Spring Lessons

When the warm air finally arrived and most of the snow shrunk away from the driveway, we headed out for some outdoor play and ended up spending most of the day in the sunshine.  With a 3-year-old who wants to do everything her big brother does and a 6-year-old who wants to do things without his little sister tagging along and "messing things up" I often feel pulled in two directions at once.  But we dusted off the bikes and the soccer balls and the sandbox and occasionally took some deep breaths during some epic 3-year-old meltdowns and enjoyed our first REAL spring weekend.  And when I failed to follow the rules of soccer play, Sam asked me if maybe I wanted some lessons instead.  Lesson One: Dribbling.  Lesson Two: Stay close to the ball so it's harder for the opponent to take it away from you. Lesson Three: Use the side of your foot.

Lesson Four... Even if everyone has their own ball the three-year-old will cry that you're not playing with her enough so open the sandbox and give her something else to do.

Two Conversations About Sleep

The Three Year Old

On the first Wednesday of spring, our car winds along the frozen backwaters of the Mississippi River, and I glance in the rear view mirror.  Eva's eyelids are heavy.  The kids spent the night before at Jamie's and the night before that Eva spent two hours after bedtime doing the I-need-a-drink-I-have-to-go-potty-will-you-buy-cookies-tomorrow torture that has become a regular nighttime routine.  She hasn't slept great for two nights in a row.  It is almost five o'clock and if she falls asleep on the way home the bedtime routine tonight will be even more torturous than usual.

"Eva," I say.  "Don't go to sleep.  Stay awake.  We're almost home."

"Don't worry about it, Mom," she says.  "Don't worry about me.  You worry about yourself!"

The Six Year Old

On the first Wednesday of spring, Sam and I lay under the rocket blanket on his bed with one of the new books he brought home from school, one of the books that I snuck in to the Scholastic book order after he picked out Lego early readers and Star Wars phonics sets.  National Geographic First Big Book of Why.  He always tells me that he is smart because he likes science, and he and I enjoy reading science books after Eva's in bed.  I tell him he can pick out 2 more questions to read and then it's lights out.  We read an explanation of why you need to sleep at night, how the body needs to rest to take care of itself, to keep your mind from getting confused or angry or sad.  The second question he picks is about why we have dreams and nightmares.  The book explains that everything we see and touch and smell and hear during the day is tumbled around and when we sleep the brain makes mashed up movies of all these things.

"That doesn't make sense!" he says. 

"What doesn't?"

"They said your brains needs to rest at night but then they said dreams are when your brain is playing at night.  Which is it?"

"Good question, Sam.  That's a really good question."

March 2014

Random photos from the last month of crazy.  (Notice the moving boxes.)

With Eva, even a quiet Sunday morning painting session is full of drama...