Country ride

Today I was a country gal and we took the middle rascal (he needed some special Mommy/Daddy time) for a long trail blazin' four wheeler ride. We donned the Carhart and camo (well Josh did) .. I was dressed in his old long sleeve shirt, too tight workout pants, pink fuzzy socks, along with my glasses and a scrunchie from the 80's.  There was no way I was taking my picture but I snapped this one of Josh and Eli after our ride. We rode around our land, made new trails, enjoyed the warm day and even saw a red fox.  It started to rain during our ride but we kept on. The smell of gas, wind blowing on my face, and being outside made me happy to be in the country. 

Little E has been a pill this week. We left him with Josh's parents Sunday night to take Olivia to Chapel Hill for her audiologist appointment on Monday and since we've been back he's been out of sorts. I don't know if the poor child thought he was abandoned (even though we explained what was going on) or if he is hitting a new developmental phase, but I'm about out of patience. He has had meltdowns over every little thing, hasn't listened to a word I've said, and been completely unruly.  I have adopted a new calming down song from some PBS show.. it goes like this and works like a charm. "If you feel like you're going to ROAR, let's count to four...1..2...3..4."  Josh looked at me with an open mouth the first time he heard me sing because Eli immediately de-esclated from his tantrum. So yes, it works like a charm, but let me tell you there is only so many times you can handle singing about roaring before you are about to roar. So we decided to give E a little special time and there is nothing he likes more than to go ride something with a motor. Four-wheelers, lawn mowers, and tractors are at the top of the list. He was so happy and kept talking about riding through the woods. Hopefully this new phase he is going through is going to be short lived.

We try to make sure we spend time with each of the kids individually. Isaac had all the attention for 9 lovely years and has done superb adapting to the big brother role. He helps out a lot and I believe in the long run it's going to make him more patient, more loving, and a better father one day. We try to do special things with him such as movie nights, and daddy/son video game evenings. I really want to start 'date' nights where we can take each kiddo out one-on-one, especially as little ones get older.