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Saturday, November 26, 2011

To be truly victorious, one must fail miserably

I've had weekends where I do everything wrong and fail miserably at parenting. I may have the right intentions for my family, like spending a morning doing the grocery list while letting the kids watch TV as I did last weekend. It resulted in angry kids, tugging and pulling at me to get away from the computer and downright surly that I was ignoring them. The store experience just got worse from there.

This weekend, probably due to the extra days of Thanksgiving, I already had my grocery list complete so when breakfast finished and first tugging started, I said, let's go to the park!

Hurray! Say's both kids as we put shoes on and clamor out the door.

We have this lovely tropical gardens/mini parrot zoo nearby for only $3.00 entry - total! I haven't been in over a year so Charlotte forgot about it. But now that Sam's walking I figured he'd enjoy the rustic paths and interesting little stone characters they place throughout the gardens. Actually he enjoyed splashing in the water pots even more but that's okay.

Sam is at the age where I love to watch kids learn. He's been walking for 2 months now and has the most adorable habits. When he approaches a steep down hill or really rough path he gets down on two hands and crab walks along. I love this age. I goes by so fast. He doesn't say much but you can see his little investigative mind taking in all the sights. Picking up nuts and rocks, studying each intently.


Charlotte has alot to say these days and she's learned a good deal since we were here last. She can now name every stone animal in the tropical jungle! She can clamor up into chairs and run so fast that she even got lost once or twice - which doesn't bother me in the least because the garden is gated in and we are the only ones here. She hops up into a chair and announces herself as "Queen Charlotte".

While the kids play, I take photos of Florida's beautiful and unique tropical plants. These photos are also for all you folks already experiencing winter! Enjoy!


We came home by 11:30, had kids lunch served before noon and Sam in bed before 1pm. Charlotte watched Beauty and the Beast and "willingly" went to bed by 1:15! Now that my friends makes me a victorious mom!

2 comments:

Angie said...

Thanks for the beautiful photos! In Iowa it's already starting to get pretty brown and yucky looking. What a blessing for you to live in beautiful S. FL!

rubberbacon said...

Hi Angie, I'm definitely trying to enjoy every moment here! I realize it's a gift to live in a warm environment!!! Thanks for stopping by!