We went to church this morning at 8am because we were planning to have lunch with our friends Clifton and Yuwen in Irvine. It was nice to catch up with them again and see some other old friends (the Kuo's and the Wu's) while meeting some new ones, too. I have great memories of hanging out during our YAF days!
I'm finally reading Roadside Assistance by Amy Clipston downstairs and my upstairs book is Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith. It's been challenging to find time to read with a verbal 4.5 year-old! The concept of quiet time is such a challenge for him because it requires him to pause his talking. Which has yet to happen. Sigh.
Isn't it amazing how different every child is?!? When Krista was 3, we hired a tutor for her. Mrs. Habegger was a wonderful teacher, but unfortunately, Krista was not interested in learning at that time in her life! She was resistant to reading (thank goodness, that's not the case now!), learning her colors (every color was "blue" no matter how I tried to teach her the different colors and to this day, it's still her favorite color!) Brain Quest cards (we bought so many packs from Costco, but she was so not interested in them at all!) and doing workbooks (I bought all the cute Fisher-Price ones hoping she would be attracted to the bright pictures and cute characters, but all she wanted were the cute stickers!)! All in all, combined with her lack of interest and the issues she had with fluid in her ears, learning was just a challenge. Looking back, I realize now that she just wasn't ready yet.
Fast Forward to Now: Thankfully, she's a diligent, focused and hardworking student!
Although learning was not interesting to her when she was 2 through 5, she loved performing. We had nightly performances of the circus and dance shows from her. Sadly, we never captured all those wonderful moments on tape! She loved having her picture taken and would constantly pose for us. She loved being with grown-ups, dancing at concerts and traveling. She was probably one of the best travelers ever!
Michael, on the other hand, is completely different. He LOVES learning and anything to do with learning. I think he started speaking in complete sentences at 1.5. By 2, he knew the alphabet and the sounds that went with each letter. He loved counting, too and learned to count to 100 by 5's and by 10's. We went through Brain Quest for 4's-5's because I couldn't find the one for preschoolers (probably tossed away by Krista at that age!) and he zipped through them!. At 3, he learned to count all the way to 100 by 1's. He also loved to add double numbers (hello, Chop Suey! Chop Suey would say "I no likee!" when the wrong answer was given and "I likee!' when the answer was right). He also started learning sight words and learned how to write his name, and the words, "Krista, Mommy, Daddy, and Love." We purchased 8 workbooks for him and he finished them in 4 days. And wanted more. We went through another pack of Brain Quest for 2nd graders, but it was too challenging, so I purchased a pack for 1st graders and that worked better for him. Crazy, right?!? Now at age 4, he's learning to sound out words as he reads from level 1 reading books. He continues to do his Kindergarten workbook pages and loves to play the adding game on the iPad. He loves electronic devices and can figure out so many things on the computer, the phone, etc.
He is extremely uncooperative when it comes time for pictures and being taped (I call him a director's nightmare!). Like Krista was allergic to learning, he's allergic to being caught on camera! Sigh. I barely can get any good pictures of him and by the time he grows up, I may only have about 1 small file of pics from his childhood. Isn't that so sad?!?
I'm glad God made our children so different from each other! We're learning to appreciate their difference! In the same way, we can learn to appreciate the differences found in the members of the body of Christ, right? We all have different gifts and each member is important! I'm reminded of this again in 1 Corinthians 12.
I like how the NLT (New Living Translation) puts 1 Corinthians 12:18: "But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it."
And...
I Corinthians 12:27 says it best from the Contemporary English Version: "Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body. "
It's good to remember that together, we are the body of Christ!
