Grandad & Nana Arrive

The weather here has been gorgeous.  It has finally cooled off and the humidity has gone down.  The kids have spent a lot more time playing outside.  At the beginning of the week they were spending hours playing in the backyard together.  It was wonderful.  You never know how long the low humidity is going to last, so we're enjoying it while we can.

One afternoon, once school was finished for the day, the kids decided to try my workout video with me.  The videos have five "rounds" of five minutes each with a minute's rest in between each round.  Josiah said that his arms were getting a workout even though I wouldn't let him hold any weights.  Henry said his favorite part was "active rest," which basically meant he liked to walk around during our minute rests.  Caroline talked through the entire video.  It was quite the experience.

Henry has been having a tough time listening and obeying.  It's been going on for about six years, but has increased in frequency in the past several months.  While he might fight us on 10-12 things a day in general, lately he fights us on absolutely everything.  Caroline and he just bicker constantly as well.  It's been a time.  Yet this week, he had wonderful pockets of sweetness.  At Boys of Iron at church, they made trail mix.  The boys had eaten all of their mix by the time they got home, except Henry had saved all his mini-marshmallows for Caroline.  That was an incredible gesture on his part.  Then he and I got to spend some time alone together on Saturday.  He was on house arrest, so he and I were home while the others went out.  We did puzzles, ate lunch, and read books together.  It was a wonderful time, very positive and happy.  He is such a good kid, incredibly sweet and funny.  He's just going through a rebellious phase.  Maybe he'll get it out of his system now and be an abnormally pleasant teenager.  We can dream.

Mid-week, Grandad and Nana flew our way.  The kids knew what time their flight landed and stood watch at the window for a good 90 minutes.  They were so focused that it was useless to try to get them to do anything else.

It was a very happy reunion.  These children love, love, love their grandparents.  The kids also love, love, love to kick me out of the house so they can spend more time alone with them.  I happily left one afternoon and was able to get a haircut all by myself.  I even stopped by the Goodwill store and browsed without having to tell anyone I wasn't going to buy them anything.  Alone time is a coveted thing around here.

Grandad took the training wheels off of Caroline's bike so we could start teaching her how to ride like the boys.  She was happy to get her first lessons in and she did a good job of putting her foot down to stop her falls every time she got off balance.  We also took the little clown bike out again to try to get her to sit on it and push off with her feet and let it glide.  She always resisted doing that in the past, but she was starting to get it this time.  She's gliding better than the boys did, so she may be a quick learner.  We need to get to a smoother area as well, because the side walks here have many bumps.

Grandad and Nana were able to come to the boys' Robotics class as well.  While they were watching them make their robot, Caroline put on a puppet show for me.

We have two days of school this coming week before the kids get a whole week off.  They are not too happy with me making them do those two days.  I'm praying it'll go smoothly and they'll be motivated to finish their work well so they can soak in all their Grandad & Nana time.  That should spur them on to finish well.