I can’t say a whole lot for myself today, but I can say that the kids had a riot.
I was part of the morning walk that took place between their breakfast and our brunch. My brother and I walked around the block with all of the four big kids. We threw rocks into puddles, into the ditch, and predicted the moves of cars and trucks nearby. Dekker was pretty on top of that part. “Oh, they’re just parking.”
Brunch was an enormous feed of custom made omelettes, and instead of following that up with naps as per usual, Simon and Stefan took the kids outside for an epic water fight. And I mean epic as in there were water guns and small children who got to squirts their uncles. That fight went on for quite some time. I watched them through the window occasionally when they made their way into the front yard. Both of my brothers were solidly soaked, Simons boys were soaked, Dekker was pretty dry except from his sweat, and Laela had her perfectly dry game face on. They played hard, but came in sweaty and dirty and tired. All four of them removed their shirts, grabbed a bowl of popcorn, and watched some Netflix.
There was another walk leading up to supper time, but I was in charge of supper tonight and as it drew near, I realized I had messed up the timing completely. I think the thing I am worst at in regards to preparing food is getting it all to be ready at the same time. I hear that comes with time, but for me, its taking its precious time. I’m just not good at it. However, the meal was saved and each part of it managed to survive and taste good.
Dekker was very upset, after all of his play, to have to sit at the table and eat food that was not in the mood for. Honey chicken is always tricky with him, because he insists that he doesn’t like it, but we know he does. Every. Single. Time. So I spoke to him in advance about it, since he was upset about the food long ahead of time. I told him that I understood if he wasn’t in the mood, but he needed to have a good attitude about it. I said that, if he had a good attitude about it, and ate without whining, he’d only have to have three bites and then I’d figure out something else for him. BUT, I said, if he whined a whole bunch about it and made a big fuss, he’d have to have five bites. To my pure delight, he came to the table and barely whined as Brady put chicken on his plate. And suddenly, his entire serving was gone. He loudly requested more chicken. He wanted it separate from his rice today, even though I had shredded it. Brady scooped some onto his plate, and again, he ate it and loudly asked for more. OH MY GOSH!! It was so lovely to feed him today 🙂 As he ate, he’d say “Watch me!” and take really big, emphatic bites. He asked me “Mommy, did you make this supper?” I told him I had, and he was like “Oh, thank you for making it, mommy!” I love those “thank yous” the most. The unprompted ones that quash all of the beliefs that kids his age don’t understand the concept of thankfulness. He ate beautifully and was so well mannered and charming. I was so very proud.
The kids got into their jammies well, and while good nights weren’t the smoothest they’ve ever been, they went down really really well. We had a nice visit with everyone else, but around 10:00pm, Rowan started to move around and we decided to call it a night. My parents are already down for the night, and I’m sad that we’re not out talking with my siblings, but I’m just so sleepy, and all of the busyness is making me miss my husband more than I thought I would. So we’re going to have some normalcy, tucked away together. A bit of snacking and Seinfeld 🙂
I hope tomorrow is this good!