After a summer of fun, Henry is back to preschool!

Henry could not be more opposite of his sister- where she is calm, he is wild. Where she is measured and responsible, he is free and at times, mischievous (although he owns this- he will misbehave and be completely honest that he did, which both infuriates me, and makes me appreciate his honesty). He is not short on personality; recently, he regaled the dining room at Granny’s assisted living community with a full performance of “Hakuna Matata” including full lyrics, vocal runs, and hand motions. I often walk through elaborate Jurassic Park setups where he is involved in intense dinosaur fights, and he can tell you that his favorite dinosaur is a T. rex, while Livy’s is the brontosaurus, and Mom’s (mine) is a “triteratops”. Despite his love for our current herd of Angus cattle, he has petitioned us frequently for Herefords (specifically, by name), and he may get his way sooner or later. At this point, he can accurately tell you if the cattle in his figurine herd is a cow or a bull. His skill set is oddly dynamic for a three year old.

As a typical three year old, our time with Henry the last six months or so has been a little bit of a refining fire. His dire and adamant need for independence has tested my patience, and forced me to step back at times and evaluate how to scaffold his skills rather than quick fix it and stunt him by rushing through whatever it is myself. His emotions seem to be super sized right now, so we get big affection and big protests when things aren’t his preference. He has caused me many times to pull back and model the behavior I’m asking and requiring of him instead of just expecting compliance driven by discipline. I’ve said that I think God gave me assertive and confident children to force me to be more confident and assertive. The work at this age is channeling their confidence and assertiveness into things that matter, haha!

One of my favorite things about him are his sweet little prayers at bedtime and meal times. He’s a visual prayer- anything in his sight line is fair game. We commonly have mealtime prayers that thank God for “our forks, our spoons, our cups, our plates”, and bedtime prayers thanking God for “our tractors, our dinosaurs, our cows”. And they always end with, “in Jesus’s name, A-MAN!”, because it appears he thinks that means we acknowledge that Jesus was a man. He constantly has a song in his heart that is usually coming straight out of his mouth because it is very unusual for him not to be singing or saying something (and if he can turn that into a show for attention, you can bet he will!).

My constant prayer for Henry and Olivia, and for our parenting, is that they will be persons of integrity. In a world and culture that is pushing out Christian ideals and Scriptural principles, I find it more pressing to pray this specifically for them. Every night we pray all together for both of them to grow up to be strong and kind, brave and wise, calm and steadfast. The world will tell them both to be tolerant and accepting, and I pray they are wise enough to know how to accept without condemning or condoning, and to be brave, strong, and steadfast enough to stand in the Scriptural truth despite whatever is thrown at them. I pray they are kind regardless of circumstance, and calm, peace-giving friends to those around them. After asking for these attributes for them, we always pray they are lights for Jesus, and bring glory to His name in all they do. They obviously don’t grasp all that means at this age, but I pray everyday that we are modeling this as parents, and they will develop their relationship with the Lord as they grow up to know exactly what that means when they are adults. Steven and I were just discussing last night after bedtime that parenting is not for the faint of heart, but I’m thankful everyday I get to parent with the best 2 partners I could ask for- Steven and Jesus.

My baby wasn’t overly excited to go to school this morning- he informed me on the way that he didn’t want to go because “it is not going to be amazing” (did I mention this kid’s vocabulary borderline gets him in trouble at times? 😉 ). We had a fun summer together, and I’m glad I still get to snuggle him 3 mornings a week after sister goes to school. It’s nice to have time to run uninterrupted errands, and make appointments, but I’d be lying if I said I could or would want to be away from them all day everyday. Despite the times I’m over having a debate with him, or wish he’d just sit quietly for just a few minutes, I’m not quite ready to let him completely out of the nest full time. I’m anxiously awaiting to see how the big move from the 2’s to the 3’s class went, and here’s hoping it did, in fact, turn out to be amazing!