When Your Child Teaches You

Children are amazing.  The good and the bad are amazing.  Last Christmas Cole put together Christmas gifts for all of his friends using his own toys.  This was not something we came up with at all.  It was just something he wanted to do.  We were somewhat amazed.

On Saturday it was finally nice enough to go outside and play.  After lunch we headed to a park.  We went "hiking" and had a jolly time walking from one of the playgrounds to another and we were "explorers".  We got to the far playground and Cole taught us.  We were sitting on a bench and watching Cole.  There were two brothers with a significant age gap playing on one of the playsets.  The older one was being none too kind to the younger.  The younger one was maybe 4.  You could just tell he got picked on by the older one a lot.

Cole was minding his own business climbing up and sliding down.  The older brother went somewhere else and the younger one decided to play on the same set as Cole.  Cole was climbing up one of the structures and the little boy came running up behind him and shoved him in the back with both hands as he was climbing (of course we were infuriated, but we decided to wait and watch how he responded...we were so glad we did).  Little tough guy essentially proceeded to climb over Cole (who was much larger than him) and kind of pushed him aside and climbed ahead and just sat there.  We were ticked, but kept watching as the little boys "parents" played on their phones to see what happened next.  The boy moved on and Cole finished his climb, avoided the little kid, and went down the slide and came over to us.  We expected him to say "did you see that little boy push me" in an indignant fashion.  Instead he said, "I let that boy go ahead of me."  We were blown away that the shoving was not the first thing he mentioned.  We proceeded to walk away from the playground as it was time to go and we had more explorer hiking to do back to the car.  About 15 minutes later Cole said, "that little boy was a really good climber."  He actually praised the child who was so rude to him.  Once again, we were very amazed at his gentle spirit. 

Almost anyone in that situation would have shoved the kid back (I know I wanted to throttle him for being such a little punk) but Cole commented how he used manners and let the little beast by and then even praised him later.  I think our take away lesson is that we are to be that way.  Truly, Cole was turning the other cheek.  He was not being a doormat, and surely if he was in the mood he could have shoved the boy right off the piece of equipment.  We are supposed to turn the other cheek.  We are supposed to show love.  That kid was so obviously bullied by his older brother.  Cole doesn't understand the complexities of all of that, but he did what he should and it made our hearts so very glad.  He taught us. Both of us had some rage going on for the little boy, but that is not how we are called to act.  Just think, if more people, would respond like that when they were wronged perhaps there would be less menace in the world.  Maybe not, but it reminds me of that commercial where the one person does a nice thing for another and so on (paying it forward).  What would it change if we responded to someone's hate with a smile?  Thank you for something to really think about, little boy.  You are such a blessing.

Cole Says

Daddy, when I am older I am going to move to a new house with you and Mommy and a new dog and my fishies.  I have to move to a new house because when I am 20 I will be too big to live in this house.

Funny

Cole was asking about my birthday and said he was going to pick me flowers for it.  So I said:
This weekend is Mother's Day.
Cole: I will have to pick you flowers.  I can get Daddy flowers for Father's Day.
Me: Well, or maybe a tool or a book.
Cole: Yeah.  Hey, when is Boy's Day?
Me: Everyday is Boy's Day. 
LOL :)

Daddy Love and Cole Quote

Lately I am loving all the father son bonding. Watching train movies at night and playing sports outside and basketball inside at night. Jonathan has always been a wonderful daddy! Cole and I are so blessed!

Tonight Cole drops a bott le of water (cap on thank goodness) on the floor. He says "good catch, floor". I believe the reason was that the bottle landed on it's bottom (like someone had placed it there). It was pretty hilarious.

He may be a homeschool only child, but I would say he's a team player if he's giving props to the floor for catching the water bottle...lol!

 

Cole Quotable

Cole when I ask him to do a task, "Ok, close your eyes......no pinking!"

Cole Quote of the Day

Cole: "I want to take dark naps. I don't want to take sun naps anymore."

Cole Quote from yesterday

Cole to friend Kate: Kate, God is in my belly.
Kate: God isn't in my belly.

Love 3 year olds having a conversation.

Cole thinks he "works" and sees whales and dolphins at work.  I hope he is a marine biologist because going out on the ocean with him would be fun! :)

Church

Cole has done this for a while. He invented it. He has always said this is a church when he does this with his hands. Pretty neat, huh?

Train Movies and Thomas

Cole has been watching I Love Toy Trains.  They are videos featuring toy trains that tell about the history of both real railroading and model railroading.  They are very good!  So, since he has been watching them he has begun to put multiple engines together and then face the rear engine backward like the real trains he has been seeing.  We thought it was very clever of him to have caught on to that!

