Easing back into our life.

Since Eric has been home, we have enjoyed hanging out with each other and lounging around. It has been so great to have him back and the kids have been over the moon. When he first got back Ethan, who adores Eric, was fine with the transition. It took Gracie about five minutes and then she was back to normal. On the other hand, it was a big change for Eric because Gracie has changed so much from the last time he saw her. Not crawling to taking steps, drinking out of a bottle to now using a cup, eating baby food to eating table food.......the list goes on an on. However, this week we all have gotten a chance to spend time with each other and the kids have enjoyed someone other than Mom come to the rescue. I think one day we literally ate out and watched movies all day. It was great! Of course, Ethan has unfortunately become accustomed to it and now whenever I ask what everyone wants to eat, Ethan says "Lets go to a restaurant". Thankfully, peanut butter and jelly usually wins him over. He could eat it three times a day if I let him.

However, after this week we are trying to ease back into our life and finish off a few projects before Eric goes back to work. I would love to have a deck in our backyard and we need to add some landscaping to the front and back yard. So as Eric told our neighbor "She is cracking the whip!" we are going to try to finish it all. The pictures below are of Ethan and I planting some new plants for our front patio.

Finally, a bittersweet story about our kids. The other day Ethan was just having a bad day and one of the kids on the block decided she didn't want to share her ball and took it away from Ethan. Ethan started that incoherent whine and just wouldn't stop. I first asked him if he even asked her if he could play with the ball. He said yes, and that she still wouldn't share. So I started to explain that it is her toy and she has the right to take it away (which I am sure confused him even more because he nor Gracie have that right) and there are 50 million other toys in our garage just waiting to be played with. Well, he informed me that he wasn't going to do that. I warned him if he continued, inside he went. Well, two minutes later he was inside. He went and sat in time out and by this time he is balling his eyes out. So here comes little sister to save the day. She comes over all smiles and tries to get a laugh out of him. Once she realizes that doesn't work she gives him a big hug, lays her head on his shoulder and is patting him on the back. It was just so cute, you could see she just wanted to make him feel better. Once his time out was over, Ethan walks over for our chat and tells me his side. The first thing out of his mouth is "I give up!". I explain to him it is not a fight to see who can win. He tells me that she was mean, wouldn't share her ball and feels like he is being punished because of her. I explained to him that she is not in our family so her rules may be different from ours. I also explained to him that we always share our toys but we have to be prepared to know that others may not share theirs. Plus, you can't throw a fit every time someone says no. Well, those statements didn't seem to help until I said "If she lived in our house, she would defiantly be sitting in time out too for not sharing." That seemed to make everything better because his mood changed and was ready to move on. He walked over to his mini couch where Gracie was and sat down. He put his arm around her, she scooted over and leaned it. It was too cute. He needed a hug and she always tries to make Ethan smile!