Shelby's Shame

Family Home Evening tonight was AWESOME. First we sang..and I mean, WE sang. All three of us. Can I tell you how long I've been trying to get Jack to sing with us? No, I can't, because it's been so long I've lost track. But tonight, he did! And so did Mike! Two songs!!! And then, he (Jack) gave the lesson. It was a very cute retelling of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Went a little something like this: All these people came to Jesus because they hoped he would bless them. And he said, Come on, come on, come with me. And he blessed them. Then, it started to be dark-time and they were all hungry but all they had were were two bread and five fish. But Jesus blessed the food and made a miracle and they all ate. And there were leftovers! So later, when the people were hungry again, they could eat more.

On to activity. Much to Shelby's dismay, we did not all head into the backyard to play with her, which is what she thought at first. Oh no! The hose came out and Miss Shel got a much-deserved bath. She is still skulking around and shooting us dirty looks! Midway through the bath, Jack -- holding the hose, mind you -- said, "Oh, Shelby, it's ok. I know you are having a really hard day."

Then, having finally managed to get us all working bikes, we took off on a tour of the neighborhood. It was really lovely! Jack pedaled away like mad on his little bike with one training wheel, being very careful to stop and look for cars at every intersection. And being even more careful to tell me to stop if I managed to get ahead of him and call "I'm the winner" whenever he was ahead. Finally, home for ice cream, scriptures, stories and bed. It was really a lovely lovely way to spend the evening.

Since bedtime, however, we've had a long parade of reasons for Jack to come out of his room. I suppose this isn' t too surprising as he did have a nap today. He was sent off to his room mid-afternoon for being first, disobedient and second, disrespectful (he called me baby, which , sweetly, is the worst epithet he can think of.) I went in to tell him when his time out was over and he'd fallen asleep on his bed. (Probably explains the misbehaving.) As I was walking back out, my little man woke up and said, Momma, I want you to sleep by me for a little while. Now who can resist an invitation like that? So, long bike ride and dog-bathing notwithstanding, Jack didn't exactly feel like going to sleep at bedtime. At last count I believe we've had four trips to the potty, one trip to tell me something that just couldn't wait but which he then couldn't think of, one trip to ask why his door was shut, and three or four trips to find out when I was going to sleep and could he come with me because "he's lonely".