First. Hard at work with my first ten list. I hope anyone who reads finds it helpful.
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The first rain in a long while helped me feel better. We leave the front door open and our pooch Hutch sits on the porch. He travels over to my mom’s next door now and then as she has this kind of expensive dog-treat/jerky business over there. He has probably lost about twenty pounds at this point. He’s feeling more spry every day. Saturday on our walk he chased a deer (not coming close, of course) BEST DAY OF HIS LIFE
The children’s summer activities are mostly getting into business outside, bookeneded by long periods playing video games – Terraria, Minecraft, and MapleStory. They’ve caught several frogs and delivered them to my mother’s pond. Friends come in and out of the house and eat any food that’s not nailed down. The kids are all getting ready for school. We’re getting ready to keep catching frogs and such, plus celebrate eleven years of marriage September 8th and then, get our Halloween festivities together.
Some older photos from my phone, just uploaded.
Nels out of the bath, ready to watch a movie.
Phee sleeps. True picture of sleeping. Not fake-sleeping. Yes I smooched her.
Ralph receives a huge-ass calzone. Everyone reacts.
Phoenix drew this a while back. I liked it so much I kept it around. Recently she re-discovered it and gave it to our friend Emily; I’m told there it adorns her refrigerator and meets much approval from houseguests.
Excellent title. I’ve been trying to keep that idea in mind whenever something goes wonky with the kids and they react in a way that’s appropriate to their age. We walked down to Sand in the City this weekend and Tallon walked on his own the whole way, plus walked around at the event. Going home, though, he wanted to wander. Instead of going up 4th, we went up Legion Way, because it has more grassy space between the sidewalk and road and I thought he’d stay nearer to us. But I forgot that the sidewalk virtually ends towards the top of the hill. By the time we were halfway up the hill he’d wandered into the middle of the street and was about to sit down. Scott was frustrated because we all wanted to get home and eat and I had to remind him that Tallon IS only 3, after all, and he’d been walking around for hours. Sometimes it takes that moment of reminding that kids are only kids and doing what kids do to reorder the reactions we have as parents. But it helps, I think.
@Jen
A few days ago we were at a theatrical event and my husband was irritated with our eight year old. At one point I said to Ralph, “Do you remember he’s eight?” and he calmed down a bit. It’s hard to re-remind ourselves of this stuff. I can say for myself, I get the old script I was raised on, it comes up for me, calling my kids “selfish” etc. Even if I don’t say it aloud, if I’m thinking it, I’m enacting it. I don’t want to do this, and I’m committed to refuting those thoughts and that behavior.
Thank you as always for your comment!
Oh my God, Phoenix’s drawing…I laughed so hard. Love it. And I completely relate to the comments above – my son has a great vocabulary and it’s easy to forget he’s only three. I watched my dad try to teach him Uno the other day and it was interesting to see them both get frustrated (that game has a pile of rules!) until my son invented another way to play with the cards, more like a number matching game…cool to see them both adapt and keep playing.