Jess started to read the Twilight series last week. I have heard that by book 3 or 4 there is a bit of adult content so I decided to read the books too. She had a major fit about that and decided to read something else. Her big concern was that I would make her stop reading in mid series. (I made her stop reading The Lovely Bones about a month ago. I didn't think that was quite appropriate novel material for a 13 year old to be reading.) I had been meaning to get to the Twilight books at some point so I jumped right in and didn't let her fit rain on my parade. Well, I plowed through the books this last week (I couldn't put them down) and half way through thought "I read racier trash novels when I was her age." I'm so mean - I'm going to make her buy her own copies. I am very particular about -how- I keep the books I keep as I read them again and again. Anyway, here she is one evening with Wy. He had just had a bath and I can't remember what he was upset about, but he didn't want anyone but "Ca!" (His version of Jessica.)
Ya know, it is truly no fun to be the only adult in the house when someone is bleeding profusely from the head while five children stand nearby screaming or hyperventilating. OK - Jess and Abbs were horsing around and Abby tripped. She conked her head on the wall and then there was bleeding. Of course I was upstairs when it happened and only heard some crying. I wasn't in a huge rush to get downstairs until I suddenly heard All Holy Hell break loose with shrieking and "IT's BLEEDING! OH MY GOD, IT'S BLEEEEEEDIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!" I hurtled down the stairs and sure enough there was Abby, hunched over, blood all over the wall, her hand, shirt, dripping on the floor, looking like the survivor of a zombie attack. Jess was on the verge of hyperventilation, Connie was screaming, Devlyn was crying hysterically because this badness woke her up and her sisters were freaking out, Jack was crying because everyone else was crying and Wy was crying because the noise woke him up and he was afraid and alone in his crib upstairs. I started off trying to speak calmly to people. It took me about 5 seconds to realize that was not going to work. I started to move Abby upstairs towards the kitchen so I could get a better look/handle on the situation. Jess started yelling at me about not moving Abbs and how I need to call 911. And then I just started barking at people. "YOU - Calm down! YOU - take a breath! YOU - come with me! YOU - get some ice out of the freezer! YOU - get out of the kitchen! YOU - sit down! YOU - calm down, no one is going to die!" Of course I was trying to figure out if Abbs needed to go to the hospital and how I was going to wrangle that with 6 kids...Thankfully, Daddy got home just then and between the two of us determined that it was a good cut, but we didn't think she needed stitches. Fun times.
I think I'm having the hardest time with Connie. (In terms of adjusting to daily life that is.) She is a stubborn 5 year old who is going on 15. She digs in her heels or throws some sass my way and something in my brain sort of explodes. I dig in my heels and we suddenly are locked in a little battle of wills. I think part of the reason I have so much trouble with her is that I am not about to cave in to the sass of a 5 year old. I someimtes I wish I could be more like my mama and just let go with something like that - but thus far it hasn't happened. And I have no idea how she does it, but that child tears through shoes. She has already torn through 2 pairs of brand new tennis shoes since January. Jack has been singing Jingle bells all week. And in true Jack form, he has his own way of singing the song...Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a wal-mart on a sleigh! He also loves to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider song. "A itsy bitsy spider went up a water spout. Down came a rain and washed a spider out. Down came a Sun and dried up all a rain, and a itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout - again..."
Still no progress with poopin in the pot. Rewards don't work. Bribes don't work. I have no more tricks. When he goes in his pants, I ask him if it is comfortable. He says "No." I ask him if he likes poop in his pants. He says "No." I ask him why he didn't poop in the pot. He says "Mommy, I tried and I tried and I tried to poop in a pot but I couldn't. I just couldn't, Mommy."
He gets to feed the cats in the morning and always asks "Are you hungry widdle wibby (little Libby)?"
I always try to make sure there are a few trains in the boys' bags before we head out each day. If there is time, I let Jack pick out which trains he wants to take with us. Every so often we have to empty out his bag so it doesn't get weighted down with all those trains. When we pull trains out of the bag Jack tells me they are "asleep" and "You don't wake them up, mommy."
He is fascinated with machines: particularly road construction vehicles. He has a picture book that identifies back hoes, front loaders, tractors and who knows what else. Since I have no idea what any of these vehicles are, I usually ask Jack to clue me in. We were out the other day when I asked Jack "What kind of machine is that, Jack?" His reply? "A yellow one."
Jack doesn't want to sleep in his own bed. He doesn't want to fall asleep without someone sitting with him. If I am with him at bed time, he often wants me to sit in his little bed with him. We have no one to blame but ourselves - John sits with the boys every night until they are both asleep. When it is my turn I am so tired I usually wind up bringing Jack to bed with me. I decided to make a little pallet by our bed and Jack could sleep there. He wasn't happy about it, but he must have decided it was better than being in his own bed. Twice this week he has slept there. And two other nights he fell asleep in his own bed without any grown ups in his room!
As you all know, Jack loves anything Thomas. He has a few pairs of Thomas pajamas and of course he only wants to wear whichever pair that is in with the dirty laundry. He has "Red Thomas" pjs - the ones with red pants. "Blue Thomas" pjs - the ones with the blue shirt. "Fast Thomas" pjs - the ones where Thomas is going fast. And "Slow Thomas" pjs - the ones with just little Thomases all over them. Here we have "Little Thomas" and "Fast Thomas" pjs.
Mom and I took the kids for a walk to the park Tuesday evening. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had so much fun on the slides. We were heading home with Abby and Connie in the lead. Abbs was pulling the wagon with Wy & Jack. Devlyn decided she was done walking with me and Gammy and took off at a run to catch up with her sisters. That girl tripped over her feet hit her palms on the sidewalk and then slid about a foot and a half on her nose. Mom was giving her a hard time the other night and said "Devlyn, you can go out back and sleep in the shed." Devlyn looked at her and said "I can't deal with that."
Mel, Mark & Noah came down for Mom's surprise party the other week and before they left Noah was passing around 'Eskimo kisses'. It was so fun and funny that I could hardly breathe. I showed Wy how to give 'noses' and now he wants to do it all the time too! I asked him the other day "Wy are you handsome?" and he just said "Yeeeee-aaaaahhhh."He is learning to identify animals and their sounds. As far as Wy is concerned all animals say "yayayayayayaya" except cats, who say 'yeow.' He continues to work on naming colors - he is currenlty in love with green and purple so everything is either greenor purple. Since he has been able to talk Thomas has been 'Thom-mine." This week he started saying "Thomassss" I was so sad, I nearly cried.
Finally - as the collection plate came around during mass yesterday, Wy tried to put a half eaten rice cake in the plate while keeping the money for himself. He was not happy with me when I made him swap out his offering.
That about does it for me this week. Love and blessings and as always - more next week! lots of love from Owenland Park!
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