I've "adopted" IJ's best friend for the next few days while his parents go out of town. Our friend is a wonderfully boisterous 8 year old with more energy and enthusiasm than both of my boys put together. He has been here for five hours so far.
And so far I've learned to 1) Let them pick the menu and
then go shopping. I won't have to hear, "I don't like this. Can I have something else?" 2) I have to stay in the room and mediate everything. Our friend is an only child coming to stay in a house full of siblings who get in the middle of everything. 3) Make sure they do only one thing at a time and they clean up their old activity before they start their new activity.
So far the boys have played Risk, Monopoly, and Battleship. They've watched three movies and built a fort out of couch cushions and pillows. They built boats out of milk cartons and plastic 2 Liter bottles. They took IJ's remote control boat out on the pond (and fell in). They ate lunch somewhere in there.
Mark and I do really enjoy having this boy over. He is a lot of fun, he is kind to IJ's siblings, and respects the rules and boundaries... as long as the rules and boundaries are in place. I'm sure we are going to have lots of fun this week!
