A blanket of calmness is the only way I can describe how I have been feeling lately since I am embracing this learning in freedom and mindful parenting attitude. I am making so much effort to just enjoy my children and be present with them and see life through their eyes. I thought I was doing this before but now I see that I was not. It is hard to break old habits of "do as I say or else" but I am trying. I make an effort to follow directives with short explanations and reasons for my directive. eg... please do not throw dirt in the fish pond it will hurt the fish" instead of NO THOWING DIRT. Most times this works:^)

My current struggle with Shaun (3) is he constantly goes in to the fridge for snack treats etc but does not finish whatever it is. Particularly the 89c yogurts. He is so stubborn and hard to redirect but the kinder gentler me is trying.

The best connections moment of the weekend: We recently got caterpillars and watched them develop. The boys were interested in every stage and checked them every day it was great. The caterpillars did their thing and became butterflies and we released them last Friday morning. Last night Shaun (whom is very much into pretend now) wrapped himself up in a blanket and was squirming around and said " I a caterpillar, I in my a-coon" then burst up out of the blanket and ran around flapping his arms announcing he was a butterfly. I asked him what color he was and he proudly looked at his flapping wings and stated with a big smile "orange"..... A moment I want to remember forever.

My day: May 7 2007
Today I overslept and did not send Ian to school because he did not want to wake up. I half rationalized he has been fighting a cold and could use a day of rest but really I just don't care anymore whether he goes to school. Shaun got up and insisted he put on shorts and a sweat shirt with his new (to him) green monster boots and went out to play in the newly installed fish pond (which I discovered he has thrown dirt into.) Jake got up and was reading books in his room. I have all their books out of the shelf because I had sorted through them and donated the ones we don't want or need anymore. Since they are in a big pile this has led them to be interested in them again. Ian has been reading the 50 states book and learning the capitols. My mom is visiting from DE (to help out with my sister Kim who just got out of the hospital from a bought of newly discovered crohn's disease) and was having coffee and planning her day at my computer. John had gotten up early showered and set out to walk the dog. Ian was not waking up so I just let him sleep. I made Shaun a bowl of ice cream as it is not worth the argument and made his lunch for nursery school. Then took him to school where he proudly showed off his new boots. Came home to find Jake now in the dining room creating a pirate world with his imaginext and eating pancakes. So I sat and had coffee with Mom and watched some CNN. After she left for my sister Kim's house I asked Jake if he wanted to watch his recorded shows. He watched Time Warp Trio a cartoon that 3 kids time travel. He very excitedly told me about how they went back in time to Africa before the time of American slave trade when the Africans kept other Africans as slaves. He thought that was fascinating and asked me to watch it with him as I was checking email. I told him I would join him momentarily. When I finished and joined him it was over but he was interested in watching another show I had recorded for him called Bonehead Detectives. He had been skeptical about it because he thought it would be a dry adult archeology
doc but was pleasantly surprised to find it was a kids show. Well done too I might add. Discovery Kids is becoming our favorite channel. I really enjoyed it. At some point Ian had wondered down had some pancakes then went back up to their room to play playstation. Then Jake decided he wanted to open his Airmazing Game an air obstacle course which he had purchased with his birthday money.(So proud-He found it on the clearance rack for $7 from $24.99) I needed to get batteries for it so a quick trip to the store and I was back to put it together. He figured it out and had fun getting the ball through the obstacles. After that he moseyed upstairs to play playstation with Ian. I talked on the phone to Beth for about 45 minutes then made some lunch for us. I suggested that Ian get dressed, then they disappeared again perhaps back to playstation. They are obsessed with the Sly Cooper games and just got the first game having already finishing Sly2 & 3. I went back on the computer for awhile and then got the call they were coming to pick up the PODS i have had since Sept. I heard the truck and got the boys outside to watch. It is a fascinating contraption. It is like a boat hoist and the boys loved watching it. We took pictures. Then back inside to respective whatever. At 2:30pm I went and picked up Shaun from nursery school. I decided to call my sister Kim to see if she was up for a visit and she was not but before I hung up the phone my other sister pulled up with my nephew and visited for a while. I futzed in the garden and now it is about 5pm we just spotted a catbird on the bird feeder-when we spot something we sound the general alarm and everyone comes running. Since my nephew left they have been playing in the basement with their rediscovered toys that have been in storage since Sept in the PODS. All happy and peaceful. John just walked in and it is Time for his yoga and Jake's Tae Kwon Do. Guess I should think about dinner.