Wednesday November 25th, 2020

 If I was ever in the running for Mother of the Year, this definitely knocked me out of contention. Camden forgot something at school, and was really mad at himself. He put his hands on his head and almost called himself stupid. He stopped short because I will not let them say that word. I was trying to calm him down and said everyone makes mistakes. No big deal, and you'll learn from this. He wasn't quite over it and I thought, wow! This is a great teaching moment! I said, "Camden, next time you feel upset with yourself, you should say something like, geeze, I sure wish I hadn't done that and it won't happen again." I turned to leave the room extremely proud of my mothering. I should have sensed the grins on my little Tilley boys behind me. Camden said, "Mom? Should I do this?" He put his hands on his head and said, "Geeze, I'm so  --- and before he could actually get the rest out, I gave him a HUGE thumbs up and said "Yes!" As I was praising him, he finished his sentence which ended with, "I'm so dumb"... Both boys fell to the ground with laughter, and I realized, once again, I had failed miserably. Now, this is a running joke with us. Several times a day they'll throw their hands to their head and say, "Mom! I'm so dumb!" (while grinning), and they say this until I give them a huge smile, thumbs up and a big YES! sigh...

I told Kellan to be careful. He replied, "I don't want to be careful. That's not what I'm known for."...

The boys have made up what they call their flower girl dance. Don't ask me how or where this originated, but it's mostly used when I'm trying to discipline them...

We were at the store, and of course Kellan asked for candy. He has been doing so well at school I caved in and let him pick some candy out. Camden looked at me incredulously and said, "Can I get something? I'm a person too!"...

So I don't know whether to be proud the boys are really growing in the Catholic faith, or question how they're growing in the Catholic faith. It never fails. On the way home from school, which takes about 20-25 minutes, one of the boys has to go potty desperately. So, the other one, to be brotherly, sings a song to make it worse. The song of choice most recently has been "Make me a channel of your PEE!"...