one liners of the week

"what does it mean to burn a CD?"
--Christian, on the drive home from his first week away at church camp. Naturally he assumed it had something to do with fire, right?

"there's not even a thought of Christian in here."
--Peyton, a few tears in his eyes, lying in bed Tuesday morning and missing his big brother who had just spent the first night at church camp.

"when I turn 8 I'm going to camp!!!!"
--Elliot, (age 4 years, 3 weeks) declaring his clear intent, as he stood in the kitchen, little fingers clutching the island counter top, eyes barely clearing the surface.

"God Did!"
--Brooks, in response to the question, who made Brooks? repeatedly pointing into the air above him and enjoying the tickling amen from Daddy.

some really great dads

Here are some of my most favorite dads.
My husband, Kenny is in a word amazing. He took all four boys on a bike ride today (Brooks in a backpack), Elliot on his training wheel bike and a bungee cord available for those times when Elliot's little legs just can't seem to make the pedals go 'round. I love, truly love watching him father our sons. He delights in their strengths, he is patient and works to better their weaknesses and he appreciates what makes each of them so unique. Brooks, the OOOPS! of the family, has Kenny wrapped around his little finger. Talk about a daddy's boy......after returning from the bike ride today Kenny came upstairs with Brooks still in the backpack and began to manuever him out of the contraption. Having not seen the boys for the last hour and a half I was all "sweet talking" Brooks, "Hello Brooksie, I love you, did you have fun with Daddy, wanna come see mama......" As Kenny handed him to me, relieved to be rid of a sweaty 25 extra pounds on his back, Brooks erupts in protest! reaching longingly for da da, as if I was the evil witch of Escondido. Good grief. But to see a 17 month old recognize that his father is one amazing individual, makes the rejection seem trivial compared to the love a son can have for a dad.

My daddy, Don is one of a kind. He's cool and funny, tender and teasing all in one. And he adores his kids and grandkids. Most grandparents love their grandkids but with Daddy, it's more than that. You see, he loves the "father" role so much that he's partly in denial that his grandkids are just his grandkids. He usually acts as if we (Kenny, myself, Mom & Dad) are all kinda co-parenting together. For instance, I took the boys in to get haircuts last week and Dad (& mom, she's guilty too-it's just not the day to focus on her!) felt the need to call and inform me exactly how he wanted the boys hair to look. Dad never tires of knowing almost every detail of the boys lives, he worries about their safety, their clothing-are they dressed warm enough?, their bedtimes and such....but I know it's all out of an love that goes deeper than my years can understand. It is said that actions speak louder than words. What a truism with my daddy. He gives of his time weekly, if not daily, his actions of love are too many ways to list. I love you Daddy and the way you show your love for me by loving my boys.

Kenny's dad, David, is an incredible person. If I had to describe his example as a father in a word, it would be "wise". It's a wisdom I know if he ever were to read this, he would credit many others for, especially emphasizing his own father. And the fact that he would credit others is once again wise. As a father, he was patient and a good listener. He seems to have worked hard on perfecting an area many of us struggle in, being slow to speak and slow to become angry. His understanding of God's plan for our lives has given him wisdom to parent his kids with their eternity in mind, not just the day to day obstacles that seem to dictate how parents parent today. We still have much to learn from David, but I am thankful for what he has passed down to Kenny through his example and his love.

My brother, Byron, is relatively new to the game of fatherhood (almost 3 years) but I have no doubt he will make one of the best dads ever. There are a lot of things Byron doesn't concern himself too much with but what he cares about, he passionately cares about and works to no end to excel. Church & ministering to those God has put in his life, being a good husband to his wife, Sharla, coaching and his kids at Belton, maintaining friendships with college buddies, smoking a perfectly well done turkey like his dad.....all areas I've witnessed him caring passionately about. But in the last couple of years not much can compare to his devotion to being a good dad. I know he consciously works and tries to better his "daddy skills" and it shows in the way Blake worships him. (I'm sure Anna will too). God bless you in your efforts Byron as you continue to give your very best as a father.

