Michael

Just in case you haven't seen pictures of my boys in a while (or ever LOL), here you go! This was taken 9-11-09 with my NEW camera! Why did I "live without" it for so long? Brain damage, I guess! (It's a good camera, I'm just not a good photographer! ;)

Michael - 9 1/2 years old

When I was showing Michael some pictures I had taken of him that day, he looked at them all and said, "Oh, man! My teeth are out!" Yep, he has quite the overbite! And those two top front ones are pretty big in comparison to the baby teeth next to them. My kids lose their teeth late. He was almost 7 when he lost his first.

10 things I love about Michael:

1. He's a hard worker - Yesterday, helped Paterick put together a garden shed for our backyard. He was out there with my 12 volt drill (smaller and lighter than Paterick's 18 volt) helping screw everything together. Oh, did I mention that I had to MAKE him go to bed at 10:40, even though Paterick wasn't quite done? Yah, hard worker!
2. He's very independent - He can cook, he can clean, he can do his own laundry, and when he's asked to learn something new, he doesn't need much instruction and typically, no demonstration necessary.
3. He's very dependable - When he says he'll do something, 9 times out of 10, he does it. And without prompting from me. Paterick was gone all week, and he went through a (short) list of things that they hadn't finished on Monday that he wanted to have done when he came home Saturday. Michael said he'd need my help remembering, but that he wouldn't need any help doing the job. We talked about doing a little each day, and so on. Well, I didn't remember to have him work on it because all the kids were getting sick. Wouldn't you know it, he remembered himself and worked on it a little bit each day because he "told Dad it would be done". Oh, and he was sick, too, out there shoveling in the back yard anyway!
4. He's a good babysitter - Yesterday while I worked on refinishing our TV hutch, he watched Oliver and Ammon for me for about an hour.
5. He's a logical thinker - when presented with the dilemma of our illness vs. the planned beach excursion for Saturday, he was bringing up what he'd learned in Scouts about how to keep from spreading illness. His logical thinking lead to a unanimous vote among the boys to stay home this weekend and go to the beach another weekend.
6. He's aware of what others do for him and is good about expressing gratitude - He's hugging me all the time telling me I'm the best Mom and thanking me for little things that the younger boys don't yet notice. I love hearing that I'm the Best Mom! =)
7. When it's pointed out to him that he needs to change something, he works hard to change it - He and Isaac don't really get along. It's a constant source of frustration for both them and me. I've recently started letting them take turns sleeping in my bed on nights that Paterick is out of town. On one such night, Michael and I were talking about life missions. Each of us on earth has a unique mission and is born with all the genius and potential needed to fulfill that mission. (That put him and Isaac on a level playing field. Not big brother vs. little brother, but 2 children of God with equal potential. Michael just has 4 years more earthly experience.) My job as their parent is to help them establish the traits and characteristics needed to develop that potential. I also explained to him that when we die, the only thing that we take with us is our relationships. We talked about different things that may be triggers to Isaac acting out and what Michael could do to not respond by physically acting out. (Sorry, this is a long story, but necessary to illustrate the story, so bear with me.) This was 2 or so weeks ago. Last night, as I was ushering him upstairs to bed, he asked if I had noticed that he was working harder to be patient with Isaac. Silly me, I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out, but in hind sight, I realized there has been less contention between the two of them. He said, "I've been trying really hard to get along better with him. I want to have a good relationship with him." Awwwwwe! It's moments like that that make your heart melt! It's good to be a mom!
8. He's compassionate - Our next-door neighbor Rita has been a widow for almost 4 years. Michael has always just loved her. Nearly every week, in spite of the fact that her son and grandson are currently living with her, Michael either takes out her trash cans or brings them back in and doesn't let her give him any reward.
9. He's creative - As most of my friends and family know, we don't watch TV. We also don't let the boys do much on the computer. They might do computer games once a month or watch movies a couple of times a month. And really, because that's all they've ever known, they're fine with it. It actually bugs them that their friends carry around gameboys and only want to watch TV when they're home. Anyway....... They see things like Sonic, or Bakugan, etc, and recreated them with Legos! Michael especially loves recreating things. For example, a few weeks ago I checked out Farmtown and Farmville on Facebook. The boys thought it was too cool and they decided that Michael would do Farmville and Noah would do FarmTown. After determining that they were time-wasters (that's a rant for another day) Paterick and I decided that we would forgo them and let the boys know and explained why. Michael was initially disappointed, but understood. A few days later he came out of his room with his own "farm" made entirely out of, yep, you guessed it..... LEGOS! (Thanks for the inspiration Uncle Ben! My boys keep reminding me that you promised them time in the Lego room the next time we're in Salt Lake!)
10. He's humble - I read to him some of the things that I love about him and he started listing some more. And kept assuring me that he wasn't just trying to make himself sound great, and that he was keeping it below the "exaggeration line" (an imaginary line drawn with his hand at about the level of his chin). Too cute!

The bottom line: I have a great 9-year-old! He's special to me. because the day he was born, I became a mother and was changed forever. I hope that as I learn what I'm doing that my "guinea pig" oldest son turns out alright. I think he's on his way. I love you Michael!