I'm alright now

I don't normally get my wisdom from calendars, but I was in the bank after my whingey day and I saw on their calendar this saying by Samuel Johnson the poet:

Great things are not achieved by strength but by perserverance.

It was a timely reminder to keep on keeping on. It reminded me of these verses from 2 Peter 1:6-8.

Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

These last couple of days I am working on engaging emotionally with Bright Eyes before I try and get him to do something.

With the other kids I just turn up at the door of the playroom and announce "Right, it's dinner time/bath time/getting in the car time etc. Let's go." And it just doesn't work for Bright Eyes. He strongly objects.

So now I'm going in, sitting close and playing gently with him for a little bit and talking to him about what he's doing. Then I say quietly and calmly, "In a minute, we're going to get into the car," wait wait wait wait wait, take his hand.... and most of the time he comes along with me happily!

He had a great day today at our 'family birthdays' party, playing with his second cousin and running along with all the children outside. When he'd spent too much time inside with the toys he started to get loud and irritable with us talking, but I think that's reasonable if you think he's about a two year old level. Even a four year old would find it hard to be in the middle of adult company all the time.