Romeo and Juliet at McDonalds

The other day was conference day. The kids' preschool does parent/teacher conferences twice a year and they're pretty helpful (especially with trying to judge where Caleb is with things). The disappointing thing about conferences is that they are on a school day so no school and normally that's not a bad thing but when you've missed most of January due to snow and ice it's kind of frustrating to have another day off for the kids.

Well, to reward them for making it through their first, mostly full week of school since December, I decided to take them to McDonald's. There's one near our house that has a nice indoor playground and the kids have been bugging me to go there since we moved out here.

We got there, ordered and went to sit and eat in the play area. I have to say, it was nicer than I had expected. It was clean and most importantly, it didn't smell funny. The kids were really good and ate their lunches. Caleb even ate the chicken nuggets (he's been objecting to them on past trips) When they finished eating, I let them play. There were quite a few kids there and I would say, in less than 10 minutes, Sadie had a little boy just a bit older than her, following her around.

The kids all played for awhile. I was excited to see Caleb involved in the games too. They were pretty much just chasing each other through the tubes and while it makes me nervous, I was happy that things were going so well. Caleb is doing better with other kids but when he gets excited, he can seem aggressive. He yells and growls a lot which other kids can interpret as threatening and, well, we've had things escalate to where he's hitting. Previously this wasn't such a big problem but as he's getting bigger and older it's a more difficult situation. Most parents don't expect a 5 yr old to be hitting and without understanding his circumstances, it makes for a very uncomfortable situation.

I sat back and let the kids enjoy playing for a while and it was nice. They came over for some sips of milk and to check on their Happy Meal prizes. Then I noticed that Sadie was spending more time with her little friend and Caleb was off on his own. Again, this happens some time so I wasn't too concerned. Then I noticed Sadie and her friend running away from Caleb and I started paying a bit more attention. Sure enough, Sadie's little friend was getting a little possessive of the Sadie-girl and didn't seem to want to share her attention, even with her big brother.

Caleb came by and I told him they could each do one more thing and then we would get ready to go. Of course the one thing Caleb wanted to do was to sit in a car with Sadie and Sadie didn't want to leave her friend. I tried to persuade Caleb to let her have some space and then I tried to persuade Sadie to indulge her brother and none of it was working. Caleb started getting upset and I was done and so announced that we were going home. This was when Sadie's little friend decided to come over and taunt Caleb for having to go home. Big mistake!!

Mama bear kicked in and I gave the little guy a very serious mommy-glare and said "Do Not Do That. We Don't Act Like That." Not yelling, but talking very sternly to this young man who quickly backed off and got quiet.

I calmed Caleb down and then had an upset Sadie who wasn't ready to go (of course- did I mention, this started out like a great way to spend the afternoon?) I tried to explain to Sadie that if she and her friend couldn't be nice and play with Caleb, then we couldn't stay. Sadie was heart-broken and so I had to help her with her shoes. I was done. While doing this, I noticed her little friend inching back over towards us. I told Sadie she should say good bye to her friend as he came over. He got very close and very sweetly said "Good-bye Sadie, I love you." Sadie rattled off a "Good-bye, I love you" too and that was the end.

I was sooooo done with McDonald's and soooooo not ready for my 4 yr old to have little boys telling her they love her.

We are in soooooo much trouble with this one

questions....

Here's my question... how do you explain heaven and being part of God's family to a 5 yr old who doesn't like change?

We have a great church. We have a great church with a great children's ministry and Miss Sherry is absolutely wonderful with the kids. Yesterday was Sadie's first time as a 4 yr old in the 4 yr old class for children's church. This class is in the big room and i think the ages are 4-7 yrs old. It was a big change but she seemed to do well, especially since she could sit next to her brother.

We didn't hear much about the morning until dinner time last night. Then Caleb started telling us about Nicodemus. Then Sadie gave her very good explanation for being born again in her most serious voice "Jesus had to come and save us from our sins." And Caleb added that Granny was born again but she didn't become a baby again. I was very excited to see our kids working through this and eager to see where it went.

Knowing that my husband became Christian as a child, I prompted "Hey guys, you know, Daddy is born again?" And he explained to the kids how he prayed with his mommy and daddy when he was little to be able to go to heaven.

So there it was, we had talked about being born again, about being in God's family, about going to heaven. Were the kids ready to pray? I asked "Do you think you want to go to heaven?" Sadie very quickly nodded and said "yes, sure do." I looked at Caleb "I don't think so."

Then we realized, this boy will resist going to Disney World just because it's different and unfamiliar. It doesn't matter how great heaven is, he's not going to want to go. So how do we explain this to him? I found it to be a funny turn of events. I'm confident that God knows his heart and therefore knows his struggles so I'm not too worried that we didn't pray last night. I think it will be interesting to watch how God moves in his heart to help him understand these things.

The Case of the Missing Zuzu Pet

It was a quiet afternoon in the Walsh house. Mom and the kids had finally finished un-decorating the Christmas tree. Suddenly, Sadie appeared with her Zuzu pet that she had gotten for Christmas. In order to travel, Daddy had wisely removed the batteries (on/off switches should be required for all toys) but Mommy wasn't sure where he had put them.

"Wait 'til Daddy comes home" Mommy told Sadie and she happily bounded away to find new fun and wait for Daddy. The Zuzu pets were forgotten... or so we thought.

After dinner, Sadie found her pet once again and asked to get it working. Daddy took over and soon we had a Zuzu pet rolling and squeaking around the floor. Daddy also mentioned to Caleb that if he brought his Zuzu pet over, Daddy would fix it too.

"But I don't know where it is" Caleb answered.

We sent him upstairs to look for it and sent Sadie with him- since she was the one who had found them first. The kids searched upstairs for a bit and came down empty-handed and disappointed so Daddy and Mommy began searching too. We searched book bags and other possible places downstairs but couldn't find anything. So we went upstairs. After a bit more searching, success! Caleb's Zuzu pet was right in the middle of his bedroom floor!

"Guys, how did you not see Caleb's Zuzu pet on the floor? What were you looking for?" Daddy asked.

"We were looking for footprints and found some and followed them downstairs" Caleb explained.

Not sure what Zuzu pet footprints look like and really not sure what footprints they were following.