Cloudy with a chance of choices....

I try to give my kids choices as much as possible. Even if I stack the choices in my favor like, "you can choose to clean up your toys OR me and my hungry garbage can do it for you-which do you prefer?" I think its important to let them feel like they have a little bit of choices in life. So last night Coleman and Zachary both ended up falling asleep on Zachary's bed. Ben loves his big brothers and wanted to join them. However sleeping with Ben comes with a lot of elbows and kicks and without fail someone is going to get woken up and not happy. When I put Ben to bed I told him he could choose- his bed or Coleman's bed. He usually loves to hang out on Coleman's top bunk, but I knew that wouldn't be as much fun to him as a chance to annoy two sleeping brothers at once. I finally bribed him into his bed with a book. About 15 minutes later Ben walked out into the living room and informed me that he would like to have 3 choices. He was trying to trick me into letting him go with his brothers. I told him I could give him 3 choices. I ticked off the choices with my fingers, he could go lay down on his bed, Coleman's bed, or my bed. He thought about that for a second then reached over and raised my fourth finger and asked for four choices. To which I added that he could go sleep on the floor in Oliver's room. He wasn't swayed. He reached over and lifted my thumb. So I recounted his first four choices and added a fifth choice of sleeping in the bathtub. He looked at my like I was crazy and lowered my thumb for me.


That is the reason I started a blog. I wanted to have a way to document and save all cute things my kids say before I forget them all. I could write a book with Coleman-isms. He was about 4 when a neighbor girl was hanging around our house (getting her 'Myspace fix' off our computer) and Coleman noticed her pocket full of candy. He asked, but she wouldn't share. After failing to barter with various toys and treats he decided to go with a noble approach and show concern for her health. He explained to her that she had to share her candy because if she ate it all by her self she would get "Cabbages". (cavities)


Last week it was overcast in town. The sky was wall to wall clouds. In a more normal place it would have been pouring. However as Zachary, Coleman and I drove off to the store there wasn't a drop in sight. Zachary hung his head out the window and said, "It's cloudy with a chance of meatballs". After the constant voice of sarcasm in my head said 'there is a better chance of seeing raining meatballs in Mesquite then water' it hit me what he said. I was so proud that he knew the reference. Zachary is a reader. On his recent report card his teacher wrote that by the end of second grade they like to see students reading at 90 words per minute. Zachary was testing at 210 words per minute. However better then being fast at reading, is that he LOVES to read. He likes chapter books and gets into series of books. I love that he loves to read.

One of our nightly rituals is that I read Zachary and Coleman one chapter out of a chapter book before bed. The last book we finished was Inkheart. It actually took us a few months to get through it. I kept promising them that we would have a movie night and see Inkheart the movie when we were finished and Coleman asked me why we even bothered to read the book when watching the movie was so much quicker. I tried explaining it like the difference between driving to school and walking to school. I pointed out that when I drive him to school he gets there quicker then walking. When we drive he can look out the window and see the the things we pass and can see what things are like outside. But explained that he misses a lot of things that way. In the car he might see that we passed bush on the side of the road. But if he was walking he would be able to smell the flowers on the bush and see the bumble bee flying around the flower and feel the breeze in his hair. Just like taking your time getting to school lets you see more of the things outside, reading a book lets you see more of the characters and places in a story.
The jury is still out on Coleman being convinced that reading is as fun as Zachary thinks it is. However I have him begging to walk to school next year.