So, the kids have an extended weekend home, and John is proving to be a handful to keep up with! I think he’s bored from not being in the rigors of school, but he refuses any attempt to leave the house.

Piece by piece, he seems to be getting into every part of each accessible room. I’m having to run after him when he’s too quite or when I hear a big sound (seeming to come from all directions). To top it off, he doesn’t understand why I’m stopping him from having some fun.

The older he gets the more challenging his having Down Syndrome seems to get. I know he understands things I say, but to make him grasp the reason behind it is just too abstract for him. Of course there is a worse case scenario; he’s being completely defiant. Sigh.

I so wish, he could, or would speak his mind but that is yet a skill to show itself. The lack of it is becoming more and more challenging, and none of us are getting any younger. My patience grows shorter with age, but I have to stretch my limits-I just don’t know how.

Between that, and Henry needing extensive explanation on everything that is done or not done, is exhausting.

I love my children. I want to be a better parent to them than I had. I love my mom, and she worked herself to the bone as a single parent, but due to that she had very little patience or time for me. She was also an older parent having adopted me when she was already in her 40s.

I’m not single, and already my children’s’ home life is better than what I had, having both parents still together and not going anywhere soon. They luckily have that stability. But it’s still trying sometimes.

All the same, I get to spend time with both of them and marvel at them budding into their own personalities and a strong bond of brotherhood. I love watching them play, even though they can get quite aloud at times. They wrestle, tickle and John tries to imitate everything Henry does.

Henry loves to dance and John loves music, and they will often be found dancing, each to his own rhythm, side by side. I keep thinking I have to video it for a keepsake, but end up so caught up in the moment watching and laughing that I never pick up my phone to catch it.

Such times can be so fleeting and I wish I could hold them forever, but I get so caught up in grown up life—-ahh to be so young and free!