Conversations with a 4 year old about God

"Mommy, Look at me!"
I turn around to find Alex holding two bags of mikans.
"I'm as strong as God!" he tells me.

"Well..."

That tends to be how I start every response related to a statement he makes about God.
In my mind my thoughts are racing as I formulate my response to him. Part of me realizes that it doesn't take long for us to try to put ourselves up there with God. The other part of me wonders how to explain God's greatness and strength in a way that a 4 year old can understand.

"Alex, God is so much stronger! He can hold the whole world in his hands! {insert thought--does a four year old understand how big the world is?} God made all the mountains... and the moon... are you strong enough to hold those things?"

The conversation quickly digresses into me asking Alex to actually give me the bags of clementines so he doesn't start smashing them to bits.

Then there was the conversation on the way to school this morning. He is holding a new bookmark and he declares that it is going to go in his favorite part of a book. 10 minutes later he informs me that it is going to go in his Bible at the part where Jesus died.

Should Jesus dying really be his favorite part of the Bible? I wonder to myself.
"Yes, Alex, Jesus died for us, but the best part is that he rose again from the dead! He is still alive today! Now he is in Heaven with God!"

"But I thought Jesus and God were the same person." Alex responds.

{have you tried explaining the trinity to a 4 year old? If so, please feel free to explain how!}

"Well...  (My favorite filler word.)
They are the same, but God is the Father and Jesus is his Son..."
(we did have a conversation about the Holy Spirit one time, but we didn't make it that far this time.)

Every time our conversations kind of trail off. Each time, I pray afterwards that Jesus will use my words to keep bringing clarity of the gospel and the truth about Him to Alex's 4-year old brain. I'm so grateful for resources like the Jesus Story Book Bible, and the Gospel Project lessons we use at our church to help him understand how the the story of Jesus is woven through the whole Bible and that Alex can be a part of that story still.

Am I overthinking these conversations? Maybe, but this is some serious truth we are talking about and I hope that he grasps it. It is this part of parenting that sometimes makes me most afraid. The one I hope I don't mess up. I'm going to mess up on a lot of things, but I want to make sure my boys know and understand what Jesus did for them. Thankfully, its really not about me. It is my reminder to go to Jesus daily to keep learning from His word and ask Him for the strength and grace to love and parent well. It keeps me grateful that Jesus uses fallen, sinful, but FORGIVEN people to spread his gospel.

The other day Alex brought up sin and how it is the bad things people do...
"Do you ever do bad things Alex?" I asked him. {Hoping to work in a little lesson about listening in there.}
"Well mommy, like the time you...."

Leave it to your 4 year old to point out sin in your life.

"Yes, Mommy makes mistakes too. But Jesus forgive me."

Thank goodness. Parenting always shows me how much I need Jesus.


"Mommy, I see Jesus!"
Alex was calling out from the closed door in his room. This was a couple weeks ago. I had put the boys to bed early. REALLY early. Will was out and the evening was not going well, I was in a really bad mood, and I needed a break. A chance to regroup.
Of course a comment like that sends me back into his room quite quickly... with lots of questions in my mind.
He was sitting in bed with his bible open to a picture of Jesus on the cross.
"Why is he on the cross?" Alex asked.
We proceeded to have a sweet little talk about why Jesus died for us on the cross and what that meant for us.

"I love Jesus" he told me.

We kept talking until Liam escaped from my lap, ended up on Alex's bed and a wrestling match with lots of laughter followed. I was a little in shock that such a conversation came out of such a horrible evening. But it was the conversation we needed to turn all of moods around. It gave me the new perspective I needed.

These little talks I will cherish forever.

Baking with the boys and a recipe

We needed an afternoon activity to keep us busy, 

so I suggested to Alex that we make some cookies.

He's been asking for ages.

So we choose snickerdoodles and got to work!

Alex got his apron first, of course, Liam needed his too... along with a chair.

Everything Alex does, Liam wants to do too!

Liam moved to the counter to get a better view! They both did a great job pouring in the ingredients! 

This is the real reason why them help me... 

It's their Schaeffer blood coming out!

When we started, Alex told me he needed a toy to help him! ;) I think he really just wanted to find a reason to use the pocket. The pocket's purpose has intrigued him since we go the aprons. Spoons were too large, as were the recipe books, so I think he found his own reason!

Alex started off as the scooper, but quickly switched to rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon and sugar (thank goodness! He was taking way to long!)

Post baking snack time while reading some books!

It was a good afternoon. I feel like this requires more energy than I have sometimes, but when we are in the middle of it, it is so much fun. I was looking back through to see if I had posted my favorite snickerdoodles recipe before, but I haven't so I will share that now! I didn't have the time when I was doing the 365 recipes in a year to post all the recipes, but I did make it during that time (and many other times since than!) So this is actually recipe #310!

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

• Heat oven to 400 F
• beat sugar and butter until fluffy
• add vanilla and eggs, blend well
• stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Mix well
• stick cookie dough in fridge for a couple of minutes to make sure it is cold
• in a small bowl mix the 2 Tbsp of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon
• shape dough into 1 in balls and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.
• place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets
• bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes

perfect cookie to make with your kiddos! :)

brothers

I'm pretty sure if we are going to want Liam to learn anything, we are going to have to get Alex to model it for him first. Alex did a happy dance after getting some treats... Liam did it too.

Alex pretended to sneeze in bed and Liam started saying "cho, cho."

And there was no contest between Will and I to see if Liam said mama or dada first...
"Alex" or something like it was definitely the first word that came out of his mouth!

If one has it, the other wants it. But sometimes they will share it.

Or Liam will just eat it for Alex.

But oh, the love. I hope and pray it always stays.

You know you are a teacher when...

This morning I was cutting out Lightening McQueen sight word cards from Kelly's Kindergarten. Alex noticed and requested some batman cards...

So guess what we did? 

(Of course laminated for durability!)

Then we played with them of course!

And he made his name.   

We will see how long they actually stay together!

Saturday morning fun at the Plunkett's... I know what you are thinking... What an  exciting life! Haha! We are thankful for a down day today! It's been a busy couple of weeks.

Things Alex says...

When I am Alex I have one A, When I am Alexander I have two As.

[in a robot voice] I am a robot, I do not understand. (after we had told him to do something, that he probably does not want to do)

The pterodactyl is touching it, not my fingers. (after I told him not to touch my papers)

(at the atm) Good job daddy! Is candy going to come out?
Me: No money comes out.
alex: you mean cash. cash is not money.

I love you Wiam. (Those sweet, tender moments are almost inevitably followed by a loud cry from "Wiam" when Alex's love turns a little too fierce.)

to will: I need to take my calendar to school. Tell my teacher to see if it is okay to take to school.
to me: I have my phone in my packpack. Tell my teacher if its okay so I can call you at school.

This boy is beyond excited to start school in a couple of weeks! He is only going for 2 half days a week to preschool, but I think he is ready for it! I am glad he is excited. If I ever go to school we have to talk about if I am going to my school or his school! [And yes, I know his backpack is huge (and heavy filled with all his toys) but it was on sale for $5 at target! ;) ]

What a summer it has been. The threes are, well, quite interesting to say the least. Between his fits of insanity we have so many wonderful moments. Life is all about dinosaurs, super heroes, pixar, dinosaurs books, trains, and batman. (yes, i know he is a super hero, but he is pretty much in his own category.)
We have had so many great adventures this summer, and I will definitely miss him this next school year, but I can't wait to watch him keep growing! And humoring us with his funny words.

Will and I look at each other all the time and wonder there this comes from. Of course then I see Will I remember...
(Yes, Alex definitely has his father's humor! ;) )

Hello Fall.

Even though it is now just officially Fall, summer pretty much ended for me towards the beginning of August, when school started up again! My mornings start at 5:30 and the day ends by 10 and don't include many extra minutes. We have been out of town 3 of the last 4 weekends.
But Life has been beautiful. I can't complain. I love my job at school and my job at home, even though both leave me exhausted by the end of the day. God has given me so many blessings. Two of which are the sweetest little boys you will ever see. I am so thankful for the love they show each other!
Tonight Alex wanted to read a book to Liam. If you know the story, you know he did a pretty good job of it!

Hopefully one of these days I will have time to write about the most amazing {and easy} ice cream recipe ever or show how I recovered the rocking chair, but for now I will be grateful for the first day of fall, and all the fun that will bring!

Alex: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

I am not really sure when Alex's love of baseball started. It all began when he got a T-Ball set from my sister, and he would spend ages hitting with a variety of bats that Will had. Then on one library trip, Will got a several baseball books and that seem to seal the deal. He was hooked on baseball. It is really so cute hearing him say the word even. And then he and Will started singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. 

PRECIOUS!

Here is a video if you are interested! :)

As he developed this interest, so did my wish to take him to a baseball game. But USC's season was just about over, the Braves were to far away for a toddler, so I had settled on a Columbia Blowfish, the local team, game; but it wasn't really what we wanted because we weren't very interested in the team. Then, as we were planning our trip to Ohio, it dawned on me that we should go to an Indians game... So we did! The Indians have had low turn out this year, but when they heard we were coming, everyone else wanted to as well! Hehe, they were actually playing the Detroit Tigers, who had just overtaken them in their division so it was a big game... that we lost!

 Our tickets were actually for seats in the left hand corner of the picture...we never sat there! We went straight to the kiddie section! :)

 Alex is too preoccupied with the field to look at the camera!

 Mesmerized!

 Of course, 9 innings is a little long for toddlers! They enjoyed a hot dog...

 ...popcorn, and juice!

 We also enjoyed the great play area!

