Ben's Thursday

The next sentence was hard to admit and even harder to write. In the last week, I have had trouble enjoying my son Ben. He always seems to be doing exactly the wrong thing... opposite of what we ask or tell him to do...deliberately disobeying... doing everything he can to frustrate Allen, me, and his siblings. Since Allen and I had been out of town, I gave him a little bit of time to bounce back to our normal. His preschool teacher told me he was not at all cooperating with her and he had NEVER acted up with her before. That particular day he didn't act up just once for her, it was constant. Over the weekend he said his ear hurt and we thought maybe it was all related. Maybe he just wasn't hearing us. I set up an appointment with the doctor and secretly hoped he had an ear infection. I know that sounds horrible, but, you see... IF it was an ear infection, and he wasn't hearing us, then an antibiotic for a few days would fix a lot of the trouble we've had. At least that's what I was thinking. The news? "No ear infections. No strep throat. He's probably just acting like a three-year old." I was determined to try looking forward to my Thursday with him, but I was having trouble.

Here it is at almost 8:00 PM on Ben's Thursday. Wondering how it went? We had an awesome time!!

I let Ben decide most of the activities for the day. First up on his list was the library. Since we had some time to burn before it opened, we went to Hobby Lobby and I let him pick out some garden decorations. We now have two big, beautiful lizards dancing on our fence. We went to the library for storytime and crafts and he sat and listened to everything without even squirming. We made a paper bag puppet together, and his favorite part was cutting with the scissors all by himself. Ben told me he wanted pancakes for lunch, so we headed to IHOP. He was thrilled when the waitress plotted his pancake face in front of him -- it had a banana mouth, whipped cream nose, strawberry eyes, and he got to squeeze the yogurt out to make the hair. He LOVED his silly pancake and kept telling me he loved it. Next up was the used bookstore for a Diego book. Once he found one he was ready to go. This kid was on a mission. We stopped by Target (that was Mama's choice,) picked up the other three kids, came home, ate dinner, and went to watch Will at baseball practice. I REALLY enjoyed my day with him... and I'm glad it worked out like it did. I have renewed my patience with him (for now anyway,) and I saw that he could, in fact, behave quite nicely, politely, and obediently.

When I tucked Ben in, I told him I had a wonderful time with him today and that I look forward to having even more fun with him. You know what that kid told me? He hugged me really tight, patted my back, and said, "Thank you very much, Mama. I had fun, too." I asked Ben what his favorite thing about the day was. His speech was long but perfect.

"My favorite thing today? Um... I liked the library stories and the scissors and the silly face pancake. I really liked the silly face, Mama... And thank you for getting me a Diego book... My favorite was being with Mama and going with you when Jon and Maddie were at school."

.... how can I not enjoy that?