Doing what's right.

     When Jenny dropped off the kids this weekend, Carly was very eager to tell me what had happened on the bus.  Apparently the bus driver had given Carly and a little boy lollipops because they are always so good on the bus.  We know the bus driver, she is a very sweet lady who adores Carly.  Anyway, then Carly said, in a very serious tone, "She wasn't supposed to give us candy Daddy, because it can ruin our lunch."  I asked her if she had told the bus driver thank you.  "No, because she was bad and gave us something for being good."  I tried to explain that as long as her Mommy said it was okay to accept the candy, she could eat it, and that she should tell the bus driver thank you.  I asked what she would do differently next time to see if she had comprehended my message.  Her response caught me a little off guard: "Next time I'll be bad, so that she isn't bad and gives me more candy."  Well, I suppose that is one potential solution...

     I tend to have a hard time motivating William and Carly (not Michael, he always does what he thinks is right) to do chores when they're here.  Like putting away their dirty dishes and cleaning up their toys.  So I've started giving them an allowance.  Before this weekend it was kind of at random, but one of the first things we did this weekend was sit down and agree on a list of chores and how much money they should get if they do the chores without being asked or reminded.  We came up with a list of around three chores for which they could receive one dollar each time.  William immediately latched on to this idea.  As soon as we finished he asked if I would help him look up prices for some Lego kits online so that he could see how much money he needed to save to buy them.  Buddy, I haven't seen that boy so excited to do chores since he was a toddler throwing blocks into a bucket!  He was practically shaking with excitement whenever it got close to meal time or clean up time!  I'm not sure how long it will last, but so far this is working out great!  With William, that is.  Carly still doesn't really give a hoot and happily watches her brothers try to do their chores as best they can.

     Michael is such a sweet boy!  Usually at least once each weekend the kids and I will all take turns picking one thing to do together.  The boys always want to play video games or watch Pokemon, and Carly always wants me to read her a book.  Well, this weekend I asked the boys if they could possibly think of something that didn't involve the use of the TV.  William looked at me like I had lost my mind, but Michael immediately got pensive.  When it was his turn, he said that he wanted us to all draw a picture and then tell a story about it!  I was really impressed!  For those of you who don't know, Michael has become quite the little artist!  He practices a lot, is very serious about it, and plans to become an artist when he grows up.  William just moaned.  But Carly was pretty excited because she knew that meant that she would be able to use the pencil sharpener.  So we all sat down around the table to start drawing.  Normally I just doodle, but this time I decided to actually try and draw some of the things I used to enjoy drawing when I was a teenager.  So I drew a picture of a demon preparing to hurl a large boulder.  All three kids were very impressed!  They even immediately recognized what I had drawn.  :D  I don't think any of them had seen me draw anything more advanced than a stick figure before, so they were all excited and all started working hard on their drawings.  Carly soon got frustrated though, so she asked me to draw a horse for her.  Well, that's not exactly what I used to draw when I was a teenager, but I figured the anatomy couldn't be too different from that of a dragon, so I gave it a go.  Well, my horse looked like it was suffering from Elaphantitis, but Carly was overjoyed!  I was pretty pleased myself, so I decided to try something else new.   I drew a ballerina!  And they all recognized what it was!  Well, I was pretty pleased with myself.  By now William was really getting excited, and he was drawing a boulder-hurling demon and a horse as well.  Michael, though, kept his cool and instead drew a furry short demon with long arms.  It looked pretty nice!  Then all three of us guys had fun drawing little stick figure stories.  You know, the kind where you draw a man and say "This is a man", then you draw a tank and say "This tank is shooting the man", then you draw lines from the tank to the man and scribble all over the man, then you draw a dragon breathing fire on a castle with a princess screaming in it and say "This is Carly."  Well, we had a great time.  And Carly quite contentedly ignored us while she colored in her horse and ballerina.

     One other anecdote from this weekend occurred when we were all watching Brave together.  For anyone who doesn't know, the protagonist for this Pixar film is a skinny, fiery, red-headed teenage princess, with wild, curly hair.  Well, after watching for just a few minutes someone (I forget who) said, "she has hair like mommy!"  Then someone else mentioned "Her hair is the same color as Mommy's too!"  Then the third said, "All of her looks just like Mommy!"  Well buddy, if their mommy had overheard that conversation I'm sure she would have been very happy indeed!  :)