First Child vs. Second Child

My boys spent the greater part of the late afternoon today gathering cicada shells off the trees in the yard. We have four big silver maple trees and they have been just covered in those skins for the past few weeks. In fact, we went and got a book from the library last week to read so we could learn about why cicadas shed their skins. (Actually, it's quite interesting. If you see them, you should ask the boys about it sometime.)

Anyway, this afternoon was really fun, both in terms of appreciating nature and appreciating how God makes children different. Wish I had caught it on video. My always cautious 7yo first child spent the whole time carefully plucking the little shells off the trees and tenderly filling his bug habitat with them. My always adventurous almost-3yo, on the other hand, spent the first half of the time knocking them off the trees with a big stick, and then crushing ("crunching" as he said) them hard with his foot. The second half of the time, he had figured out how to carefully pluck them off the trees . . . and then crush them!

That's my two boys in a nutshell (or cicada shell)!

Planning for the future

As many people know, my boys have great shiny red capes. They are superhero capes given to them by Grandmomma. 2yo wears it a lot. OK, let me be honest. He wears it everyday. We have to put it on each morning after getting dressed. He even wore it to Mother's Day Out this week. I don't mind. I love that he loves dress-up. But we have one rule. No capes in church. When it's time to go to church, he has to take it off. One exception: Pascha Sunday. On Pascha Day, for the Agape Vespers service he can wear the cape. Yes, our rules are that specific because they have to be. We discuss the use of the cape before almost every church service. Now, the course of the conversation, we've had occasion to mention that little boys don't wear capes in church. But, we've told him bishops, monks and priests do get to wear capes. I've reminded him that bishops actually have long red capes just like his. And his older brother keeps telling him, "If you become a monk, you can wear a long black cape, just like Batman."

Well, this evening before going to the church for Akathist, I reminded him that he'd need to remove his cape when we got to church. He looked at me very sincerely and asked, "Mommy, when I get big and I be a monk, can I wear my cape to church then?" "Of course!" I replied.