Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
My boys love play dates. They both frequently ask if a friend can come over to play and I try to accommodate their requests. It isn’t always easy to make plans, since the kids are busy with sports or it might not fit their friend’s parents’ schedules.

Today, Jack invited his friend Ethan over. They’re best buds at school and he lives close by. They’ve had play dates at each other’s houses over the last couple years without any issues. He is one of those friends whom I don’t mind coming over to play for a couple of hours.

At this moment, I’m getting a kick out of listening to them play. It is hysterical. They are battling with Legos, playing instruments for added drama, pretending the globe is a meteor all while wearing super hero costumes. I love the creativity these kids come up with. They don’t realize how much they are building social and creative thinking skills. They just think it’s playtime. It’s a win-win for all of us.

I’m so happy Jack has built some really great friendships. It takes a lot of courage to be a big boy and pick trusting friends. As a parent, I’m glad to see Jack’s choices in friends have been good ones. This week, Jack and Ethan will begin another school year. Perhaps they will score a third year of being in the same class together Regardless, I know they’ll continue a great friendship throughout the school year and hopefully make some new ones.

From Monday  Mom – Neetika:
We spent the weekend starting to get our home in order for the baby’s arrival in a couple of months. Haley seemed to go back and forth on how she felt about it. At one point, I moved her clothes to a different part of the closet, and she kind of had a meltdown. I promptly moved them back. But she was excited when we set up her old play yard, which she had forgotten about. She loved throwing her stuffed animals in there and diving in to play with them. Then she began to lighten up. She told her grandmother on the phone, “We’re getting organized because we don’t want to be late for the baby.”

As I believe is natural, I feel overwhelmed when I think about adding another member to our brood. Whenever I get stressed, I start making lists. To do lists, to buy lists. It makes me feel like I have some amount of control in a situation that is anything but controlled. I may not know how it’s going to go and how I’ll handle all of my additional responsibilities, but at least I’ll have the “stuff” I need to take care of the baby. I’ve done this before, so I’m sure my maternal instinct will kick in the same way it did the first time. There’s something to be said about the power of positive thinking.

I have to say, seeing some “baby stuff” making an appearance after so many years has gotten me pretty excited about having a little one here—it’s starting to feel real. Pregnancy has become a bit more difficult in the last few weeks, and while trying to keep myself as comfortable as possible, I sometimes lose sight of what it is I’m doing. Our lives are about to change forever. Although preparing for the change is difficult physically and emotionally, it’s nothing we can’t handle. All that matters is that before too long, our precious gift will be here. We’ll be ready with most of the gear and all the love in the world.

From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory has taken to playing too rough. His daily report from daycare on Monday informed us that he had hit one of his classmates and found it funny. His teachers redirected him and tried to explain to him why he couldn’t hit his friends, but we definitely spent the week working on doing a better job at reinforcing that at home, too.

Rory has always found it somewhat humorous to smack mommy and daddy in the face. We’ve always tried to emphasize the importance of being gentle and that hitting is not nice, but, so far, it hasn’t really kept him from doing it. Now, we’re realizing the critical importance of nipping that in the bud sooner rather than later. So that has become a key focus.

He’s also taken to throwing things, hard, in the bathtub. First it was the stacking cups, so we took those out of rotation. Then it was the floating turtle toys he has, so those came out of the tub, as well. Even tonight, when I limited his toys to the foam wall-stickie shapes, he decided his toy of choice would be the cup I use to rinse him off. And he nearly took my ear off when he tossed it.

Perhaps one method to calming him down, at least at bedtime, might be to exercise him a bit more after dinner out on the playground by our house, or just walking around the neighborhood a bit more. But simply giving him more opportunities to burn off energy will be no substitute for doing a better job of redirecting him when he acts out and trying to teach him the implications of his actions. I know it will be quite some time before he’s able to understand us fully, but mommy and daddy are committed to doing our best to change those behaviors.