Give me time...

All I ever wanted to be growing up was a Mom. Sometimes this desire gets lost in the laundry so to speak but I feel like I have a fresh perspective on parenting - it's part of the coming spring I've been experiencing.

This has been a crazy week for a two year old. Extra kids in the house, a sick brother, tired Mommy, etc. has led to some extra crankiness and "NO!'s". I too have been a less than perfect Mom - probably criticizing more than praising and much too busy. Last night I decided Sam needed a little "Mommy Time". (Neither of us had been out of the house since Sunday! ) I had a book on hold at the library (yes Matthew, it is Merton's book, "New Seeds of Contemplation") so I decided that would be a good place to start. After picking up my book from the hold counter we ventured to the kid's section and read a few books together (along with a little boy that I have no idea where his parents were). Sam has been less than enthusiastic about sitting down for us to read to him lately, he wants to read to himself or not at all but he actually let me read him 3 or 4 books! Once we had had our fill of the library we went to Wendy's and shared Frosty's. This was great. Sam was talking to me the whole time and I think it served him well. He kept saying, "thank you Mommy" and "Love you Mommy". He is such an adult sometimes. I feel so much better about our relationship; too often I feel like I am the disciplinarian since I am home with him most of the time. I think that is a major problem with parenting in the 21st century; we forget to slow down and spend quality time with our kiddos! I am looking forward to adding more Mommy Dates into our routine.

Today we are having a heat wave! I think it's 40 some degrees outside. We spent some time outside today - here are some pics to show you our fun! I was worried that Ray wasn't warm enough but he fell asleep for a half hour in the stroller so, I'm sure he was plenty warm! Sam and I had fun making and throwing snow balls and then built a snowman. It was perfect packing snow today since some of it had melted and froze again.
Sam then thought our neighbors snow is better than ours so, he danced and walked around the snow in their yard. I hope they were watching out the window because it was really funny.