valentine's day and martian children...

today was a great day...yesterday was a day where i had to flex my parental muscles and today was the day that i was able to experience the part of parenting that truly grants my heart joy. yesterday when i picked harper up from school her teacher told me that harper had been bullying her brother. this was the second day i was given this news. i decided then that i had to participate and figure something i could do at home to let harper realize that it was not a good idea to bring home a negative report. sometimes i am so focused on trying to encourage the things that are praiseworthy with my children that i forget that sometimes a parent also has to discourage the negative. i always think that if i give my children enough positive feedback they will never crave the attention that negative behavior merits. but we all have to learn and sometimes we learn by walking through the fire. i sat harper down at the dinner table and had a serious talk with her. (as serious as a discussion with a 3 year old can get) we talked about what it meant to love our brothers and sisters and how Jesus wants us to treat each other. then the tough part of parenting: correction. harper's "correction" was to go to bed "early". we explained to her that since she chose to treat her brother unkindly then she would be going to bed early (15 minutes early :) ). i'm not really sure if any of this had an impact on her. i have no clue what i am doing as a mother but i figured that i *had* to do something. i couldn't just sit by and listen and passively watch my child. i guess i really didn't believe that all of this started this early. regardless, we are trying. we are trying to figure out all of this discipline and love thing and how to do both of those things at the same time while making it all make sense to a teeny child. i am sure that all parents think through things this much and for this reason it makes me laugh when people act like the sleep deprivation in the beginning is the most exhausting part...i wouldn't want to go back to those sleepless nights but at least they make sense! regardless of it all, today was a much better day. harper received an excellent report from school (maybe it worked, maybe she was just in a better mood) and we carried on with our valentine tradition...build-a-bear and dinner!

harper chose a beautiful Ariel costume for her build-a-bear and calvary, not wanting to be out done by his big sister, chose a Spider Man costume for his.

(pictures to come of these beloved monstrosities soon!)


in the meantime i simply must include this conversation i had with harper in the car this evening:
(blue text is me and purple text is harper)
is today tomorrow?
no, today is today; tomorrow is tomorrow
well is it tomorrow?
no, tomorrow is tomorrow.
when will it be tomorrow?
tomorrow.
so what is today?
today is thursday; tomorrow is friday.
oh, okay.

i have laughed everytime i think of this conversation; i felt as if i was in an old abbott and costello skit. the wonders of a child's mind are the playgrounds for genius...