Moments of peace

A moment of peace is a moment I wish for everyday. It basically is a moment where my kids play together nicely, with very little fighting and by themselves. Sometimes these moments are just a few minutes in the day and sometimes it lasts for hours. Its what we hope for as parents honestly. For one we want the peace, but also we want our kids to get along and play nicely together. Its not like my kids are not going to fight, I am a realist, but I want them to generally get along.

These days Erik has a wild imagination. He likes to take us on his ride, meaning his mom and dad, since Elliot "can't talk like him yet." There have been moments in there lately where he is finally figuring out ways to engage his brother in a healthy way that doesn't involve me getting mad. Its all part of his new and improved Erik attitude.

I first saw it happening when we were home all day Monday sick. We had been stuck home all weekend, Erik was having a bad asthma attack so when they went for the linens in the closet, why not. It was easy enough to clean up after their mess. It was insanely adorable though because they were pretending like it was bunk bed.

Its funny though because the more time my kids spend apart the better they get along. Erik didn't go to school until Wednesday, but for some reason on this Friday after each having the morning spent with friends, Erik in school and Elliot in gymnastics they came home and were just so happy together.

It started at the lunch table. They were each taking turns eating their lunch and making silly sounds and face while playing each saying "your turn." Then once their lunch was over it quickly turned into a game of animals which I didn't get a picture of, but was adorable.

Have I mentioned that Erik is obsessed with me taking pictures? My camera was upstairs in the office, he spies this chair in the living and tell me to go get my camera to take pictures. So I did and this is what I got. Love my boys, especially when I can get them together.

 

 

Then Erik got the brilliant idea of playing cave on the couch. What better idea than to pile on the pillow and  blankets and pretend its a secret cave. I was late putting them down for their naps because they were enjoying themselves so much this afternoon.

The best part is as I type this blog they are still playing this game and singing Halloween songs together. Although they keep handing me a car and asking me to play so I better go before the resort to turning off my computer.

Beans, Stickers, Playdates and more

I have just been so busy this fall I am not taking the time to blog or take pictures of my kids regularly. Honestly pictures of preschool pickup, drop off are not that interesting, but maybe some pictures of our new gymnastics class or some mommy & me class might do the trick. For right now, this is just a purge of all the pictures I took last week.

When I was dropping Erik off at preschool last week Elliot kept gravitating to the beans and one of the mom's mentioned to her two year how they did that project at home. I thought I would give it a try and see how it goes.

As most of our projects, it only lasted about 10 minutes before Erik started trying to feed Elliot beans. When I ran into the house quickly to grab something, I think some beans started getting put into the trunk of a bike. To me that is always a sign to end the project. So here are a few of the pictures from that day.

 

 

 

We also went to Target last week and I caved and bought some Halloween supplies in September. I can't help it my boys LOVE, LOVE Halloween. Its not just about the candy and dressing up for these boys, they have been talking for months about monsters, ghosts, and skeletons. As a matter of fact Erik only wanted to use stickers of skulls that day. We have been reading Halloween books all year since Erik specifically searches them out in the library, so we will be celebrating all month long since the boys love this holiday.

 

Last week, my friend Alicia swore that Sunday was her last day in California and we had to get together this week or else we wouldn't see her before she left for good. So we threw together an emergency afternoon playdate with all the kids. With all the babies and such I have seriously lost track of how many kids are at my house at one time, I'll just say a lot and more than 10! It was a fun day with very little fighting surprisingly enough. I brought out the bean project again though just to keep the kids from fighting. Of course Elliot did spazz out at one point and started flinging beans everywhere.

I thought of William when I dared to bring out the beans with all those kids. I knew he would like it.

Right before Elliot spazzed and they did play nicely together without it getting everywhere.

Erik and his beloved friend Audrey who was leaving us.

Ella saw me taking pictures and wanted to get in and then Elliot followed her lead. This is what I got...

It started raining and the kids were using the foam mats as umbrellas. It was seriously adorable. Every kid was doing it, but I was having focusing issues on that picture. 

Building a new road

When Erik told me today he wanted to build a new road, even though the gardener had just been here in the morning and my yard was perfect, I didn't have the heart to stop it. Today was just not the day to fight him, so I let him build a road. The funny thing is, once I started taking pictures he kept requesting over and over for me to take new ones and was relentless about me doing it. He was very interested in this new road he was building.

 

 

 

 

As I saw him doing this I thought to myself, this is a really good metaphor for my life these days. I am trying to build new roads. In so many ways, this fall has brought familiar changes, but I am also creating change in myself for the things that make me unhappy, or for the things I always wanted to do.

Elliot thought it was hilarious and fun for me to take a picture of his finger, so I did.

One of the first mantras I told myself for this year is to get involved. I decided to not get too crazy my first year, but just do a few little things to get my feet wet before I join the PTA and get immersed in Erik's elementary school next year when he joins kindergarten. So I am again volunteering to be the room parent for his preschool class if I make it to the sign up sheet on time Friday. Then for Elliot I volunteered to be a room rep and get involved with BPEC which is the preschool version of the PTA. Just the little things, but its out of my comfort zone and good for me.

 

There are other small areas I have tried to build new roads. Part of it is just with my diet and meal planning. We were home sick for a couple days and I basically prepped and freezed 4 different meals for the week because I am getting so involved and become much busier with meetings and such. We had the first one today and it was actually delicious. Tomorrow I plan on making eggplant parmesan and doubling the recipe and freezing it so I'll have even more food for the next couple of weeks.

Lastly I am trying to make a change for Erik, I have been trying to make this change for a while but have not been successful so far. I am just trying to make more out of school, male friends for him in his life. I have a great group of mom's that I love dearly and who have been with me since Erik was a baby, but they all have girls Erik's age. The older Erik gets, the more he needs more male interaction, so I need to create this change. This means if someone asks us for a boy playdate I won't say no.

Today a couple of Erik's friends from preschool came over after school with another mom's coordination. So while Elliot napped, I had five other boys at my house, which NEVER happens for us. It was so fun to watch these boys interact because they were obviously comfortable with one another. They were in the same preschool class all last year and now this year. Its funny too because I don't know the mom's that well, and its fun to get to know them, but its amusing to me because its usually the other way around. Erik meets his friends through me, not me meeting friends through him. It was amazingly peaceful to sit around and talk while these boys played. Although I must admit it wasn't all that different from when he plays with the girls except that did have a lot more swords or light sabers in their play.

Crazy, I didn't have to take a nap, eyes today.

So the change isn't big by any means and some of it might just be for right now, but everytime you build a new road you change a little about yourself and your perception. That is something I am always willing to do. I am just excited to see what other new roads we might build as the year progresses.