Teaching/Learning

I have recently come to notice how much Draven actually goes out of his way to teach Elora. For a few months now, Draven asks Elora questions, in the middle of conversations, as if to test her listening skills or to prove a point of being correct/incorrect.

Draven: "We aren’t going inside to brush our teeth, we are going to eat dinner first and then get ready for bed. Elora, are we going to eat dinner first or brush our teeth first?”
Elora: “Eat dinner first.”
Draven: “Right. Are we going to get ready for bed after dinner or play outside?”
Elora: “Play?”
Draven: “No, remember, we are going to get ready for bed after we eat.”
Elora: “Oh, ya…”

She looks up to him and depends on his sibling love, whether it be talking quietly with him, laughing/tickling one another, yelling back and forth until Mommy or Daddy intervenes, or just being in the same room for when she has questions, that we as parents don’t take the time to thoroughly expound upon. However, Draven also looks to her for encouragement and praise. For example, as of this past weekend, Draven can now ride a two-wheel bicycle (thanks to the simplistic and straightforward advice by Howard Roth through his ebook, Bike Riding Made Easy). While Draven practiced balancing and pedaling, Elora shouted from her bike or standing in the street, every couple feet he made it without having to catch himself from falling, “Good job Draven!”, “Wow, good job!”, “Draven, you o.k.? Good job!” It is one of those milestones that I am so grateful to see Draven achieve. He is so proud to make it down the street now, as we cheer from the sidelines. However, Elora has also learned from him on how to criticize…“Come on Draven, go faster so we go to the park!”, “COME ON!!!” while she speeds down the street on her tricycle or being pushed in the stroller.

As I watch my two babes play great together one minute, and yell at each other the next; clean up their toys when asked yesterday, but show pure defiance as they look in my eyes and tell me no today; or happily eat all of their dinner without complaint last week, but get so worked up with exasperation that they gag on anything put in their mouth this week; I begin to whine (yep, sadly, my children learned from the best I have come to realize!), I become emotional, and frazzled with everyone in the house as I feel like an inadequate parent. My dearest husband, Patrick, is right there expressing his own bedrock confidence in my parenting skills and stating how another mother could not love her children more than I already do. He reminds me of how perfect our life truly is and how I need to lighten up so that I too can enjoy the ride. As I recently heard someone say, “Taking life too seriously just really sucks!” Thank you Father for the many blessings in my life in which I so often seem to forget and the loving reminders you plant around me.