...and now something completely different!

Today was one of those mornings that he's just THE most loving, affectionate little kid you've ever seen.  Six o'clock and I'm sitting on my bed stretching as he wanders in in his too-small footie pajamas.  His little face splits into a delighted grin and he immediately climbs into my lap, straddling me, and plasters himself to me.  Once he gets situated and shoves his face into my neck he sighs, "Good Morning, Mom."

When, after a minute or two, he still showed no signs of moving I asked how he was doing this morning.  I got a euphoric, "Good," as my answer.  Eventually I asked what he was doing (like I didn't know, but hey, I like to hear it).

"I'm just loving you, Mom."  Slightly muffled, still euphoric, face still buried in my neck.

"Oh, okay.  I love you too.  Always and forever."  :)

"Yes.  Always and forever.  But sometimes I get angry at you.  But not right now.  I just love you right now."

"Getting angry is okay, it doesn't mean that we don't love each other."

"Yeah." He sighs.

I adore that kid.  :)

Whiplash

The thing is, you THINK he's a normal little boy.  That's part of the Genius at work.  As long as things are going along in a manner that HE's happy with, things are fine.  It's when he doesn't agree with the proceedings that there's a problem.  It could be something big like a bedtime, or a trip to the doctor, but most times it's something little - like the time he freaked out that I'd ordered a six piece McNugget happy meal instead of four.  Matt had for some reason not been able to take the kids up to The Studio himself, so I took them up that afternoon.  Part of the routine is that the kids get dinner at either the McDonald's or the Wendy's right there before the drive home, since they don't get home until seven o'clock at the earliest, and it's a school night.

 Oh my god he was SO angry.  "MO-OM I ONLY WANTED FO-UR!!  I DON'T WANT SI-IX!!  THAT'S TOO MAA-NNY!" I told him that he didn't have to eat all six if he didn't want to.  No dice, still wailing and kicking the back of my seat.  CW informed me that, "The last time, he'd only wanted a four piece meal."  Why did no one tell me this?  Because it didn't seem like it would be a problem - why would it?  Nor was it a pattern - this was apparently only the second time in recent history he'd wanted four McNuggets.

So, after several minutes of Banshee Boy in the back, we finally get up to the second window and the employee hands out the food.  I, being the flexible mom that I am  (and remembering the time that he expressed displeasure in the car over his Burger King Nuggets when he was three - he threw them at me one at a time), reach into the happy meal, snatch out two  McNuggets, close everything back up and hand it off.  The howls in the back of the car subside to a mere grumpy growl while he inspects his food.  I'm stuffing the contraband  McNuggets in my mouth and I hear, "OH!  They only gave me FOUR!  SEE mom, I got FOUR, not SIX.  I didn't WANT SIX  I wanted four.  And they gave me FOUR!!"

"Mmhm!  *chew chew swallow* How about THAT!  It's like they knew!"  I didn't DARE tell him that I'd taken the  McNuggets.  God knows what THAT would have stirred up.  And now we ask him how many he wants us to order.

Where's my Shotgun?

So there's a boy at school.

Against ALL odds, he's actually TALLER than CW.  And one of her friends likes him, so she's actively refusing to be interested in him - I think.  They seem to be friends, I'd actually observed them in Orchestra one day sharing music when CW had forgotten to bring hers.  Seems like a nice kid.  A couple of weeks ago she tells me about how her friend likes him, or maybe she was telling me about him trying to weird her out and asking if he's succeeded, I don't know which one came first - it doesn't really matter.  I start to giggle and tell her that while, yes, he cold just see her as a friend, it was kind of sounding as though he *likes* her.  Actually, the weirding  out part of the conversation must have come first, because it was AFTER I'd said this that she looked all shocked and confessed that her friend liked him.  I reitereated that he may just be CW's friend and hence, no problem.  We were still laughing and talking about this when our chiropractor Dr. W, came in.  I related the incident and asked HIM about it, and he kind of smacked his head and agreed that it's entirely possible that the boy likes CW.

Fast forward to last Friday (also at the chiropractor's office) and she's relating a bit about how for some reason or another, there was no chair at one desk/station the other day, and CW swapped with another friend, leaving CW without a chair.  COINCIDENTALLY she'd ended up next to the boy.  *rolls eyes and sighs*  So he apparently offered her his chair multiple times.  *Smacks forehead*

So THEN, she tells me how she was asking him the other day if he's got a crush on anyone!  She says she was trying to find out if he liked her friend.  *Head Desk*  I asked her how SHE would feel if the object of her crush walked up and asked her if she had a crush on someone.  Doofus.

Now, I was particularly clueless about this type of thing in school, I mean, really, I only ever had 3 boyfriends before Matt, and I was unaware of any boys LIKING me in school.  So, as I tell her that I *think* he might like her, I keep reminding her that he may just think she's a good friend.

Either way, I'm glad we got her to The Studio.  Have I mentioned that she's testing for her Green Belt in a couple of weeks?  :)  'Cause, she is.

Cycles anyone?

CW seems to have this thing where about every 2-4 months she completely loses her s***, turns into a raving B****, and has to be dealt with.  Suddenly, No one understands her!  She's got too much on her plate!  She doesn't like physical contact!  She needs to be alone!  *sob*

We had one of those on New Year's Eve.  My normal response when she starts getting b****y is to start restricting alone time and or computer time, since most often it seems that her lack of interpersonal skills is what's causing her to sound like a melodramatic, attitudinal, hormonally wrecked teenager.  Eventually though, she breaks down and we can have an actual conversation about what's going on in her head.  This time I had to remove her e-reader (and hence music-in-her-room) privileges before she cracked.  She needed a refresher on dealing with stress, and a blunt reminder that pacing around her room in the dark TALKING to herself and listening to angst-y music is not really the best thing she can be doing for herself (especially since she's "sometimes not sure if she's going insane"), since it was quite obviously NOT working.  That was something else we talked about - stopping to re-evaluate the situation and her responses, i.e., NOTICE when what she's doing to try and cope isn't working, and either try something else, or ask for help.

