"Favorite Puppy" faith builder

Luke's favorite stuffed animal is "Favorite Puppy". Today, Luke came inside telling me about this horrible thing that happened:

Favorite Puppy stuck in the gutter on the roof

My first thought was about how to get the puppy down because there was no way a three year old can get something off the roof and that eventually I would have to get it down, but I decided to have a little L&L (Love and Logic) fun with it because I've enjoyed seeing Luke think through his own problems and figure out the world lately.

Me-Oh No! How sad!

Luke-Mommy can you get him down?

Me-Do you think he's cold up there?

Luke-I think he's scared too.

Me- What are you going to do?

Luke-I'm going to call the fire department and they will help me and bring a ladder too.

Me-Luke, you're welcome to call the pretend fire department, but I'm not going to let you call the real fire department because (he knows that) favorite puppy is not real and they have real fires to go to and real people to help.

Luke goes on to call the pretend fire department with the phone in his playhouse. He pretends for a while that they are on their way. After a while, he busts out with "Jesus will get him down for me." I encourage him to ask Jesus by praying. Luke looks up to the sky and says something like "Jesus, will you please get favorite puppy down from the roof for me? In Jesus name, Amen"

Now a million thoughts are running through my mind. The biggest two are probably

• How can I/should I sneak the puppy down? When will we do it?


• Maybe I can explain that God works through people???

I did decide that I needed to explain that Jesus could work lots of ways to get the puppy down. I told Luke that Jesus could send a big wind or use Mommy or Daddy to get it down. He was pretty sure Jesus was coming personally to do it. I just said my piece and left it at that.

Micah comes home. Luke immediately shows Micah. I tell Micah not to get it down. We pray about puppy at dinner. Luke has to go to bed without puppy. We pray about puppy again at bedtime.

Micah and I were upstairs discussing lots of boring "grown-up" stuff. The wind had been blowing pretty strong for a while. I ask Micah if he thinks Favorite Puppy has blown down. He walks across the room to check on Favorite Puppy. He's still there. As Micah is looking out the window, Favorite Puppy blows down.

We go get Luke and take him to get Favorite Puppy.

Favorite Puppy after being blown down

Luke after being reunited-He looks wired, but he is barely awake.
I know that was a long story, but I just have to add a little more. I was resigned to the fact that in the next day or so Micah or I would get the puppy off the roof, but it really bothered me how unsure I was that Jesus would really get the puppy down. I wanted to give Jesus a chance to get him down and WHY am I so utterly shocked that he did.

The other point I would like to make is that Favorite Puppy being stuck on the roof was a really big deal to my kiddo. I'm sure lots of the things we pray about seem just as silly to Jesus, but if they are things that matter to us then they matter to him.

God bless you all tonight.

Lizzards and Snakes

Just another love and logic Luke story:

We're at the dollar store trying to pick out a valentines present for Aunt Cara. Luke picks out a couple of things for Cara and then does the typical kid thing and starts whining for a bag of lizzards and a bag of snakes. He puts them in the cart, he whines, but finally I try some of love and logic.

Me-Luke you're welcome to buy those with your money.
Luke-I think I will do that mommy.
Me- Luke do you have some money?
Luke-I do have some money.
Me- Well you'll just have to check out after me.

I know that he has no money, but I decide to let him figure that out. I check out, push the cart quite a distance away from the check out line, but stay in earshot. I hear the beeps of the scanner and then the lady asks him for $3.25. He reaches into his pocket and holds up a palm full of nothing. The lady looks confused and looks off at me. I shrug and shake my head. She asks him if that is pretend money. He looks embararasssed and shakes his head, yes. She explains that the store doesn't take pretend money and that he has to give her real money if he wants to take the toys.

The whole way home he was just talking to himself and processing everything. "Stores need real money." "Pretend money will not buy the toys."

I have no idea if this will translate to fewer fits, but that day it did and I got a kick out of seeing him figure out the world for himself.

Girls' weekend

Last weekend I headed to Searcy for a girls' weekend. We had dinner out on Friday, a spa day Sat. am, a dinner out in Little Rock Sat. pm and church on Sunday morning. It was such a shot in the arm to have time away from the kids and girl time too :) Also, If you've never had a facial, I'd highly recommend it!

Becky was my roomate for all 4 years at Harding. Amy was across the hall Freshman year and a suitemate after that. Both of them were bridesmaids in my wedding. These girls are such dear friends. We decided that it was time to get together!

Becky (with baby Braden), Me and Amy

The Harding swing picture!

Becky's parent's cabin-what a nice get away from Dallas!

It was just us out there, so we had to take our own picture! It was really nice to get out of Dallas. I forget how many stars there are.

Thanks to Micah for keeping the boys! I kept calling to check on them and they were always out doing something fun. Luke liked that it was "just the boys!". I was glad to see all three of them when I got back.

Those are your choices!

This morning as I was getting ready, Luke was running around. In an attempt to give him something to do, I asked him to get me some socks. He goes and looks in my sock drawer for a minute and comes back. Standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips, my little boy says "Halloween or Santa Clause, those are your choices mommy" I had to try so hard not to laugh at him :)

We've been doing Love and Logic and I'm bombarding him with choices so that he feels more control over his world creating fewer battles of will. Do you want to walk on my left side or my right side? Do you want to walk or ride in the cart? What would work best for you Luke, to go to Sam's first or the post office? I decided to humor him. For the record, I picked Santa :)

Sandbox

Papa (Alan Wonders) made this sandbox for the boys. It's awesome. It has a ledge to sit on, a big heavy lid to keep rain out, lots and lots of sand and awesome construction trucks to work in the sand . We were in Longview earlier this week and it was the first time they got to play in it. As you can imagine, they LOVED it. Thanks Papa for the awesome sandbox.

Luke loves it, but what is Titus doing?

"Mom, I was just eating some sand."

Hmmm... Titus is still too little for the sandbox.

Luke and Grammy play with the dump truck.

I could do this all day!

Titus gets a cape and Micah's awesome

I put a post about Titus's cape up on my sewing blog, but I thought I'd put a couple of pictures up here. I need to get a picture of both of the boys running around "saving" everything.

Watch out, here I come!

Hey ducks, I might feed you...maybe I'll just eat the bread myself :)

I think I can, I think I can...

I also wanted to send a shout out to Micah. He's so great to help out with whatever needs doing around the house. Here he is changing one of many diapers. Thanks Micah for all you do to help out. We all love you very much!

Mr. Potato Head

I guess it is more like Mr. Mashed Potato Head!

I think there is as much food beside his plate as there is actually on the plate.

Toddlers are SO messy when they eat. I get a little jealous of my friends who have dogs. There is usually little to no mess under the chair after a meal. Hmmm...maybe we should get one.