Elliot is 4

Happy Birthday to Elliot today. Oh, I love this kid so much. I was content to keep him age 2 forever, then I accepted age 3 but knew he just had to stay 3 years old forever. Well, once again time continues to fly and he's arrived at 4.

A couple of weeks ago I was kissing him good night and we had been talking about him staying 3 and not turning 4. He had finally agreed to because as he laid there, exhausted from the day he said, "It's just so hard to get to 4." It was like he was just going to give up and stop trying to "get to 4." This morning after we sang to him and the older boys left for school, we climbed back into bed to see if 4 year olds could snuggle better than 3 year olds (they can!) and I asked him, how did he turn 4? He said, "I don't know, I just sleeped and I turned 4."

It has been a great year for Elliot, first year of pre-school, in love with his teacher, Miss Tammy. Weirdly popular with the kids in his class, they all chant his name as he arrives on the playground each morning. He loves snakes and sharks and crocodiles the most. The most cute and cuddly animals known to man. He sleeps with a 10ft. long plush blue & black snake that he wraps all around him and there's still enough length for a pillow. He adores his brothers, I think Brooks most of all. I think he watches the older boys so much and wants with Brooks the kind of friendship Christian and Peyton share. I'm happy he has that to look forward to.

My father nicknamed him "The Buster" because he has a bit of an ornery streak in him. A perfect match for my dad. Several months back as one of the older boys was saying dinner time prayers, Kenny glanced up and saw that Elliot's eyes were open. He looked at Elliot in a "corrective look" and whispered "close your eyes" without missing a beat, Elliot looked right back at Kenny and said, "close your eyes!" To which Kenny tried to do one of those suppressed laughs and ended up spitting and snorting and ending the prayerful moment.

He's got skin like Kenny's (takes a tan instantly) more green than blue eyes, (must get that from my mom) a super skinny build and long neck (again-Kenny) He reminds the Winter family of Kenny's childhood days more than the other boys do.
He rides his little training wheel bike with reckless abandon (surely he gets that from mom?) and is so eager to play sports like the older boys do. He begged me for swimming lessons and is having lots of fun learning to swim.

One discovery he made this year I especially want to remember. We were saying prayers before bed one night and my heart was heavy with something. (I think baby Ira wasn't doing so well at the time) Elliot began to pray and mentioned "thank you for the dinosaurs....." At the end of the prayer, I said, Elliot, sometimes it's good to pray for things that are alive and really need our prayers. The dinosaurs don't really need our prayers because they aren't alive anymore. --can you see where this is going--. Thoroughly confused he sat up in bed and looking at me, asked intently, "the dinosaurs aren't alive?" Realizing, of course that I should have just smiled, kissed my sweet 3 year old and left the room, I regretted sharing the truth of the dinosaurs. But it was too late to back out now. "No", I said. "They are not alive anymore, they lived a very long time ago and now they are all dead." Yep, the 'D' word. Dead. Elliot sat up even straighter, 'they're all DEAD?" Ugh. It wasn't getting better. Eventually the conversation ended and I don't recall any nightmares that night or the next. But for the next few weeks our prayers included, "please help the dinosaurs to be alive and to not be dead." In other words, please help my mommy to be totally out of the loop on this one, dear God. But of course logical mommy noted about a month after hearing this repetitive prayer that if the dinosaurs were alive they would walk around smashing cars and houses because they were so huge. It's really a good thing that they lived a long time ago and not today. Now the current prayer is, "thank you that the dinosaurs are all dead so they can't walk around and smash my house down, please help the dinosaurs to stay dead, God so they don't hurt people and smash their cars....."

Some days I cringe and wonder how I ever got into this whole parenting gig.....

One thing is for certain about Elliot. Ask him any day of the week, "whose boy are you?" And without a second thought he'll reply, "I'm mommy's boy." I'll hang onto that years longer than it will last. Happy Birthday my sugar.