I am sitting here listening to the rain pound the roof as a thunderstorm passes overhead reflecting on the day. The kids are napping peacefully after our morning excursions. We ate breakfast (at the table, following our new rules! 🙂 and drew pictures and wrote a letter to Daddy for his first box o’ goodies to send out to him on the ship.
After that, getting cleaned up, dressed, and out the door went fairly smoothly. Jake was upset because he had to wear socks. We quickly sidestepped the socktastrophy and off we went. Our first stop was a success, then got to the car and realized we’d forgotten one item, so back in we went (of course I didn’t realize this until after I had gotten them both in and buckled and was double checking the list. Why I neglected to bring the list into the store with me in the first place is still a mystery!)
Forgotten item secured, off to the post office. But now the minions were asking for lunch and I knew if we didn’t eat soon it wouldn’t be pretty. And now that we don’t do drive thrus, I braved a sit down restaurant. With two kids. By myself.
We were in Anacortes and Calico Cupboard sounded really good. And I figured we’d be able to get something nutritious there. We were seated in a corner table, it was busy and bustling but pleasant. The kids sat at the table, weren’t perfect, but did SO GOOD. Hannah charmed the pants off the neighboring tables and Jake ate most all of his sandwich that he ordered all by himself. (He likes to tell the waiter what he would like 🙂
After a yummy lunch, we hit the post office to mail Eric’s box. I love the post office in Anacortes! No line, friendly people and open on Saturdays! The kids looked around but weren’t wild banshees. Hannah was smiling and engaging the person behind us, Jake was playing with some packing tape – and it was AWESOME! The employee even remarked on how well behaved they were and gave them each a ball!! AND JAKE SAID THANK YOU!!! Parental angel choruses were singing “Hallelujah!!”in my head!!
I know not everyday is perfect. We probably learn more from the not perfect ones. But after having a conversation with my sister the other day about kid behavior, I realized that I was having unrealistic expectations for their age. How do kids (and all of us) learn? From our mistakes. It may seem like a duh moment but for me it was an ah-ha! They aren’t perfect, they aren’t going to behave perfectly all the time – AND IT’S OK!
Life and Other Stuff 