Wednesday, November 11, 2009

God Gave Me A Break With Ryan

Ryan has seriously been a big helper to me. It's not that I ask him, he just likes to help out. He reminds me of my big sister Tammy who was always like a little mommy. Just has a big heart. Ryan saw the look on my face yesterday when I looked around the room sad, because of kids making a freaking mess and he went and started picking up.  I was sad because with having them do their "jurisdictions" twice a day, they are still not realizing what huge messes they make. 

In this picture, Ryan  is working on his homeschooling while holding Caleb for a few minutes. Caleb looooooves to be held.  He does not like laying flat on his back.



Later, I asked Ryan to read a book and then I asked him if he wanted to read to his siblings and he loved it. He ran to the couch to sit and read with them.  Ryan may be easier for me but he tends to easily go along with the flow.  He's a people pleaser and he notices people watching him.  He can be easily influenced it seems.  I have to be careful with him.  I know better not to just expect him to help me out with his brothers and sisters.  I don't want to abuse that.  I also know that kids like that can harbor feelings inside of them until they blow.  That's Ryan.  He'll just start really acting out all of a sudden and he'll be emotional.  Then I know he needs some personal time and some good cuddles.  He's a good kid. 

4 comments:

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

What a sweet post! I hope you showed it to him.

Chris H said...

OH he looks so adorable holding his baby brother!

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it is good to discover the spiritual gifts of your children. Ryan may be a mercy (like me) and his downfall is that he works helping others (even if just in concern for them) until he is exhausted. He will always want to help and to love people, but (I know for me) it is important that he be allowed to rest and have time alone. That's hard to do in a big family, but I know if anyone could figure it out you could.

You can't apply tests made for adults and spiritual gifts to kids, but there are some great websites out there on the subject. Here is a link to one I found
http://mintools.com/children-spiritual-gifts.htm

Daddy Forever said...

What a great kid. We have our nine year old hold our baby from time to time, but that's about all she does. She doesn't read to the other kids like your son does.