Thursday, July 15, 2010

Once a year water skiing

How many tries do you give your 11 year old to get up on water skis? I decided to basically let him decide himself, which kept us out on the water pretty long. But we were both rooting so hard for him to get up! He has fabulous stamina, will power and humor. All of these things keep him trying again and again and again. Those, and the fact that his little brother got up. Next year he will. And sooooo nice of my sis in law to let him "drive the boat" on our way back, which helped cheer him up a ton since he had been begging to drive the boat all day.

It is a tricky parenting situation to see one child be better at something than another, and then to try to keep everyone ok about it. Sometimes I would start mentioning all the things that they each are good at, and have a big talk about how God makes us all different and with different talents etc. But yesterday, with the skiing, it just was what it was, and I decided nothing needed to be said. other than, "its hard, and we will keep trying...maybe next time..." And you know what, no one is all a mess because of it. All are ok. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we try again. Sometimes we have to go home and we don't have time to try again. And that really is ok. In life we don't always get second, third and fourth chances, and sometimes even with those chances we fail. We need to learn that life doesn't end because of it. We still move on. And it is our own choice in what mood we decide move.

Also I don't want to forget: Every morning for the past 4 mornings or so, instead of being awakened by fingers prying my eyelids open, I've been awakened by a 30 second smooch right on the lips and the sound, "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm" the whole time. My 2 year old is adorable. -Charlie (2) loves playing with lego guys. He just pulled the legs apart from the body and said, "ouch." -Ben and Elaina have been at grandparent's all week and Charlie has been saying, "Ben home? Elaina home?"

2 comments:

  1. We have that difference in abilities in a big way here. Sitting through an entire volleyball season while my younger son started varsity and the older one sat the bench was gut-wrenching. Slogging through all these years of school where one child has excelled and the other has squeaked by is agonizing. But, you know, in real life we're not all the same. It doesn't always work out equally, and we do our kids a disservice by pretending that it does. They are just as good as anyone else, but they are not always going to be "as good AT" something as other people. And in the end, or even the process, hopefully that realization makes them kinder, more understanding people.

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