Clean or Sleep?

Tonight we got home from the older boys' theatre class and I offered the following choice: the boys could stay up and help me clean or go to bed right then. My oldest was the first to answer "I'm going to bed!" Joel followed and Nathan jumped on the band wagon. It was actually a half an hour before bedtime so I guess they didn't mind that. They all headed upstairs and then Seth came back down a minute later to tell me he had changed his mind. I told him to start cleaning up while I put the younger boys to bed. I got Benjamin in his crib and was tucking in Nathan and Joel when Joel said that he had changed his mind. So he headed down to help Seth.

I laid on the bed with Nathan for a few minutes just talking. Man he's one cute kid. He reminded me that I had forgotten to get Play Doh at the store today. Oops. We are out and I told him while we were out tonight we could get some more and then I forgot. Fortunately, he's a pretty forgiving child. He just shrugged and said, "That's okay Mommy, we can get it tomorrow." His "R's" are said with a "W" sound so it was actually "tomowow". So sweet. I asked him what color he would like to get and instead of answering me he reached up and tapped on my glasses. Hmmm. I thought "Clear? The child wants clear play doh? They don't make clear play doh." He said, "That color...the color of your eyes...brown (came out bwown)." Then he said, "Mommy, your eyes are brown and my eyes are blue." It was just so cute. We talked about how his brothers all have brown eyes like me, but his eyes are light like his daddy's.

As I laid there talking with Nathan I realized that I don't do that often enough. He is such an amazing child with such imagination. His vocabulary blows me away sometimes, too. The way he communicates just seems older than a 3 year old to me. He can be loud when he plays, but when it comes to discussing things he says so much more one on one. It reminds me of Mark. To most people Mark is a man of few words, however, he talks a lot with me. I can see Nathan being like that, someone who measures their words and only says ones that are of some value.

After enjoying a little time with my little Natey Tate I headed downstairs to see what trouble...er...I mean...what work the boys were doing. I was quite amazed to find them diligently working without me right there! Hallelujah! Something is seeping in! Sometimes I have to be a broken record reminding them to do this or that, stay on task, focus, etc. But they really pulled through tonight. I was super proud of them for their hard work. We put some music on and worked together for a little while getting it all done. So tomorrow when we wake up we'll be greeted by a clean downstairs!