Calm Weekend

Quiet, calm, relaxing weekend.

We took the kids to the park for an hour or so on Saturday, just to get them out of the house for a while. I left the camera at home, and even left my phone and purse in the car. Not having anything to lug around with me made it much less of a pain to chase Alex all over, I must admit. I want a camera built into my head that I can control with subvocal commands, though, because he was so freaking cute on the swings and going down the slide.

After the park, we took the kids to La Tolteca for dinner -- thanks to various events, we haven't actually had a dinner out in quite a while, so that was nice, too. Alex got bored and squirmy before we were done, but all in all was pretty cool.

Sunday was even quieter. Aside from the grocery store run, we didn't leave the house at all. Alex read (well, had read to him) a gajillion books, and Penny played with Play-doh and various other crafts, and helped me assemble the soup we had for dinner.

I have to say that the new organization of the toys is working out pretty well -- after Penny cleans up at night, when I do my inspection, I do still sometimes find things that she's missed and forgotten to put away, but so far I haven't found anything put away in the wrong place.

Better still, Alex seems to be picking up the notion of putting things away -- he usually puts things more or less back where he got them if we ask him to. Yesterday, he was playing in the kitchen while Penny and I were making the soup, pulling tupperware containers out of their cabinet and bringing them to me. After he brought me about three, I said, "You're such a helper! Can you put them away now, please?"

And he said, "'Way! P'ease!" and nodded his torso (you'd think the kid's neck didn't work if he didn't tip his head back so eagerly to be tickled) and picked up a container. I'd have been happy if he'd just chucked it into the cabinet, really -- but he carefully stacked it on the other bowls against the side that were the same size! And then did the same thing with the other pieces. (No, I know better than to think it'll last very long, but I'm treasuring it while it lasts!)

Alex had a couple of episodes over the weekend where he decided he coveted some toy Penny was playing with and went into fits of screaming, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" Penny's amazingly patient with Alex -- she usually asks him for things rather than snatching them, and if he asks nicely for something she's got, she almost always surrenders it without complaint. (We do step in if he fixates on something she's actively playing with and is reluctant to give up. But she indulges him more often than not. We lavishly praise good sharing habits from either kid in a hope of encouraging them. So far, it seems to be working.) But we let Penny know that we'd rather she not give in to the Greedy Greebles. She tried her best to hint him along: "Alex, can you say please? Say please, Alex? Please?" but he just kept hollering, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" and dissolving into tears. Those episodes were swiftly followed with rest times, and I suspect tiredness was their main trigger. Still, I think we can see the shape of Two on the horizon.

Overall, I give the weekend a B+. Nothing thrilling or exciting, but lots of good, solid, everyday fun. Now, to hope for a calm, productive week.