She Tells That To ALLLLLL The Boys.

Last night after spending about an hour listening to both of the boys read to me Kolby wanted to cuddle on the couch for a while....so we made a little nest and she got one of her dolls and we all wrapped up to watch the news.

As we were laying there Kolby said, "Daddy, I love you more than the rest of the family...I love you more than mommy does, I love you more than Maxim does, I love you more than Brecken does and I love you more than Kia and Lilly do (our dogs)."

Of course I was smitten and thought, "Ohhh I have finally made it as the Dad Of The Year!  My daughter and I are really connecting!"  I had to say something back, so I took the politically correct route and told her that I loved her too, and that she is my favorite and most special daughter.  (That way in 10 years she can't rub it into the boys and say, "Daddy says I am the favorite!")

Within minutes she fell asleep and I dropped her in her own bed.

This morning I told/bragged that story to Steph about how much Kolby loved me compared to the rest of the family unit.  Steph laughed at me and said, "She says that to me all the time, that is her way of getting what she wants!"

Well, I am a sucker for her and I will pretend that I am the most loved, but it is pretty smart on her part too, to realize that you can use your words to get what you want!  Even if it is a little late night cuddle with your daddy when you should be in your own bed!

Autism Speaks.

Happy Birthday, Brecken!

This post is for the Breckster...he turned 7 at the exact same time both of his front teeth started to wiggle.  He is energy, passion, rage and love all in the same "somewhat smaller than his classmates" body.  He loves his brother, adores his little sister, cuddles his mother and talks his dad into doing things he probably shouldn't.

Like his birthday present...but then again what kid doesn't want a dirt bike for their birthday.  Well, we finally found a bike for him, it took like 7 months to find the right one and we found it like 10 hours before his birthday and it was only 1 hour away from our house.

The only thing he didn't get for his birthday was good weather....he had to ride on the road in front of our house all weekend, in snow and rain and freezing rain...went through a tank and a half of gas!

Thought I would add this video of Robbie Maddison to the blogt as well, because he will like to watch this one.

Singing Her To Sleep

Kolby use to go to bed really easy...you would just put her in bed and she was out.  Then she discovered that she could climb out of bed, and go do what she wanted.

Several times we have found her sleeping on our floor, on the steps by her room, or just playing at 12:30 A.M.  She uses every excuse to not stay in bed...UNLESS...I read/sing her to sleep.  There are a few old John Denver songs that a publishing company turned into children's books...and she loves them.

So I sing/read the books, Country Roads, Grandma's Feather Bed, and we always end the night with Sunshine On My Shoulders.  She usually asks about John Denver because there is a photo of him and his son Zach in the back of the book.

Last night she wanted to know if John Denver wrote the song for her....in a way, I told her, "yeah, he did."  She thought that was cool and then promised she would stay in bed.

10 minutes later she was sleeping with Steph on the couch.  So I hauled her off to bed when I went to sleep. This morning I woke her up by singing, "Sunshine on my Shoulders"...she said, "Daddy, guess what...I stayed in my bed all night."  Well, kind of....and I threw her up on my shoulder and sang again, "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.......

Books With Bad Words In Them.

Maxim, our oldest, has a "good and bad filter" that is set to the highest level of modern society...which I think is a great quality to have.  He sees the world, and good and evil, in black and white...there are no grey areas.  Brecken on the other hand pushes the envelope.

Our world might be different than yours....you see at our house:
the "s-word" = Stupid
the "d-word" = Dummy
Hate is a word that must not be uttered
But ironically if you are playing anything, no matter what it is, we will blow you up with a laser, cut you in half with a sword or beat you up with a Chuck Norris-like death chop.  Kolby's American Girl doll has even been threatened with a toy gun...by Kolby.

So with that as a background for the principals of how our kids see the world, Maxim has been reading a lot of books that are not assigned to him, and did you know that if you read a book not assigned by your local Christian school teacher, it could have a bad word in it?

Maxim has been reading books like "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" and novels of the sort...and on Friday he picked out a new book called "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda".  On Sunday he got his new book and dropped into his bed to read away...Brecken and I were out in the living room going through his subtraction flash cards (only used his fingers for 8's and 9's, YEAH!) and all of the sudden Maxim came out yelling for Steph.

I assured him that whatever his problem that I could help him and he showed me his new book, and he said, "Dad, I am not sure I should be reading this sort of book."

"Why?" I asked, expecting the worst...I assumed that Steph kind of gave it the once over parental review before she bought it and that it wouldn't be something really bad....but you never know these days.

"Look, right there in the 2nd paragraph!"
"THE H-WORD!"

I took a look and sure enough, the h-word was right there.  Plain as day.  So I explained to him that I was proud that he was concerned about what he was reading, and told him the author of the book was trying to get a point across to the reader that the boy in the story really "HATED" what his parents were making him do.

Maxim thought that was a good enough answer and then went off to his room to read more...about 20 minutes later I heard him laughing out loud, and I asked what was so funny.  He brought out the book and showed me where the same boy was talking about how fat his teacher was, and that he looked like Jabba The Hutt.

So all those of you wondering...I guess, according to Maxim, it is OK to make fun of people's weight struggles, but not "hate" vegetables.