Kid-ventures, toddler tantrums, and bouncing babies

This week saw some increased sense of normalcy. Foster returned to school after the bank holiday and was happy to see his friends once again. I’ll highlight the most exciting things as they happened per kid.

Foster

Foster started off this week with another doozy of a quote. One that I will be proud of for years to come. A true testament to the fact that he is my son.

“I love butter.”

Other than that, Foster had a pretty run of the mill week that was highlighted with a pretty great weekend. Saturday we went rock climbing as a family for the first time since Maddox was born. It’s been in. cred. i. ble. watching Foster’s confidence grow as he continues climbing. He can go higher, climb for longer, and get himself down from (almost) any height!

   

Sunday was spent by Foster, Greg, and Nana celebrating U.S. Mother’s Day (celebrated in March here). They took the DART down to Bray to hike the cliff walk from Bray to Greystones. It took them a while but they finished it and came home with some rave reviews!

While it’s not treacherous, it is definitely not a stroller friendly hike due to stairs and rocks. Foster was slow to finish but this hike would probably be more ideal for adults and kids 6+. There are plenty of lovely spots in both Bray and Greystones to stop for food and coffee. A favorite coffee stop for us has become Finnbees. It has both indoor and outdoor space, a restroom, and has coffee, food, and snacks; perfect when stopping with the family!

 

 

The Littles

It’s really hard to talk about one of the littles without talking about the other. They are the two getting “left behind” when it comes to cool hiking adventures but they are also getting more than their fair share of the attention (read: patience) that the adults provide. They are the two that you have to keep happy in order to get anything done around the house.

Lately that has meant one adult herding Graham into something that does not seem to make his irrational little heart break and one adult guessing whether Maddox is tired, hungry, dirty, or a combination of the three.

 

 

 

Oh, and also helping Graham to wipe his own bum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But really, these two had a pretty great week. Maddox has really come into her own, smiling and cooing. Her favorite is chatting with Nana but you know those Maddox women, they’re likely discussing euchre strategies.

What has been really fun is watching Graham grow into his role as a big brother. If you’ve ever met the kid, you know he’s incredibly sweet and a wrecking ball with legs all wrapped into one snot-covered mud man.

He can walk over to Maddox, give her a “hug” (often this entails him laying across her face), kiss her head (leaving behind a wet snot spot as evidence), and gently pat her head before walking away.Other times he slams a fire truck into her side while making the siren noise as loudly as he possibly can.

 

He still loves to read which is probably the saving grace in this house. It certainly makes up for the toddler tantrums that usually end up somehow involving pants…

 

Another good week in Dublin and beyond! Nana leaves today and I’m not sure any of us are ready to have her leave. That being said, Maddox is six weeks and three days old and there have only been four days since her birth that we haven’t had guests. So let’s see next week what our new “normal” begins forming into!

 

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growth in all forms

growth in body and spirit

If you read my post from last week you will remember that I have embarked on a #90daysofyoga journey with a fellow part-time yogi.  This journey was initiated by myself for many reasons.

1. My rock climbing drastically improved last time I was able to practice yoga consistently.
2. The overall focus that I gained allowed me to be more productive, patient, and aware of what was going on in my body.
3. Increased flexibility is always a plus, not to mention a low impact, do anywhere, toning workout.

Deciding which yoga workouts I wanted to do ahead of time was very short lived!  Coordinating a household of 4.5 means not knowing when or how much time I will get to myself so I started just choosing what sounded good for the length of time I had available.

Only seven days in and I am feeling pretty great!  Certain positions make it actually look like I have a bump and that is reward enough, as you can tell by my wonderful headstand.  It’s great to have some time to stretch and I’m hoping that the core toning will help once labor starts.  For now though, I have been sleeping better (not great), have a much improved downward dog, and have been using my breath again to cope with back pain.

growth in home

Once the next baby arrives, the boys will be sharing a room meaning there will be a massive overhaul happening.

