I walked to work on Sunday before lunch and savored every minute of that walk. A clear warm day in the summer is no big deal, but when it happens in October you know it's going to go away for a good 6 or 7 months soon.
It was Jake's birthday on Saturday and the kids understand that well enough to get excited about saying "happy birthday", having presents and cards, and cake. One of their classmates had a birthday this past week so they were totally up on the whole birthday thing. The spent an hour in the sandbox making birthday cake by filling up cups with sand and dumping them to form shapes.
What they don't understand, however, is that you are not supposed to act like a giant jerk on somebody's birthday. Nobody gave them that memo so on Saturday morning it was whining and tantrum central. It's just hard to say what is going to make these kids be in a good mood or a miserable mood. I think they didn't get enough sleep, and when they wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it's all over. Poor Jake did not enjoy his morning at all, despite our trip to the arboretum, complete with a beautiful trek through fields and meadows and then a hike into the shady woods.
It is funny how, when you are in the midst of dealing with difficult toddlerness, it is so specific and so universal at the same time. At any given moment, the crisis may be about how there is sand on the step, or her shoe is too tight, or somebody looked at him the wrong way, but all of the crises start to blend together and feel similar in nature. Extremely minor incident precipitates overdramatic toddler meltdown followed shortly by parental attempt at remediation. The nature and frequency of the meltdown may dictate the nature of the parental remediation, anywhere on a range from endlessly patient and comforting to ridiculously irritated and snappy. Saturday morning felt like an endless chain of these incidents.
And then, somehow, a decent nap or a fluctuation in the earth's rotational symmetry changed everything and the afternoon was delightful, enjoyable, lovely. We painted some furniture together and then went to a party in a neighboring town. The kids were energetic and adorable, everybody loved them, and they ate their dinners. They laughed, they played well together, they even delighted us with their conversation. On the car ride home Nora said two separate things that made all four of us crack up laughing, and I realized, wow, we're actually reaching the point at which we can all, as a family, laugh about the same thing. (Granted, that thing is on the level of maturity of laughing at the image of "Daddy riding poop", but it's a start.)
You just never can tell with these kids. They're like the weather in whatever-town-you-live-in-with-very-cliched-constant-weather-changes. If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. You just never know what you're going to get. Is it going to be a good day, a day that makes you glad you became a parent? A day you start to feel nostalgic about even as it's happening? Or will it be a day that makes you want to claw your eyes out? You just have to wait and see.
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