The Shear Shactor party is finally a go!!! It is scheduled for THIS Sunday afternoon! It is only a mere 6 months late for Ty and over a month late for Tanner…shheeeeshhh! I am not sorry on Ty’s behalf because Ty will have much more fun than he would have in January but poor Tanner has gotten to the miserable point. Where he used to love to talk about his party, he now cries. If we start talking about the party, he gets so frustrated that it isn’t here yet that the whole conversation frustrates him. When did I first mention this? March? Earlier? That is an awfully long time for a four year old to wait! I bought him a toy for his birthday today and when he begged for it this afternoon I couldn’t resist him. He and Daddy are playing XBox Cabella’s Big Game Hunt right now…Daddy’s pleading eyes won me over LOL. Besides, I just needed some quiet time!!!! I have all 3 boys in the playroom occupied so I have a minute to myself…hurray for me!!!

My growing boy
Since we have been discussing the Disney trip (I know…another thing I shouldn’t be talking about so early), Tanner keeps wanting me to measure him. He wants to be tall enough for all the rides. He is 41 inches so we need him to grow one more inch:). He weighed himself today too and he weighs 36 pounds. The other morning he got all excited and said, “Look at me! I bigger! I ate 40 pounds!”. He then wanted me to measure him with the yardstick again because he was convinced he had grown overnight. Thankfully, he didn’t LOL! Unfortunately, I think I do. Darn it.

Beautiful
Recently Tanner and I were driving home in the early evening. He looks out the window and studies the sunset and say’s “Mommy! Look at the beautiful painting! Get your camera.”

Very precious when even children notice the fingerprints of God. It seems that kids often stand in awe of God’s handiwork while adults grow complacent and forget to look. I am so glad I have children to remind me to SEE.

Control Issues
Daniel and I had an intersting conversation last week. I was mentioning to him that Tanner seems to have control issues. Here are two cases in point.

1. All the kids (Noah, Graham, Zandi, Zane, Ty, and even Karsyn) all rode on Noah’s horse Jake last week. Ty loved it. Tanner, however, absolutely positively refused to mount the horse. The good news was, he could not be peer pressured into it. Even Ty getting on the horse made no difference. Tanner acted as though he was glad for all the other kids but didn’t know what that had to do with him. Later I asked him why he wouldn’t ride the horse and he said “I too big. Horse can’t carry me.” (Especially amusing considering Aunt Aimee was on the horse with all the kids. Apparently Tanner thinks she is just a tiny little thing;)

2. We all went swimming at Darin’s house on fourth of July and Tanner would not leave the steps. We tried floaties and a life jacket. He would panic so badly that he would dip under even with a life jacket on. I have never seen him so terrified. I come from the school of “let em’ go – they’ll figure it out”. Wasn’t working. After a few attempts we were no better off and I was afraid I was going to make him hate the water if I kept it up.

3. Tanner loves animals – in a cage. He does not want them anywhere near him though and he definitely does not want to touch them. Not even Grandma Cheri’s bird.

Both of these things seem to be summarized by “fear” but the more I thought about it I realized that when Tanner acts afraid, it is almost always over things that he can’t control himself.

Daniel and I talked about this a bit and I was amused at his conclusion. He said,

“Well, I guess that settles it. There are several things in your children’s life that they did not come by genetically. It must be environment.”

Daniel is a funny guy. What is the sarcasm smilie icon? I need it right now.

God Hugs
It has been so awesome being back in church the last few weeks! I can’t tell you how much we missed being with our church family. Tanner has done really well. I was a bit concerned about his socialization but he has jumped right on it. I think it helps having Noah in his class.

One thing that is important to Jim and I is to teach our children about tithing. I know this is a sensitive issue for many people but I think it is something that should be talked about. For believers, this is an issue of obedience. It isn’t a matter of giving to an affiliation, or church, or paying salaries, or maintenance upkeep…it is simply a matter of obedience. Scripture teaches that we are to give at least 10% of our income to God. He doesn’t “need” our money but He does want us to be giving and have a cheerful giving spirit. Before Jim and I got married we discussed this at length and calculated how we could tithe our 10% and afford to be married:). God worked it out. I have heard some discuss tithing from the perspective of “Give to God and He will bless you 100 fold”. That may be true or it may not. God did not make that promise. He didn’t assign tithing to us as an investment option LOL. As a point of fact, Jim and I do feel blessed. We are not wealthy by ANY measure and it isn’t always easy to live on one income but God has provided.

ANYHOW, so Sweetie was getting ready to put her tithe check in the tithe box. (At our church, there is a wooden box with a slit on the top that sits at the back of the church. An offering is not collected – we simply leave the box available for those that choose to tithe). She decided that she would let Tanner put the check in for her as she was wanting to teach him about giving to God. After he put the money in, he looked up at her and said >”I fink God is going to give us a great big hug!” LOL. For the record, I have not told Tanner that we give to God so that He will bless us. We tithe because we love God. I thought it was precious though that Tanner got the concept that it makes God happy when we obey. I hope He always imagines God reaching down from heaven to give him a great big hug when He strives to be obedient. Sometimes four year olds paint mental pictures that are far superior to what an adult could imagine.

For Sweetie
Speaking of Sweetie…both of my boys are quite attached to the woman. Tanner is always wanting to go to Sweetie’s house and Ty actually squeeled and clapped his hands when we drove into the yard last week. I was surprised he recognized where we were. Last week Tanner spent the day with Papa and Sweetie. Tanner and Papa had to run a few errands and Tanner got thirsty. He asked Papa if he would go to Sonic at get Sweetie a coke (obviously assuming he would get one as well:). Sweetie is continually asking people to go to Sonic and get a coke for her…a point Tanner has not missed and has now memorized for his own conveinence. And did Papa agree? Duh.

Once Bitten Twice Shy
Tanner is getting beat up by his baby brother. Ty hits him and scratches him and bites him. He even bit hard enough to draw blood this week. Tanner wasn’t a biter so I have no experience with this. He has pretty much quit biting me because he bruised me with enough bites that I got my point across and he thinks twice before setting his teeth into mommy. Unfortunately, it is tough to address these issues with baby after the fact so Tanner and I have the “he is just a baby” talk often. This week that talk came back to bite me:).

Ty had been crawling to my DVD cabinet and pulling the DVD book out (which is huge and I can’t believe he can manage it). He would then take the DVD’s out and bite them and throw them. NOT good. After the third time (and yes I know, I should have put the DVD’s out of reach before the third time but I was distracted)…Ty had some consequences to face. Jim and I believe that when you discipline a child you need to comfort them and love them and talk about forgiveness and restoration afterwards. Instead of picking Ty up and talking to him, I found myself quite busy cleaning up the mess. Ty was crying a mountain of tears (mostly because he really wanted the DVDs). Tanner thought I should be comforting Ty so he did that on his own. I look over and Tanner is soothing baby brother and patting him on the back. Tanner then say’s in a very parental tone “Mommy. I fink Ty is just a little boy. I fink he is just a baby.”

This morning the tables turned. Ty wacked Tanner across the face and scratched him. After Tanner was done crying he said “Mommy! I fink Ty is a BIG boy!” LOL! I know EXACTLY what that meant.

Tannerisms
And my favorite word……”Wane Deer” (sounds like reigndeer) – this means underwear!

Fear Factor party pictures and update coming soon!