Basketcase Dinner Time

Do you have the time to listen to me whine

About nothin' and everything all at once?

I am one of those melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it.

This song usually runs through my head every night while I am making dinner. And when the weather is nice. . .

It all keeps adding up. I think I'm cracking up!

After the wettest April on record, I love that we now have some sunshine. I love when the boys go outside in our huge, open neighborhood to play. But I usually spend 85% of my dinner preparation doing one or all of these activities:

• hunting for Abric on Harrison's bike.
• having a strange neighbor-man carry Ewan home after he had crashed on his bike. (He was nice, I just didn't know him. Luckily Harrison was with him.)
• fixing the bent handlebars on a bike after a stunt failure.
• cleaning up and bandaging elbows and knees.
• breaking up fights
• cleaning up messes

How do I find a balance? Harrison and Zane obviously aren't old enough to really babysit Abric outside. They have friends and get distracted. They are still little kids themselves. But if the older boys are outside and I keep Abric inside, he has breakdown after breakdown because he wants to go outside to play, too. Do you blame him?

Short of plugging my kids in front of the TV while I make dinner, what are some options besides having pb&j and fruit salad for dinner every night this spring/summer?

Here are the kids playing football in the backyard with their cousins and the neighbors. Bliss. The perfect way to grow up. I want them to be outside while I make dinner.

Maybe I just need to work on Andy a little harder at getting a trampoline. I could use it as a giant playpen for Abric and just lock him in there outside the kitchen window. Hmmmm….

Ewan Rides

Ewan got a bike for Christmas. He has been able to ride it in the basement over the winter and occasionally outside. We've had a nice spell of weather, so Andy took him outside to teach him how to really ride a bike : without training wheels.

Abric found something else to occupy his time.

We did have a crash or two.

But by the next day, this kid was free-flying! I am so proud of him! He can turn around in the road and he can start his bike all by himself.

Harrison and Zane were both 6 before they even wanted to try taking their training wheels off. Ewan is only 4. He has always been my independent 'big' boy. He potty-trained himself at age 2 1/2. He just woke up from a nap one day saying that he needed to go potty, and that was that. He is an amazing kid!

The Rail Trail Venture

We dusted off the bike helmets

and the bike rack

bundled up for a somewhat chilly Saturday

and took a family bike ride down the rail trail.

We rode for six miles. Harrison and Zane were troopers

Ewan and Abric enjoyed their cushy seats.

I think we've started a new family activity.

No bailing out now!