Obedience

Sam went for his first obedience class on Sunday. We decided that Steve would take him since he's at home more than I am. The kids were very excited to hear what Sam learned at his first day of school. Apparently Steve learned that, not surprisingly, Sam sees him as the master, and has no respect for anyone else in the house, including me (the softie). He hasn't learned any new tricks yet, but Steve did try to show Marisa the right way to talk to Sam when you're giving him a command. It went something like this:

"Marisa, tell Sam to sit."
"Sa-am, si-it."
"No. Just say 'sit'."
"Si-it." (imagine her little voice getting higher on the second "syllable".

It went on like that for quite some time, until she finally said both Sam and sit with just one syllable each. Later, she was in the playroom with him telling him to sit. I think both words probably had three or four syllables each time she said it, but she was using her most stern voice!

Speaking of obedience, isn't it funny how your kids always do what other people tell them, but not so much what you tell them? Trevor's baseball coaches are working on having the kids call the ball when they are going for a pop fly. If they catch it without calling it, they have to do five push-ups. Likewise, if they call it and don't catch it, five push-ups.

Well we were at his game Friday night. Trevor was warming up at the pitcher's mound at the start of the third inning. His coach lobbed a ball at him from way out in center field. Trevor caught it, and his coach yelled "Oh Trevor, that's five push-ups!". Trevor turned around and looked at him for a moment, probably wondering if he was serious. Then he stepped off the mound, threw his glove on the ground, and got down in position for his push-ups. In the middle of the game! You could hear his coach laughing in the outfield, and he yelled for him to wait until after the game. I was laughing, but also thinking there's no way he ever would have done that for me. Oh well, maybe his coaches can try getting him to clean his room!