My way or the highway...

Some of you may know that I'm a black and white kind of person...very little room for gray in my life. There's fair and unfair. There's right and wrong. There's good and bad. And there's one right way to do things.

While I consider myself to be fairly self-aware, I don't think you notice the full extent of these tendencies until you see those same things in your children. Yikes.

I've started to notice that Torin likes things done a specific way. Hmmm...wonder where he gets that from?

And I've noticed that I can tend to lose patience when he wants to do things his own way. Like this morning. We sat down to do a math puzzle on the floor. There are 30 pieces which make 3 different puzzles by matching the color on the bottom of the piece and then putting all the green pieces in order from 1 to 10.

But Torin didn't want to do it that way. He wanted to mix the colors and then he wanted to put all three 10s together. I found myself getting frustrated and telling him that wasn't the right way to do it. I didn't want to do it his way and he clearly didn't want to do it my way.

There are times when my way matters and it's worth the fight...for safety, respect or other character developing reasons. But there are times when it really doesn't matter. I just need to let him be a kid and figure things out for himself. Let him do things his way. Let him be creative.

Most times I think I have more to learn than he does.

Keep your eye on the ball...literally

I've been meaning to blog about this for a few weeks now. Finally taking a moment to get this moment recorded.

A few weeks ago we were all in the basement and Torin was playing with his t-ball set. From everything we can tell, Torin is left handed so Chris was teaching him how to bat left handed. He actually does really well.

After one particular hit, Torin went to get the ball and Chris said, "You have to keep your eye on the ball." Torin looked at Chris. Then looked at the ball. And proceeded to put the ball on his eye.

Got a good laugh out of that!

Home alone...

So Tuesday morning after I left for work, the boys jumped in the car, picked up Papa at his hotel and headed to Pittsburgh...three generations of Jarrell guys on a road trip. Chris had Torin saying, "road trip!" So cute.

After a yummy dinner at Mike's with my mother-in-law that evening, I headed home to an empty house...well, empty except for Pebbles. It was so odd not to have anyone else here. I haven't been home alone overnight since Torin was born. I've traveled and left the boys here. Chris has traveled and left us here. I've traveled with Torin. But the two of them had never gone anywhere overnight without me.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. I think I dozed on and off while watching Golden Girls, Cheers and Frasier. And then it was time to get up and get ready for work...all alone. No one else to get up. No one to get breakfast for. No one to try to get out the door to school.

Call me weird (it won't be the first time) but it just didn't feel right. I guess one day, according to some very wise friends, I'll learn to enjoy that time alone. But for now, I stand by initial reaction...it's just plain weird.

"Torin pray."

Torin and I got home from church today and after a battle through lunch and getting upstairs for nap time that had me beyond frustrated, he melted my heart.

He was sitting in his rocking chair drinking his milk and reading his Bible. I LOVE watching him read his Bible but I have to say that I just really wanted him to finish his milk and go down for a nap because he needed it and so did I.

After he was done reading, he said, "Torin pray." What could I say to that?

And with no prompting from me, here's exactly what he said:

"Lord, today. See Jude. Jesus name, Amen."

As his mom, I don't need a translation, but I'm happy to provide one for others. :)

"Dear Lord, thank you for today. Thank you that I got to see Jude. In Jesus name, Amen."

At a moment when I was near screaming, he completely melted my heart. It's so amazing to hear my son pray on his own. Thank you, Jesus. What a gift we have been given.

And to top off the evening, he was singing, "Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God forever" as we were listening to worship music.

THANK YOU, JESUS!! I pray his love for prayer and worshipping God only increases throughout his life.

Three kisses...

"I'll give you three kisses and whisper good night. Good night, Pookie ears. [Kiss!] Good night, Pookie nose. [Kiss!] Goodnight, Pookie eyes that are ready to close. [Kiss!]"

Night-night Little Pookie is my very favorite book to read to Torin before bed. We read it tonight and I love how he says, "Three kisses" when we get to that part. And then we go through the kisses at least two times. So cute.

After story time is bedtime prayer. While we were praying for the baby, Torin said, "Three kisses" and proceeded to kiss my tummy three times. Then he did the following: He said, "Pookie ears" (and put his ear to my belly), "Pookie nose" (and put his nose to my belly) and "Pookie eyes" (and put his eyes on my belly).

It was one of the sweetest things ever. It is so amazing to see him love the baby already. Melts my heart.