The first big project was to get Booger out of the crib/toddler convertible bed and get him into his own, new, big, boy bed.  We decided to order the Kura bed from Ikea and spray painted it navy to go with the colors of the room.  He got new dinosaur bedding and next step is to turn the lower portion into a great reading nook and hideout.  We have a play area downstairs so luckily mostly just reading and snuggling happen in their room meaning we don’t have to organize too many toys.  A massive redo will also be happening in that play area, we just take on projects far ahead of time so we are never in a huge rush to get them finished 🙂

Project number two in our house has been building a rock climbing wall in our garage!

This one is mostly Greg’s project but I just have to show off his handy work 🙂  We are all very excited to have the ability time to climb whenever we want, including Booger!  The main problem we have run into at our climbing gyms is that they are obviously geared towards adults, not two-year-olds.  Oh well, it’s understandable I guess 😉

growth in family

Our new au pair, Karolina, has now been here for right about a week!  For anybody thinking about getting an au pair, we have loved the experience so far and highly suggest it.  Karolina and Booger have hit it off splendidly!  They took a trip to the neighborhood park this morning (in spite of the 30 degree weather) and it certainly looks like they had fun.

We look forward to watching them continue to grow together over the next year.  It’s been a hectic week having to all of a sudden account for another person in the house but soon we will have a second car and she will get her license and other documents finished up so she can be a little more independent when she’s not working.

 

 

Considerate Parenting

I want to start off this post with a really cute picture of my son and I petting an alpaca.  It’s cute and I couldn’t think of any more applicable photos to add to this post but think every article deserves a picture!

Booger and I at an alpaca farm in Pennsylvania!

Now, back to business.

There are an endless number of ways that we would like to describe our children.  Smart, funny, kind, athletic, driven, etc., etc., etc.

But what would you choose if you could only pick one.

I don’t quite know why this was a question I posed to myself but it bothered me for months.  Almost any single word I could think of had something negative or lacking.  Intelligence doesn’t reflect personality, I was afraid a ‘kind’ child might get walked all over, only being ‘athletic’ means you could be lacking in many other areas.  Eventually, the word I settled on was considerate.

My kids may not end up being top of their class or get a full ride athletic scholarship but they will be considerate.

To me, being considerate has many meanings.  You aren’t just ‘nice’ but you think about your decisions and how they impact both yourself and others.  Being considerate means that you are aware of and weigh the results of all of your decisions.  Should you study?  Should you practice violin today?  It really holds a lot of weight to me.

I will be the first to admit, I could be more considerate.  So once I chose my ‘word,’ the next step is to determine how to parent in an area in which I am lacking.

Booger is hitting a stage at which he likes to throw things.  Balls, frisbees, trains, and whatever else he can get his hands on.  For those that have not been hit in the face by a toy train let me tell you that it hurts.  More or less depending on where exactly it hits, but hurts nonetheless.  There is a very simple way to solve this problem.  Firmly say,”No throwing!” (you can always toss in a ‘please’ if you are feeling good) and repeat until behavior stops.  Like I said, much easier ways to approach it but I realized that didn’t fit very well with my idea of ‘considerate parenting.’

Other than it just being wrong, why should a child not throw their toys?  Well if they are being considerate of others’ feelings, they will know that it hurts and scares people to have things thrown at them.  This one is easy as, again, the train.  In theory that doesn’t give the child much reason to stop.  Why should they care, it doesn’t hurt them.  Actually, I’m sure the face I make is very funny!  So then I tried to think of something that he would care about.  If he throws his toys, he might break them or others.  ‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘He needs to be considerate of his toys.‘

Now when he throws something, we say that we don’t throw because it hurts others and it will break his toys.  It’s no longer black and white, right and wrong, he has to consider and understand the consequences.  I hope that I keep this idea in mind as he continues to grow and the consequences get more and more complex.  My husband and I don’t want to teach our kids right and wrong, we want to teach them how to think through making a decision, weighing it from multiple angles.

Great in theory, right??  Either way I guess it makes me a more patient mother and hopefully it will all work in the end!