Today we had one of our sitters, Daniella, watch the twins while Adam and I took the older boys to Winter Wonderfest.

I was amazed how much I learned today.

First I learned that Jack is a complete dare devil. He has no fear and kept trading off between queasy parents to accompany him on dizzying, stomach churning rides.

Adam and Jack on the “Cliff Hanger”

Jack is in the yellow top with red pants, I’m to the left in the purple shirt….

Jack and I in the “Gravitron”. I squeezed his hand the whole time and screamed while he laughed at me.

I also learned today just how deep Ben’s aversion to transition is. We had to strongly suggest and encourage any new attraction and when we finally did get him on board, he wanted to do it over and over again. When we tried to move him to another attraction he would flop on the floor. Poor little guy. He is so articulate but has never been able to articulate why transition is so difficult for him. I must try harder to be mindful of this.

It’s hard to imagine that someone with so much love of life, someone who is so full of laughter, can have this major difficulty that he has to deal with every moment. Life is full of change.

This is not to say he did not have a great day.

He enjoyed the train ride…

He enjoyed many of the bouncy house rides…

I also learned by watching Jack and Ben together, without parents, that even though Jack can tease Ben relentlessly at times, he is a very good big brother to him. He held his hand or hugged him every time they were in line together. And because it was his beloved Jack, Ben was very well behaved.

And he loved his favorite McDonald’s lunch followed by ice cream…

In fact, we ALL enjoyed ice cream.

Finally I think the most important thing I learned today was watching Adam parent. He was completely on his game today. Patience, understanding, positive. That sort of stuff is contagious. It made me want to stop sighing so much, stop yelling so much, stop jumping to so many conclusions. After all, our kids model themselves after our own behavior and the best way to make them good people is NOT to yell at them to be better, but to be a good person yourself.