Proud Mama

I have to take a minute here to brag on my boys. As many of you know, they are not perfect children, but they are awesome. The past couple weeks we have had several reasons to brag, so I thought I would share. (This is especially for you grandparents/aunts/uncles out there.)

I'll start with Will. When I picked him up at preschool one day last week, one of his teachers stepped outside with me to talk. Now, I've never had a "discipline" conversation with his teachers, but I know that he is familiar with the timeout chair there, so I was thinking maybe that was the subject of the day. Instead, she tells me that he is an incredibly creative child who has an amazing use of color in his artwork. Wow! She even told me that another teacher had commented on his butterfly in the classroom. Seriously, a month ago he would only color with the blue crayon, now he is the talented art student. Who knew?

Then yesterday, the dust build-up in my house was out of control, so I told Will he could help me dust. I meant this in a "mommy's little helper whose work I will go back and fix later" kind of way. I figured he would help for like 10 minutes and then go play. Apparently his second hidden talent is dusting, because he probably shaved thirty minutes off my furniture polishing. He would run a dust cloth over everything and then I would follow up with the polish. Then, he finished first, so he did all of the window sills (well, most anyway), and he dusted the air intake vent in the living room. It was covered in filth, and he ran that cloth across every single slat. It is spotless now. Unbelievable. The best part though was when I was bragging on him. He got the cutest grin on his face. It was his "see what a good boy I am" smile. So funny, especially if you know Will.
And have I mentioned that he loves to read too?

Now on to Ben. On Monday, Ben came home to tell me that he was the Star Student of his class this week. Apparently, he got the award because he worked very hard. He loves school and loves learning new things, so to be rewarded for this just made his whole week I think. He got a certificate and everything. He was so proud. He says that he is the line leader for the whole week, and on Monday he got to pick first at "choice time". He got to play on the computer all by himself, which to him was the best part of the whole deal.
Mimi has been here some this week, and I suggested that Ben read to her while I finished up something on the computer today. I hear him read all the time, but she hadn't heard him in several weeks, and she was amazed at how much he had improved. He learns new words all the time. It is so much fun right now. Except I have discovered a few drawbacks to this whole reading kid thing. For one thing, he can read menus now. Ordinarily I would consider this a good thing because it is less work for me, right? Except that now he knows EVERYTHING on the menu, including things that I normally leave off when I read it to him, like ice cream and potato chips and soft drinks. And he tells his brother. On the bright side, he can read the grocery list to me when we are shopping. Anyway, such a smart boy! I have two wonderful sons, and I am very proud of them both!!!

And for those of you wanting a Kate update, we got some photos today that I will try to load tomorrow. I am way sleepy right now, so check back in later.

Update on the family I told you about last week. They were supposed to leave China last night and arrive here today. Hopefully that went according to plan and they are home safe and sound. Read their blog for the whole story, but God has moved in a mighty way to bring that little girl home!