Our first Easter as a family as come and gone. And WOW, what a weekend.
First we should start with the passing of the Easter bunny. This took place Friday evening shortly after our dinner. A large red tail hawk swooped down from the sky and snatched up one of the many brown rabbits that live in the briar patch by our home. He then landed and proceeded to eat his dinner… all of this was watched by us and our six year old from the comfort of our home.
Jayme had a lot of questions about what was happening. We decided not to try and hide it but let him learn about what he had already seen. The whole event turned into a very good nature lesson. He was not grossed out, scared or upset. Not quite sure if he fully understood the fate of Mr. Brer Rabbit, but he loved watching the huge Hawk and keep making hawk sounds, trying to talk with the hawk outside. After Jayme’s interest waned, Joshua then took a shovel and tossed brer rabbit back into the briar patch….. “Time to be turning around”.
Easter Saturday’s weather was amazing. After breakfast we took Jayme shopping. 2 new light jackets, 4 new pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of shorts, 4 new t-shirts, some fun light up sandals and a pair of black dress shoes for our upcoming trip to Salt Lake City for Shiloh’s wedding. We then had to pick up some presents for uncle Sam, who’s birthday was the next day on Easter.
After our shopping trip we had a quick lunch at Chipotle and then had to go home to change clothes. Oh, no one was messy – we all were too HOT in pants and winter clothes. We then headed up to Powell Butte and did the mile mountain view loop. At first Jayme was not having a very good time, he informed us that his feet were broken. This of course changed once we got to the top and we got to see the cascade range and got to pet some horses that were out for a walk on the trail. On the way home we stopped off at Lent’s park to play in the playground. The weather was just amazing, it was the first really really nice day of 2011.
Once we got home Anthony and Jayme started to make Uncle Sam’s birthday cake, which they made from scratch not from a box. This confused Jayme a bit, as cakes come from cardboard boxes and all you have to add is oil, water and eggs.
Easter morning was a lot of fun. Jayme woke up and the first thing we did was look around the house to see if the Easter bunny was in the house. The weather outside had done a 360 and the rain was pouring, way to wet for any real egg hunting. Jayme searched his room, the bathroom, the laundry room, our room, even his own room. He then started down the stairs to the main floor, a the halfway mark he started yelling excitedly
‘The EASTER BUNNY has been here! LOOK LOOK!”
On the dinning room table a big basket of goodies was waiting for Jayme. His Grandmother (who he is so excited to meet in May) sent him some Thomas Train toys, candy and a green frog. The Easter bunny left a big pink (Jayme’s favorite color) basket filled with Hot wheel cars, candy and an egg coloring kit.
Because the weather so do yucky, we had an indoor day. We watched a lot of Disney Movies, played Wii and had some fun lego time. We also finished making Sam’s birthday cake. Jayme picked strawberry for the filling and we make some yummy chocolate buttercream frosting.
At 4:00pm Josh drove downtown and once Sam was home we had a nice Easter/Birthday dinner at home. Anthony made a pot roast with candied sweet potatoes and fresh veggies.
Now that was all the good. There was also a lot of not so good this weekend. Jayme had a very hard time hearing our words all weekend long. Because of that, we had a heavy parenting weekend. A lot of redirection, a lot of hands on time needed with him. Easter dinner took a pretty big detour as Jayme’s table manners and lack of hearing our words came to a head.
He is not a picky eater but has started to become one, from everything we have read and been told it is to test us and test the boundaries of his new world. Dinner times consist of us both constantly reminding him not eat with his hand, not to spit food on the table, not to drink all his juice at once to not and to please finish his veggies that he loves but now “hates”.
We are using all the love and logic tricks we know & the threat that only empty plates get desert added to them. This has been working most of the time, but Easter was the breaking point for all of us. After getting several warnings and an escalating negative behavior Jayme got dismissed from the table and sent to his room, without desert and the birthday candle lighting ceremony that come with it.
It took two walk backs, and a long conversation in his room about why he was in his room. But it only took about 20 minute for Jayme to calm down, be ready to hear our words and us his good table manners. Once back at the table, it was like we had a brand new kid. Of course for poor Sam this caused a 25 minute pause in his birthday dinner, he was pretty understanding about the whole thing. He even commented that his dad would be proud of us.
We really feel if we can get over the meal time issues with Jayme, we will have turned a big corner in the road to progress for our family. We will see if last night’s line in the sand at dinner time helps or not.