Big Brother

Dominic has a refreshing innocence about him that makes me curb my sarcastic streak.  He takes people at their word and believes the best in just about everyone (Will may be the one exception).   However, with a mother like myself (who often fails at curbing her sarcastic streak), he is picking up when there are deadpan jokes told.  I love the way he will look at me and ask in all seriousness:  You are trying to be funny, right?

Anyway, I have said it here and told many people that I rely quite a bit on Dom to be a solid role model for his siblings.  And he is nearly always up to the challenge.  So here are a few instances of him being a helpful big brother (and Will stepping in to fill those shoes as well):

 Ok, so this first picture isn't so much him being a big brother, but a reminder that he is only 6 and was smaller than every other player on his last soccer team, but he showed great enthusiasm and played with a lot of heart.  Will is excited to play his first season in no small part because of watching Dom from the sidelines.

 Eating pizza at the after party.

 Dom loves coloring various sports emblems and when he starts to color the others generally gravitate to the kitchen table to take part in the action as well.

 One morning as I cleaned up breakfast dishes, I had Dom help Will with his homework.  Now this strategy has two benefits.  The first is I didn't have to stop what I was doing (though I did anyway to get a camera...) to show Will what he needed to do.  The second is that Dom practiced his reading and in teaching the page gained a better understanding of the material.  I believe it was a number pattern.

Molly really likes to be helpful, but as most mothers know, a 2-year-old being helpful can mean more work for oneself.  However, Molly can sort and put away the silverware, she just can't reach over and get it and I've yet to figure out a good place to put the silverware for her to more easily do this.  So I enlisted Will to help by handing her the silverware.  Success!!

It's been nice to have the kids take on more and more chores.  They help clean up after dinner (KP) (which includes: bus-ing the table, wiping off the table, putting leftovers in the fridge, and sweeping), they are in charge of keeping the Florida room tidy and tidying up their room and living room, making their beds, putting their laundry away and recently I added that they needed to help me bring in groceries.  That one is a huge hit!  Naturally, none of these is done perfectly (I suspect none of my perfectly folded laundry ever ends up in the draws in the same shape), but they are done and the boys know what is expected of them.  Win/win