Last week Sam and Marcus decided that they wanted to build a birdhouse that Sam had received for his birthday. They insisted that they could do it themselves, and once the tools were set out, and I was assured that they didn't need my help, I headed up to take a rest in my bed for a bit while the youngest 2, who were recovering from sickness, slept.
Marcus made the first trek up to get me after about 5 minutes. I followed him down and inquired as to the problem. They were stuck on a step, and once we looked at it together, Sam figured it out on his own. I asked if they were all set, and headed back up to bed. This happened again, and the third time, I decided to just stay put on the couch. They got stuck again, and asked me to help. As I tried to figure out a slightly complicated step, Sam let me know that, once again, he'd figured it out. My pride and interrupted rest time wanted to refuse to let him finish and just finish myself, but I felt a voice telling me to let him do it. So, I did. I went back to the couch for a second time, and waited. He came in about 10 minutes later, a triumphant smile on his face, and showed me that he had, indeed figured it out. I'm really glad I let him work through it! I think it's so important to let these guys learn by doing and learn to solve problems.
Later that afternoon, I was on my way to wipe a butt, when I heard a crash from the kitchen. I looked in, and there was Conrad. He'd taken the bowl of salsa that was out for the kids to eat with chips, and thrown it on the floor hitting chairs, door, floor, walls, etc. I literally started crying. This is really so often the story of my life - go deal with one mess and another one or two are created. My two big boys saw my tears, and started telling me to stop crying. They let me know that they had this. Sure enough, when I came out of the bathroom, they were busy with wet wash cloths cleaning up that mess. They were so proud to be able to step up and fix it for me.
I'm so blessed by these guys!
