Milestones

I mentioned that the boys have been on the fast track since vacation. 

UNDERSTATEMENT.

It's like their brains were on auto-pilot before we left, in a bit of a rut, and breathing the air in Texas woke them up to the world of possibilities for preschoolers...and most of those possibilities involve trouble, whether intentionally or as a side-effect!!  It's been a wild ride.  And I haven't been feeling my best since we got back, so it's been...wow.  Just, wow.  I could list some other really interesting examples too, but I think this one sums it up.

**Gross alert**

After returning to town late-ish Sunday, Monday was a challenge with unpacked cases and travel gear strewn about, Reuel off to work first thing, and all of us with a vacation hangover!  Imagine me, prepared for a tough day, but completely unable to imagine the scene that would greet me as I opened the door to the bathroom, not having heard Owen for a while, and wondering what he was up to.  There he was, standing on a stool zipping up his pants, having just...gone to the bathroom...BOTH BATHROOMS if you know what I mean...into a plastic trash can that normally lives in our room!!!  I have never been so absolutely shocked and dumbfounded in my 4 years of parenting experience, and I hope not to be again.  If you know Owen, you know this is way out of character.  He's fairly into 'the rules'.  He is adventurous, but within bounds.  This was out of bounds.  He could barely conceal a grin, but my face stayed stony, you'd better believe.  We had words and actions.  I don't *think* he'll try that again, but I didn't *think* he'd try it the first time.  All I can figure is that he went to the bathroom in the woods a few times while the guys were far from facilities doing things on the ranch, and that set the whole concept of free-spirit toileting in his head.  Oh boy(s). 

**End Gross alert**

Today involved two significant milestones...one good, one normal, but not-so-good.  Asher threw his first real lose-control, freak-out, unable-to-calm-self-down tantrum.  I've never seen him like that, and had forgotten how scary they can be.  He was so mad and I just tried ignoring him (as I have in the past) but he ramped up and stayed at level 10 for so long that he nearly made himself throw up.  He was acting quite bizarre, actually, and the anger really overtook him.  I was not as scared as with Owen, but just sad.  Does my parenting breed this??  I finally got him calmed down because it was clear that leaving him alone was not going to help after a certain point, and he just moaned and caught his breath over and over til he fell asleep for his nap and I put him down.  Woke up still a bit out of sorts but better.  He is VERY willful these past few days, and I sense a challenge.  For now, I will tell myself he is tired from vacation and this will change next week (repeat until true).

Owen has had his fair share of tantrums too, but way outstripping that...he learned to ride his bike by himself with virtually no adult training in about 10 minutes total!!  Well, that's a bit of exaggeration...the background is that he's been on training wheels for a long time, more than a year I'd say, and I had at one point watched a you tube movie about how to teach a child to ride a bike, so a couple weeks ago we tried it out.  All we did was take off the training wheels, take off his pedals, and put his seat low to the ground.  He learned to balance by pushing himself around and gliding.  Yesterday I saw him glide far enough that I put the pedals back on a few minutes before suppertime and when I held the bike while he got on and gave him a push, he instantly could ride with pedaling!  He could not get started on his own yesterday evening.  He whined for my help more, but after just a couple more pushes, I told him he'd figure it out if he practiced on his own.  This morning after Reuel left for work I could not locate Owen.  As I was looking for him, he ran in the front door saying, "I CAN DO IT!!  I PRACTICED!!" and sure enough he made the major progress he needed to get started on his own, and now it's just going to be practice and fine tuning.  It is satisfying as a parent to watch your child achieve something he set out to do.  He is passionate about his bike and is just so pleased with himself.  And we are proud of him too! 

Here's the proof!  http://vimeo.com/23294679