Surviving a Trip to Alaska

Shawn had the great opportunity to go salmon fishing with his parents and brother Jake.  His trip is a week long - so I've had to gear up for this.  The kids and I look forward to and rely upon Shawn's arrival home each day, so not having him here is an adjustment.  There are no pictures of our survival, but let me reassure you that both the kids and I are still alive!) I have woken up each morning with a fresh determination to be patient, loving, and FUN! We've been to the movie, had friends over, been out exploring and playing to our hearts content. I even took them to Toys R Us for crying out loud....however, the fun mom usually retires around dinner time and she is replaced by the regular, get to bed right now, pick up your toys, "I've had it!", pulling my hair out mom!  Besides a few nights of Lyv waking up and seeing our nasty neighbor the 5 foot rat snake (pictures will be coming) we've been good.  What this survival has shown me is that my kids are really great, and I need to remember that and show more gratitude to them for the good things they do.  Also is has reaffirmed to me the importance of parents - plural.  I trust in his co-parenting more than anything to get me through each and everyday.  I'm not good at doing things on my own, especially when I have to attend events like Sam's baseball games and kindergarten celebration on my own - trying to video, take photos, balance Lyv on my knee, open a fruit snack with my third hand (AKA my teeth) and try to cheer for Sam all at the same time.  We've had a lot of fun, ate simply, read a good book, and are anxiously looking forward to eating the 50 lb. salmon that Shawn caught and having our daddy back!

Also Jack's humor helps.... here's a little taste as of late.

He woke up 2 nights in a row with nightmares.  What are they about?  He dreams that he's a girl!  That is scary.  Poor guy.

He has a really hard time with he's and she's, and calls everyone he.  So he the other day he told me, "Mom, some of my brothers are girls!" He didn't specify who was who... so Sam's gender is still in question.

He still loves his ant babies, but the love is fading.  After several nasty bites from the ant who are struggling for their lives as he suffocates them in his sweaty palm, he has started to stomp on them.  I asked him why he was killing his babies... "They are bad babies mom.  They don't do what I tell them."