Bruises, etc.

In keeping with a common theme of this blog, here is another picture of Isaac sleeping. This time he fell asleep during Sacrament Meeting (happy day!), and he slept on my lap all through Sunday School. With Ginny and Ezra coloring quietly, it was one of the most quiet meetings I've enjoyed in a while. :)

If you look closely at Ezra's forehead, you will see a long, thin bruise. This is courtesy of Isaac, who no longer puts up with Ezra stealing his toys. Isaac clocked him with the nearest thing to hand--an old marathon medal of Erik's. It swelled up beautifully, but by the time I took this picture a couple of hours later, it had subsided leaving just the bruise. I hope these two boys will figure out a system soon wherein they can live together without resorting to violence. They play so nicely sometimes, but the little monsters in them come out quickly when angered!

This is just Ginny and Isaac wanting in on the picture action. They were all eating their "dessert", so here they are showing it off. They love playing with their grapes before eating them. I find it annoying, but I have bigger battles to fight. :)

I have recently started to discover how nice it is to have one child old enough to semi-supervise the others. Ginny is really growing up fast. We had parent-teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago, and I asked Ginny to please sit with her brothers in the hall and read a book to them while I met with Ezra's teacher. She did a great job!

Ezra has discovered a love for drawing in the past couple of months. His drawings are getting so creative, too. One day, he angered Ginny by taking her drawing of a princess in a castle, and inserting an alien into it. When Ginny confronted him, he explained to her "But it's an alien princess, Ginny!" Sure enough, if you looked closely, you could see the tiny crown on the alien.

He almost never sits in a chair to color or do his homework. Every time he gets out a pencil, he plops himself to the floor and gets to work. I read an article about how movement helps some kids focus, and I think he is one of those kids. As long as he can squirm around on the floor, he will focus on his work for long periods of time.

A few weeks ago, instead of having a Quorum meeting, the High Priest Quorum sponsored a 5k. Our whole family participated (me sauntering slowly in the back), and the family did great. The real surprise was Ezra, who not only beat us all (since Erik was running with Isaac), but ran the entire 5k. He really zoomed! In fact, he got so far ahead of Isaac and Ginny that another family spotted him and invited him to run with them. I was so impressed, and Ezra was so enthusiastic about being in a race. Now I think Erik needs to take him out running more often so he can train for his next race!