Back Yard Bliss

This afternoon the children and I spent two and a half hours in the back yard (me resting in a chair most of the time, except for breaking up fights, negotiating toy engagements, and pulling Mary down from the fence). The weather the last two days has been exquisite: sunny, around 75 degrees, with spring zephyrs!

Just a couple of days ago, the garden remained barren. Now the roses have sprouted tiny leaves . . .

. . . the wild onions have sprung up . . .

. . . and our lawn is alive with birds hopping about, eating all the bugs that are hatching.

The kids have been spending at least an hour a day digging in a new favorite spot in the yard.

Today the children were at odds while digging because Mary kept "patting down" John's "castle." He would create a dirt castle, she would pat it down, he would shout to me for justice to be done. I tried every angle I could think of. I tried punishing Mary so she'd stop patting down his creations. I tried telling John that he had to be patient because she is only two and she's not going to play as nicely as him. I tried distracting her. I tried ignoring them. Finally after an hour of this, I convinced Mary to dig in another spot, all by herself. I settled back into my chair with my book of St. Therese. Not two minutes later, I saw John walk over to Mary and ask, "May I please dig with you, Mary?" I couldn't believe it! I told John to leave her alone, that I'd finally solved his problem, and that if he dug in her new spot, she was going to pat down anything he would build. He said that was okay, he'd rather just dig with her. So I told her that next time she patted down his dirt creations, I was not going to try to help because I'd be busy reading my book!

Grand fun was had on the swings.

Mary enjoys leaning off of the fort whose floor stands five feet above the ground. I have learned over the months that if I say, "Mary, be careful! Hold on tight!" her first reaction is to lean out farther and then to hold on with only one hand. So I've stopped asking her to be careful and I just pray to her Guardian Angel. She hasn't fallen off yet.

Note to self: Have the children listen to the CD of Catholic children's songs more often. They have been watching so much "Barney" lately that they are often singing the basically benign pablum that are his signature songs (here, "Oh Mr. Sun").

Postscript: I have been writing this blog post while listening over the baby monitor to Daddy putting the children to sleep. Here I thought we had a basically very lovely day. I was doing the best I could while Chris was at an all-day men's conference, I felt like junk, and I have midwife's orders to rest a lot. I did all the basic chores of the day, let the kids watch some TV, took us on two driving errands, fed them good food, and supervised the kids in the back yard for two and a half hours. We have only a three-foot-tall fence and a two-year-old who is all too happy to hop over it, so any fun they have outdoors requires the sacrifice of my time sitting there, watching them. I thought I went to a lot of effort today (I don't even want to do things like stand up to push them on the swings, but I did it anyway) and that the kids had good fun. But I just heard John telling Daddy about his day and he said "Mommy said 'no' a lot today. Every time I asked to go to the sand box, she said 'no'" (because the sand box requires walking through the neighborhood and more exertion than pregnancy is allowing right now). He asked Daddy if he could please have some big adventures tomorrow with him. So I got all tearful listening to their conversation over the monitor.