Adam-syndrome

Today I was blessed with yet more help around the house. Mama was here last week, Mom was here the last two days, and Nanny was here today. One of the things I overheard as Nanny ran interference with the older kids while I was with the baby:
Nanny: Is that your book?
Jayden: No
Nanny: Then you don't need to be drawing in that.
Jayden: Violet did it first!

He didn't argue that it was really alright to have drawn in Daddy's planner, but apparently thought that because Violet had drawn first, it made his actions excusable. Maybe he thought he was off the hook because she had given him the idea and he was only the follower. He recognized that what she did was wrong, but didn't make the connection that when he did the same thing, it was wrong too.

How often do I easily point out something wrong with someone else, but fail to recognize the SAME EXACT THING in my own character?

Then it occurred to me that what happened was rather like the incident in the Garden...where Adam said "but she gave it to me!" It hit me as ironic that my little boy's knee-jerk reaction was to point out the girl next to him just like Adam did. Apparently, some things don't change even over so much time!

Anecdotes

In an effort to keep myself resting rather than tending to the THOUSAND things i need to not care about right now, I am using the computer much like a paper weight...er, person-weight. Which gives me a perfect opportunity to share some the cute things that our kids have said and done in the last several days...beginning with the most recent:

Saturday, December 4
     (Violet is doing something silly and laughed at herself)
Me: You're so goofy!
Violet: I'm not Goofy, I'm Minnie
    (she's a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse junkie)

Friday, Dec 3
    (at the breakfast table, Chris repeated a question to give her practice saying "yes, please" something he had also done at supper the night before. this time her patience wore too thin)
Violet: "no talking at the table, Daddy!"
    (apparently she didn't get the memo that she's not the boss)

Thursday, Dec 2
    (we were in the living room where Chris and the kids are unpacking Christmas decor. Violet keeps pressing start on a talking bear that recites "The Night Before Christmas", so we've already heard it several times)
Jayden: "The sugar plums in my head are asleep"
    (Wha-??  so much for poetic language in a kindergarten brain)

Wednesday, Dec 1
    (on the way home from the hospital AJ is letting us know he doesn't appreciate...something...strapped in the carseat?...the cold?...being moved?)
Jayden: (singing)"me and my teddy getting all ready, getting all ready to play"
Chris: (enthusiastically) "that was great! did you make that up?"
Jayden: "no, its from Barney"
    (blessed purple dinosaur. because it quieted AJ, Jayden keeps singing it as his contribution to caring for our baby brother...and now its stuck in momma's head. great. we are greatful though that our oldest little man seems to be doing well so far with the transition. he didn't warm up very quickly to AJ at their first meeting)


Tuesday, Nov 30
    At "trunk or treat"- our church's contribution to over-sugar-fying the neighborhood children on Oct 31- Zeke received a cute little teddy bear. He named it "Tiny Teddy" and it joined the ranks of his sleeping buddies. When he came to visit baby brother in the hospital on the second day, he brought it with him.  Zeke wanted to share it with AJ since he didn't have any sleeping buddies yet, so it stayed in the bassinet through the rest of our hospital stay.

Monday, Nov 29
    (after AJ's birth our other blessings came to meet him.)
Jayden was very quiet, but eager to hold him...he even tolerated having his picture taken which is a BIG change from his usual m.o. of dodging picture taking equipment.
Zeke: "I've never had a baby before!"
Violet: "Mine new baby"

Bebo Norman - Here Goes (Slideshow With Lyrics)

Sometime in the last two weeks this song caught my attention.  I have felt overwhelmed at the thought of caring for a larger family...however, the inevitable has arrived and we face discharge from the hospital within the next hour. This chorus has been running through my mind constantly over the last couple days. First during the induction, now as we prepare to go home. Its invigorating though, to have had so much support expressed and on top of that, to look at this as a God-given adventure. So, "here goes nothing!"