Day out with Mommy
Elf and I had our Special Day Together yesterday. We weren't able to go ice skating because there were no open skate times, but we did get the information about skate times to use later and our skates are in the trunk of my car instead of in the living room.
We had lunch out together and talked and walked together. We had ice cream (which neither of us could finish).
It turned out that a nearby town was having its yearly autumn fair...and, to my great surprise, it was ALL FREE. Inflatable slides and climbing things and moon-walk jumpers...and it was ALL FREE. We walked around together and had a great time. Elf got free balloons, a free balloon "flower" that looked for all the world like a mace...we shared a sno-cone. I called home and Daddy came with Ben, and they spent their time together and we overlapped a bit.
The Tai Kwon Do dojo across the street was having a special demonstration and invited any interested kid to practice on foam and then on their lightest, driest boards at breaking a board. Elf was interested, but didn't want to do it, then she saw other kids do it and got interested, then went up to try and backed out, then she watched Ben do it and then she tried again and did it and was SO proud. I told her how proud I was of her for giving it another try even though it had seemed too scary the first time. The folks who were doing the demos were REALLY lovely and energetic and great with kids and I was really impressed.
Course, the kids still need to learn to swim.
Friday night we went out and the kids climbed walls at a rock-climbing place. Elf went all the way to the ceiling first and it was just AMAZING to watch what a natural she is at clambering up what looks like a sheer wall (course, the free-climbing guys who were swinging around like monkeys without a harness, going up and around and sideways and looking like they were hanging upside down...that was just...surreal and Valerie's comment about Brian Boitano "not having paid his gravity bill in years" kept coming into my mind). Ben did a good job too but gives up more easily--much how Elf did when she was a year younger.
I'm just so impressed with the kids. I love the degree of fearlessness, independence, and try-anything they both are developing, even through a certain measure of shyness.
Now I'm all torn about what we schedule for them. They're interested in Baha'i school (which they loved last year and I'd like to continue to tag along with julietma and have the kids have a community of other kids. Elf is interested in swimming, skating, ballet, and, I think, something else. Ben is showing off his somersaults at every turn and I think he'd enjoy gymnastics. mtgat's older offspring is starting martial arts and I'd like the kids to be able to share their activities with friends, so I'm lured by that and by the focus and discipline and confidence-building of that, but I'm also uncomfortable with anything with fighting/sparring/kicking/hitting...and, well, I just don't know. Too. Many. Choices. ...which is far better than too few and absence of choices, but I feel inadequate as a parent to make good decisions, even knowing we can try something for a while and then move on if it's not the best thing. I still haven't found a ballet school that doesn't have a hundreds-of-dollars extravaganza at the end of the year, and so I'm not comfortable with that and...arg.
But our Day Out Together was lovely and I really enjoyed my kids. When we all got home, Elf and I played Othello and then Ben joined us and we played Life, which Elf won with over 2.2 MILLION dollars at the end of the game. It was lovely (AND all three of us had same-sex spousal units in our cars *grin*).
We had lunch out together and talked and walked together. We had ice cream (which neither of us could finish).
It turned out that a nearby town was having its yearly autumn fair...and, to my great surprise, it was ALL FREE. Inflatable slides and climbing things and moon-walk jumpers...and it was ALL FREE. We walked around together and had a great time. Elf got free balloons, a free balloon "flower" that looked for all the world like a mace...we shared a sno-cone. I called home and Daddy came with Ben, and they spent their time together and we overlapped a bit.
The Tai Kwon Do dojo across the street was having a special demonstration and invited any interested kid to practice on foam and then on their lightest, driest boards at breaking a board. Elf was interested, but didn't want to do it, then she saw other kids do it and got interested, then went up to try and backed out, then she watched Ben do it and then she tried again and did it and was SO proud. I told her how proud I was of her for giving it another try even though it had seemed too scary the first time. The folks who were doing the demos were REALLY lovely and energetic and great with kids and I was really impressed.
Course, the kids still need to learn to swim.
Friday night we went out and the kids climbed walls at a rock-climbing place. Elf went all the way to the ceiling first and it was just AMAZING to watch what a natural she is at clambering up what looks like a sheer wall (course, the free-climbing guys who were swinging around like monkeys without a harness, going up and around and sideways and looking like they were hanging upside down...that was just...surreal and Valerie's comment about Brian Boitano "not having paid his gravity bill in years" kept coming into my mind). Ben did a good job too but gives up more easily--much how Elf did when she was a year younger.
I'm just so impressed with the kids. I love the degree of fearlessness, independence, and try-anything they both are developing, even through a certain measure of shyness.
Now I'm all torn about what we schedule for them. They're interested in Baha'i school (which they loved last year and I'd like to continue to tag along with julietma and have the kids have a community of other kids. Elf is interested in swimming, skating, ballet, and, I think, something else. Ben is showing off his somersaults at every turn and I think he'd enjoy gymnastics. mtgat's older offspring is starting martial arts and I'd like the kids to be able to share their activities with friends, so I'm lured by that and by the focus and discipline and confidence-building of that, but I'm also uncomfortable with anything with fighting/sparring/kicking/hitting...and, well, I just don't know. Too. Many. Choices. ...which is far better than too few and absence of choices, but I feel inadequate as a parent to make good decisions, even knowing we can try something for a while and then move on if it's not the best thing. I still haven't found a ballet school that doesn't have a hundreds-of-dollars extravaganza at the end of the year, and so I'm not comfortable with that and...arg.
But our Day Out Together was lovely and I really enjoyed my kids. When we all got home, Elf and I played Othello and then Ben joined us and we played Life, which Elf won with over 2.2 MILLION dollars at the end of the game. It was lovely (AND all three of us had same-sex spousal units in our cars *grin*).