Rebel

I am entitling this rebel because of Landon and the attitude he had this morning. He came down from upstairs where I was getting Lauren ready for church and announced, " I don't want to go to church, I want to go do something fun." Now for some unknown reason I thought the whole "not going to church" thing started around age 13, 14, 15 but apparently it can occur around the age of three. I tried to think about all the articles I had read in the Ensign about how to handle this and settled on telling him, " You can just stay home alone then." He actually seemed OK with it. He kept going with his declarations of, "I'm never, ever going to church again, just to preschool." " Just quit bugging me, I don't want to go to church." Lauren took it upon herself to try and reprimand him and these were some of the responses she got. I just kept getting ready. Then he said, "Can you stay home and make me a sandwich?" I said, "No, I have to go to church." He said, "But then I will be home all alone!" I said, " That's why you should get ready and go to church!." Well, I had to write about this just because I think he will laugh about it when he is older but after I left to play the organ (about 25 minutes early) Jerry said he just went and got his clothes and got dressed. He seemed very happy at church and I think he may be done with this phase. We will see how next week goes. He is a funny kid. Jerry actually didn't think he was very funny yesterday when the toilet upstairs flooded over and he went and hid because he didn't want to tell Jerry. I wasn't here but apparently, "Daddy got really mad and freaked out!" (sources, Landon and Lauren) I can only imagine. Jerry noticed when water started coming through the vent in the downstairs bathroom. I only saw a large pile of towels used to clean up and some wet carpet as the aftermath. A quick recap on the week. I spent Monday still sick. I think the kids and I all had a bit of the stomach flu but I am happy to report we are all doing better. Landon had preschool again which he loved. I got to go to Costco with my wonderful friend, Mary Jane. Her daughter attends preschool with Landon so we get to see each other a few times a week now. We had fun. Lauren and I had a library date on Thursday and she thrived at Toddler Time. She loves to sing and can be heard singing her favorite songs at various times throughout the day. She is getting so grown up. She copies everything Landon says and does and it is amazing to see how quick she has developed with him as her mentor. Landon is working on memorizing the articles of faith and is teaching Lauren, "word by word." Last night he insisted on reading her a story but wanted her to sit on his lap. I really wanted to take a picture but realized I left my camera in the car. They love these word bird books from the library and both of them try to memorize them and read them to each other. I am glad they have a love for books. My parents did a great job at instilling this love in us and I am attempting to pass it on to my children. Jerry has been very busy at work because they are in the closing part of a phase of the project. He will be this way for the next few weeks. He did take time to play softball and officiate. He keeps himself super busy. He knows so many people and wherever he goes, he finds a friend. It is a trait I admire in him. I worked yesterday and when Jerry came to get me, a parade was starting so the kids went to their first official parade. They had a great time. They got lots of candy and saw the horses and fire engines. There was a rodeo in town which Jerry really wanted to attend but he decided not to go. We got some pizza, came home and put the kids to bed. We spent the rest of the night watching college football and trying to find out the score of the BYU game. Unfortunately, this search went on until after 11pm. Not quite the result we had hoped for but maybe next week.