We reiterated that physical activity is a GREAT outlet, and that that's one of the many reasons we had her start walking on the treadmill in the mornings before school.  We'd wanted to get her into a good life habit early on (and it seems like she has), that would help her deal with stress, among other things.  We talked about going to the Studio, and how Daddy adores being able to punch and take punches without having to hold back.

We talked about the possibility of S.A.D., and how spending lots of time in the dark might be exacerbating it, if it IS an issue for her.  I pointed out the fact that we've got the full spectrum light bulbs in the house, during the winter in particular, to help combat that in me.  I offered the option of a therapist if she wanted (she most adamantly does not).  And as always we told her that she can talk to us about anything, and while yes, we may get angry or upset at first, we'll work through the issue, whatever it is.

I love that girl, but sometimes man...  *sigh*

So that happened.

At one point over Christmas Break, SG had gone out to play, and ended up at a buddies house.  A couple of hours later I thought we should probably call him home - since I know how I feel when the neighborhood kids are in the house on impromptu playdates for several hours.  So I called his phone.  I nearly had a heart attack when he answered screaming that he was locked in a closet.  Long story short, he'd taken offense at something one of the girls had said about him, and instead of LEAVING like he should have, he went into the nearest closet and accidentally locked himself him.  He'd hung up on me while in the middle of screaming that he was locked into the closet, and then he failed to ANSWER the phone after he'd gotten out and was running home.

Matt had left as soon as we found out he was trapped in a closet (the kids he'd been playing with had been sent to our house to get us and were out on our front walk when he left), and actually got over there after SG was out.  He talked to the parents, apologies on both sides, etc.  And the Boy is not allowed out right now without parental supervision since he demonstrated bad judgment both in handling a playtime situation, and three separate bad decisions regarding the phone.

So, was it a coincidence that I thought about calling him when he was starting to panic?  ;)

Six isn't much better than Five.

The bunch of us went in for our allergy shots yesterday evening.  It went about the way it always does:
SG's coat was on the chair next to Matt's, and there was another open chair next to SG's.  I moved SG's coat to the second chair and sat down next to Matt (because the seating is really tight in this office and I'd rather be squished up against Matt than be invading another mom's personal space), which prompted a fit of righteous Kindergarten indignation on SG's part.

"MOM!  I was sitting there first!"  He spluttered.  Fabulous, he called me on it.  Bad behavior that THEY'RE not supposed to display, being displayed by mom.  w00t.

"I know, sweetheart, but you weren't actually sitting there and I'd like to sit next to Daddy."

"Mo-om! I was sitting there fir-rst!" Whiney whiney.  We went back and forth a couple more times, at which point my name was called for my shot, and I very deliberately put my book down on the chair in dispute, while staring at him.

When I got back, he'd switched our stuff back to the way he thought it should be.  At which point I stopped the dispute since the family occupying the corner batch of chairs had left, leaving me with a choice of about 6 different chairs.  CW and I moved over there into the corner and buried our noses in our books.  This did not sit well with SG.  Having lost the fight by default, he was irritated that I was not now sitting next to him.
 So he argued a little bit about it from his chair, and then danced over to me and tried to argue some more, all while brandishing Bumblebee at me.

At this point I got annoyed enough to comment to him what a FUSS he'd made over sitting in that chair, so why wasn't he in it?  Not much of an answer was forthcoming, so I told him that since he HAD made such a fuss about the chair he needed to SIT IN IT.  Queue the crabbing on his part.

"If you do not sit in that chair, you will NOT be getting cookies from the store.  Got it?" *Gasp*  ...and suddenly his little butt was on the chair.  YES!  Go me!!  :)

At least three more times in the next 30 minutes he got up and was playing, and every time I saw him do it I reminded him about the Fuss Over The Chair, and the cookies.   Eventually I hear him grump very quietly to Matt, "Dad?  Can it just be us next time?  Just you and me?"

Matt and I had to squelch the giggles over the fact that SG was really not very happy with me right then and was obviously trying to leave me behind the next time so I wouldn't be such a downer.  :)

Score.  ;)

...and We shall call them Resolutions!

So, I think I'm going to have to write more my since other sanity saver is probably causing problems. It seems (this has NOT been run past a doctor yet) that I may possibly be intolerant of, sensitive, or outright allergic to at least some forms ("Dammit woman, get to the POINT already!") of Alcohol. There. I said it. We're thinking that given the incredible amounts (for me anyway) of alcohol I've consumed over the past year that perhaps I'm developing an issue with it. Hives, to be exact. Yay.

So. Off alcohol entirely, back to Atkins and the treadmill and hopefully I'll be healthier this year. I won't say that my health couldn't get much worse, because I know it certainly could. But it could be better.

Anyway, Winter break was good, mostly. Both kids seemed ready to get back to school, thankfully, because WOW we needed to get them back out of the house. SG had several "accidents" over the past couple of weeks, and since Grounding had become a way of life for him, we shifted gears and went to throwing out toys instead of any other punishment. We've also been very careful to wrap in positive reinforcement as well. AND timers. He needs timers. I remember going through this with CW at about this age (not the accidents, but the need for timers...although, come to think of it, she still needs them) and timers, stupid little ticking and ringing kitchen timers, being REALLY helpful. So, timers are all over the house right now. Mostly in the bathrooms, but I may end up buying more... :)