This weekend was very unplanned and very awesome. I love weekends like that, where we just figure out what we want to do as we go, and it ends up being amazing.
Friday, we played our Pathfinder campaign again. It was so much fun, and hilarious because as part of the story, Bobby invoked a particularly funny game of Everyone is John that we played. That game, if you’ve never played it, is hilarious, and you need to play it. Preferably with people who have a ridiculous sense of humor. It’s really simple, the rules are a page long, and it’s so fun.
Saturday morning, we made the drive out to the Stoney Creek Nature Center to hold some Monarch butterflies and watch them be tagged and released for migration. That part was amazing, but we got sooo much more than that. Both Bobby and I got to release Monarchs outside, we also watched a short presentation to learn more about them. Our friend, Kimmy, raises Monarchs all the way from egg to migration, and she helped the nature center become certified as a Monach migration way station. Anyway, we not only got to watch some fly off, but we also had the absolute pleasure of witnessing a Monarch emerging from its chrysalis. It was absolutely breathtaking, I’ll add the photos of it at the end of this post. After we were finished being in awe of the new butterfly, we went and had lunch with Kimmy.
We also learned a lot about Lukas that day, just watching him do butterfly-related crafts with the woman who was running the presentation. Watching how well he worked with a glue stick and safety scissors was great, we had no idea he worked so well with them. So, after we got back home, we decided to go to Joann’s and pick up a bunch of crafting supplies for him. We’ve discovered that he’s a really good kid, but if he’s not occupied with something and starts to build up too much pent up energy, that’s when he starts acting up. At home, he decorated a little birdhouse, played with some popsicle sticks, and did some coloring. I love seeing him so excited.
Sunday marked our first trip of the year to the cider mill, and our first time going to Franklin Cider Mill. Lukas had a lot of fun, the donuts and cider were delicious, and Lukas got to play with one of his friends from school while we were there. Bobby and I also really enjoyed ourselves.
Today was a great day. It was a pretty average day at work, but it was good. After work, Bobby and I got a little destroyed by our personal trainer, but it was a good kind of destroyed. He did some work outs with us that are super easy to do anywhere, which is awesome. I love full-body, circuit training type workouts. It sounds weird, but it feels good to do those body weight work outs and have your body just be done. Pushing to the limit is how you get stronger. We came home and had an amazing dinner and now we’re just winding down.
I realized this evening that Lukas is really beginning to show self-control. There were a couple of times, but the most major situation this evening was that he went into the fridge to get a juice, and Bobby and I told him no and that he had to wait until dinner to have another. A lot of times, he would have just taken the juice out and gotten a time out. This time, he pulled his hand back and came over to me crying. I expressed to him that I understood that he felt very frustrated because he really wanted that juice, but that I was very proud of him for having self-control when he was told not to get one. I reminded him that dinner was almost done and he could have one soon. He was able to calm down after a few minutes and all was well. That was honestly the first time I really saw him fight the urge to go against what I told him. I am such a proud mommy this evening.
He’s also super funny. Lately he’s been making up other words to songs that he knows, and his pretend play is awesome. We have a huge box that we got a delivery in and he’s been using it as a house. He also continues to tell us crazy stories. The other morning when he woke up, he told me a story about a ghost and how he yelled at it to go away, I don’t know if we’re in creepy kid story territory now, but we might be.
Also, at the gym, Lukas plays in the play room while we work out. This evening I thought I’d see if we could get him to help clean up the toys, and he did! He stayed and helped until they were all put away, it was so nice to see him do that. His teacher also told us he had a very good day in pre-school today. I love seeing him learn, whether it’s education, or whether it’s practical every day life skills like helping, or exhibiting self-control. That’s when I feel like we’re actually doing a good job as parents. My biggest goals as a parent are to raise him to be an emotionally intelligent adult who isn’t afraid of his feelings, for him to be a smart, kind, compassionate, productive member of society. I know that sort of sounds like a lot when talking about a person who is only 3, but I think it’s important to keep in mind why you do what you do. I feel that gentle parenting is very important, and even though I slip up and raise my voice at him, I do my best to teach by example, to help him identify and work through his emotions, and as much as I can when he’s behaving badly, to teach him why what he’s doing is wrong. I’m not perfect, I lose my temper and raise my voice, I get frustrated, but thankfully I have a wonderful co-parent and he often steps in when I’m at the end of my rope.
Speaking of Bobby, I am very proud of him, as well. One of his dreams for a long time has been to make a video game. He’s finally decided to push himself to make just a simple game. Often, he has lofty goals and gets overwhelmed by the task at hand, but making a small game so that the goals are more achievable has been working really well! He’s working on a cute, simple side scrolling game and it’s coming along really well.
Also, on the subject of learning, I will be going to a talk about Object Oriented CSS and BEM tomorrow in Detroit after work. I’m always excited to learn more about my industry, network with people in it, and discover ways that I can improve my code. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a process, that the web development industry is always changing and evolving, and that I just have to keep changing and evolving with it.
And now, pictures!
Monarch emerging!
Lukas decorating a bird house!
