Just had enough

I work in a company that is very small (less than 20 employees) and is very understanding when it comes to situations with kids and family issues.  The Monday after Thanksgiving Nathan had an appointment with the doctor who issued the prescription for his Allderol just after lunch.  I spoke with my boss/owner of the company (who is only 4-5 years older than I am) and explained that I could get Nathan from daycare, to the doctor and be back at work in about two hours.  Since he had vision therapy that night, would it be okay if I just brought him back to the shop with me for a few hours...and was it okay if I took an extra hour for my lunch.  My boss Kurt pointed out that I am salary and taking an extra hour here and there was a perk of being salary.  Plus, he said, I know that you put in more than your forty hours a week.  Kurt had no problem with Nathan being at work for the almost three hours once I explained that he could sit on the computer and play games or play on his DSi.

That being said, Nathan was great all day.  We had nice discussions on the way to and from the doctors office.  He was very well behaved at his office and while we waited.  Once we got back to the office he sat quietly in a chair near my desk and played on his DSi.  When my co-workers would talk to him, he would have a conversation with them.  When my co-workers high school son came in to do the office cleaning, Nathan followed him around and helped him with some of the grunt jobs.

We left and went to vision therapy.  He did really well there.  We had to run to Walgreens and pick up some pictures that were being printed for a school project.  It all went downhill when he saw some speakers that he wanted and I would not buy.  He threw a small fit in the store and threw a big one once he got in the van.  He was kicking the seat, calling me names and just behaved terrible.  (It was a repeat of how he acted before he got on his meds)  I gave him a few minutes to calm himself down, but as we were driving home, something would set him off once in a while.  I explained that you do not call me 'stupid, brat face' as I do not call him those type of names.  If he wants to be treated with respect, he needs to treat me with respect.

Finally, after we turned off State Route 47 and onto Dawson I chose my moment.  (At this point, we were about 5 minutes from home) It was a dark, cloudy night with not a lot of light from the moon.  I waited until we were in front of the abandoned, haunted looking house and slammed on my brakes.  In my calmest voice I told Nathan to get out and start walking home since he hated me so much.  He took one look outside and said no.  He was quiet for the remainder of the trip, but he did sulk.

I am not proud of the fact I exploited Nathan's fear of the dark, and threatened to leave him on the side of the road (I never would have left him there).  I just had enough of the Mom bashing and figured I had to do something drastic as my telling him to knock it off wasn't working.  Every time I begin to have doubts about putting him on medicine for his ADHD, an incident like this happens and sends me the signal that he needs to be on it.

Justin - Part II

We have a basement with our house.  It is not fixed up, but it is not a cellar like my parents have.  We have three open rooms - one room is the laundry room, another room has a pool table left by previous residents and the furnance is also in that same room.  The third room is a big open room that happens to have clothes lines and the boys outdoor summer toys.  It is not unusual for them to come down with me when I am doing the laundry and stay down there and ride their bikes.

Yesterday, Darren comes running upstairs and said 'the soap you wash clothes with is leaking.  Justin did it.'  I went downstairs and there is laundry detergent everywhere.  We buy the gallon size that lays down and has a push spout.  However, the push spout was unscrewed and there is detergent just dripping from the bottle as all of it had already spilled.  I made myself count to five before I exploded, but that did not help.  I marched back up the stairs and made all three boys sit on the couch (Nathan was upstairs when all this happened, but one angry look from me had him changing his mind about arguing against sitting on the couch).  Bruce and I then put our heads together on the best way to clean this up.  We decided to cut a gallon ice cream bucket lid in half so we could kind of scoop up the detergent and pour into a funnel.  I made Bruce go back upstairs and keep an eye on the boys while I cleaned everything up.  Luckily(?) the dirty bath towels sat next to the pile of spilled detergent, so I mopped up the residue with the towels.  Then I threw them into the wash with no detergent....even then there were a lot of suds!

Justin's brattiness

I have said for a long time that Justin gets special treatment at home because he is the youngest despite me not wanting to treat him any differently.  He has it figured out that he is cute and he thinks that gives him a free pass to get away with anything.

He always wants me to "uppie me" when we are going upstairs to bed at night.  Or in the morning when I am trying to rush them out the door for daycare so I can get to work.  Or in the store and the list goes on and on.  I try not to give in, but when we are rushing against the clock in the morning, I almost always give in.  Bruce thinks that we should just carry him since he is the baby and enjoy the moment.  I agree with the fact that I like when he sits on my lap at night as I know he won't want anything to do with me in a few years.  However, when his brothers were this age they all had to walk and be more independent.  I was always busy carrying the infant seat (or an infant!), diaper bag or other items.

He has recently taken his brattiness to a new level.  He will drop his trash on the floor and resists picking it up.  Same with clothes, shoes or toys.  The other night he asked for a cup of apple juice.  I poured him some and put it on the bar.  He told me that he wanted it on the other side of the bar.  I told him to move the cup.  He crawls into the chair and says he is going to spill it since it is in the wrong spot.  I told him that if he spills it, he was going to 'stand in the corner until next week.'  I am watching him with an eagle eye, he looks at me with a defiant look, grabs the cup and proceeds to tip the cup over so apple juice spills everywhere.

