A picture is worth...

...a thousand words, right?  I could write a thousand words about this picture, but hopefully it won't take me that long to describe it.

Here's what's special in this picture about each of these precious children.  They're all watching a Word World DVD, and this is what's interesting about them at this moment, left to right...

Lukas is lying in his favorite position to watch TV.  He is definitely a couch potato, but he moved to the end of the couch to make space for his three siblings.  He just got back from a fun birthday party where they all rode go-karts and it was a great experience for his confidence.  Tom said he started out not sure if he could ride more than the easiest cars (he was tall enough for all but one, I think) and ended the day with a great racing instinct.  What a fun father-son event!

Natalie is wearing a new dress.  Wearing a dress is a major incentive for her to use the toilet, but she only had two everyday dresses in her wardrobe.  I recently bought two new everyday dresses (its soooo hard to find a dress in the summer that's not spaghetti straps!) and told her she would get to wear one as soon as she went poop in the toilet.  This has gone on for several weeks with no success.  The morning of this picture, Natalie said, "I want to wear a dress."  I said, "Natalie, I'll put a dress on you when you use the potty."  She went right to the toilet and used the toilet by herself.  This is the first time in MONTHS that she's gone to the toilet by herself, so I gave her one of the new dresses, even though she didn't poop.  So now she has another new dress to wear if she goes poop...or we'll switch to the new reward that I've offered for pooping in the toilet:  a Snow White dress (she loves her Snow White doll).  I think I need to find a picture of one so she understands that it will really look just like Snow White's dress.

Dominik's place in this picture is unique for two reasons:  1) he's watching TV when he really doesn't like to watch TV (where did that gene come from?) and 2) he's sitting on the couch.  This is a new skill for him (sitting on the couch) within the past few days, and he's so excited to sit with everyone else, instead of sitting on a lap.  During Sunday School yesterday, he sat on a chair between Tom and me for a few minutes (before getting down and wandering around), and obviously enjoyed his new big boy skill of sitting in a chair.  I think he's only watching TV because everyone else is doing it and he is excited about sitting on the couch.  As soon as the newness of sitting is over, he probably won't watch TV anymore.

Konrad is opposite from Lukas because they tend to wrestle and/or kick each other if they sit next to each other.  He is holding the car that Lukas got at the birthday party as a party favor.  What a nice big brother Lukas is, to give the car to Konrad since he wasn't old enough to ride the cars.  I'm also proud of Konrad that he didn't have a major fit that he didn't get to go to the party.

Well, this post was only 575 words (before this sentence) but that's all I have to say!