The Pleasures of A Quiet Day

Usually weekends are fairly hectic at our house.  Lots of chores to be done and things to be taken care of, not to mention two active little boys demanding attention.

But this weekend has been fairly quiet.  And it's been nice to have the time to sit around and play a board game with Nathan or take Alex out for a walk.  I've been working on Nathan's counting skills (and gracious competition manners) by playing Monopoly with him.  We don't bother with the money.  It's just a race around the board to see who can land on the most properties.  He did very well today, remembering to count the pips on the dice and the squares on the board before pretending to zoom his little car around the corners.  And he didn't get upset when my piece moved ahead of his.

Alex had a peculiar fixation with getting to go to the grocery store.  He asked and asked to go.  Dave and I were both hesitant.  He gets very excited about the automatic doors and refuses to stay with us.  He's also not above throwing a lie-down-on-the-floor-and-kick-and-scream temper tantrum when thwarted.  At eight, that's a lot of kicking and screaming.  However, he's been doing much better about understanding consequences lately.  There was a short list of things to be gotten, so we decided to give it a try.

I laid out the ground rules very clearly.  He would get two minutes at the beginning of the trip to look at the doors but then we had to do the grocery shopping.  If he stayed beside me, then he would get to spend a little time with the doors before we left.  If he threw a tantrum, we would go directly home and he would go to bed without his toys.  It's always hard to figure out how much he understands but he stayed with me.  He needed a few reminders when something caught his attention but he wasn't dashing off to get away from me.  I think he might be able to handle more of these trips, if they're very limited scope and expectations.

It's nice to be able to finish an errand without feeling awful, both because of the looks and comments from others and because I hate it when I feel like I'm constantly correcting him.  Alex is doing very well these days and I don't hesitate to tell him so.