Sarah and Maggie flew off to Portland yesterday, leaving Griffin and me for five days on our own. We began it with a divine night’s sleep: 12 hours for Griffin and 10 for me. (I snuck down to the basement and played a few rounds of Super Mario—don’t tell G.) This morning, while making breakfast, Griffin announced, “I want to listen to some loud rock ‘n’ roll music!”
We’re off to a good start.
A true testament to balance bikes, Griffin learns to ride his new bike (a gift from Grandma Pam and Grandpa Jeff) in less than ten minutes! That is one happy kiddo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJC5p4D9Zgw&sns=emFirst snow day I’ve had since the seventies. But Griffin’s preschool was still on, so we took the kids via sled. We should all travel by sled more.
Mama, if Maggie gets squished, can you grow another one?
It’s February in Minnesota, and we’ve been having a lot of dance parties to get out our energy. Griffin’s hands-down favorite song is Say Hey by Michael Franti. He calls it the “I Love You Song” and he could listen to it all day long if I let him! He recently made up a dance called The Salt and Pepper, which involves shaking his fists up and down, “like I’m shaking salt and pepper!!” It’s pretty cute, and if it gets his energy out, I’m all for it!
http://youtu.be/dNiSUk_8Z0oMaggie even has a dance of her own, too:
http://youtu.be/hRkON3aGHu8
While fooling around with the pieces from our “Lord of the Rings” board game this morning, Griffin puts on the One Ring and asks,
“Daddy, what’s this ring for?”
“That’s the One Ring! When you wear it, you can control the whole world!”
“Oh,” says Griffin thoughtfully, removing the ring, “I don’t feel like doing that today.”
<crash and crying coming from Griffin’s room>
“Were you playing on the rocking chair ottoman again?”
“Yes.”
“You hurt yourself more on that than any other thing in your room!”
“Yeah. It’s a killer.”
—
Grandpa: So, Griffin, do you think you’d like to come by yourself to Grandma and Grandpa’s house sometime?
Griffin: No, I don’t think so.
Grandpa: Oh? Why not?
Griffin: Well, I need someone to help me cross the street.
—
Griffin and Andrew were looking at the photo book I put together on Shutterfly, which we received in the mail today:
Andrew: Griffin! Please don’t wrinkle the pages like that! It’s permanent, that wrecks the pictures, and we want to look at this book for the rest of our lives.
Griffin: Ok, well, when we’re dying, then we can just wrinkle it.
—
Showing Griffin what I’ve knit so far of my sweater, he says, “Well, make sure you take the needles out before you wear it!”
Griffin and Maggie love each other! Griffin is 3 1/2 and Maggie is 7 months.
http://youtu.be/7Yb395CCGuYTurkey?
No thank you.
Ham?
Nope.
Stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc?
No, no, no…
Ok, Griffin, what would you like?
A pickle and some cranberry sauce!
Let’s be honest: being a stay-at-home parent is hard. And tiring. With colleagues who throw tantrums, pin you to the couch demanding milk, want you to pay attention to them every minute you are awake, and very infrequently express gratitude for your efforts, it can get a little deflating.
We’ve been having a hard few weeks. Griffin is…well…three and a half. This equals riding a roller coaster of emotions on an hourly basis. One minute, he’s delightful and pointing out amazing observations about the world, the next minute, he’s throwing a screaming tantrum because I dared to open the garage door without him. Maggie has evolved past the take-anywhere-do-anything ease of newborn-hood and entered babyhood, which for her, consists of being quite content as long as I am within 12 inches of her at all times, most preferably holding or touching her. God help us if I leave her line of sight. She’s sitting up now, which is awesome, but Griffin’s favorite thing to do is tip her over, because, you know, he “just wanted to.” This past weekend we added a family cold to the mix, which left us all a little more cranky and a lot more tired. With Andrew’s demanding school schedule this year and my recent daily challenges with the kids, it’s probably safe to say the parental reserves are starting to run a little low.
Today, though, had some magic in it. It started in the morning when Griffin sneaked into my room and loudly whispered that he needed help putting on his underwear. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but there was something about the way he crept in and was trying so hard to follow all of the morning time rules of being quiet and gentle that made my heart burst for him. <loud whisper> “THANKS, MAMA. GOOD MORNING, TOO. I LOVE YOU, TOO!” and back to his bed to read books until his orange sun lit up. We made apple waffles together after Maggie woke up, and then decided it was a good day to go to the sculpture garden and then a park. And that’s exactly what we did, and it was…magic. The weather was stupendous, everyone was in good spirits, I was fully present and fully loving my job. Days like today help fill me up, and I’m thankful to get a gift like this, especially when I most needed it.
http://youtu.be/62r2yBFA5yc