Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Snippets

I lost my temper yesterday. The morning had been going well, and we were enjoying a trip to the Science Museum, when Ambrose started to tantrum. Screaming and flailing and fighting me hard as I struggled to buckle him into his stroller. Once I had dealt with him, Paxton presented his own set of challenges, namely that he didn't want to leave even though it was lunch time and his baby brother was shrieking so loudly that people all over were coming over to see what horrible things I was doing to this poor child. The cheap umbrella stroller I was using does not let me push with one hand only (pushing with two hands is hard enough!) so I essentially had to beg and plead and command and threaten with P to get him out of the Discovery Room, over to the elevators, down to the correct floor, and outside the building. By the time we were up to the street I think I had steam bursting from my ears!

Paxton, who had gone from obstinate to angry to sobbing to morose, and back again, suddenly called out, "Mom, STOP! Look over there! Mom, I have something to show you! MOOOOMMM!"

Oh, I flipping flipped out on that kid! I flung around and cried out, "What? What do you want to show me? Is it a good attitude? A "I'm sorry mommy?" What is it? Is it something I actually want to see right now? Huh? IS IT?"

He was quiet for a second and I could tell he was about to flip out on me too, but then.... he, my little 5 year old boy, decided that it wouldn't help. And he took a big, deep breath and pointed off in a new direction.

"There, mommy. There's a farm stand over there. They have vegetables. You like farmstands. I thought you'd want to go see it."

I could have cried then.

There was, in fact, a somewhat out of place little farmstand set up right up next to the road in front of the huge Science Museum. And my little boy had seen it and knew how much I drooled over fresh, local produce. And even though I was in a pissy mood and he was in a pissy mood he still wanted to make me happy.

So, long story short, we bought some peaches and ate them on the way home, we all said our sorrys and gave kisses and hugs, and I'm pretty sure my 5 year old is more mature than I am sometimes.

*****

Today Ambrose brought me one of his favorite books. He has many favorite books. They are all picture books with animals. He's in love with all things animals, loves to see them, touch them, look at them, read books about them, pretend to be them, make animal sounds, etc.

So he brought me a book and he knew a bunch of the animals, and he would tell me the animals or make their sound. But a few he didn't recognize. He kept saying something, sounded like "wadaco," over and over again and looking at me. I would always tell him what the animal was, to correct him, and keep going.

Then I figured it out. "Wadaco?"= "What's that called?" It became obvious when he shortened it a couple times to "Wadat?" I was actually pretty impressed!

We went to the gym so that I could embarrass myself horribly in zumba, and they played in their respective nurseries. When I went to pick Ambrose up one of the nursery volunteers gushed about how smart he is, and how he brought her a book with animals and how he knew the names of every animal in the book. Yup, that's my boy :)

*****

Nik is out tonight at a company game night. The whole family is invited but I figured the kids might get in the way, and they might not enjoy it so much. Though maybe next time I'll drop off P with Nik and let them have their game night together :)

*****

I am currently obsessed with point and click adventure games. And on that note, I will now post this and go play a point and click adventure game.

*****

Oh, and it's raining here more frequently now. My plants love it. And we have a great July 4th with my parents over, and an impromptu cook out. Only downside was that P burned his finger on a sprinkler. Oh, and we're letting the chickies roam the yard on afternoons we're here. They're very tame and P just picks them right up. They just eat bugs and weeds then return to their coop for the night. And they're super cute.

*****

Okay, game on!

2 comments:

Micka said...

you have inspire me to take the leap and look into getting some chicks of our own. We are in the research phase and plan to be all set up by August. Thank you so much for blogging and sharing pieces of your life with us.

manymanymoons said...

The farmstead story really got me. Don't ya hate when kids school us! :) Sounds like a great 4th of July.