As Keaton gets older (and louder, I swear) there really are days when I feel like nothing more than a referee. Hayden is so ridiculously legalistic that he will tell me when Keaton does something wrong to the letter of the law. For instance, if Keaton takes a movie out of the case (and immediately puts it back in) I hear about it. I go back and forth between gratitude for a watchful brother, joy at watching a son who is so eerily like me (that’s Hayden for those of you who don’t know me!), and frustration at being reminded 18 times per hour of each misstep Keaton has (or I have for that matter – Hayden tells me on an every time basis that we drive a van, mommy, not a car!)
And that’s to say nothing of Keaton. I was recently telling a friend (who has 3 girls) about a day in the life with Keaton, and he was cracking up at the myriad number of things Keaton can get into in a daily basis. Let’s just give a few examples from today: took a game out of the case, rubbed it around on the rug, put it in the Wii, tried to put it into the VCR (not good), before I took it away from him; left the nursery at church and was all the way up the stairs before I even realized he was gone; followed Hayden to the bathroom and stood flushing the urinal and playing in the water while Hayden took care of business; took Hayden’s cup of water, filled it up at the water fountain, and “drank” (i.e. spilled) the entire thing all over his shirt; wrote on his hands and face with blue marker (luckily washable); kicked Hayden’s basket of play food off of the couch; fell face-first into the wall while trying to ride the sit & spin… I really could go on and on.
So, in these moments when I’m feeling like I really break up more fights than watch tender moments, I’m trying to remind myself about what I read in _She’s Gonna Blow_ this week… In the Bible, children are never referred to as a burden. They might stretch us, test us, try our patience, and there is definitely nothing easy about them. But over and over again, God reminds us that children are a blessing… despite the fact that I feel like I should invest in a whistle!
