A hard heart....

This morning I was asking the boys to make their beds and tidy their rooms before they got to play and then the whining started [gritting my teeth]. It lately has been from Briggs but not today...today, Ethan was the culprit.

Whining and crying and whining and crying. And so I did what any good mother does...I tried to ignore it. Well, you know as well as me that that only last so long...especially with Ethan. If he isn't acknowledged and heard then he pushes the issue harder and louder. This morning was one of those mornings.

After being firm with him and asking him to finish his bed by putting his pillow on (I'd helped him with everything else) he started into the saddest cry and while holding his chest said to me "you need to ask for forgiveness, and give me a hug....you hurt my heart." "No Ethan, I didn't hurt your heart...I just asked you to finish making your bed." "No, you HURT my heart and you need to ask for forgiveness and give me a hug." Two words:

Milking it!

Our little boy....

So, tonight I went out with a friend and when I came home I asked Cory how the kids were and if they did anything cute. He told me that after the boys were in bed that Ethan kept coming out of bed and crying down to Cory that "Briggs was bugging him" (funny side story. That is Ethan's new phrase that Briggs gets a lot of mileage from creating and that he says no less than 20 times a day. One night while Ethan was dreaming I heard him yell out several times, "Briggs is bugging me!" and when I came in Briggs sat up and said "I wasn't bugging him, I was sleeping." Ethan was asleep.) Anyway...tonight Cory said that after the 3rd or 4th time he got firm with Ethan and told him he needed to take care of the issue with Briggs and get back into bed and this is how the convo went down....

Ethan started to cry the most sad cry and said to Cory, "you hurt my heart....you have a hard heart like Alma the Younger....and I have a soft heart and I want you to have a soft heart forever....because you hurt my heart." Really?!? How do they come up with these things? Cory sat down and talked to him and just explained our bedtime expectations and asked Ethan if he talked softer if that would help. He said yes. Then Cory told Ethan that kisses would help soften his heart (those are hard to get from Ethan) and Ethan freely gave him some; and Cory loved that! What a sweet boy. Cory's heart was definitely softened by that little boy.

It is amazing how much our children teach us each and every day.