{only a tiny glimpse of the terror}
Ordinarily this would overwhelm me, but I knew ahead of time that I would be on my own this weekend (Aaron was out of town for a meet and stayed at his cousins for guy time and football), so I decided to take a slightly different approach this weekend.
Instead of trying to get through all the cleaning before taking time out to play with the kids, I decided to spend the morning with them and then get to the mess at nap time.
{happy girl}
{a leaf for you, mama!}
I'm so glad I chose to work in reverse order. The kids were in great moods after spending a full morning with Mama instead of trying to wait "patiently" for me to finish my work.
It's taken me a long time to realize that just because I'm constantly moving doesn't mean I'm being productive and that is a conundrum I have been struggling with for far too long.
Before kids I stuck by the old adage, "work now, play later" but now we have kids and they get anxious waiting on me to be ready to play which naturally leads to them demanding attention in negative ways. I am not as patient as I would like to be when I get pulled away from my work and when I'm constantly pulled back and forth I end up gassed and feeling like I have nothing to show for all that spent energy.
Not this weekend.
By working in reverse order the kids' attention buckets were full enough to earn me a little breathing room and I got 11 loads of laundry done - washed folded and put away. As well as all the bedding and bathroom linens. Not to mention I got the diapers washed, stuffed, put away and got a ton of housework done too!
I didn't get it all done on Saturday and since I knew I had spill over work on Sunday I decided to take the same approach.
Right after breakfast, I got the kids out the door and off on a walk.
{I took this photo with the intentions of using it for his monthly update post}
We walked the trail we recently plotted and took it all the way out to our neighborhood Starbucks.
On the way back Mac found a grouping of rocks along the perimeter of the gated community next door to us and he asked me to take a picture of him sitting on one of the rocks.
We had a perfect first day of Fall. Mac and I enjoyed talking about the change in weather, the scenery, the fact that we needed light sweaters, etc.
Mac taught Adrian how to pick flowers for Mama and sister.
It was pretty sweet.
Ava took two naps in the carrier during our walk which ended up lasting approximately 3 hours!
On Sunday afternoon, I did preschool work with Mac. He got his name written in order and in a line for the first time!
He was upset when he realized his first "A" was backward. He said, "Mama, I made a P not an A!" I told him he could always try on another sheet, but he wasn't interested.
He then recited the letters, "M-p-c-a-r-I-o"
He would not call that thing an A. Ha ha!
The kids were up late tonight. They took turns calling out to us and didn't stay down until sometime after 10 pm.
I noticed Adrian hadn't pooped at his regular time today, but didn't think much of it until he pooped at bedtime which kept him from putting himself to sleep. This kept Mac up of course as they share a room.
On top of that, Ava is going through a growth spurt so she nursed on and off constantly until about 11 pm.
Mac has been acting afraid of the dark and/or strange noises since Friday after we watched the movie. He kept asking me questions about what I would do if X happened or Y happened. He was asking about situations he saw in the movie wherein the mama bear always protected her babies. He asked, "Mama, will you always take care of us and keep us safe like the mama bear?" I said yes each time, and he always said, "Thanks, mom." This of course kept him up on Sunday night as well.
Once they were all asleep I got some quality time with my mister. We ate popcorn and watched a show. It was amazing.
That's about it. A weekend of fun (and cleaning with mama.
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