Weekend dynamics...SO much energy

So last weekend we enjoyed the company of our son, the six of us had a full weekend together. The six of us...the six of us. Why does that sound like SO much more than the five of us? Another question, how can one little boy make SO much more noise than three tween/teen girls? The Wii brings out the fierce competitor in him. He frequently enters the room with a back flip over the ottoman. What? Why walk across the floor when you can incorporate a hand spring or two? All of this energy is amazing. Honestly boys are SO much different from girls - even three girls together. The more time we spend with J the more time I think back to growing up with my own little brother and all my broken toys that accompanied having said little brother. While I was content to spend my childhood quietly alone in my bedroom reading, Ian was outside, no matter the weather, playing in the dirt or the snow depending on the season. My brother was in constant motion, much like his nephew.

One of my favorite moments from the weekend was Friday night when the kids had voted for homemade pizza night over homemade Chinese food. Pizza won - sorry K - but homemade Chinese food came around on Saturday night. Sorry for the diversion, Friday night J & R were working feverishly at their mounds of fresh pizza dough and J says, "Remember last time we made pizza and mine looked like Florida?" Remember last time? Our son is making family memories over a lump of pizza dough. Teary eyed moment. As a mom I love hearing our girls reminisce about favorite memories and have struggled with the fact that J has missed out on 11 years of memory making with us and our families. There will be many inside jokes and funny stories that he won't get and we will have to explain - you know nothing is ever as funny when you hear it retold rather than being there to see it in person. On the flip side he too has 11 years of memories that we will not know about unless he chooses to share them with us. That being said we have many more years ahead of us to make new memories together.

J's pizza masterpiece

A start to the memory making was the Star Wars marathon on our first weekend visit together. We watched the first three original Star Wars movies one each night Friday thru Sunday. We grabbed snacks, blankets and pillows everyone settled in for a couple of hours with an occasional interruption by J, "This is fun!" ~ I agree J ~ SO much fun!