Maybe I'm doing something right?

Nathaniel has hit a new stage of rebellion. He is bound and determined NOT to listen to me. It's even gotten to the point where if I force him to do something he will deliberately go against me. The new thing is peeing all over the floor when I make him go to the bathroom. I still put the diaper on him at night because he doesn't always wake up to go and I was tired of washing pee sheets every day. But, for Nathaniel, the diaper means he gets to be lazy and pee in it while he's eating breakfast. So, the first thing I make him do when he gets up is take the diaper off and use the toilet. He always throws a major fit and then, while he's sitting on the toilet, aims for the floor and pees everywhere. It's one of those times where I can only yell STOP!!! and then make him clean it up and go into time out.

There has been a lot of things like this lately. Some days I feel like we spend more time dealing with discipline issues than we do playing. It gets discouraging.

But, yesterday I saw a glimpse of the young man Nathaniel is growing up to be. I also see glimpses of the budding relationship between Aaron and his big brother. During bath time Nathaniel was singing the songs from music camp. It does my heart good to hear my son joyfully singing about the ten commandments (This is rock solid, written in stone/ From the hand of God He made His Law known/ Not to keep things from us, but with blessings for us/ 10 of them in all. These are God Almighty's Laws). Then he wanted me to sing all of the commandments while he shouted the numbers.

Then, when he went to bed he wanted a book to look at. Normally I don't let him read at night, but since he took a 2.5 hour nap yesterday I knew it would be awhile before he fell asleep and I really wanted to work out. So, I handed him Dr. Seuss' ABC book. Nathaniel handed it back and said, "No, I want the Bible." Then he looked at his picture Bible until he fell asleep. His favorite story from it is the one where Jesus heals the blind man by putting mud on his eyes. I think it's because of the mud. Nathaniel thinks that everything has music so he's always asking me to sing the song about the mud and Jesus.

Also, Aaron and Nathaniel have been playing nicely together. Aaron is always kissing his big brother and trying to get him and Nathaniel is very tolerant.

Overall, things are tough right now, but I know I am raising Nathaniel and Aaron well.