Cole Says:

Cole is laying down for bed tonight on his back.  He bends his knees and crosses one leg over his other knee and moves his foot up and down and exclaims:

"Look, Daddy, it's a pump-jack!"  (the oil things that you see in the middle of fields bobbing up and down).  Very cute and creative.

True Love...a boy and his Rahr

We got a replacement "Rahr" after scary incident where the original was almost lost. Can you see how much original Rahr has been loved? The difference is very clear to us! :)

A few cute things Cole does:
Right before bed Cole has to tap the rhythm to Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - In the Hall of the Mountain King (Edvard Grieg) (he refers to as "Dragon Kite" from Little Einsteins) on his sippy cup.

He also has to bite both of our noses (he doesn't use his teeth...very strange, but it is something he and Jonathan started a long time ago).

Those are just two very funny little rituals he has made.

He also says "Aw, he (she/it) is so cute." a lot!

Cole says...an Eagle broke the Sun!

Cole: "I just saw a hawk."
Me: "Oh Yeah?"
Cole: "Yes, and I saw an Eagle."
Me: "Wow, an eagle?"
Cole: "Yes, he flew up into the sky and broke the sun." (it was cloudy today)

Hobby Lobby and "Van Go"

Today Cole and I went to Hobby Lobby to exchange some picture frames.  We went back to pick out replacement frames.  Several of the frames along the one wall had either Van Gogh or Monet paintings in the little poster inserts.  Begin conversation:

Cole: (seeing Van Gogh's Field Cypresses) "That is from Einstein's" (little Einstein's is a show he watches and loves because it has a lot of art and especially music)

Me: "Yes, it is.  And it is also a painting by Van Gogh."

Cole: "Van Gogh?"

Me: "Yes, Van Gogh."

We walk by the painting a few more times.

Cole: "Where is the Van?"

Me: "What?"

Cole: "Where is the Van? Where did the Van Go?"

Me: (laughing) "You are too funny."  (of course he would relate the whole exchange back to a van or some sort of vehicle).

Test Shoot and Cole Prays.

 Cole helped me do a test shoot the other day for a client who was considering booking me for her son's Bar Mitzvah!

 She was concerned with the lighting in this place (all neon...awesome...see below) so I borrowed a flash from a friend to see what we could do.

 It worked like a charm.  A flash may be a needed piece of equipment in the future!

 They are doing a teenage night club theme.  This really is a neat venue.

Especially if you are a kid at heart...look at all those pin ball machines!!!

After we read his Bible every night, we pray and Cole ends the prayer with his special prayer requests..

Cole prays for "Mommy, Daddy, Grandmas, Pop Pop, Grandpa, Bear, Yogi, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Krista, Uncle Chris, and Granny, etc (I love how he prays for my parents' dogs and they get top billing over the aunts and uncle and great grands)...."  Tonight he also included that he was thankful for Cheez-its.  Sometimes he is thankful for trains and cars, but tonight it was cheez-its.  We thought he was saying "Jesus".  Sometimes he does say Jesus, but tonight it was just Cheez-its.

I also love how he picks up on things we talk about.  We tell him about how we are filling some shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child or how we are giving toys to children in Joplin who have no toys (after the tornadoes).  Last week he said "I want to go to the store and get toys for children who have no toys" (you need to hear him say "children"...it will melt your heart).  I am looking forward to the Operation Christmas Child boxes this year.  I think it will be such a joy to see him being a joyful giver to the "chillren" who have no toys.

Little Things

Cole: "Daddy, What's That?"
Daddy: "Drill Bits."
Cole: "I Wuv Drill Bits!"

We got a slide from some friends and Jonathan attached it to his swing set.  He was excited and went outside and exclaimed that he loved everything.  It is so fun to see the cute things he says.

Daddy and Cole were walking up from the train tracks in Guthrie
Daddy: "Cole, hold my hand."
Mommy: "Do not go in the street."
Cole: "You get hit by a car." (obviously he hears that a lot)


Everything that is small he calls "baby".  Like there are stop signs along the bike trail near our house and they are smaller than regular stop signs "Oh!  Baby Stop Signs." 

Cole has also gotten into looking at the clouds in the sky and pretending they are in the shape of things like turtles and fishes.

Cole loves the aquarium.  He talks about it almost every day.  Especially the "Sea hooses" and star fish.

New Posting Type

Now that we have a highly verbal child I am sure more of these short posts will come up of the funny things he says.  Daddy was letting Cole brush his teeth before the good "Daddy brush" of the night.  Tonight I was explaining to him that if he doesn't brush his molars well enough little buggies that live in his mouth with eat his teeth.  He pulled his toothbrush out of his mouth and said "Look, Mommy, a spider."