May 14th: Today’s Dispatch

Today’s Dispatch

I am having a pretty good week.  Sunday was Mother’s Day and I was treated to a wonderful breakfast made by my husband, a great card that Patrick made in school, I spoke with my grandmother on the phone, we visited Brendan’s grandmother, and later in the day–I got my second covid vaccine! Huzzah!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had play times with friends at playgrounds.  Also on Wednesday, we went to a children’ s nature program at  the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus. Patrick, the five year old, found it very informative. It was about tree identification and animals that live in the trees.  We also got to meet a screech owl during the class.  Patrick probably raised his hand to tell the group leader a story about his life and was maybe tangentially related to the  topic that was being discussed.  I don’t really know for sure, because  Henry mostly ran away from the group during the class, so I mostly chased him back to the group. Patrick seemed to get a lot out of it though.

I walked away from the class asking myself, “Why do I have the wild children who never want to sit still during an organized children’s program?” Isn’t that what you are supposed to do when you are a stay-at-home mom, take your children to programs and playdates? 

But the boys must take after me, I am pretty sure that I was/ am part Wildling too.

 This is not the first time I have had this thought though.  In another example, last week we went to an outdoor storytime at our local library and neither boy sat still at all.  Patrick tried to stand in front of the group and co-lead the program during various parts and Henry ran between our blanket, the nearby bike trail and away from the group into the parking lot and into the library. The children’s librarian did invite the children to move around but my children really took that invitation and ran with it, literally. Henry ran as far as the main road after the program was over, but luckily Patrick held him and kept him from going past the guard rail onto the 35mph road until I arrived.  It was scary.

Before I went to bed on Wednesday night, I took some time to write down all the really good things in my life and I found a lot of them.  Sometimes, I feel like all the other parents at storytime sit on their blankets and talk to each other while their children sit, without incident, beside them.  That doesn’t really work for us. Patrick is getting better at participating in groups, but I still have a pretty wiggley bunch.

Still there is so much to be thankful for.  Patrick enjoys learning and usually has questions to ask the leader during a program and me after we go to a program.  Henry has a lot of energy and always has such a big excited smile. He is starting to say more words and communicate better.

Also, truthfully, the less we go to organized activities, the more we lean into each other.  Patrick told me on the way home from the library book sale that we went to today that he couldn’t wait for the school year to end so he could stay home and read books and watch DVDs.

I have been feeling this closeness that we get from leaning-in more and more lately.  Patrick is developing a similar taste in music to me from riding in the car with me so much. His favorite song right now is Elevator Boots by The Counting Crows.  When it comes on the radio he makes me turn it up.  The Counting Crows are my favorite band so this thrills me to no end!  Also yesterday he asked me if I liked the song Texas Sun by Leon Bridges now because I said I didn’t like it before but yesterday I got excited when it came on.  Also he likes to sing “Keep on rockin in a free world.” It is really fun to have a mini me!

Henry likes to follow Brendan around with his toy lawn mower while Brendan mows the grass.  When Brendan stops to pick something up or move something to mow, Henry does the same thing. He likes to act out the motions in songs and really enjoys when I sing to him in the bathtub.  He has also started to play with other boys at the playground.  He still doesn’t say that many words but I saw him yesterday and today chase around other boys at the park. Today he also followed a boy onto the basketball court and the played trucks together.

Also after a park trip yesterday, I feel like I need to take back what I told one of my sisters about my children’s wild behavior.  In the past, I have told my family that my children are Wildlings, from Game of Thrones and I have called them The Bumpuses’s Dogs from  the movie The Christmas Story.  What I mean is that they don’t intend to be wild, it is just part of their nature.

In any case, yesterday we went to a playground near where Henry goes to speech therapy. We met a little boy there a few weeks ago who came there with his family after his Thursday preschool class. This playground isn’t near our house, so we only go Thursdays after speech therapy.  The boy and his family have also been making a special trip there so he can play with Patrick. 

It turns out that Patrick’s friend didn’t come yesterday, but a bunch of wilder children than my children came instead. It was quite something because on most of our other trips to this part, it has been very quiet and not very crowded.  It was much busier than usual yesterday.  

One boy took Patrick’s toy hard hat and filled it up with wood chips and threw them at him, while I was standing right beside the boy.  Also a three-year-old girl threw wood chips at me right after I asked her not to and then she laughed at me.

I didn’t get mad and I wasn’t mad, but I did take my children by the hand and tell them that it was time to leave. One mother who saw the wood chip incident mouthed “I’m sorry” to me and I don’t even think those were her children. 

Patrick told me in the car that he thought those kids were playing too crazy.  When he recounted the story later to his father, he said, with what sounded like pride, “Mommy saved my helmet”.

So now that I have seen other children being wilder than my children,  I guess I need to take back some of my complaints.  I still think the boys remind me of The Bumpuses’s Dogs sometimes though and I am glad that they are ours.

Today is a big day for Brendan and me.  It is our 10th wedding anniversary. 10 years. It’s hard to believe.  I am beaming from ear to ear today. I love what we have built together.

I am so happy for us.  Thank you to all of you who were there with us to celebrate 10 years ago!

I hope you all have a good weekend. I am not using Facebook right now, but if any of you want to share the link to this post with anyone you know, that is fine with me. This is a public blog. If you want to subscribe, I invite you to do so and would be so honored if you subscribed or shared this post.

Have a great weekend!

Katie