The Principles Office, General Sherman, Doing Laundry and Other Stuff

I'm so thankful that it's finally Friday.

This week as been a bit of a crazy week. It all started Monday. Trying to get a fresh start. I got busy, as soon as The Boy left for school, cleaning cleaning. I started with the front porch. The playroom. I went through toys. Even throwing stuff away (shocking, isn't it) which caused some trauma in one particular little girl. I plowed on. I straightened up the living room before calling it quits for the morning. We had an appointment to get to. Much of what I had done was "undone" in the 15 minutes I spent hoping in the shower. I'd think likening her to General Sherman going through Georgia after the Civil War. Total destruction. That is the phase we are entered. Add that with some serious sassiness. Throw in a little willful disobedience and we've got our self a nice little case of the "two's." That's right folks my sweet, innocent, cute little baby has decided to make a name for herself. Here is a little bit of her handiwork

Along that "willful disobedience" line she has been trying to stand on her chair, while at the table. Such an issue. Many a kids' food has been stolen by her when they weren't looking. One day this week she was sitting at the table eating her breakfast while I was waiting for the bus with The Boy. I turned to check on her and found her like this

Isn't that special? When I told David about it later he said he has found her that way before. He just chose not to tell me, I probably wouldn't have been ready to receive it anyway.
I want my sweet baby back.

Much of this weeks craziness is due to one person. The Boy.

It all started Monday when I was at my little appointment and got a call. From the principle. The Boy was in her office. His offense? Pinching his para. He's aide that is with him almost his entire day. That's right he pinched her. He kept grabbing at a marker, when it was not marker time, so she finally took it and put it behind her. So he pinched her. So he got sent to the principle. She sent me a note home that day saying that she probably acted out of frustration and didn't really want to send him. I'm glad she did though. I discussed with the principle what we thought a proper punishment would be. Then I replayed the whole conversation in my head the entire day. I got a call from Granny, who happened upon The Boy while he was sitting in the principles office. He was less than thrilled to see her.

When he got home that afternoon we had a little "chat." Then I told him no movies and no going outside until Dad came home. He seemed to accept that. Then we went to work on his homework. We had to read a little story then he had to write the letter for the story, in this case an "e." But for some reason he struggled greatly with this. I knew he could do it, he's done it before. He would right a "b" or a "3" I even wrote a bunch on another piece of paper to show him. Then wrote one he could trace. When he would start to act up I'd send him to the couch to take a rest then he would come back and we'd try again. For an hour we did this. He finally did what I was asking. Not long after that Dad came home and wanted to talk to him about his day. Needless to say by this point The Boy was quite tired of "talking" about his rough day.

I did let him play outside in the evening time. I think it helped blow some of the steam off. The next morning he was in much better spirits and left for school, I think, on a good note. That morning I got to working on the laundry and found these in The Boy's pockets when I was sorting out the kids' stuff,

At that point I was ready for a laugh.

Thursday was another big day. But for good stuff. In the evening was his elementary school's "Schools in Review." It's like an open house. They have hot dogs and bouncy toys and just lots of insanity. It was interesting to walk through the school with The Boy. Kids left and right were calling out to him, saying hi. There were three bouncy toys, one was an obstacle course thing. He loved it. That's probably a slight understatement. He just wanted his sister to go with him. She was not sure what to make of all the kids and the craziness that it took her a little while to warm up to the idea. The other kids loved having him, one kid saw him and said "can I go with him?" as it was a two person obstacle course. While I recognize every single kid in the school probably isn't totally smitten by him, or even knows who he is, I felt like a lot did. And all of them were so accepting. That made me happy.

Afterward he and David took off for another big adventure. Big announcement, The Boy is now a Tiger Scout. We've now entered that realm of kids "in stuff." He's got stuff. When David came home and gave me the report (f.y.i. I did send him with a camera but it turned out to be just a parent meeting so there wasn't much to take pictures of) he was soaring. And greatly imploring me to get involved too. We'll see. Slightly out of my "zone." But the words of my father are ringing in my ears, "step outside yourself." This weekend we're going to go and try to find him some "stuff" for all his "stuff" doing. David said the kids played for a while and each of the boys was so good with him. With a ball. I'm sure the kid was in heaven. The boys took turns, letting him have a chance with the ball. Again, that made me happy. This is going to be quite the adventure for us.

I'm just so glad it's Friday.

Be glad it's Friday.