would tell his uncle. After a few minutes of telling Andrew how unhappy he was, he concluded the conversation with "I hate you, Uncle Andrew." That prompted my crisis mode and I quickly explained that we don't hate anyone - especially Uncle Andrew - and that was never an okay thing to say. We talked about it for a while longer and the issue settled. He hasn't talked about it since.
Tonight we read a devotion about how God heals our hurts - inside and out. I asked him if anything made him sad. He thought about it for a second and said, "I got really mad at Andrew when he tried to rip my cards."
Apparently, he hasn't given it up. And YES, Andrew, I have told him he needs to forgive you. I am NOT encouraging his anger!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Hadley's developing personality

I know that I have talked before about Hadley picking on people. The older she gets the "worse" it gets. She likes to get a reaction and once she knows she's going to get one, she repeats whatever it is. She's also developing a great sense of comedic timing.
Today she woke up from her nap and Jeremy and I were sitting together watching TV. I carried her over and sat back down and she snuggled up in my lap. We talked a little bit and she realized Jer was there. She leaned in toward him, gave him a sweet smile, and smacked him right in the forehead. It was such a clean hit it sounded like she was clapping. Neither one of us knew what to do, but because we laughed she kept smacking.
After she brushed her teeth tonight, I told her to go tell Daddy she had pretty hair (I'd pulled her hair up in a pony). She walked over, smiled at him, and - you guessed it - smacked him in the forehead! This time she followed up with a big hug!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Straying from the norm

I know that I usually use my blog to showcase the funny things that go on in the Burnett house. Truly, there are days when things happen that I really don't think anyone else would believe. I suppose that's true in any house.
Today, however, in light of recent events, I am simply overcome with gratefulness for my family.
When I was a kid my dad coached baseball. I spent a great deal of time in and out of the Badger High School Varsity Baseball dugout. I remember spending long hours playing baseball in my yard with my dad and some of the players when they'd come over. Thus, I was introduced to Cody Betts. Fast forward like a million years, and I'm following the progress to bring Cody home to spend his last days with his family. How crazy is that. My Facebook lights up every 5 minutes with posts of people updating his status or donating money or creating events.
I cannot begin to fathom the pain of this family. While I have faced a number of events throughout my life, I have never been through anything close to this. I am grateful that my children and husband are healthy. I am grateful that I am healthy. It truly gives me pause to reflect on the reasons why things happen to some and not others. Selfishly, I wish I had answers - for my own peace of mind. Things like this make me crave more time with my family, my children, and my husband. I want to build walls of protection around them to keep all of the bad out. I have to trust my life, the lives of my children, my husband, and my family to our Creator. I know that he has a plan, a purpose, and love. I don't have to understand, but I guess that can make faith difficult; because we don't understand.
As I ramble, I realize I'm only posing more questions and leaving less answers. With that, I'm done.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

learning the rules early

A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I bought a new TV - our attempt to upgrade our technology. Jeremy gave Benjamin a somewhat stern lecture about the TV remote only belonging to Daddy. Benjamin has since taken this talk VERY seriously.
That day he brought me the remote and said, "Mom, this is Dad's remote. Only guys can touch it not girls."
Most days, I'm not even allowed to use it to turn up the television! If I move it, I get in trouble. If I ask for it I get a lecture, "No, Mom, that's Dad's. It goes here" and he puts it away!
So much for gender equality in this house!