Vacation with Parker (without surgery)

Over the past few months, I have been sharing my time between my son and mr.  It is challenging.  Making sure that I am being an attentive and good mother while trying to start a relationship is a balancing act that I haven't really tried before.  In the past, I would let the guy slide out of touch, because, let's face it....that is a hell of a lot easier that juggling your attention.  But recently, Parker has been challenging those who have authority in his life-aka, his nanny and mr.  These are new people that suddenly have an adult say in his life.  He has gone with the flow over the past few months, listened well because that is the way kids are....they are on their best behavior for the newbies in their lives.  Now that he is comfortable, he has started the duel.  The nanny tells him something and he will tell her that I let him do things differently....so, she calls me and he is caught.  I am out of the room at mr's and Parker breaks a rule, I come back in and he tells me he didn't do anything wrong...so mr tells me what happened and he is caught.  Teaching him to understand that they are allowed to put him in time out or tell him to change his behavior or take away a privilege from him is the hardest part of this balancing act.  At the moment of bad behavior, I am embarrassed and take it personally.  In reflection I understand that it is not always prevented, but maybe it can be subsided by designating his time with me.  It has been just the two of us for almost 4 years now.  His father was involved on and off for a bit, but really not at all for about 2 years.  Out of the 4 years, it has truly been just us in Cincinnati for 2 years.  This is a long time and understandable that as much as he loves the new people in his life, it isn't the way he has come to understand life....hence pushing their authority.

Decision for Mommy....vacation days.  Last month, Parker had a Thursday and a Friday off from school.  My Dad was gracious enough to take Parker from that Wednesday until the following Sunday.  For me, it was an opportunity to give mr way more of my attention than I had been able to give him before, and it probably has helped us grow (dare I say it!!!!!) in our relationship (ooooh snap, I said it).  For Parker it was a great vacation away from me and with his favorite person in the world, Grandpa Jeff.  But again, this month he had a Thursday and a Friday off school and not to mention the 3 days has off for Thanksgiving.....that is a lot of time to ask my Dad for babysitting help.  Genius Mommy realized though that I still had vacation days....like half of them left!  Thursday and Friday was designated to fun for us.  Although I had planned for it to be completely Mommy and Parker days, we did have some cameo appearances from my Mom, Mary and Audrey and of course, mr.

Thursday was EnterTRAINment Junction with my Mom.  It was neat but kind of a one time thing.  Overall pretty amazing that they built all of those mountains and building.  Everything was very detailed.  Parker like the indoor jungle jim the most....shocking right?  The 5 year old's favorite part was the running around.

Friday just Parker and I discovered Sharon Woods.  The play ground was obviously the first time on the list then our packed lunch and then our Gorge trail hike.  It was a perfect day to hike, the sky was so blue and gorgeous.  We learned all about how the Gorge was carved by the melting and receding glacier that once covered Ohio.  Parker learned that once there were Mammoths that lived here.  It was good stuff.  He really showed an interest in the educational signs that were along the trail.  Friday night was a bonfire and marshmallows at mr's house.  A pretty perfect ending to a great day.

 

Saturday was the highlight.  All week Parker would not stop talking about Union Terminal and the museums that are there, so we called Mary and Audrey, picked them up and spent the day visiting all three museums.  Again, Parker showed so much interest in all of the things every sign said....it was great because I remember not caring what they said.....my Mom would read them anyway, but ultimately, I wasn't listening....for him to show that he cares more than I did makes me happy.  It was neat that we had learned about the glaciers and the mammoths that were in Ohio before because the Natural History museum just reaffirmed it all.  Then Saturday night was at mr's again, with a movie and playing with his awesome Lego's.

 (sorry, no pictures from Union Terminal....bad Mommy)

I wanted to have something fun planned for today, but we need to have a day of just being at home.  Sounds so boring compared to the rest of the stuff - by the sounds of his playing in the other room, I think it is okay with him that we are here and not off on an adventure.....plus, there is always next weekend. I spoiled him this weekend, but I wanted my vacation time to be more that us just sitting at home (I took a week of vacation in March for his surgery and we weren't able to do much).  When I first had the idea, I was going to take him camping, but I thought it would be cold....then I thought about taking him to the Indianapolis Zoo because they have dolphins in their aquarium, but again, I thought it was going to be cold...I was wrong-o!  It was 70 degrees each day I was off.  But now tomorrow we have to go back to work and back to school.  I kinda wanna call in sick permanently.