Real men wear babies

Bean: 4yrs 6mths 19days
Bear: 1yr 5mths 17days

I'm sure I already have an entry with this title but I haven't the energy to search for it. Makes my heart happy to see our Bear all snuggled up asleep on his dad like this. I was on the refreshments team this morning at church so it was a relief that Steve wasn't on PA duty and could look after Bear. It also meant I got to stay in the service - the whole service!! It has been a while.

I like being on the refreshments team. I saw and chatted to more people while I served coffee than I do on any other Sunday. Even if they're just brief hello's and how're you doing's, it's a nice way to stay a little more connected than I have been feeling.

Barely saw Bean for dust this morning, he just does his own thing. I'm sure I ought to at least attempt to track his whereabouts but I trust him to not do anything really stupid. Bear is a different kettle of fish and is still testing his boundaries. They're pretty big boundaries to be fair, but I've been grateful on a couple of occasions when he's slipped past me and has been brought back to me by someone else.

Barbecue this afternoon. It still makes me chuckle to think I'm on a leadership team, but it was our Emerge (20s & 30s) leaders BBQ. I don't get to see much of them as meetings are mostly evenings so an afternoon BBQ was lovely.

I realised something though, at the end. We were talking about parenting styles and I realised how apologetic I've become about the way I choose to parent. I make it all jokey and apologetic and it drives ME nuts hearing myself. I've been burned so many times that I've changed how I talk far too far the other way. I need to train myself to speak with diplomacy: not bashing or condemning, but not apologising either. Harder than it sounds.

Bean fell asleep on the way home, utterly shattered. He stayed asleep on transfer to the house and when Bear started hitting him trying to wakd him up to play I figured it would be safer to transfer him to bed! He obviously needed the sleep. He went to bed 5pm fully clothed (minus shoes). And slept and slept.

Bear carried on playing til 9 and then hit his wall. He was asleep within five minutes too!