Sunday Reflections 5/20/2012

Jordan loves Brad's dirt bike.  He think it is really cool and asks to ride it all the time.  This last week Brad thought it would be appropriate to let Jordan give it a try.  He thought he would get on, take one lap around the yard, be frightened by its size and power and quickly get off and never bother Brad again about riding it.

The first phase of plan went well.  Jordan did get on:

But the second phase did not. 

I don't know what you see there, but it is certainly not a boy frightened of the power of that dirt bike.  It is a boy enjoying himself way too much.  I wonder what exactly Brad is creating out of my boys who love to ride so much....oh, and Jordan definitely has a fan.

So amazed was he, that all riding of his own bike ceased.  You can almost hear him thinking out loud, "If only I could ride like that."  Keep practicing Jake, you'll get there.

Speaking of Jake, he likes to run away lately.  Okay, not really run away but leave the house, yes.  He's done this twice when I've been home and luckily I've heard him both times.  The first was in the morning.  He didn't see me in the kitchen making the lunches for school and so he searched outside for me for about 10 minutes.  I saw him wandering out there the whole time and wondered what he was up to.  Upon entering the house, he told me that he was searching all over for me.  The second time was a little worse.  We had both been taking an afternoon nap in our separate rooms.  When Jake woke up, he called for me.  I heard him, but didn't immediately answer because I was still somewhat in a sleep stupor myself.  I heard him get up and call for me several more times but thought that surely he would come to my room because that is where he last saw me.  I fell asleep reading to him there.  Soon, I heard the click of the garage door.  At this point, I pulled my still somewhat asleep self out of my bed expecting to find him wandering outside around the house again.  When I got outside (not more than 1 minute after I heard the click)  Jake was running crazily, crying and shouting my name and had almost reached the 2nd cattle guard (It's at least 1/4 of a mile away from the house).  He had gotten so far away that he couldn't even hear me when I called out his name to stop him.  I literally had to sprint to stop his little speedy legs.  Oh, and he was BAREFOOT.  I don't know how he was running so fast.  We had a long talk about staying at the house no matter what.  Because, if he really had been alone (which I assured him I would never leave him alone), that is where I would eventually come back to. 

And since we're on the topic of running, I had my first running partner from the family the other day.  Riley decided to run with me and kept up pretty good for the first 10 minutes.  Not too shabby for a six year old.

Chess and checkers are an intense Belt evening activity lately.  All my children, excluding Jake, can take me on without any effort.  Of course, I've never been much of a chess or checkers player.  What's amazing is when they actually beat their dad when he's putting forth his best effort.  Ben, more often than not, is the most surprising.  He may just be the next Bobby Fisher:)

And finally, my latest gift from Riley:

If I had to guess at what it is I would guess an ash tray...but since we don't smoke and it would be taboo for him to make anything suggestive of smoking at school I'm going have to say it's meant to be a candy dish.  Lovely, is it not?