The kids love their new baby brother and they love to play with him.  Or, should I say, they love to play him.  Who needs other toys when you can do this?

He doesn’t seem to mind being in a laundry basket.

We love Costco in so many ways and one such way is obtaining big boxes.  Why do my kids love these big boxes?  There are so many wonderful uses for them such as using them as sleds for coming down the stairs, carriages for their stuffed animals, carriers for all sorts of junks treasures, etc.  I’m starting to wonder why we even bother buying toys for them.  I love their simple pleasures.

My boys have expressed an interest to sew for quite a while now, but because of my lack of energy during pregnancy, I’ve been procrastinating.  I finally got to it today with teaching them.  They were so excited and it was encouraging for me to see them so enthusiastic in learning.  We are using Plumley and Lisle’s Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make.  I like this kid friendly book and the explanations are very easy to understand.  This book mostly teaches hand sewing with few machine sewing projects.

For our first day of sewing class, the boys each made a needle book and a pin cushion for their sewing kit.

While I was napping, my oldest made a bean bag on his own with his favorite camouflage fabric.

The boys already have more projects in mind to make.

Fact:  Red crayon marks on the couch:

Question:  Who did it?

Interrogation:  Everyone denied it.

Now begins the detective work which involves deductive reasoning as well as process of elimination.  The oldest three didn’t do it because by now they value their lives more than anything.  Now we’re left with the younger two; the four-year-old and the 20-month-old.  During the interrogation the four-year-old was insistent that she didn’t do it and readily incriminated the one-year-old.  Hmmmm. . . . the case gets a bit complicated because I can’t exactly interrogate the 20-month-old who isn’t verbal yet.  So, back to the evidence.  I observed the markings and the pattern.  It looked like the work of the 20-month-old because most of the markings are linear which is consistent with her developmental ability.  If it was the four-year-old, it’d involve concentric circles, hearts, and happy faces.

Case solved!

The culprit?  The adorable 20-month-old.

Punishment:  Sit on the bed of evidence as pictured.

I suppose punishment by photography is quite appealing for the culprit’s sisters that they too, want in on it.  So, I obliged.

Then the culprit felt left out so she climbed on to get in on the hall-of-shame.

Apparently, the brothers felt excluded as well, so they jumped on the opportunity to be photographed.

As you can see, life with so many little ones is never boring.

You may wonder why I didn’t completely freak out by the crayon marks on the couch and there’s a secret!  The secret is that all the covers on this couch are removable and washable.  Now, isn’t that a wonderful news for a family with small kids who enjoy practicing their artistic talents on furniture?

For me… ’twas closing the day in prayer with the boys.

And Matthew (my 8yo and our oldest) asked if he could pray as well, so I invited him to do so.

It went something like this.

Dear God… thank you for this day.

Thank you that Daddy could be blessed by the gifts we made him [they all made sweet father's day notes, some made several!]

I pray that you would help us be smarter…

[pauses, searching for the right words]

… and more intelligent…

[I'm chuckling inside]

… and most importantly, that we would be wiser.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Nothing could’ve made me happier than to hear this self-initiated prayer, especially as a Dad who’s been reading through Proverbs with the children daily and exhorting them to pursue wisdom and not folly.

That made a happy Father’s day for this dad!  May the Lord indeed answer this prayer in spades!

P.S. Here a couple snaps of some of the notes my children drew for me:

Listening in on kids’ conversations are always entertaining.  I overhead the following conversation between my two boys recently:

7 yo:  “Heaven is a very special place and you can’t get there by airplane.”

5 yo:  “You need a rocket!”

Once again, my 5 yo solved the problem for all those who are wondering about heaven.

I had an amusing chat with my four-year-old the other day.

Me: “Andrew, I like the way you are.  Can you not grow up and stay this way all the time?”

He:  “I can’t!”

Me:  “Why not?”

He:  “Because you keep giving me milk to drink so I keep growing.”

[Note: at one point he was not a great milk drinker, and we told him if we wanted to be big like Daddy, he had to drink his milk.  This evidently stuck in his mind.]

Me:  “Hmmm. . . good point.  Can I stop giving you milk so you can stop growing and stay this way forever?”

He:  “Yes.”

So folks, there you have it.  I’ve divulged the secret to keep your child young and cute forever.  Just stop giving them milk.