What a Day!

Today started much better than yesterday; Eli had a wonderful morning! After breakfast we drove over to Cooper's house to hang out for a bit. Eli and Cooper battled over a few toys, but Eli didn't lose his temper until it came to the oh-so-cool tricycle upstairs. Eli wanted to use it and he wanted to use it BAD. We were all playing in the downstairs playroom at the time though, so it wasn't an option. Eli was not happy with the situation, so he went downstairs willingly with me, but then ran over to the table and threw one of Cooper's crayons across the room. I took him to a separate staircase for a timeout. He sat, but refused to apologize to Cooper when he was done, which meant he had to stay in time-out. Then he cried and flailed and carried on. Finally I brought him to the car so I could put him in his car seat to have his tantrum. I buckled his seat belt and told him I was going to close the door for one minute so he could finish his time-out. After sixty seconds I opened the door and Eli started swatting the air and saying, "NO!" right away, so I told him we were going home. He cried and cried while I loaded Maddux up. Once we got on the highway, his tears stopped and he said, "I 'tarry, Cooper! I 'tarry Coopey! I 'tarry Mommy!" I thanked him for apologizing, and I informed him that when we got home he could apologize to me face-to-face and we would then call Cooper to apologize. But we were still going home. He cried again, but it didn't last long. He was very apologetic the rest of the morning, even going so far to say "I 'tarry Cooper's toys." Stay the course.... (Eli did lose the privilege of his soccer goal and ball during this tantrum when he swatted at me. He has already asked for it a dozen times and each time I've reminded him why the answer is no.)

For the last few weeks, we've been talking about Bible verses with Eli. His Sunday School class often sends home a worksheet or craft containing a verse. Usually during breakfast and lunch, I'll say to Eli "Time for our Bible verse!", and I'll recite the words. This week's verse was a great one because the wording hit home with the issues we're having.

Acts 3:19: Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

So I read the verse to Eli this afternoon, and then I said, "Do you know what repent means?" I proceeded to explain (using the best 2-year old words I could) that it meant you apologize for doing something bad, but also that you feel bad about it so much that you don't want to do it (the bad thing) anymore. We moved on to other conversation and five minutes later Eli blew me away so much I had to call Lehr immediately afterwards. Eli looked at me and said "Turn God?" I asked him to repeat himself because I could not believe my ears. He said the same thing again and then followed up with, "Feel bad." WOW!! I know this could be just regurgitation, but still....how amazing is it to hear your child recite scripture back to you at such a young age?! I will be the first to tell you that I don't have many 'memory verses'. In fact, I probably couldn't correctly recite and quote two. This gives me hope. For so many things!!!