The weekend was great, lots of fun had by all, and even a lesson learned. A sitcom series in the works, I'm tellin' ya. The four of us went to the park on Sat. morning before Shawn had to leave for work, and we had a wonderful time! It's always good when both parents get to see their child's "firsts" -- and luckily, Shawn got to see Jax's first slide ride , so that was cool.
After our outing the kids and I packed up and headed to the lakehouse to spend the night with Menana while Big Daddy was on a bike trip. Ryan got to go see Chicken Little -- wait, strike that -- we took the kids to see C.L., Ryan spent much of the movie going back and forth between her seat and the bathroom. All the while exclaiming, "Isn't this a great movie???" Ummm, I think so, from the small bits and pieces I've seen... Jax was great for the whole thing -- he watched intently for a while, then fell asleep. Don't know why he can't do that in church, but no one is perfect. We then continued the fun at the lakehouse where we played, were treated to a surprise early return by Big Daddy, and watched the Wizard of Oz. Cute pics were taken, click here, including one I will not be posting, for it involved Jaxson and a bottle of beer...
Sunday morning saw us all driving to church, where Ryan went happily to Sunday school and we tried to let Jax join us for Mass, but finally decided to send him to the nursery after he kept shrieking at the giant Jesus hanging on the crucifix. Probably just wanting to shout His praises, but being the good superstitious Catholics that we are, we opted to play it safe. (No need reliving the Deacon Dan experience). Surrounding parishoners thought his screams were cute, but surely only because I let it go on for about one minute before I grabbed him and ran out the back.
Shawn met all of us afterward for lunch (before heading to work), where Jax again regaled us with his lungs-of-steel, and Ryan displayed her mother's inability to teach table manners.
It was all fun, but best of all, I learned a valuable lesson, courtesy of Chicken Little: It becomes very easy for me to be my children's handicap: trying to keep them from doing anything and everything wrong, that I don't let them do anything at all. I certainly don't want to be that mom, so from now on, if you see my kids being their normal rowdy selves and wonder why I'm not interfering, it's because I'm trying to let them be themselves -- good, bad, ugly, shouting, crazy, dirty, etc... There's a fine line we walk between helping them be respectful and obedient, and just plain holding them back altogether. So let's all breathe deep and harness our patience -- 'cause with my kids it doesn't just take a village, it's gonna take a whole f*ckin' nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment