Summer Camp & Day Date

PJ attended his first summer day camp this year.

God, that sentence makes me feel old.

Anywho.

The camp included football (soccer), baseball, Frisbee, climbing on a ropes course, walks in the woods, tennis, and every other activity that could lead to little boys and girls getting as dirty as they can (and should!).

Patrick flourished. He was excited, energetic, positive, and integrated into his group. After months of the opposite, both the Mr. and I loved watching him blossom. He came home dirty as dirty can be each day.



After months of hearing "I don't know!" to almost every question, we suddenly heard story after story when we asked "How was your day?" and "Who did you play with?" and "What was your favorite part of the day?"

Stories that took minutes to tell, with bright eyes and a big smile, that included names and laughter and all those little details that matter.



By the third day, he even started teaching little Bean how to play new sports. With confidence and pride.

Confidence and pride carry over, of course. Bean took a page out of her big brother's book and this happened:

PJ's positive experience and our shared, increasingly positive family atmosphere, inspired us old people to go climbing on this amazing ropes course for a day date. 

We both climbed around, pushing the limits. After over two hours, with shaking arms and legs as well as heart soaring with pride, I stepped off the course. From the ground, I watched the Mr. take on even bigger challenges, pushing himself even harder.

Together, we ended our day date, tired, sore, and clear-eyed with confidence.

Thank you, summer day camp and awesomely challenging ropes course, for all the confidence and smiles. We needed you. 

XO

Return of the Bouncy Chair

Remember the blog that I wrote in April about returning to work? No? You can read it here.

In that post I wrote how the Mr was "loving the time without me putting my nose into his parenting all the time. He might have mentioned that aspect of me working a few times...okay, more than a few times." And I posted a picture to make my point, adding the caption "I do not recommend this approach."


Really, go back and read the entry.

Welcome back.

Anyways...a few evenings ago the Mr. ran into our bedroom, which I am currently using as an office as I try to balance family and work needs, proclaiming he had just made the BEST VIDEO EVER!

Yes, that would be my 11 month old child bouncing pretty energetically on his infamous bouncy chair with no safety harness, a hard floor below him, a metal fan within head-hitting range behind him, all while wearing no pants but for some reason socks and the German soccer jersey. And his dad's hands are busy making a video on our camera.

Sigh.

I have no desire to be a limiting parent who follows her kid around repeating: don't touch that! watch out! danger! etc etc etc. But at the same time ... well, I would not recommend this approach.

So it's a pretty good thing that I'm not always around because PJ had a great time building ever-better balancing skills as well as confidence in his abilities; the thrill of the bouncy chair seems to have dissipated; the Mr. enjoyed tons of PJ smiles; and - even I have to admit - it is a pretty awesome video.

My fearless, adventurous boys. Mommy's gotta keep up, huh?


xo