Last week was Spring Break. Therefore, last week was fun. There's not really any other way to put it. Leading up to Spring Break though, I probably wouldn't have had that same sentiment. After all, Ellie and I tend to butt heads a little bit when we spend too much time around each other these days and multiple days of me being alone with both kids just sounds like a recipe for failure. However, I think the difference is that I'm trying (key word there is trying) to be more understanding of her emotions and feelings as well as being cognizant of my own. Part of that is knowing when I need to walk away and take a break or maybe even scream into a pillow for old times' sake.
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Of course, Spring Break isn't all about sitting around the house and trying not to get frustrated at my children. It's about having adventures AND fun! Early on in our Spring Break, that was mostly accomplished through time playing outside. In fact, it was during one of those outside times when I found myself being really impressed by Ellie's growth and maturation. While she normally just goes along with the flow of whatever we're doing when playing outside, on Sunday, she took real initiative. She asked if it would be alright if she asked her friend from school, Nathaly, who lives right down the street, to play with her. I told Ellie that I would walk down to Nathaly's house with her but that I would like Ellie to march up the steps and ring the doorbell herself. To my great surprise, that's exactly what Ellie did and the two spent the entire afternoon playing outside together. Nathaly even came over to our house and helped Ellie make a personal pizza for dinner!
On Monday, our adventure required a little bit more effort as we had to hop in a car and drive to St. Joseph to play at Fun Run. While the kids understandably got a little antsy during the drive, it was pretty much worth it to them once we got to Fun Run and Ellie and Ethan spent over two hours exploring every single inch of the jungle gyms and bounce houses contained within. One of my favorite moments though was watching Ellie put her gymnastics training to good use on the air bag. She accomplished this by flipping down the length of the airbag, landing on her back each time. It was actually quite a feat to behold. Ethan, for his part, wasn't going to be left out of the gymnastics routine and responded by nailing a series of picture-perfect somersaults.
On Tuesday, there wasn't really much excitement to be had. There was a library trip in the morning and some time playing outside in the afternoon but really nothing to write home about. Wednesday was another story though. In the morning, we all (including Bethany) had dentist visits (Yay, no cavities!) followed by a short sojourn to the Zona Rosa park. After that, we returned home for lunch and quiet times before making a park trip in the afternoon. What was cool about our park trip is that Ethan rode his bike over a mile and a half round trip on our journey without issue! Once we got home, we settled in for some family play time in the driveway when who should come calling but Nathaly. As a result, Ellie and Nathaly spent most of the afternoon playing together again and just enjoying being kids.
Side note, it's actually really cool that Ellie has a friend in the neighborhood from school that she can enjoy playing with and spending time. However, Ethan is definitely experiencing a slight jealousy streak when it comes to Nathaly. For his entire life, Ethan has pretty much had Ellie's exclusive attention as her best friend and exclusive playmate. Now that she's playing with Nathaly though, he's definitely vocal about missing his sister and wanting to play too. No worries as I know that situation will work itself out at some point.
From Thursday to Saturday, we actually traveled to Tulsa to meet Bethany's family for a Spring Break trip. There's a lot of stuff to write about from that experience though so I'll leave that for another day.
On Sunday though, I may have had my favorite experience with Ellie of her entire Spring Break! What was that experience you may ask? Just a simple trip to the tennis courts at the apartments across the street to practice hitting. While we hadn't actually played tennis in a while (mostly because of the whole winter thing), I was shocked at how well Ellie did. After a relatively short lesson reminding her of the mechanics of swinging her racket, she was smacking balls over the net, one right after the other. Not only that but she was hitting them well AND keeping them in bounds!
I absolutely love the fact that I'm getting to help Ellie learn how to play a sport that I love and hopefully she'll end up being much better than me at it. Of course though, I'll settle for just having a buddy to play with on a regular basis. That's a pretty good thing too! #DaddyWrite
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