the good, the bad, and the six-legged

I am sitting on the porch, enjoying the breeze, well more like wind, as my porch has been designed somehow to be akin to a wind tunnel... at any rate, this is the first really nice day all week, in fact, it is so beautiful that we are all on our best behavior.

Yesterday was a vastly different day - lots of whining, a terrifying grocery store display of bad behavior, gray skies, gloomy feelings. Dan and I have been discussing at length the reasons for said behavior, and I think that when we put our heads together, we can manage to be good parents, insightful even. Implementing our plan upon wake up this morning, I think we have seen real improvement in at least one of our children, who has been having a difficult time lately. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the strategy that we are putting to work here, it just takes a little time and genuine concern for our kid's well-being. And maybe the weather has had a bit to do with the happy attitudes today. (disclaimer: I don't mean to say that if you are having problems with a child that aren't being easily solved, you don't genuinely care. I am just talking about one specific situation)

As a side note, Genevieve is cradling a rather large beetle like it's the love of her life, picking it up, watching it's legs wiggle, and she's smiling down at it, with the particular expression that she reserves for objects of her affection. Mom, the bug loves me, cause it's hugging me! oh dear. Ok, mommy, suck it up and don't recoil in horror...

We just spent the better part of 2 hours at the playground, and it was wonderful to actually feel like I could just sit and relax for some of it. The girls were playing some variation of -Help me, I'm sliding into the mud/ I'm getting flushed down the toilet/ The sharks are getting me- on the tunnel slide, and Jude was enjoying climbing up and down the stairs and ramp by himself, and running on the bouncy bridge. I found a random bottle of nail polish in the bag, and proceeded to paint my toe nails. The nail polish happened to be black. So now I have gothic toes, and no one can accuse me of having lost my edge. Alright, so no one has accused me of that - come to think of it, no one has ever accused me of having an edge in the first place... but I now officially have one. It's on my toes.