Yesterday, Gabe asked to do extra chores to make money to give to the NICU for baby dresses. It was very sweet that he was trying to bag up the chore money he already had ("43 coins!")to give to families in the NICU. I explained that the way it works is to give money to the NICU in "one bag" and they would give it to families. So he sat down and for a long time worked on writing a list of chores on a to-do list. So today we let him wash the cars...who says you can't have fun while you work?!? Funny thing is, he really doesn't get the concept of monetary values. He started inviting neighbors and grandparents and the price went from "3 quarters" to "$20 and 3 quarters." We convinced him to switch to "donations."
Then our sweet neighbor, Nina, whose husband passed away the same week as Sarah, came over because she had bought some pink and purple flowering plants to put in the garden between our yards to remember Sarah. Gabe helped plant them with her. She only had a tall shovel and she showed him how to jump on the shovel to push it into the ground. She and I were holding the shovel handle upright while Gabe was jumping on the shovel like a pogo stick. It was sweet to have her teaching him how to plant the plants and having him do it while she helped. Between that and Gabes "car wash" it's a Sarah kind of day.
A couple weeks ago, the boys and Pat picked out a flowering pink cherry blossom tree for Sarah and Zach worked very hard digging a hole with Pat to plant it. He's still talking about the BIG hole he dug but also telling others about the tree for Sarah.
I know that some of the boys' activities are simply because they are boys having fun--what boy wouldn't like to dig in the dirt or spray water at the car? But I also love the part of them that is thinking of their sister and are happy to find ways to help remember her.
