Wm asked me today that while "living in America is pretty nice, when are we going to live in a weird city again and have some more adventures?"
This was not unprompted - last night he had a disaster of a temper tantrum, which involved throwing all the books from his shelf all around his room. (In true Wm fashion, after a sudden and severe outburst, after he calmed down it was over and he went to bed just fine. The damage on me, however, was a bit longer lasting). So, this morning, a bit removed from the incident, we calmly sorted through the books, putting them nicely on the shelves, Dr Suess together, Golden Books together, Super Hero books together, "mama's favorites" together (ie, classic picture books) -- and we had a small section with books from India and Manila.
He looked at a book we have about Krishna and the Yamarljuna Trees, and then asked about moving. Which has had me thinking about two things all day.
First - I'm happy Wm has embraced and internalized moving, since he doesn't really have a choice in the matter. And I'm supper happy he thinks going to a new city will bring adventures and is something to look forward to. I know plenty of parents in my line of work whose kids dread moving. Maybe that will be Wm some day (or Patch or Ian), but not for now.
Second - I'm kind of sorry we haven't been on any adventures in America. Obviously it's a huge country with lots of interesting places to see and adventures to be had. But, the truth is, Greg and I are a little tired of adventures. We kind of like having Saturday and Sunday to just hang around our house, walk to church, walk to the park to play, and not venture very far. We didn't even want to go out for dinner tonight!
We haven't made it to New York, to Boston, to New Hampshire. Except for two trips up to visit my grandpa in PA, we haven't left the DC metro area since we landed her May 20. The lack of travel is unprecedented for us! And I don't think either of us have missed it, though apparently this calm, normal life is not quite exciting enough for Wm.
But, the kid will just have to wait. We've already planed for family to come to us at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and weekends in November/December are usually busy even when we're overseas. Not to mention, with at least one kid usually napping between 10 and 3, an adventure is a bit difficult to plan.
Two years, minimum (with 5 months gone), to re-charge ... and then to the next adventure!
This was not unprompted - last night he had a disaster of a temper tantrum, which involved throwing all the books from his shelf all around his room. (In true Wm fashion, after a sudden and severe outburst, after he calmed down it was over and he went to bed just fine. The damage on me, however, was a bit longer lasting). So, this morning, a bit removed from the incident, we calmly sorted through the books, putting them nicely on the shelves, Dr Suess together, Golden Books together, Super Hero books together, "mama's favorites" together (ie, classic picture books) -- and we had a small section with books from India and Manila.
He looked at a book we have about Krishna and the Yamarljuna Trees, and then asked about moving. Which has had me thinking about two things all day.
First - I'm happy Wm has embraced and internalized moving, since he doesn't really have a choice in the matter. And I'm supper happy he thinks going to a new city will bring adventures and is something to look forward to. I know plenty of parents in my line of work whose kids dread moving. Maybe that will be Wm some day (or Patch or Ian), but not for now.
Second - I'm kind of sorry we haven't been on any adventures in America. Obviously it's a huge country with lots of interesting places to see and adventures to be had. But, the truth is, Greg and I are a little tired of adventures. We kind of like having Saturday and Sunday to just hang around our house, walk to church, walk to the park to play, and not venture very far. We didn't even want to go out for dinner tonight!
We haven't made it to New York, to Boston, to New Hampshire. Except for two trips up to visit my grandpa in PA, we haven't left the DC metro area since we landed her May 20. The lack of travel is unprecedented for us! And I don't think either of us have missed it, though apparently this calm, normal life is not quite exciting enough for Wm.
But, the kid will just have to wait. We've already planed for family to come to us at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and weekends in November/December are usually busy even when we're overseas. Not to mention, with at least one kid usually napping between 10 and 3, an adventure is a bit difficult to plan.
Two years, minimum (with 5 months gone), to re-charge ... and then to the next adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment