Weekending

I just got back from the most wonderful long weekend. It’s the first of many this summer, as we have changed from the very easy for us 5 day a week daycare to a bit of a cobbled together child care plan. Our usual week has the kids in daycare 9 hours a day, and we will spend about 4 awake hours with the kids during the week, and the weekends are busy.


The past 5 days were certainly busy, but a different kind of busy. We visited the zoo, we celebrated the 4th, went to parties. But I also had blocks of time where I just sat and watched my kids. And honestly, it was a gift. Because I’m not with them 24X7, I don’t get to see just how great they really are. We spent the entire day at the lake on Friday while Aaron was at work. It was awesome for many reasons, but I pretty much got to watch Cam figure out how to swim. All day he tried different things, got braver and braver, and by the end of the day? Swimming without a bubble. Insane.

Maggie spent the entire day on the edge of the lake making little imaginary worlds. It was a camp day, so we would stay constant, but new batches of kids would appear every few hours, and Maggie would rope new groups of girls into playing with her… so great to watch.

Midway through the day, the ice cream truck came. I handed the kids money and they ran up the hill to get their treats, no worries about being away from me and SO excited that they paid themselves. I love it. I just think this is such an amazing age to experience. Things are clicking in their brains and they are learning. The work that Aaron and I have put in over the years of consistent parenting and messages – I think it’s finally paying off. They know what is OK to do (most of the time) they know what they are capable of, and now they just DO it.

It was only five days off, but it was awesome.