First Date
Jude and I had our first date tonight.
It has been difficult to get one-on-one time with the kids since we left Arkansas, and it has been showing in their attitudes. Jabin had been extremely whiney after arriving in Alberta (exacerbated by 4 weeks of being sick), and I am sure that he was just as tired of the constant changes as the rest of us were. I took him with me in Jason's truck when I went to pick up our new-to-us mattress set in Grande Prairie a couple of weeks ago, and his attitude was like night and day--he was a much happier boy after that.
Jude's attitude has been okay, for the most part, but once we started doing school activities again last week, it really started suffering. Amanda babysits during the day, and all Jude wants to do is to play with all the kids he can hear running around upstairs.
At the end of yet another "talking-to" on Sunday night, Jude asked if he could sleep on the floor of our room.
You have to understand: our bed is only six inches from the wall on Jason's side of the room; I have a couple of feet on my side; the footward-side of the bed is stacked up to my chest with large boxes, with only a few inches to work your way around them to get into bed; and what floor is showing is cold, painted cement.
"Seriously? You want to sleep on our floor? When you have a perfectly good mattress only one room away from ours?"
I didn't even need Mom's Intuition to realize that our son, who speaks the Love Language of Quality Time, was feeling a little needy for some time with mom and dad.
So, instead, I told him we would go for a date tonight.
We went to Dairy Queen. We ate sundaes. We talked about life, and things kids like to talk about. We talked about ways to make school more fun. Then we went and played in the park behind our old house. Jude thought it was cool that I went down the slide with him--even if I almost got stuck because it was a little too curvy for my long limbs!
And his Quality Time-loving mommy enjoyed the rare special time with her firstborn son. It's pretty unusual that he wants to go do something with just me, when he could be spending time with his friends instead.
I'm going to enjoy every minute I can get right now--I have a feeling that once he's a teenager, I may see him so rarely that I'll forget what he looks like!
It has been difficult to get one-on-one time with the kids since we left Arkansas, and it has been showing in their attitudes. Jabin had been extremely whiney after arriving in Alberta (exacerbated by 4 weeks of being sick), and I am sure that he was just as tired of the constant changes as the rest of us were. I took him with me in Jason's truck when I went to pick up our new-to-us mattress set in Grande Prairie a couple of weeks ago, and his attitude was like night and day--he was a much happier boy after that.
Jude's attitude has been okay, for the most part, but once we started doing school activities again last week, it really started suffering. Amanda babysits during the day, and all Jude wants to do is to play with all the kids he can hear running around upstairs.
At the end of yet another "talking-to" on Sunday night, Jude asked if he could sleep on the floor of our room.
You have to understand: our bed is only six inches from the wall on Jason's side of the room; I have a couple of feet on my side; the footward-side of the bed is stacked up to my chest with large boxes, with only a few inches to work your way around them to get into bed; and what floor is showing is cold, painted cement.
"Seriously? You want to sleep on our floor? When you have a perfectly good mattress only one room away from ours?"
I didn't even need Mom's Intuition to realize that our son, who speaks the Love Language of Quality Time, was feeling a little needy for some time with mom and dad.
So, instead, I told him we would go for a date tonight.
We went to Dairy Queen. We ate sundaes. We talked about life, and things kids like to talk about. We talked about ways to make school more fun. Then we went and played in the park behind our old house. Jude thought it was cool that I went down the slide with him--even if I almost got stuck because it was a little too curvy for my long limbs!
And his Quality Time-loving mommy enjoyed the rare special time with her firstborn son. It's pretty unusual that he wants to go do something with just me, when he could be spending time with his friends instead.
I'm going to enjoy every minute I can get right now--I have a feeling that once he's a teenager, I may see him so rarely that I'll forget what he looks like!