We have pets!!

Well, we SORT OF have pets! We got some fish last weekend, and so far we love them! We just got a little 5 gallon aquarium with 5 tropical fish, and they are fun to watch and pretty easy to take care of. The novelty is wearing off a bit for Lynsey (which is actually a good thing in a way, I'll tell the story later!) but she still likes to look at them, and she knows that feeding them is her job. Adam just in the last few days has started looking at them a bit more - it always takes a bit longer to get his attention! Nathan likes looking at them for like 10 seconds, but he mostly just really wants to open the lid and turn the light on and off. He can just barely stand the fact that these little guys are swimming away in there, and he doesn't get to touch them! So far, we have had only one fish death, and that was within the first 24 hours (he just couldn't get used to our tank I guess) but we replaced it right away and they are all doing great now:). I'm glad we took the plunge, and we are already talking about the possibility of a salt water aquarium when we buy a house. I guess we'll see if this honeymoon phase comes to an end haha!

We had a few battles with Lynsey this last week, and of all my kids, battles with her drain me the most. It was Tuesday after school and I was getting ready to take Lynsey to her gymnastics/dance class. She decided she didn't want to do it after all. We had about 10 minutes to get dressed and out the door, so of course, I was thrilled to hear this revelation. I tried to stay calm and reasonable, saying that she should put her new outfit on and hopefully she would feel differently once she did. I was inwardly just praying that she would change her mind on her own, we had just spent a bunch of money buying her two pairs of dance shoes, an outfit and tights, and I was excited for her to have this chance to do both dance and gymnastics in the same class. She really liked the trial class she did, and I knew she would have fun once she was there. However, our fish were only a day old, and she just didn't want to leave them, so she decided she could sacrifice her class for them, even after putting her outfit on. At this point, we have about 5 minutes to get out the door. What a situation! I tried to empathize, saying that I understood how much she loved the fish and that she really didn't want to leave them, but that they would be safe until she got home from dance, etc - I really tried to stay calm and invite cooperation instead of using force to get her to go. Unfortunately, I ended up having to force her out the door:(. Brian and I had talked on the phone and agreed that she had made a commitment to go and that she needed to follow through on that, but it was a tough one for sure! I got everyone in the van and after a minute of driving with her crying, I remembered that I had bought some new fish food (they didn't really eat the stuff we had given them the first day) and told her that the pet store guy said fish loved this new stuff. She perked up a bit, and then I told her she could feed them as soon as we got home, and that was it, she was fine after that. Loved the class, too! I feel like parenting is so not cut and dried, and sometimes you have to do things that maybe don't seem quite right, but in the end, have a good result. I think making her go was the right thing to do, I guess we'll never know what the outcome of allowing her not to go would have been. I did talk to her about it after a bit, and she seemed to understand that going was the best thing, but all she really cared about was watching the fish, not talking about our problem! I guess she is a 6 year old:).

Adam is loving his Sunday School! What a turn around from his last Sunday School, it's really amazing. A friend of ours volunteers in the class, and he said that he really responded to him yesterday, and even got excited for some of the activities! I'm so glad he enjoys it, it sure does give us some peace of mind! Nathan is just growing up, telling us, "Okay" whenever we guess right about what he wants, so cute:). We took away his booster at the table and haven't looked back! He is eating like a pro on the big chair! There continues to be some tension between him and Adam, but Adam has really backed off on getting so upset over everything he does which is such a relief. The weather has been intermittently nice so everyone's been able to spend some time outside which really helps with everyone getting in each others faces, too. There's been some rain for sure, but the sunshine is really nice when it happens!