02/11/12

1.  Joseph had fun in archery again today.  Mosey decided not to go this time.  Joseph hit his balloon not once, but twice!  The first shot pierced the balloon, but did not puncture it (I've never seen that before!), but the next arrow through definitely popped it.  He's fun to watch!

2.  Poor Brigham did NOT have fun at horseback riding today.  Well, the riding was fine, but afterwards was not.  It was cold out today-- in the 40's, so after his lesson, instead of waiting while he got his horse de-saddled, de-bridled, and brushed down, I told him I'd wait for him in the car.  This was a bad idea.  His teacher immediately went into another lesson, leaving Brigham to figure out how to get the horse blanket back on him (a horse blanket is this great big blanket thing that buckles in front and underneath the horse's belly), get the halter on him, and then take him out to "pasture 3."  Brigham hasn't yet learned that sometimes you just need to go ask for help.  So he struggled with the blanket, got it on, sort of, put on the halter, sort of, then led Red (the horse) out toward the pastures.  But Brigham didn't know which pasture was #3.  And then the blanket fell off the horse.  And then the halter fell off.  And then Red started running away.  Oh, poor Brigham!  Finally someone saw his predicament, came out to help him round up Red, put the halter back on, buckle the blanket back on, and showed Brigham which pasture was #3.  Meanwhile, I was sitting in the warm car, dozing, waiting for him to finish up.  I woke up when my phone rang and Mosey asked when we would be home.  I looked at my watch and saw it was 2:24.  Brigham's lesson had ended at 1:30!  I got out of the car to try to track him down, pretty much just as he was walking back toward the car.  I could see at once that he was very upset.  He held in the tears until he got in the car, but then he was really distraught.  This is the main complaint I have with his teacher-- she leaves way too much for him to do on his own.  It's not that he doesn't know how to do things (although there are some things he doesn't know-- like how to put a horse blanket on that he's never done before), but mostly that he's too short!  Red is a great big tall horse, and Brigham cannot put the halter on him unless he lowers his head, which he was not inclined to do.  He said he never wanted to go back to horseback riding.  I think he'll change his mind, but from now on I think Ben needs to take him.  If Ben had been there with him, none of that would have happened.  :-(  I hope that this experience at least will help Brigham realize that it's OK, and often times best to find someone and ask for help.

3.  I took the boys to see War Horse tonight.  I've never seen the theater so crowded!  That movie has been out for several weeks now, but the theater was almost totally full.  There were definitely not 4 seats together.  I was in my wheelchair so I told the boys I'd stay in the front (where there are handicapped areas), and they should just find places where they could.  They didn't want to do this, and finally two ladies who were sitting in 2 of the seats in the handicapped section stood up and offered the boys their seats.  Joseph and Brigham sat there and Mosey sat on my lap.  Two hours and 23 minutes is a long time to have a 55 lb 8-year-old on your lap!
It was a good movie, though.
When we got home, it was 10:00 and definitely time for the boys to go to bed.  Mosey was tired.  At least I'm hoping that's the reason why he started crying about not doing anything fun today.  Nothing fun?!  I took him to Walmart twice to find a Nerf gun and sword he's been planning to buy (the first Walmart didn't have it), he did exactly zero chores today, and then went to see a movie!  What is this kid's definition of fun?!  My theory, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, is that he played too many computer games.  Computer games suck up your time and waste it.  You start playing, then 4 hours later suddenly disappears.  You can spend the whole day playing computer games, and at the end of the day you can hardly believe 9 hours have passed.  It's like the whole day was swallowed into the oblivion of mindless computer games.  If I'd been home I would have curtailed Mosey's computer game playing, but my morning started early taking Joseph to archery, then home, then quickly to Walmart before coming home again and leaving immediately for horseback riding.  I got home again at 3:00, took Mosey to Walmart again, and came home to do laundry and other chores.  At that point, the computer games were over and the boys watched an episode of X-files, which wasn't much better.  Ben was gone for most of the day too with church duties, so Mosey, the only one without a formal activity to go to, was unsupervised for too much of the day during which I think he pretty much played Tanki Online, and that was it.  I'm on the verge of banning that game entirely.