Little Boys are Made of Snips and Snails and Battle Details

With a house full of five boys (6 if you count my husband), my life feels a bit crazy at times, and I'm still trying to figure out how to raise these little boys who are so very different from their very girly mother.  Although I was raised with 3 older brothers, I still was very much a girly-girl who loved ballet, playing with Barbies, and wearing dresses and way too much make-up.  When I got married I planned on passing on my ballet toe shoes on to my daughter someday and having many tea parties and painting each other's toe nails.  But don't get me wrong...I love my boys!!!  Honestly, I can't imagine my life any other way anymore, but I am still learning "what little boys are made of" and how to channel those qualities into ways that can glorify God.

For example, I don't where the limit is on all the pretend-play that involves bombs and battles and good-guys vs. bad-guys and a whole lot of plastic death all over their bedroom floor.  Nathanael is going through a stage right now where all he likes to do is build castles out of blocks and then he places his soldiers on top of the castles, and then there is an epic battle with the blocks tumbling and all the bad guys getting vanquished.  The end.  Then he does it all over again...and again...and again.  Of course, he frequently asks me to play this exciting game with him, but there is only so much of it I can take.  So today I tried to make him think outside of the box a little bit with his pretend play.   I told him, "Let's build something else for your soldiers to live in.  How about we build a big cathedral so that they can go to church?"  I was pleasantly surprised that he said yes.  I was not too surprised, however, when he decided that the Cathedral had to be defended against an army of bad guys who were going to destroy it.  Sigh.  But I told myself, perhaps I can turn this into a teachable moment.  So I quickly ran to get a rosary and explained how the rosary is the greatest weapon against evil.  Nathanael's eyes brightened.  My heart lightened.  Then he started swinging the rosary and crashing it into the bad guys to wipe them out.  Sigh again.  I guess that's what little boys are made of.

The other craziness that has been going on with my littlest boy is that he is now a CRAWLER!  Bring out the Pack-N-Play!  Bring out the vacuum 3 times a day!  Bring out my camera!  This little guy crawls unlike any of my other boys though.  We affectionately call him "the gimper" because he scoots around using one leg while dragging the other one behind him.  Hopefully he'll grow out of that.  :)

Yes, my life is crazy, but so very, very good.  I'm learning to laugh more and just go with the flow, and to accept this crazy life for the blessing that it is.  And also just to have some fun with it!

(Thanks, Mom H. for the fake mustaches...the boys thought they were the coolest things ever!)