Today was Tanner’s first day of “Bible School” 🙂 . We started BSF this morning and Tanner has really been looking forward to it. Last week he heard me talking to Jim about getting new work clothes and Tanner asked if he was going to get a new shirt and new pants for his first day of “school”. Too sweet. (And yes he did:).

Two nights ago I decided to use some reverse psychology on my shy boy. At the dinner table I said “Tanner, when you go to your bible school keep an eye out for kids that are lonely and look like they need a friend. Maybe you could go up to them and ask them if they need a friend.”

Tanner said, “You talk to em’ mommy. I gotta work with my bible.” LOL!

I didn’t mention this again because I know that Tanner doesn’t miss a beat and I knew he would remember what I said. When we arrived to drop him off at his class I didn’t know what to expect. When he peeked in the door, some brilliant soul had lined up a ton of cars on a piece of masking tape on the floor. This appealed to my little organized man. He is obsessive about cars being lined in order and this caught his attention immediately. He couldn’t wait to get in that room and play. When I went to pick him up he wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I kept waving to him from the doorway but he would look away. Weird? Maybe he doesn’t see me I thought. Finally a teacher put her hand on his back and directed him to me. I thought he would look excited to see me but instead he said “Mommy, it’s not time to leave yet”. 🙂

He loved it and can’t wait to go back. As we walked toward the car he looked up at me and said “Mommy, none of the kids were lonely.” 🙂 Be still my beating heart…who could resist him?

Clean Day

Last week I asked Tanner to help me pick up the house. His response? “Why mommy? Is somebody comin’ over?” His daddy thought that answer was hysterical.

Mr. Clumsy

Have I mentioned that Tanner is actually quite clumsy at 4? He trips and falls so many times a day it drives Jim and I crazy. Is it the age? The other night we were in Walmart and I hear Tanner crying crying behind me. I turned around and he ran smack into a huge bunch of boxes in the middle of the isle. He scratched his face all up. How does one do that?

Crash

Jim got an XBox video crash game that Tanner and Jim both love. Apparently the goal is to run through an intersection at record speeds and see what the collateral damage is when you are done. Anyhow, Tanner was trying to get me to play this with his matchbox cars last week but I found it frustrating that I couldn’t mark my progress in the mess. I ended up getting paper and making boundaries for each matchbox car. That way when I rammed into all of them I could actually count how many cars I knocked out of their boundary. Much more effective and efficient way of tallying the losses. Thought I would share that thought with you mothers of young boys 🙂 .

Speaking of Games…

Heard something funny walking down the hall last week. Jim and Tanner were playing video games in the playroom and I heard Tanner say to Jim “Not bad Daddy! Not bad et all!” Sounded so cute!

Where does Jesus live?

Tanner asked me last week if Jesus lives on the moon. I grinned and let Papa answer the question. We were driving on our way to Strawberry when he asked the question and dad and I were on 2 way radios. Good car talk.

Boys Boys Boys…

I think Tanner’s favorite thing about camping is getting to go potty behind a bush or tree 🙂 . What is it with boys that this experience is so exhilarating? Jim and I went out for a bit in the jeep and left Tanner with Papa and Sweetie. While we were gone Tanner told Sweetie that he had to go potty and was off to find a tree. Sweetie, a mother of 4 boys but still concerned about this outdoor behavior thinks to ask “Tanner what kind?”. He looks at her quizzically and answers “A pine tree!” LOL! I am sure he thought that was a less than intuitive question. Papa and Sweetie are still laughing over it.

My Big Helper

Tanner is doing quite a bit to help me these days. He carries my laundry around for me and is picking up his stuff much more often. The other day I was in a big hurry to get to the dentist office. I set out stuff for Ty but didn’t pack anything in the diaper bag. I put Ty in the car and was rushing back in for the diaper bag. Meanwhile Tanner had disappeared and I had no idea what his hold up was. When I opened the door Tanner was on his way out with the diaper bag in hand. He had packed Ty’s food, sippie cup and fruit snack and had gone back to the kitchen and packed fruit snacks for himself as well. I was pretty impressed.

Words

Fork is still “hork” and I don’t want to teach him the right word 🙂

The “God” Card

Last week I told Tanner to get off the couch because he and his brother kept arguing on the couch and I thought someone needed to be removed. They had been going at it for awhile so needless to say I was annoyed by the time I separated them. Tanner came into the kitchen then and said “That not make God happy. That make him sad.”

“What makes God sad?” I asked.

“When you are mad” he said.

I stood in the kitchen a moment trying to decide how to manage that. Brooke’s face came to mind :). (Remember she dealt with a similar issue recently when Noah was telling her what God said he could do). I told Tanner that it does make God sad when mommy is mad and that mommy needs to work on patience but that God also is not happy when little boys don’t obey their mothers. And that was the end of that. 🙂