I had to walk out of the room otherwise I may have grabbed him and did something I regret.  I told Bruce to go into the other room and deal with him.  I hope this is just a phase for him.

Nathan's parent teacher conference

I know I have not wrote about Nathan’s parent teacher conference, but I am finally at a place where I can write something down without wanting to cry. I met with Nathan’s teacher four weeks ago.
Some of the things we discussed were things that I was expecting. He doesn’t want to sit still. He doesn’t want to take his time doing school work. Unfortunately he had been caught cheating off another students test....not once, but twice. We discussed possible things to help improve his reading performance and his attitude in school.

I was told that Nathan is currently reading 32 words a minute and the class average is 62 words. In my head I am thinking that he needs to improve a 100% just to catch up with the rest of his class. Then she tells me that they want the class to be reading over a 100 words a minute by the end of the school year. I instantly think that he needs to improve almost 250% by the end of the year to be on track with rest of his classmates and that seems like a near impossible task.

Then the bombshell dropped. I could tell from the teachers’ expression that she did not like what she had to tell me. She hands me a letter that stated (and I paraphrase here) that the governor of Ohio signed in a new law that states that unless you pass your third grade proficiency test, you will be held back that year. And Nathan is currently not on track to pass the reading portion of the test. I could tell from her facial expressions and some of the things she said that she does not like this new law, but there is not much she can do about it. I went in shock mode. My mind is running a million miles a minute but I am struggling to form a coherent thought.

I asked what we could do to turn things around so he would not have to be held back as a third grader. If she gave me an answer, I do not remember what she may have told me. I do recall her saying let’s see how his appointment goes with the doctor on the 24th of October (the one where the doctor was going to determine if he needed to be on meds for his ADHD).

I waited a few days and a weekend to think about everything we had discussed. That following Monday I composed a lengthy e-mail to his teacher and asked all sorts of questions (some of which I eluded to in my post about Darren’s parent teacher conference). I was the quintessential mother bear protecting her cub and I was not going to let Nathan be held back without a fight. I was told that there were a hundred and one steps to take before he could be put in a LD class, and we had to follow all the steps. Suddenly in my mind, the medicine went from critical for my sanity and relationship with Nathan to a miracle drug.

I did get a note from Nathan’s teacher last Friday that stated she saw an improvement in his attitude, behavior, work ethic and work quality. Hopefully this medicine will give him the boost he needs to get on track with his class so that he can pass the third grade proficiency test.

Why did I wait so long?

Nathan has been on his ADHD meds now for almost a week and I am amazed at the transformation it has made in him. He took his pill Sunday morning and then about an hour later I suggested starting his homework. For once he did not resist, argue or complain about doing it.
We started with his spelling words. I asked if he wanted to write them on a piece of paper as I said them or if he wanted to do it on the white board/easel we have. He chose the white board. We did the entire list twice and the ones he spelled incorrectly, at least another time or two. All without any fidgeting or complaining. The good news is that he got an 87% on his test and he got a compliment from his teacher about how much better his hand writing was.
I had forgotten all about doing an "All About Me" book that he needs to fill out until I unearthed the envelope earlier that week. I told him that we had to do two pages and we had to make a rough draft first. He did not complain about having to write the same thing twice and he did slow down and try to write neatly. When we were done with the two pages, I started putting them back in the envelope. He said that he wanted to do more of the papers! He never volunteers to do more work than he has to.
Then I asked him if he wanted to read or practice his popcorn words flash cards. He decided to do the flashcards. Again, no whining, complaining, fidgeting or procrastination. It was super easy to get his homework done...in fact it was almost too easy.

Later that day, when I was looking at the Sunday paper, I pulled out the Toys 'R Us catalog for the boys to look at. Nathan grabbed his Christmas list and probably copied half the book onto his Christmas list. I was amazed that he was writing his list by himself. Normally he would have asked me to write it for him or he would have just circled the item in the catalog.
Bruce thinks that I just want Nathan's cooperation to be from the medicine as he doesn’t see how it could affect him already. I explained it to him as it was explained to me. The medicine he is taking is like an aspirin. It starts to work right away and will only last a certain amount of time before it wears off. It is not like a Lipitor where it takes time to get your cholesterol level lowered. I e-mailed his teacher and asked if she would let me know after a week or two if she is noticing a difference in his schoolwork and actions at school.

Trick or Treat!

Here is the one and only picture I got before the boys started trick or treating last night.  They were so excited that they couldn't sit still and I am actually impressed that I got them all to look at me at the same time.
Justin is the chicken on the left, Nathan is the cowboy in the middle and Darren is Spiderman on the right.

Poking fun at political commercials

As everyone knows, Ohio is considered a swing state for the presidential election. With that said, about every other commercial is a political commercial….from presidential to senate to the state Supreme Court judge.

