I pretty much stayed home all weekend and still have lots to tell….nothing terribly exciting though. I am pretty much exhausted after taking care of my niece for the weekend. The addition of a second three year old in the house was a little too much for me I think but I am happy that Racy (my niece – above) had a nice time. I was a bit worried after she cried for an hour the first night… sobbing “I want my mama.” It lasted a half hour the next night.
That is exactly why I don’t leave my kids until they are much older and able to handle it. I would never be able to handle having one of them cry for me like that. My husband has always thought I was a bit silly in that respect… cause ya know…normal people get “babysitters” and go for weekends away. After seeing how hard it was for his niece I think he “gets” it now. There is no way anything could be worth putting our child through that. There will be plenty of time for that stuff later when they are older.
It was also interesting seeing my three year old next to another 3 year old. My niece is 2 months younger than my son and yet she talks really well and she is potty trained. Yeah, it was hard to not make comparisons. My daughter really liked having a female playmate and it made me sad that she won’t have a sister. I had brothers just like her and always wanted a sister. :(
Yesterday afternoon I had to laugh when they were building towers with blocks and my 3 year old BOY would come and knock them down in true boy fashion. My niece would start to yell at him and my daughter would put a hand on her shoulder and say “When things go wrong…its best to try and stay calm.” LOL.
Of course I am wondering where THAT line of thinking was today at school. ;) She got in trouble at school for being too aggressive with another classmate. I guess she had a mean “tone” with a classmate who was doing the assignment wrong. So the teacher put her in time out for the first time ever and my daughter had a complete melt down and cried for some time. It was so bad they wanted me to come get her but I left my cell at home. In general I feel her school “shames” the children too much. After talking with her I realized she felt pressured by the teacher to make sure the assignment was done “right” so when her classmate and work partner was doing it wrong, she started to panic a little and got needlessly angry. Honestly such is the life in public school if you ask me… pressure to perform, then punishment when you reach a breaking point and act out. Anyway I was more concerned about getting the story from my daughter who was reluctant to tell me because the teachers made her feel she had done something really “bad”.
But back to the weekend… I got caught up on reading as the kids ran through the sprinklers and played outside. I finished Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves – which was really good for the most part. It is all about respectful parenting and really letting kids write their own story while we just sit back and support them. Overall I liked the book but I was mildly annoyed at times with it. It took things a bit too far IMO with some of their examples and basically made the family relationship very one sided… if the kids needs are met then who cares about mom and dad.
I also started reading Attached at the Heart and so far I am LOVING it!!! It completely debunks the conservative diatribe about how society and children have gone wild due to permissive parenting. It shows how society in general started to be shaped in the mid 1800s by “experts” who declared the best way to parent was by being detached, unemotional, harsh with discipline, and with low to NO physical contact. For years parents were told that anything else would create lazy, dependent children. The book also shows how children have been mistreated for centuries and how all THAT history is why society is where it is. It is a must read book….great for a breezy day on a hammock. :)
This morning the first order of business was too take my oldest son (he played hooky today) to a thrift store to get him some summer clothes. FINALLY after 4 years of wearing the same clothes he is moving up to larger sizes. When he was 5 he was probably a bit on the chunky side and almost getting into size 7/8 clothes. Then he started taking the seizure medication and dropped to a size 4/5 in just a couple months. Of course we got him off the seizure meds with a specialized diet but he still was Mr. Skinny for years. Now at almost 9, his size 8 clothes he has had since he was 5 are too tight.
I was very pleased with what we found at the thrift store, I got 6 pairs of shorts with some being brand new w/tags, 8 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts for my daughter, and 1 dress for my daughter… all for $25. Wahoo! I am thinking I won’t even bother to get anything new for school next year except for shoes. I LOVE second hand shopping! See all that tie dye? Oh yeah!
Well, that was my boring weekend and Monday morning. What did you do?
