The Young and the Restless

Happy Un-Birthday!

While I was getting ready in the morning before we headed out to the Riparian Preserve, Kylie came into the bathroom and brought me an invitation that she had made. It was for a birthday party that she was throwing for Jayden. It was so cute, she had gotten all of the old gift bags and filled them with prized posessions from her treasure drawer. She also had every one of their stuffed animals in attendance. We started out by playing different games, then we sang and had pretend cake, then Jayden loved opening all of the presents. What a sweet sister, I love their cute little friendship. They definately do have their days of constant fighting, so I savor each of these sweet little moments.

As sweet as they are at times, they both have their weaknesses that we are working on--namely lying and censoring. Lately Kylie has had the worst habit of telling little white lies. I can't tell if it's just her imagination running wild, or what, but it's to the point where I have to question everything that comes out 0f her mouth. It's not big things she lies about, it's just small insignificant stories that she comes up with (and she is a very convincing liar too). Like on the way home from church she was telling me how her and Jayden got to go up to the front at primary and help with the singing. Innocent enough, too bad it was all totally false. So I had enough and devoted our next family home evening to honesty. One of my new year's resolutions is to be better about FHE. Monday nights are crazy because Kylie has her gymnastics until 6:30 and Jason usually doesn't get home until after the kids are in bed, so we've been having FHE on Sunday nights and it has worked out really well. So we had a whole little lesson about honesty and I was just hoping some of it sunk in. That night Kylie was putting her pj's on and came out of her room just sobbing. The kind of hysterical crying where I knew something bad had happened. After I got her calmed down enough, she told me that she was crying because she felt bad because she had lied to her friend, Noelle and told her that she had a pet cat. It was such a great teaching moment and I was so glad that something in the lesson had clicked for her. Ever since then she has been working really hard to always tell the truth (or atleast say "just kidding" when the urge to elaborate to comes on) and it was a nice reminder for me of the importance of Family Home Evening.

Jayden on the other hand, is still a work in progress with his latest "weakness". That kid needs a censor button. I'm nervous to take him into public because I never know what will come out of his mouth. It started out earlier in the week when I was at my neighbor's house and he needed to use the potty. I went in to help him as my friend was right outside the door and the first thing he said, rather loudly is "ewww, it stinks in here!" Then continues to talk about how dirty the bathroom was, "It so gross in here!", "Look at all the garbage!", "There's pee-pee on the toilet!" And it went on and on, there was no stopping him. When I came out, I'm not sure who was more emberassed, me or her. Then the next day we were standing in line and Jayden points to the man right next to us and says loudly (of course--the only volume control he comes with is loud and louder), "him looks weird!" How do you recover from that? There's no denying what he was saying or who he was talking about. I thought that was bad, but don't worry, it gets worse. So a couple days later we're in the restroom at the grocery store and as I'm helping him wash his hands, another lady comes and washes her hands in the sink next to us. We are the only people in the bathroom, and the only sound is the peaceful trickle of running water--until Jayden opens his mouth and points that dreaded finger. "Mom, look! Her looks like a boy! Her has on boy shoes! Her has boy hair!" I finally started shoving the paper towel that I was using to dry his hands into his mouth in an effort to put an end to the humiliation. But the damage was already done. Shoot me now. Then yesterday we were driving in the car, so thankfully there were no extra ears around to hear--although I know he would have zero reservations about saying this in public--when he spotted a lady from India walking on the sidewalk wearing the traditional robes and scarves over her head when Jayden says, "look Mom, it's Mary!" In his defense, the scarf over her head did resemble what Kylie wore during the nativity play....I've just made a mental note to myself to avoid getting within ear shot of anyone that might peak his curiosity, because heaven knows what might come out of that boy's mouth!

One thing that he says that is cute, though, is his prayers. I always love hearing little kids pray and for some reason Jayden thinks that prayers are an opportunity to recount every event of the day. A typical prayer for Jayden is "Dear Heavenly father, bless us today we ate cereal, then I not eat my food and go time out. I go to preschool with mommy and do patterns. (then he opens his eyes and asks, "what I do next, mommy?") oh yeah, I read Duck story. ("what I do next, mommy?")...and continues until the day is complete and then ends with a triumphant, "AMEN!" It's so sweet and I'm sure it puts a little smile on Heavenly Father's face too :)

So yes, my kids aren't always angels, but I sure love those moments where they come pretty darn close!