{"id":451,"date":"2008-04-21T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-21T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tessa.datdec.com\/wordpress\/?p=451"},"modified":"2008-04-21T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-21T13:30:00","slug":"lex-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"Lex Rocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Really, this is Alan posting, but Tessa
\n got me started with the pictures so her name is on the post.)<\/p>\n

I know you all know, and you hear it
\n all the time, but this time it is literal. I started by asking
\n Lex to find big rocks and put them in the wheel burrow. This
\n was a first step in leveling out the ground where the ex-pool
\n pit off our deck. He was great. He probably loaded 100lb of
\n rocks before I distracted him by taking a shovel to a small
\n dirt pile. Some of the rocks must have weighted almost as much
\n as him. When he got to the first one too heavy to lift into the
\n borrow, I suggested he step up on the deck. From then on he did
\n and dropped them in from waist height.<\/p>\n

When he was done “rocking” the pit, he came over to the
\n big dirt pile I had started working on. I was tossing shovels
\n full of dirt into the pit and he started doing the same with
\n his little plastic shovel. Since he dropped most of his dirt in
\n the 10 steps it took him to get to the destination, I thought
\n of his little wheel borrow and got that for him. Grabbed the
\n big one for me too since it just looked easier, and to keep
\n from tossing dirt in his direction while he was dumping.<\/p>\n

After a few iterations and some light
\n instructions from me, he was on rails. He put a few shovels
\n full of dirt in his borrow (about what you see below), says,
\n “All full,” in his tiny high-pitched voice he uses when he
\n reminds himself of something, and carts it off.
\"\"<\/a>He dumps it out and with the same voice says,
\n “back for another load!”
\"\"<\/a>He didn’t even miss a beat while I stopped to
\n take pictures!<\/p>\n

Between the rocks and
\n moving the dirt pile, he did real work for at least an hour
\n straight. We would have kept going if it was not for dinner
\n being ready. I’m sure if we would have started earlier, he
\n would have stayed with me until it was done.<\/p>\n

At one point, we were both grunting a bit and I said,
\n “this is hard work.”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, it is<\/span> hard work. This
\n is hard work,” he said in a deeper, gravelly voice.<\/p>\n

“Hard work is good,” I added.<\/p>\n

To which he quickly responded, “Easy<\/span> work is
\n good.”<\/p>\n

When he’s right, he is right. Of
\n course, I went on to explain how hard work can be good too. How
\n it feels good when you can look back on it and see the job
\n done. Sense of accomplishment, blah blah. He seemed to be
\n listening well enough while we kept working, but did not seem
\n to be buying it entirely. I added how nice it was to have him
\n working with me, because hard work is so much more fun when you
\n have some one you like to do it with you. To that, he give me a
\n nice smile, said, “all full!” and carted of his load.<\/p>\n

On a side note, I put him some where in the
\n 1st grade on reading level now: at least half way through. Mema
\n would know better, so maybe she will correct this estimate in a
\n comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Really, this is Alan posting, but Tessa got me started with the pictures so her name is on the post.) I know you all know, and you hear it all the time, but this time it is literal. I started … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}