Overheard from the Boy's Room

Poor Samuel. He's extremely tired this evening but is being engaged in conversation by his brothers. They are in their bedroom and the lights are out but they are still talking. I'm not exactly sure when Samuel woke up this morning. My husband couldn't sleep last night so he got up in the middle of the night to do some work and to call co-workers from his company headquarters over in England. Anyways, my husband's activity woke Samuel up, possibly as early as 4:30 this morning. Samuel had a rough day getting through his school work. He got upset during his first session of work so I had him take a break up in his room. He almost fell asleep as he lay on his bed. The rest he took helped and he was a bit more cooperative the rest of the day.

As I listen now, my oldest son is trying to entertain his brothers. The conversation he is having with Samuel has to do with an activity he did today, playing with his Lite Brite. I'm trying to figure out if my oldest son is pretending to be a detective or a reporter: "So Samuel, I understand you did an activity at the dining room table today, what was it?" Samuel answers (sounding half asleep) "Lite Brite." "Now I also understand that you only had to put a certain amount of pegs in it, how many?" (Yawn) "Five." "And what was it that you were making on Lite Brite?" "Patrick" (from Sponge Bob)

I love that Samuel is putting up with all the questions and carrying on a conversation with his brother like this. I also like that big brother noticed what Samuel was doing today and could ask him about it!

Since Samuel wasn't so eager about Lite Brite the other day, I attached some strategy to it today for his personal attendant to use. I wrote out .."You are going to play with Lite Brite two times today. Each time you will put in five pegs. Make a tally mark for each peg you put in." Samuel's attendant helped him make the tally marks, and the "strategy" seemed to work. Samuel cooperated much better with his Lite Brite today. I'm sure it was much easier for him knowing he only had 5 pegs to put in, as opposed to looking at a screen with dozens of spaces for pegs to go in.