The Line

I worked the weekend and barely slept Monday. We had Little League after dinner last night and by 9:00 I was so tired I couldn't maintain an upright position. I fell asleep and got up at 8:00 this morning. I feel so much better! Yeah for sleep. Anyway, I figured I'd better write a post this morning in case my nightowlish tendencies get derailed again tonight.

Before I tell you this story, I need to tell you that we have been having a great deal of trouble recently with one of our children. Roman is smart and can be very charming, but he has a very strong sense of justice and he likes to be the enforcer. This, combined with a temper and impulse control issues can lead to a great deal of drama.

We were watching Deacon's Little League game last night and "the boy with the strange name" (as Roman calls him) came over to play. Lincoln refers to him as "the boy with the red shirt". Anyway, they played with the toys that we had along and then they started drawing with the boy's chalk. They were working their way down the sidewalk away from the field, but hadn't yet gotten anywhere near where I would have called them back. (I let them go as far as the point where I can no longer run them down in a quick fashion if it becomes necessary. Lucky for them, I am a good runner).

The boys Grandma, however, wasn't so spry and so she went over and told the boy that he couldn't go that far. He said, "I will draw a line with chalk so that I will remember how far I can go". She showed him where to draw the line, and he drew it and the play continued.

A little while later I heard Roman's loud voice. "You aren't supposed to cross this line!!" I looked back and Roman's toes were on that line. The boy and Lincoln were across it. Roman was distraught and kept telling them to come back- very panicky. (This is odd to me because even though Roman does like justice, he is not big into following rules himself). Positive Reinforcement time. As I made my way over, The Boy said to Roman, "Oh, it is no big deal. I will just draw a new line." And so he did.

Wow. And we wonder how the world is so screwed up.

Even 3 year olds are drawing "new lines" for themselves.

I got there and congratulated Roman on doing the right thing and for gently reminding his friend (without hitting or dragging) to do the right thing too. Roman beamed with pride. Lincoln ran back over and placed his toes squarely on the line too.

It was an encouraging moment in a week of parenting stress.

*In other Little League news, Roman was wearing a reverseable outfit and kept going into the portapotty to change it back and forth. R and L love portapotties. Yuck.

*Berean was in a baby swing and I was pushing her. A mom and her little girl came over and started a conversation with us. I won't bore you with the whole convo, but the girl is 2 1/2 but was 6 weeks early. The mom told me that she would be 6 weeks behind (per the Md's) "mentally" but that she is not and she is very smart. (pretty sure that 6 weeks doesn't matter a whole lot once you are 2 1/2, but what do I know?) She then proceeded to tell the little girl to sing her abcs. Then twinkle twinkle, then count and on and on. Really? Is this some sort of show? Why are you trying to prove to strangers that your daughter is so smart?

*Noah is the pitcher for the coach pitch Little League. It is very stressful and he was nervous and I was nervous for him. The kids only get 6 pitches, whether they are bad or good, so if you don't make them good the parents will start getting angry. The problem is, you have a clueless 7 year old catcher behind the plate and a batter that has about a 20% chance of getting a hit. Not only are you trying to get it over the plate slowly and in decent position, but you also can not kill the catcher. It is a sticky situation. Noah didn't hit any batters, though, nor did he get attacked by any parents, so I guess we can call that a success.

*Deacon likes to be catcher and hold up fingers for how many outs there are. He is pretty clueless out there and looks a little scared, but hopefully he will become a little more aware soon.

It is breakfast time! Have a good day, everyone!