Today we went to a nearby park. We almost didn't make it: Eleanor and Amanda had many spats about toys, who was breathing on whom, and so on, and woke up Luke. Eleanor couldn't find her shoes, then her socks, then something from school broke, then she could only find one sock, each of which caused screaming fits followed by whimpering fits... However, thankfully, getting out of the house proved magic and there were no more bad moods until we got home. Amanda, for her part has caught the whining bug, which made me not want to go out with her. Once I heard that it helps if the parent whines at the child, to help the child hear what she sounds like, so I tried it this morning. Amanda said "No, mama, that was my own sound. Not yours."
I put some robeez shoes on Luke (they have little dragons on them!) In case you are wondering, Luke has big feet (which shows he belongs in this family, right David?) A while ago we went to the shoe store to get shoes for Amanda and I was thinking about getting Luke something for winter. The salesman said that the 6-12 month shoes would probably be better, since they're a size 3-4, but he measured Luke anyway. At 6.5 months, Luke's feet were a size 3.5. Needless to say, we got the 12-18 month shoes, and he wore them today (at 7 months) with no problem. He looked so much like a big boy with his shoes and his denim overalls.
A couple of times Amanda just ran off in the park to do her own thing. I know pretty well where she will be (mostly at the sand box) but sometimes I really had no idea. It struck me that I would never have let Eleanor do this, and I wonder which of these applies: 1) I am trying to keep track of too many kids, 2) Amanda isn't likely to get into too much trouble, whereas Eleanor was very likely to fall off a cliff or do something else dangerous, 3) I am just a neglectful parent and have a faulty sense of how safe she is. Some of these overlap, I see. Perhaps it is an appropriate level of guilt, but not enough to make me try to hover over Amanda. It's hard to know what is the right thing to do. She was indeed fine, and we ended up having a great time in the beautiful weather at the park.
I put some robeez shoes on Luke (they have little dragons on them!) In case you are wondering, Luke has big feet (which shows he belongs in this family, right David?) A while ago we went to the shoe store to get shoes for Amanda and I was thinking about getting Luke something for winter. The salesman said that the 6-12 month shoes would probably be better, since they're a size 3-4, but he measured Luke anyway. At 6.5 months, Luke's feet were a size 3.5. Needless to say, we got the 12-18 month shoes, and he wore them today (at 7 months) with no problem. He looked so much like a big boy with his shoes and his denim overalls.
A couple of times Amanda just ran off in the park to do her own thing. I know pretty well where she will be (mostly at the sand box) but sometimes I really had no idea. It struck me that I would never have let Eleanor do this, and I wonder which of these applies: 1) I am trying to keep track of too many kids, 2) Amanda isn't likely to get into too much trouble, whereas Eleanor was very likely to fall off a cliff or do something else dangerous, 3) I am just a neglectful parent and have a faulty sense of how safe she is. Some of these overlap, I see. Perhaps it is an appropriate level of guilt, but not enough to make me try to hover over Amanda. It's hard to know what is the right thing to do. She was indeed fine, and we ended up having a great time in the beautiful weather at the park.
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