stories of snuggling and slugs
Starting with a five year old turning six and ending with a weekend of family meals and hugs, this past week has been FULL.
This morning before serving breakfast to my grandpa, dad, and aunts, the boys and I were chasing through the house threatening birthday spankings {this goes on throughout the month of May in our house}. Unfortunately, I went to open the screen door to run outside and the big door got slammed shut, on top of my wrist. I wasn't hurt badly...but boy did I get some nice treatment! Ezra comes, saying "I'll kiss you mommy!" and Peter brings me a blanket, saying "I'm so sorry, mommy." They cuddled with me, checking to see if I was feeling better. WOW!!
I now have renewed hope in their ability to learn empathy and kindness. They were so sweet.
This morning Peter said to me "I'll always love you because of your hairstyle and your clothes." :) What a dear.
Turning Six
Pete woke up to a wall of balloons when he opened his door Monday morning. Then, after a ridiculous three-try pancake making spree {in which someone replaced my baking powder with cream of tartar and we didn't realize this until halfway through the second batch} and candles melting waxy holes in hot pancakes, he went off to school with a birthday boy badge from Grandma pinned to the back of his shirt.
He really really really wanted cake for his birthday. I asked him what kind and he said "all kinds...including cotton, cement...any kind of cake". He's seriously silly. A few weeks ago, when it was my turn to celebrate and I was having a moment {I was saying something like "dude, who likes birthdays anyway?"} Peter said to me "you can just skip your birthday, mom, or give it to me!"
Band-aids All Over
Buzz looks pretty beat up these days -- band-aids on road rash from his bike accident and band-aids on two bee stings. He got a pretty decent sunburn last week and when we were talking about the ducks and their feathers, he said "ducks don't get sunburned." :)
Slugs and Snuggling Plants
Peter has a couple blackberry plants that he is tending to -- watering, weeding, blowing oxygen on them. He also built a little obstacle course around them with bricks and pieces of wood, so the slugs would have trouble finding them. Ez thinks we need to plant more plants and closer together so they can snuggle. Awwww.
Speaking of snuggling, Pete has been quite the cuddle-bug lately. Before bed, while daddy tells a story, he loves to snuggle up beside me, especially when I'm wearing a soft cardigan. I'm SO enjoying this phase.
Control Freak Mom
I've been focusing on honor in my parenting lately -- giving them time to explain themselves, responding with lots of empathy and helping them label their feelings. It forces me to slow down and pay attention a little more than I have in the past. I've started to notice their positive attributes and really enjoy hanging out with them. Control Freak Mom might still come out and start counting but I think she's getting rather unpopular around here, even with me.
Stories and Introversion
There are many things I'd like to write about....I have more thoughts than time at this point. So I'm jotting down ideas with the hope of long, quiet mornings sometime in my future. The art of telling a story is what I aim to learn -- the irony is that there are so many stories in this stage of life and so little time. I have photos to take, photo books to create, adventures to enjoy and memories to collect.
It's hard to explain to friends and family how much I enjoy doing all this fun stuff, but also how great my need is for periodic recharging. I feel quite rattled and frazzled after a day of interacting with lovely people without any time alone to sort through my emotions and play back conversations and contemplate the meaning of life. Writing, for me, is an opportunity to sit with my thoughts, finding all the frayed ends and reconnecting the circuits of my brain. Ideal for me is a two-hour chunk of people time, then a couple hours alone to read/write, then a couple more hours with people. Either I'm the only one or the other people like me have figured out better coping mechanisms for this busy peopley world we live in. I do enjoy people!! In smaller doses, perhaps?
