The Joys of Boys

"Look Chalotte! Mommy is sending the cookies to hell!" (Hilarity ensues on baking day.)

No, that's not Todd Flanders speaking but Victor.

I'm going to post on my chickens one at a time. They all have their separate challenges, sweetnessess & require different gloves. Our first blessing & heir: Victor.

That is cicada on his shirt, he was thrilled at the trust it showed in being friends.

Victor is my right hand man & my helper. I ask a lot of him, sometimes more than I (later) think he is able to handle. Being the oldest, he is our experiment child. I experiment alot too, lol. I feel bad for this as I was also an oldest child & had no very much younger brothers or sisters to help w/ & as Mike was the youngest in his set, Victor gets the full benefit of our parenting inexperience.
I started off w/ him after reading all of the Pearls literature & he really was/is a joy to train up. He is always wanting to be right wherever Mike or I are helping & if we're there he asks for more responsibility, i.e. spreading his own peanut butter. He has a pretty hard time trying new things for himself up to the 11th or 12th time if you're not right there though.

Here his thrill is changing to panic as the locust shows no hesitation in becoming ever friendlier.

Having 2 parents from the military Victor's biggest problem is our time table because he is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t child at everything in the world. Generally we're pretty good sports about say, a 45 min. potty time. He refuses to close the door, which sticks so we know nothing else is going on in there. I don't know what will happen when he learns how to read. But for the past couple of months he's begun to shower himself (an hour in the bathroom, 10 min. before he'll get his face wet.) & wash his own dishes when finished. A 5 min. wash job for a plate if you're not right over his shoulder. Water running the whole time, usually cold. Textures & temperatures freak him out.

When he was much younger we had a pretty neat lesson on water being the most powerful force on earth so I guess he thinks the tap will take care of the whole thing if left to itself. Thankfully we don't pay for water, we've got a well but Mike & I are more paranoid over water usage now than we were in the city. This area has seen drought before, wells can & do run dry. So we're working on that.

He is such a wonderful helper & always anxious to do a chore as long as it is perceived as manly. If I ask him to play w/ the baby for a bit he'll cut some crazy antics non-stop "Because" he says seriously, "I'm practicing for being a daddy." Our house is pretty traditional though, so if the chore is something his daddy doesn't do such as oh, say folding socks or any laundry for that matter, there will probably be an argument. I got him some work gloves & he is forever wanting to do outside or messy chores w/ them.

He is also a mans man, always ready to gravely discuss important matters such as the best firearm for hunting Godzilla or a technicality on robot construction. But he listens to EVERYTHING, asks questions & draws his own conclusions from it. Have you ever been given financial advice from a 4 year old?

"Mommy we should get rid of our cash; it is getting weaker & weaker & the gold will kill it." Of late our date nights have mostly included shooting terrorists (aka passing motorists) from the dark, roving the yard doing night ops w/ our flashlights. Tomorrow night we will be rescuing farm animals from a burning barn.

On the Sovereignty of God I overheard: "Chalotte I can't melt. Only God knows if I will die by being melted. Only God can melt me!"

Charlotte is the frequent recipient of his ponderings so I can never be too far away. Washing his plate one day he started up in his monotone lecturing voice,

"Chalotte, do you know the difference between boys nipples & girls nipples. Boys nipples are just flat but girls keep on going & out & out & milk comes from them."

Charlottes usual response is "Yes." which has me a bit worried.

We talk of God frequently throughout the day & half of the time it's of his own leading; his concepts need some tweaking. He is ALWAYS ready for a Bible story (any story actually) but asks only for Bible stories if he wants to get out of any school work. Clever yes? School/anything that requires mental effort is like pulling teeth. If ever we were to begin "unschooling" he would be the reason why. I love him! He's cuddly & requires mental gymnastic at the same time. Everyone should have a Victor.
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