Challenges change as the kids grow older and more complicated problems are on the horizon but I am very aware just how much I continue to love this phase I'm in now with my 8 and 6 year olds despite the frustrating moments. This phase has being going strong now for a couple years. Family dinner is full of more conversation and laughter instead of snapping reminders of manners repeatedly at them throughout most of the meal. Bedtime routine is well past the phase of being a royal pain in the ass; epic meltdowns due to being over tired are very few and far between. Thanks to a good friend, we have well adopted our rose, thorn, bud talk at the end of the day. We even added bloom to the mix which is saying something nice about someone in the family. It's how I hoped a smooth bedtime would be one day and it's been like this for a while now. I guess I'm mentioning this because my truth as I know it today is that I don't really miss the long gone baby days with my kids but I think I'll very much mourn these years I'm living right now with them. Wonder if that'll change. What I'll keep in my pocket to help down the road when I mourn this time are Lily's occasional eye rolls and talking back, Elise's screaming whether it's making her point known, being too sensitive, or unable to follow the "let's talk it out and compromise" route, and Paul's oscar worthy meltdowns like refusing to go to the bathroom before bed.
The kids are full of curiosity and energy these days. Thanks to Oma and Opa, it feels really manageable to let them try out pretty much all their interests. Even with the activities, we all enjoy being homebodies...nate and paul probably the least of everyone though. These days, you'd often find Elise playing with my hair while I read her books, Paul playing balloon ball or catch with Dad, Lily reading or organizing/rearranging a room upstairs, and Nate usually working on house projects or hide and go seek in the dark with the kids. And you'd definitely find the kids downstairs eating a snack with Oma and sneaking treats from the candy jar, Paul jumping on Opa, Elise drawing pictures and playing with Opa's printer, and Lily reading the newspaper comics.
I feel this need to also mention another aspect of life right now when my family and I do look back years down the road at these blog posts. It is tough to not let the news these days get me down too much; I want to stay informed but man, I don't ever remember feeling this uneasy and nervous to read the news these days that could somehow affect me and my family. Whether it's the turmoil in the White House, students across the country feel the need to band together to fight for common sense gun legislation to make our schools safer, a self driving car killing it's first pedestrian, and a serial package bomber in Austin killing random innocent people are the first that come to mind. WTF? Even at a local level of keeping our children's public school staffed at reasonable levels seems like a battle that we shouldn't have to fight especially in our supposed booming Portland economy.
So...yeah, family life is really good. Everything else has room for improvement.
Paul tried skiing for the first time.
Lily loves her nicknames. In Tennis, she's knee high because of her signature socks. She lacks the same level of go-getter I had at that age on the court but she has a fantastic and fun attitude which is fun to watch.
A common sight with Oma
No comments:
Post a Comment