Weekend in Review

As my previous entry will attest, I was in a total funk all of last week. I couldn't even handle myself! Yuck.

The weekend was a great change of pace. Saturday morning I got up with the kids while Sam slept in. We had a good time playing. It was sunny out and everything felt great! Sam went grocery shopping early in the morning while I played with the wee ones.

Then we all went to an Earth Day celebration. They had a huge red-tailed Hawk there named Grace.


It was awesome. Seren kept referring to the bird as a Parrot. Seriously!?

We played on the playground in the beautiful sun. This consists of mainly trying to keep Wyeth alive and away from the wood chips on one hand and encouraging Seren that she doesn't REALLY need our help to do x, y, and z on the other hand. She is so frightened of so many things these days. We walk a fine line between acknowledging her limitations (real or perceived) and pushing her to push her own boundaries. She is always so proud of herself when she accomplishes something great.

We met our friends up for lunch at our house. They are much younger than us and don't have children. When they left Seren asked me, "So why didn't Matt and Jen bring their baby?" Which cracked me up for several reasons. One, her comment made it sound like they left it behind and two, not EVERYONE has children. I explained this to her.

They went down for naps and I cleaned like a crazy nut! Seren seems to be napping every other day the past few days. Who knows? When she doesn't nap, she is WRECKED. When she does nap, she is in a good mood but can be hyper! Since age 1, she has tugged on her ear when she is tired. Everyone who knows Seren knows that this is the sign. She informed me the other day, "I just tug on my ear like this sometimes. It doesn't mean I'm tired." Ya right, kiddo. Then she noted, "Mom? Why do people get tired when they tug on their ears?"

That mind of hers keeps on trucking.

After nap, an old elementary school friend that I recently connected with on Facebook came over! She and her husband, Jeff and their sweet 6 month old. We had a QUICK dinner. They arrived at 5 and were out the door by 7 to try to get their wee one down. But it was fun to play and eat and drink wine. Our kids really enjoy having guests and both were really well behaved at the table and during both of our visits.

Sunday was rain, rain, rain. And some chores. But I did manage two 'dates'; one with each kid. Wyeth took Daddy grocery shopping. And I took Seren on a little Mommy-daughter date. I took her to a McDonalds play place. Which was a HUGE treat. She wanted an apple juice so with 1.00 and a "free egg mcmuffin" coupon, she was a cheap date!

But I was sad to watch her play. The play structure was HUGE and she was terrified of it. She would try to climb up but her fears got in the way. So she would return right back down. And she would bounce around and look at the other kids. She was smiling and dancing to the music. She sat down at the bottom of the slide and waited for other kids to come down. Her own fears wouldn't let her REALLY do what she wanted to do. How often is that the case in life? Something holds us back from doing what we WANT to do?

In time, in time.

Later, after nap, I had a little walk with Wyeth. This was not a rushed walk. But just time to hold his tiny little hand in mine and watch him explore the world. We each had a stick. I would tap mine on the ground. And he would tap. Tap. Tap. Then he liked the idea of hitting the dandelions that are growing all over. So with his stick, he would hit them, machete like. And I would follow. This brought him great, great joy. Tap. Tap. Hit. Hit. And I just loved watching him. Loved watching his little face. Toddlers make us slow down. And see ants on petals. And cracks in side walks. And clovers.

It was a good date.

And this weekend, after a long time, my HUSBAND and I will go on a date! Yahoo! The last one we had was in October so this will be GREAT! My mom and dad return home for a month long stay in Colorado. The great news is that my brother is feeling better than expected after back surgery! Yeah all around!