Weekly memory verse: “Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.”
Yes, if you’ve ever wondered, God has a sense of humor. He gave me the above verse on Monday morning after a discussion with Jeremy on Sunday in which he accused me (oh, the nerve!) of spoiling Emery! :)
He claims that I let Emery get away with things I would have never let Savannah get away with. I admit, I became defensive. After all, my mothering skills were being challenged. “I must treat them differently, they have different personalities,” I argued. Emery is very affectionate and just likes to be held a lot. He is also high energy! Constantly climbing on tables and countertops, jumping off the hearth, chasing his sister, falling off the back of the couch. “He’s just a boy!” And no, I don’t know where I was when he wrote on the wall with a crayon…both upstairs AND in the basement.
As I rambled off excuse after excuse of why Emery acts the way that he does, Jeremy just shook his head. “If you don’t channel that energy now, we will be paying for it later”. I stopped and thought about it. He’s right. Just because Savannah was easy doesn’t mean I can allow Emery to run wild. Just because our kids were born with different personalities, doesn’t mean one behaves in public and one does not. It just means one will take more work…at least in the beginning.
So the past few days I’ve tried to be a little harder on Emery. Grunting and crying will not get him picked up. When I call his name, he needs to come to me. And if I tell him no about something and his response is the ever familiar, throwing himself on the floor, heartbroken, it will no longer be ignored. The change has been a positive one and as it says in Proverbs above, I look forward to the days of being “delighted”, instead of exhausted, by Emery.
And as a side note, for Daddy who is also in danger of falling victim to Emery’s antics. I saw you last night asking Emery over and over “do you want to go to bed?” When he tucked his chin and gave you his big blue puppy dog eyes, all the while shaking his head so hard it reverberated his entire body and saying, “Mmmm-mmmmm”….You laughed every time. Egging him on! You totally caved!!! :)
And I loved it! It’s hard being tough on Emery. He’s so darn cute. And he’s my “baby”. And he can be quite charming. Just as Jeremy and I were finishing our discussion about Emery’s discipline (lack of) on Sunday, he came up to me and lifted his arms up. I picked him up and continued talking. I kept hearing, “Mama….Mama…..Mama….Mama”, and when I didn’t look at him he carefully took his hand under my chin and moved my head in his direction to get my full attention. I cracked up and he gave me the biggest bear hug ever! Jeremy just looked at us and rolled his eyes…”we’re in trouble, that’s all I’ve got to say”.
PS-All the above pictures, in all the differnt locations, and with all the different toys were taken this evening in the 20 minutes it took my brauts to broil!
