Ahhh, much better

After a horrendous week that included three playdates cut short by temper tantrums, an infection, a fever, and a bee sting, we had a lovely weekend and a nearly perfect day today.

My parents came down for an all-too-short visit this weekend, and Jack had such a good time with them. I know that we are so blessed to live as close to them as we do, but I am greedy and want them to live even closer. Jack agrees.

He asked me "how many minutes away" is their house. I told him about 450 minutes (7 1/2 hours).

He said, "I want Ammah and Appah to live zero minutes away!"

I'll settle for anything less than 30. :)

One funny thing that Jack has been doing - and that he did a few times this weekend - is announcing when he has something to say. We've been working on getting him to not interrupt when we are talking. So now he tells us, "It's my turn to talk, everybody. Please be quiet." Then he (impatiently) waits until we all pipe down. Once he is assured he has the floor, he starts his spiel. However, I don't know if he gets flustered by all the attention, but he typically loses his train of thought before he finishes. His soliloquies often trail off with non sequiturs and nonsense.

This morning, we hung out at Jack's favorite park with one of his favorite friends. I don't know how the stars aligned - whether it was the friend, the park, the fact that there was only the two of them, or that both her parents were there so the kids always had adult attention - but Jack was so good today.

At one point, the kids were running to those ride-on bouncy things they always have at parks (usually in the shape of an animal or a vehicle). Jack climbed onto the red one first. From a distance, I saw his friend tell him that she wanted the red one and that he should go to the blue one. My jaw almost dropped when I saw Jack actually give up the red one with nary a tantrum or argument and happily go on the blue one.

Another time, he and his friend were running to the red swings, and two bigger kids rudely ran ahead of them and got on to them first. Again, on another day, that could have triggered a terrible fit from Jack. Instead, he and his friend just went on to the black swings beside them.

I'm going to try to enjoy these last three days for what they were and not burden either Jack or me with expectations that we can keep this going. I am just so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends.