It made my day so much better!

A fortune cookie Andrew recently got, I find ironic given what happened at the convention. "There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't met!"  hmmm. 

At the Wednesday night meeting last week, we let Andrew sit with Samantha. He was pretty much in the middle of the hall. At one point, he had turned around in his seat and he was sticking two fingers toward his eyes and then pointing them at someone in the back. Then he pointed the fingers at his eyes, and then toward someone else.  That's what daddy does to say 'I'm watching you' but I don't know who Andrew was doing it to.
On the way home from meeting, I guess he scratched the cut under his nose. He fussed that it burned and then asked, "Why did Jehovah design me this way?!" We told him it's so we'd learn to care about ourselves and be aware of danger and what can hurt us. But it is healing, though slowly it seems.

I also forgot to mention that last Tuesday we went to Nashville. Andrew had decided to try and tune his violin himself (ha!) and the sound got compleeeeetely messed up. The teacher had told us that he could now sport the next size up, so I thought it'd be a good day to go do exchange it.  As we were walking to the building he begged me not to say anything to them about changing it's sound. I promised I wouldn't. Inside he right away told them he wants to play the fiddle and that cellos are boring. He finally got to see a cello in person, though, as well as a double base which is huge!
After that stop, we headed over to see Grandma Bess.  He got the grand tour of the entire house, from top to bottom. When she asked if we should go to lunch, Andrew asked, "Would you like to go to McDonald's? it would kill mommy."  [he didn't get to play after the Friday convention so we suggested maybe Saturday after dinner he could go to McD's to play instead of swim at the hotel... but that didn't work out either because I got sick so he just had to swim. But daddy had told him we wouldn't eat there because the food would kill mommy.. lol]  I explained all that to Bess, and she said she couldn't imagine that we really ever ate there. We all enjoyed some excellent mac n cheese at J. Alexanders instead.

Another thing I forgot to mention in last week's post was that on the way home from his first day of school, I told him I had prayed for him to have a good day. He made a loud inhale and exclaimed, "You made my day so much better!" 

Saturday afternoon daddy was splitting some wood. Andrew put it in the trailer of his little John Deere and then hauled it to the front door. He left it all in a pile at the front door so you couldn't even open it! He enjoyed having that job though.
Later he drove it into the backyard but I couldn't find him. He had driven it to the fence, in between two tall bushes, and was standing on top of the tractor with his arms draped over the fence... hoping to catch the attention of our neighbors (Amber and whoever she was playing with.)  I yelled to him to get down and give them privacy and then went into a coughing fit (sore throat the last couple of days) and the dogs went crazy.  I guess Andrew thought he was going to get in a trouble because he begged me not to tell daddy.  He started the 'don't tell...." when Katara was here. I only heard her say, "oh, don't tell your mom, she'll be mad at you" once, but I've assured him several times that I wont get mad at him for telling me things - I appreciate hearing about them rather than discovering them myself, whatever it is.  I don't think he's convinced of that yet.

Saturday night, he got out of bed, opened his door, crawled back in bed and started calling for me. His problem?  He needed to scoot down in his bed.  Seriously?? I told him that when I tell him to scoot down - he does it himself, I just move the pillow (which is he perfectly capable of doing himself too.)  Silly boy.

One day he let me do an acu-oil session on him. I was asking questions for myself outloud and he heard me say that I had to put it on the meridian for the kidneys. He tapped both sides of his chest with his fingers and said, "it's here. The kidneys are here."  I looked at my meridian model and he was actually spot on! The kidney meridian runs down both sides of the chest exactly where he had been pointing. 

He earned another Lego set. As much as he has protested about practicing or going to lessons, I wasn't sure he'd ever get to open it. When he got down to 10 more practice sessions to earn it, he got more interested. He really wanted the forklift, the truck that came with it was just bonus to him.

Mommy was sick so daddy got him to and from school Monday and to violin. He was in good spirits, but definitely a full and long day for him. 
Tuesday afternoon I picked him up from school. As he climbed in the car he immediately asked me how I was feeling and he was glad to see me as he thought daddy would be getting him. He told me he had missed me and asked if I missed him. Then he asked me if I cried.  I told him I did not, but I had prayed for him to have a good day. He smiled and said, "And it made my day so much better! You know who did that? (he started to say Jehovah) Jesus! I really like Jesus." 
He told me he talked to a girl at school about Jehovah and she didn't know about Him. His sentences confused me a bit so I don't really know how his conversation went with her, but he told her she was wrong. Then he asked me, "she's not going to live in Paradise, is she?"  I explained to him that it's all up to Jehovah. That there are plenty of good people who truly want to please Him and try to do what is right, they just don't know that they don't have the truth or haven't fully learned about Jehovah. That there will be people in Paradise who don't know Jehovah and we'll get to teach them without Satan's influence.  He didn't have a reply.
Then before getting out of the car he started to tell me something then said, "Nevermind. I don't want to tell you because it was a bad decision."  I assured him again that he is free to tell me anything he ever has to say - good or bad. I would rather hear it from him if he wants to talk.  He started to tell me about the other day when daddy said Amber (neighbor) could come over for a little while and she convinced him the best way to get into his yard is to bring his tractor to the front yard. I'm guessing he thought it was a 'bad decision' because he knows he's supposed to stay in the back yard.

Thursday after school we hung out at the park. At first, no one else was there. Andrew sat and watched every car go by - hoping one would stop. Eventually a couple came.  One kid was in another Kindergarten class at the school and drove Andrew crazy by not answering a question as simple as 'who is your teacher' or 'what is your name'. He kept trying to give Andrew clues and making him guess, but Andrew doesn't know all the teachers yet. I got tired of listening to it and finally told Andrew if it was that important to him - to go ask the mom!  Andrew did and was very pleased to get an answer.  There was something I really didn't like about this kid. He wasn't being 'bad', but he just seemed like the type who would be deceptive and misleading. (and I was right)  And when the other boys wanted to play swords and battle and protect their "ships" ... Andrew of course wanted to play too. I wouldn't let him play with them at first because they were in the dried up creek and throwing rocks, later they were swinging sticks around and running with them, or climbing on the outside of the bridge instead of walking on it. Then they were kicking and poking trees.  It was driving me crazy and there was no one else for him to play with. The longer Andrew tried to play with them, the more he started tuning me out, and getting more aggressive in his behavior. Daddy had a long talk about it with him at bedtime.
Friday morning we reviewed with him too - if other boys are wanting to play fight - what do we do?  "We don't play. It's up to Jehovah to kill the bad guy."  Right. It's not our place, it's Jehovahs. And if someone kills the bad guy, they no longer have a chance to learn about Jehovah and change their ways.   He accepts it in his head - but I know he wishes he could just play along anyway.
Friday he came home from school with a new toy. This is the 3rd one this week. I asked him what he has to do to get a prize from the treasure box and he says, "nothing."  Finally today a teacher said he was on 'Gold' today (they have behavior sticks and their names get moved up or down on it) so he got a treasure.  I never know the right questions to ask him to find out what happens at school and what he gets to do. I did learn today that when they come in from outside, they have to put their heads down on their tables - and if they do, they get skittles (or in Andrew's case, jelly beans w/out food dye). And when they line up to go someplace, they have to stand in their own tile square, link their fingers behind their back, and 'catch a bubble' that makes them silent as they walk.