Warm Weather - A Love/Hate Relationship

 As a mom of 2 small children, I have been less than patiently waiting for some warm weather.  It's not easy being cooped up in a small house with rambunctious kids.  My kids are high energy... and I know what you're thinking-- all kids are high energy.  But I swear mine are a special sort of high energy.  Mine are the bouncing off the walls, tackling each other, jumping off the furniture type of high energy... and that's just the 2 year old!  And I am not the type of mom to get the kids all bundled up in winter gear to go play in the snow... I've accepted the fact that I will never be "Mother of the Year".

 Let me give you a little insight on my kids... specifically my son.  My son is the kid standing on top of the table at Friendly's yelling "ICE CREAM" (yeah, I'm serious... he's that kid).  My son is the one running through the Target parking lot with me chasing after him screaming my head off... and sheepishly avoiding the glances from the "Mommy of the Year"-types.  My son has stolen food from the supermarket at 18 months (he was in a shopping cart, I have no idea how it happened, honest!).  My son has single-handedly broken an entire shelf of glass figurines at a specialty store--including the shelf!  This is not a laid back kid.

 So finally the weather warms up... YIPPEEEE.... FREEDOM!!!!!!!

 And herein lies my issues...

 1) My daughter loves to be outside.  She understands boundaries (for the most part).  She stays put.  We don't have a fence in our backyard, but she doesn't run around like a crazy child... she plays on the swings.  Not Luke.  Luke is like the house cat that sees the door open and runs like the dickens up the nearest tree.  He is GONE!  Oh, and he only likes to go in one direction... he will NOT turn around.  If I would let him, he would walk from here to Baltimore by tomorrow morning, and would probably take his shoes off in the middle of the trip, and throw them at the nearest person, too.

2)  I love to kick my daughter out of the house to play while I am making dinner.  I certainly can't kick Luke out of the house without me being out there with him (see #1), and while Cady thinks she can "watch Lukie", she just can't.  She's five.  I'm 37 and I have a hard time.  So Luke stands at the screen door and screams "OUTSIDE" at the top of his lungs.  Now, I can kind of tune it out, but is it really fair to the neighbors who are dining al fresco?  No one should be subjected to that type of torture... even though there are a few neighbors who deserve it... but that's another blog post, on another day.

3)  Luke knows how to open everything... baby gates, cabinet doors, and alas... the sliding glass door.  He can unlock the screen, he can unlock the slider, and he even knows how to push the little button on the super-secret/"keep the robbers out" lock.  There is no keeping him in when his sister is out.  So me cooking involves running back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to make sure my little escapee hasn't flown the coop.

4)  Did I mention Cady loves it outside?  Well, my only fix to the dinner-time insanity is to make my daughter come inside.  And then I have to deal with her crying, and stomping, and pouting, and complaining.  It's definitely a catch-22 situation.  Which miserable child can I tolerate more?  And which one will least likely cause my neighbors to call the cops on me?  It's a tough call.So, in the end, we're 2 weeks into this great weather and I must admit... I kind of miss the "No, you can't go outside!  It's 20 degrees!" excuse.  At least between the hours of 5 and 7.

Or, maybe I just need a fence...