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Archive for July 22nd, 2010

The Perks of Summer Vacation

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

One of the perks of summer vacation is that I get to learn about my children. The school year does not bring enough time for me to actually sit down and discuss with each of them what their hopes, dreams, fears, thoughts about the future are, in depth.

I’ve learned that Daniel really wants to be Indiana Jones. He wants to be a professor and also an adventurer. He reads his atlas to learn more. He wants to take archeology books out of the library to get a head start on his schooling. I’ve learned that some things are hard for him and that he doesn’t want to apply himself, but when he does, he catches on easily. This morning during our homework book time, he learned to borrow (subtraction). I only had to tell him once, but he sure put up a fight trying to convince me that he couldn’t do it. Once I got past that and showed him how it worked, he did the whole page without issue.

Joshua wants to be a father. He plans to get married and have many children. We were watching an episode of 19 Kids and Counting and Josh’s comment was, “19 kids!? WOW! I want to have that many kids when I’m a dad.” I told him he probably will have to marry one of the Duggar girls. LOL We also had a discussion about adoption today. I don’t think he could quite grasp that some parents give up their children. I have a feeling he’ll be thinking about that conversation for a while.

Andrew does not want to be a father, but he does want to be a grandpa. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve been trying to figure him out this summer. He spent one night with his grandparents and when I put him to bed the next evening, he asked me, “Did you miss me, Mommy?” I had to carefully craft my answer to involve that yes I did miss him, but I was really really happy that he could go and have a great time with his grandparents and cousin. I’m thinking that Andrew feels that when he is separated from me, it hurts me, and that, in turn hurts him. He is a mommy’s boy through and through and while I love that, I want him to grow into a confident young man who knows what he wants, and goes for it.

Claire wants what she wants and she wants it now. She will not give up on her stance, even at the age of two. She can be the sweetest little thing in the world and she can be a meanie. Right now her dislikes are the potty, eating dinner and drinking water. But she sure loves her family, and when she says, “I love you, Mommy,” I melt. Claire impresses me with her knowledge of the alphabet, her numbers and her grammar. Today I started teaching her what letters look like; she learned Gg but already knows O and seems to recognize P (thanks to her father and brothers who taught her that if she sticks her Tag pen on the letter P twice in quick succession, it will say PP…nice).

I love spending time with my kids. I love having time to diffuse most fights before they get out of hand. I love being able to take them places and teach them things. I love having patience to wait for them to do things in their own time instead of standing over them saying, “hurryhurryhurryhurry”. I only have 2.5 weeks left of this before the big boys start daycamps, then school; I hope that we have many more “getting to know you” moments.