Mostly sunny with a cloud or two

Positive parenting requires an awful lot of patience. (though, raising children in general requires a lot of patience as well...)   I know that the end result will be worth it.  I know that I want my kids to grow up without voices raised, without punishment in the traditional sense, definitely without spankings, and with a lot of empathy, trust, sincerity, and love.  Most days I have the patience required.  I can help William through his big feelings easily and get him turned around into doing what is asked of him without a fight and becaue he is willing.  But then there are the days like Saturday, when I am just missing the coping skills to deal with life.  Saturday was rough.  It was hard.  And all I really wanted to do, what would have really made me feel better was to yell at someone and get it out all the frustration.  But I didn't.  Because that wouldn't have made William or Patrick feel better.  Just thought I'd lay that out there.  It's not all rainbows and sunshine around here.  I mean, it is a lot of the time - the boys' sweet faces melt my heart - but yeah, I'm all for being honest.  

The boys both love reading books.  It's really kind of awesome.  We brought home a TON of books from my Dad's house the last time we visited.  Really great stuff - like Disney stories, etc.  William's favorite of the week has been "Ferdinand and the bullies".  There sure are a lot of words and pages in the books we are reading now.  I am finding it such a relief when Patrick brings me a six page board book that is mostly pictures.  LOL  Patrick's favorite books right now are animals.  He really enjoys the Wake Up Little Animals book.  It must be working too - he totally 'baa'd' with a sheep at school.  Smart boy.

We finally put lights and ornaments on the tree after it being in the house for a week.  We just took our time summoning the energy to brave the attic for the boxes buried deep beneath far too many half full (with junk) boxes.  On that front - there is a large pile in front of our house for trash day tomorrow and Sam made a giant haul to goodwill.  One side of the attic has been attacked.  Now to figure out what to do with the couple of things I actually did manage to save from Sam.  haha.  Ok.  Back to Christmas.

Patrick was a pro at taking ornaments off the tree.  William did a great job of finding all the ornaments we didn't want him to touch because there were VERY breakable.  It was interesting decorating the tree with the two of them.  The Irish sheep still hasn't made it onto the tree yet thanks to William's wild imagination.  There are worse things I suppose.  We were getting close to done, so I took a step back to admire our handiwork... Realizing that the top half of the tree was practically BEYOND capacity and could hold no more ornaments, but 3' and below was a little scarce... haha.  We dug deep and found the last of the non-breaking ornaments to fill in some of the gaps.  It's a good tree though.  Completely imperfect and full of sentiment.  We love it.

William is a pretty good helper in the kitchen when he wants to be.  Those moments usually happen when I decide to make cookies or cupcakes or something sweet.  He really likes to pour the milk.  Maybe next week I'll let him use the sifter.  It's a pretty big deal though - we'll have to see.  haha  Patrick likes to sit on the counter and 'help' too.  He's not as useful,  but I can blame some of the mess on him, so he definitely fulfills a purpose.  :)  Sam hates it when I bake because flour and sugar and everything goes everywhere.  But who can be frustrated with the mess when such a cute little boy made it...?!  Though, unless you're the one cleaning it up, I don't think you should  get to be frustrated at all... just my opinion.. teehee

We are back on the "get Patrick to sleep in his own crib" train.  We definitely backslid for a week or two...  He's slowly getting reaccustomed to not nursing all night, and Sam said he didn't pick him up last night.  So maybe we'll get him back in the groove just in time for ... HOLIDAY TRAVELING...  And I'm sure we'll successfully mess it all up again.  haha  And so it goes.  He did sleep through the night earlier in the week though by fluke.  It was glorious.

Oh!! 15 months in and the boy has a lovey.  We've been forcing showing Walter the pig to him his whole life and this week he decided that Walter was worth big hugs and lots of snuggles.  I'm relieved that he finally decided to latch on the piggy instead of an uglier stuffed animal.  My second choice was Moosie, but it didn't come to that... haha  Walter has been taking naps and going night night with P for the past couple days and it's the sweetest thing to see him pull the pink piggy close.  And of course, he is definitely a Rumer boy.. First trip Walter made out in the world as an official member of the family and he got covered in chocolate milk.  So he is up for a bath.  William's Hilbert has had MANY MANY baths...  I just hope that Walter doesn't end up on as many "errands" as Hilbert does...

We went to the Christmas parade Saturday morning after breakfast.  The boys had a wonderful time!!  Even Patrick loved it - I was afraid he would be too little - silly me.  He had the best time waving to every car, firetruck, clown, soldier, and child that came by.  William loved waving his flag and yelling Merry Christmas. He got especially into the festivities when he realized that some people were throwing out candy.  Nothing like a Rumer on sugar high... LOL  The best part was, of course, the horses at the end of the parade.  We couldn't stay the whole time last year and missed Santa & the horses, but it was a major hit this year.  William wanted to know why he couldn't ride them!!

Loves.