One of these things is not like the others...

We've made some dear new friends - the Bray family. The family has four members - Bob - the dad, (who shares the same bday with Michael and works with him and shares all of his interests in electronics), Kara - the mom(who is awesome and bright and is so much fun to sing with), Conner - the five year old (who is easily smart enough to be six and gets along fabulously with Adam), and Emma - the three year old (who is a princess and beautiful and much to Adam's chagrin, is in love with him).

We've been spending a lot of time with them lately and genuinely love their company. The only person who is struggling with this a little is Adam. Adam loves Conner and Bob - they all play video games together and have a grand ol' time. Emma loves Adam. Adam is somewhat annoyed by this. He doesn't always remember that Emma's little and gets irritated when she doesn't behave like a big kid. He doesn't understand that she can't, so he gets frustrated. Also, Adam still loves Bella. Remember Bella? If you don't, see here:

http://thehootenfamily.blogspot.com/2008/07/land-of-make-believe.html

or here:

http://thehootenfamily.blogspot.com/2008/02/ive-got-crush-on-you-sweetie-pie-or-in.html

He's concerned that Emma wants to marry him when clearly he only has eyes for Bella. He doesn't understand that those kinds of feelings aren't anywhere close to Emma's radar. She's just a little girl who thinks another kid is fun.

So we've been working with Adam, trying to teach him that he still has to be kind and patient with Emma, even when he doesn't feel like it. The Brays were over yesterday, and as usual, we were spending a little time redirecting Adam's attitude toward Emma. So we were really touched when last night, he brought us a piece of paper on which he had written the following statements:

I like playing video games.
I like doing stuff.
I love Emma.

He proudly read his statements to us, and the adults gave a collective "Awwwwww" and I was so proud that we had finally gotten through to the Adam on the importance of kindness and empathy. Until he said this:

"No, one of these things isn't true."

You see, there's a great get to know you game called "Guess the lie." We have played it before. You come up with two things that are true and one that's not and the people you're playing with have to guess which one isn't true. Let's just say I'll keep working with Adam.

Until next time...