Funny Things

-The other morning Michael asked, "Can I play computer games, puh-lease?" After seeing my hesitation he added, "Pretty please with marshmallows on top?" I have NEVER heard that phrase before--cherries, yes, but marshmallows?? So precious, how could I say no to that?

-The boys and I were out shopping yesterday and while I had my back turned helping Tyler and Jacob look for some shorts Michael found a cool pair of big boys size 8 Super Mario Brothers pajama shorts that he wanted to buy. Previously he had showed me some clothes that were WAY too big on him and that was the excuse I gave him for not buying them--they didn't fit him. Well, he wisely realized that the only way to convince me to buy them was to prove to me that they did fit him. So he pulled them off the hanger and pulled them on over his pants and hollered, "See Mom! These fit me!" We were all cracking up. Tyler and Jacob said I definitely needed to put this on the blog =)

-The other night we had another episode of Jacob sleep walking--except this time it was a night terror. He's been having them regularly for 4 or 5 years now. A night terror is not the same as a nightmare. It's actually pretty upsetting to watch--at least at first. We're pretty used to it now. A night terror is where they are having a nightmare, but they are up sleep walking at the same time. It literally is impossible to wake them up by talking to them or trying to shake them a little, you know, the normal things you'd do to wake up a kid from a nightmare. He walks around and at first you think he's just up to use the bathroom or something--he looks normal. His eyes are open and everything. Then suddenly he'll yell out and shake, cringe, thrash his arms around, grab on to me and whimper, "Mom! Mom!" Then suddenly he's normal again, heading into the bathroom. But before he accomplished anything he's crying out again. He is literally in the middle of a nightmare.

The only thing we've found that works to wake him up is to take him outside. And it works like a charm. Within 30 seconds he's awake and ready to head back to bed--with no memory whatsoever of what he was just dreaming. That's another way it's different from a nightmare. Nightmares are very vivid and scary and they tend to stick with you. We were talking at dinner just the other night about nightmares we'd had and Jeremiah and I can still remember nightmares from our childhood. But in all the years this has been happening, Jacob has never once had any memory of having a bad dream. It's way more traumatizing for us to witness then for him. It probably sounds heartless that we can laugh about this, but like I said, it's been going on for years and Jacob is never bothered by it. In fact, he gets quite a kick out of Jeremiah's reinactment of a night terror!

On a normal night we pick up on the fact that he is having a night terror within seconds of him being up. I walk him outside, he wakes up and goes back to bed. Simple and painless. We never let the night terrors carry on. Well this week he came down not too long after I'd put them to bed. I was on the phone so I wasn't paying that much attention. He looked awake and I just assumed he was coming down for a drink. But he never made it to the kitchen. He turned around and headed back towards the living room again. I started to watch him a little more closely because I thought that was kind of weird. All of a sudden he started hopping around the living room--I couldn't decide if it reminded me more of the Easter Bunny or of Indiana Jones hopping across the stones to spell out "Jehovah"--remember that scene? After 4 or 5 hops he suddenly dropped to the floor and did a fantastic stop, drop and roll--again, very Indiana Jonesish. I couldn't help it. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even finish talking to my friend on the phone! But I just didn't have the heart to let the night terror go on--he was obviously so terrified and was in the middle of a very intense battle! So I quickly took him outside and he woke up right away--again, no memory of anything. In fact, when I told him about it the next morning he said, "Why didn't you video tape it??" Hmmm...maybe next time we'll let the night terror go on a little longer so we can video tape it. I don't know....that seems kind of cruel!

-Today Jacob was upset with something Tyler had been doing with Michael. He said Michael could have hit his head and died. Michael very sternly told Jacob, "When I die I will go to heaven with Heavenly Father and Jesus. And I will be happy." His tone of voice very plainly told Jacob that to worry about him dying was a very silly thing!

-Tonight we read a story about a family who prayed for their broken fridge and how Heavenly Father helped them get a new one. After it was over I asked the boys to pray that we can sell our house and get a new house. "Yea", Michael responded seriously, "cuz our house is broken." I quickly explained that our house wasn't broken but we really needed a house with a backyard and a garden and maybe another bedroom in case we have more kids. He responded, still serious, "And Heavenly Father will come down and help us. And give us money for a new house."

Later he was saying good night to Jeremiah and told him, "Dad, Heavenly Father will come down and help us get a new house with a backyard and a garden!" After he said his prayers, he looked around his room as if he was expecting to see it magically changed into a new bedroom and said, "Well, I hope we get a new house soon." Then he got on a roll and couldn't stop talking about it:

"Heavenly Father will come down tomorrow and help us. And He will say His prayers!" Then (in a hushed voice) ,"Next time I will use my telescope to see Him. And next time I go in a space ship I will see Him! Maybe He will come down on a space ship!" So, so precious!