Every Saturday morning there must be a full moon, because our kids turn into werewolves. Honestly, they can be perfect friends all week, but as soon as Saturday comes around, they start hitting and pushing each other, stealing toys, screaming and crying, needing to be changed or use the potty, getting underfoot while we are cooking our traditional Saturday Morning Pancakes, throwing their traditional SMPs on the floor, getting sent to the Time Out Chair, refusing to get dressed, screaming and crying that they can’t watch a movie, opening the door before we are all ready to go, screaming and crying that they can’t play anymore … absolute mayhem. We don’t know why, but it always happens on Saturday mornings.
This time, it happened on Sunday afternoon, too. We had gone to the early service of church and the kids had taken full naps. In the afternoon, we wanted to head down to the park, but the full moon struck again, and they werewolf-ed on us.
Then, a silver lining: a few moments of peace. We wondered why they were being so quiet in Prince’s room, and tiptoed in to find out.
They were playing together with Prince’s trains, like this:
Hey, they were quiet, they were enjoying each others’ company, they were sharing … we just shut the door and left them alone.
Of course, we had to do some railroad repairs after Princess’ demolition derby, but that’s a small price to pay for peace.
Lord Herndon and I ran to the kitchen while we had the chance and packed a basketful of goodies. We hustled the kids out the door before they had a chance to change again, and headed down to our favorite location in Istanbul: the park near the sea. Which, in case we never made it clear, is a ten minute (kid pace) walk from our apartment. Since I’ve been on maternity leave, Princess and I make that walk every morning after dropping Prince off at preschool, and then the three of us go back after I pick him up at lunch. Sometimes, the first words out of Prince’s mouth are “We’re going to the park?” He’s only satisfied when I give him the timeline for the day.
This time, the four of us went down to watch the sunset. We chose a spot by a beautiful rose garden and broke our fast.
Afterward, the kids wanted to go flying. All aboard Air Daddy!
Thankfully, after the sun set, the sky was lit only by the twinkling of distant stars. No moon in sight.
At least until next week.
