How did you spend your President’s Day? Ryan and I spent it making our European travel wish list calendar on our bed with the kids coming in and out to play! It was lightly snowing all day long and the boys were content to just be home playing. Easton was eager to take dad up on the promised xBox game time and McKay reaquainted himself with the toy room whose floor is now exhibiting a nice and neat lineup of his Rescue Heroes. There's something so adorable about watching a kid squatting while meticulously attending to his toys!
Since we’ve moved to Germany, it’s rather rare for us to have Ryan home and to not to be out running errands or out seeing sights. Nice to have a quiet day at home and neglect chores for the most part!
We think Easton may have tweaked his knee when he skied this past weekend. While jumping on my bed with McKay this afternoon he hurt it and has been whining and moaning about it all evening. He’s either limping or sliding around on his knees to get around tonight. Hmmmm . . .
I called home and chatted with my parents while making dinner tonight. After I monopolized the conversation about our latest adventure (sorry, Mom and Dad), they gave me the update on Nana, my cute paternal grandma. She’s in a nursing home right now after a bad fall that broke her hip. She’s got Alzheimer’s so she can’t remember why she’s there, is loving all the attention by the staff, but also can’t remember her hip is broken and that she needs a wheelchair. Mom mentioned she was worried Nana may have injured a shoulder too and that she needs to be able to use a walker and move on her own before she can return to the nice assisted living facility.
I was mentioning this all at dinner and Easton piped up and said, “I broke my walker too.” (meaning his knee) Ryan and I giggled a bit at that and I tried to explain what happened to Nana and what a walker was. I love what kids say but was so happy to hear him voice his thoughts and not just whine about the meal or ask how many more bites he had to eat before leaving the table!
As Ryan was making cookies and I was overseeing the boys eating their dinner, I was telling Easton how I had told Grandma and Papa about his new swimming skills. Easton grinned real big and said we needed to take them to the pool at that hotel so he could show them. Then he said, “But we’ll need to get a bigger car to bring them there.” Ryan laughingly piped up from the kitchen and said to me, “Have you been coaching him to say that?” I haven’t but I won’t deny it was rough giving up that minivan rental and going back to our Honda Accord! I know Easton liked the van too because he got his own row in the back seat. Ahhhh, maybe someday we’ll be able to upgrade!
Is it just me or is it hard to have nice conversation at dinner? I know it’s supposed to one of the most important things we can do to keep our families healthy and develop lasting bonds, but . . . early evening is just not my best conversating time!! I’m hungry, I’m tired of fussing with the kids and they with me. I don’t really like to cook especially since it falls under my daily mundane chore list. So by the time it all gets to the table and we’ve actually settled into the meal after overcoming the “have I had this before, did I like it” conversation and who gets to say the prayer war – it’s hard to feel like being chatty, much less engaging to all members of my family. Let’s also add that we’re usually trying to figure out how to make the kids eat their dinner and not encouraging a conversation that will help them stall eating what they already are refusing to eat. And by the time I have situated myself at the table and prepared my plate for optimal consumption (ie. every bite tasting balanced for greatest enjoyment), Ryan’s done eating or almost finished. Any ideas out there or is this simply a phase, a right of passage? Please tell me it gets better?!
Well okay, I know it gets better because I thoroughly LOVE going home to family dinners where many of us linger after the meal to avoid cleanup . . . uh, I mean to chat. No really, there is a bit of mayhem while plates are being filled and wolfed down – survival of the fittest comes to mind with all those boys and men – but it is truly a fun occasion to be at the Bare’s around dinner time. And it seems the table grows in length like Pinocchio’s nose to accommodate all our latest editions of spouses and kids! What fun! But do I have to wait 15 years until dinner is fun at my house? Also, at home there’s more hands to share the prep and cleanup. I think if the whole process was more social here at this juncture, I’d enjoy it more. Who knew I was so needy?!?!