 This was our view from the kiddie area. I was thankful for more leg room, space for the kids to move around, and a net to keep them contained! :)

Our Family!

 Post game!

Of course, we paused Alex's play time to make sure he was paying attention to the seventh inning stretch. He was a little overwhelmed with all that was going on, and you really can't hear him sing, but towards the end he caught on. I think they needed to sing it one more time for him to be able to sing too! 

 This was another adventure where Liam did what he does best:

eat, sleep, and look around. 

Thankfully loud noises don't bother him too much. It will be fun when he can enjoy all these adventures too! 

 I can't wait to take them to some more games!

Alex: Popsicles Take 1

This is take one because Alex didn't really love this batch... so we will try again later. They were still yummy (to me!) and a very easy process! Here is Alex to show you the steps.

1. Get some popsicle molds (these are from walmart)

Insist on eating the blue one first.

2. Mix up the ingredients.

This was 2 cups greek yogurt, 1 Tbsp honey, 4 strawberries cut up, and a handful of blueberries.

3. Take popsicle molds all over house. Protect the blue one, even while reading a book. 

(My yogurt had accidentally frozen in our fridge...it has issues. So we were waiting for it to melt a bit)

4. Put the mixture in molds, and put the tops on.

(and keep insisting that you are going to eat the blue one!)

5. All ready to go in the freezer! It took a good 3-4 hours to freeze.

6. Taste Test: (You should have seen his face after every bite! It wasn't quite sweet enough for him! :) )

7. Discover the little straw thing at the side to help slurp up the bottom part.

8. Only want to eat the popsicle that way...

FAIL.

I learned two things from this first attempt. 

1. Juice popsicles will probably be more what he would love to eat. (with an occasional chocolate one!)

2. These popsicle molds still make a mess! My sister bought these ones and loves them so now I have a set in the mail too! :)

More popsicle fun to come!

Alex: the Library

I love the library and want my kiddos to love going to the library and choosing out new books! As much as I love buying books, checking them out of the library suits our budget a little better! Since summer has started, we go to the library on average twice a week, thanks to the numerous events at the library 

(that, as our storytime librarian points out, they pay for and we don't!)

Thankfully too, Alex has developed a love of reading that did not exist last summer, when, we would go to storytime occasionally, but I practically had to wrestle him to the ground to sit and listen to a story. 

Or it may have been that we had to sing:

Knock, Knock, who's at the door?

It's {insert name},{insert name}

Hello {insert name}...

for all 35 million kids (may be a slight exaggeration) there. Which took half of storytime, and if I was bored of it, I think my child was too!

But to my relief they have not done that at any of the storytimes this year! We have been to the family storytime and toddler storytime. I think we will continue the toddler storytime during the summer and then try to do the family storytime during the school year because it is on the weekend.

And now he enjoys the stories and songs a lot more...

 along with plastering his body with the little pictures they tape to the window! haha!

We always spend some time playing afterwards with puzzles or the huge stuffed animals.

This week was special because he earned his reading medal! I loved summer reading challenges growing up! Alex loves getting his medal! I had showed him his medal from last year, so he spent all morning pacing around with it, asking to go to storytime to get his medal!

Finally it was time! So he held on tight to his card

(which, they only have to read 25 times! it is pretty easy to get that much in no time at all!)

Then comes the impossible task of trying to get a picture of him with his newly earned medal!

He ran to the door yelling "storytime, storytime!" and plopped right down on the floor...

I wish he would sit this nicely the whole time! He usually ends up on my lap,

 (with me holding on to him because he sees other kids running around and wants to do the same!)

We went back the next day for a puppet show. Normally they might do one at the end, but they did about 3 or 4 puppet shows.

He yelled "puppet show" all around the house before we left, but was ready to go after the second show! haha! 

Storytime at our house tends to be a little bit more active 

(Alex  is a mover!) 

and with books that are completely geared towards his interests. 

(you won't find any digger or train books at the library...I am pretty sure we have them all!)

But we go to the library so he gets used to sitting, listening, etc. 

and of course it is nice to get out of house and have some fun mommy & Alex time! 

Alex: What can you do with a box?

Last week was pretty rainy. I was thinking how nice it would be to have a big box for Alex to play with, and then later that day a gigantic box with our Amazon subscribe and save items came!

PERFECT!

First, Alex checked out the box.

Then, he ate lunch in it.

We added a ramp for his cars.

And played hide and seek.

Later, It was a workshop for cars.

The next morning, we built a mini golf course, 

 And then a tunnel for cars!

I think it is safe to say we have had some fun with the box! 

We have also been coloring all over it and now it is folded up for future use!

Also at the library, we found this book

It was a perfect read to go along with all of our fun!

{and as a teacher I now have some fabulous ideas to use it in my room,
 and there is one called Not A Stick!}

I have some more ideas for the box when we need some stay-inside fun!