Darren, my ham, has starting add-libbing at the beginning and/or end of every commercial. It can be a political commercial or it can be a commercial for Taco Bell or Chevy trucks. He doesn’t discriminate against commercials. He’ll go, “Hi my name is ______________ (Mitt Romney or Barak Obama) and I approve this message.” It’s just sounds funny coming from his mouth with his little speech impediment.

Darren's bliss

“I’m reading!  I’m really reading!”  You should have seen the look of sheer wonder, of amazement and excitement on Darren’s face when he said these words.  He had brought home a book from his reading intervention class and was expected to read it.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he wasn’t actually reading it as much as he was reciting from memory and the pictures what it said.  The book was titled “I have…” and a page in the book was “I have a red apple.”  Between underlining the word red with a red crayon and looking at the picture to determine what object he had, he wasn’t really reading.  If only he can keep up that excitement when it comes time to reading homework for the rest of his school career….

Darren's parent-teacher conference

As promised (but a little late) I am going to start talking about the parent teacher conferences I had nine days ago.

I have been having some serious second thoughts about sending Darren and after speaking with the teacher, I really wish I did not send him.  She said that he is acting like a normal 5 1/2 year old, but with kids six months to over a year older than him, he does not have the maturity level as most of his classmates. 

He still flips his numbers and some letters and I am being told not to worry about it as that is common.  I am not taking that statement at face value because I let them tell me that with Nathan and we are having all kinds of problems with Nathan and reading.  Nathan will still flip his numbers sometimes.

I asked if she had noticed that he had a speech problem.  She said that she did not want to say anything in case it did not result in anything, but she was having him tested that very next day.  In Darren's school paperwork last night, there was an envelope addressed the parents of Darren.  The note inside basically said that he did not test well and would like to have speech intervention performed at school and we had to sign a permission slip.

She also asked if I minded that she had sent him down to Mrs. W.  Darren's teacher said that she had a few open spots and stuck him in it because he is having trouble with the phonics of letters.  When doing his popcorn flash cards and came across a word he did not know, I would tell him to sound it out.  Suddenly the word 'have' became 'like'.  I told him that was incorrect and what sound does 'H' make?  He couldn't answer me.

With everything that he is struggling with already, I am seriously thinking about holding him back next year.  There is so much pressure to achieve at that young age already.  It was explained to me at Nathan's conference that if he (or any kid) is tested for a learning disability that chances are it would not show up when compared to the national average.  But because the standards are so much higher at our school, he struggles compared to his classmates, when he is right on target with the national average.

Not liking school

When Darren got home from school on Tuesday, I asked him how school was.  He never answered me.  I asked him again.  He did not answer again.  Because it was our normal crazy, just walk in the door hectic, I thought that maybe he did not hear me.  I pulled him to the side and asked again how school was.  He did not want to answer me.  I finally asked if he got his name on the board, and he admitted that he did. 

I asked him what he did to get his name on the board.  He said that he was not listening.  Nathan walked by to hear the last parts and started picking on Darren for getting his name on the board.  Darren then goes, "I've only got my name on twice.  You have had yours on the board a lot more!"  What???  You have had your name on the board before?  When I ask Darren about it, he said that he had.  When I ask why, he tells me that it was for not listening.

I talked briefly with his teacher about it last night at the parent-teacher conference, and she said he acts like the rules do not apply to him.  I agree with that assessment.  There will be more on the parent-teacher conference in another post.

Some pics

Here is a picture that my aunt Patty recently took.  It shows Dylan (the tallest one) with his 'brothers' (my kids).  The twins are my first cousins' boys. 

This is a picture of Justin wearing his Grandpa Mark's hat on Father's Day.  He can be quite the ham.

This is a favorite of mine.  This was taken about a week after Darren had his tonsils out and he would just have moments of pure grumpiness because he was in pain. 

Easy-peasy

I have been doing popcorn flashcards with Darren almost every night.  There are several he knows very well and a few he still struggles with.  When he gets to the ones he knows, I usually say something like, "That was easy-peasy."  Darren then pipes up and adds to the end of my quote by saying, "lemon-squeezy."  It is too cute.

First goal!

Nathan is not an athletic boy although he tries hard and he has two strikes against him as neither of his parents are athletic.  This past weekend, at his last soccer game of the year, he scored his first goal.  This was the second year that he played.  He was playing guard/fullback/goal defender (whatever the technical soccer term is).  A kid kicked the ball high and it was heading to the goal.  Nathan decides that he is going to try and stop it with his head.  The ball bounced off his head, and went backwards.....into the goal.  Very bittersweet that his first goal was for the opposing team!

Still scrawny

It is amazing the size difference between Nathan and Darren.  Darren and Justin have a similar build, but Darren obviously has a few inches on his baby brother.

The other day I either put some jeans in the wrong drawer or when I set them on their bed to get dressed, I laid the wrong pair on the wrong bed.  I was helping Justin get dressed (that is a whole other post) and I pulled his jeans up on him and buckled his pants.  I know I had a confused look on my face as his pants were entirely to long until I look over at Darren and see that he is wearing carpi's.  Justin was wearing Darren's jeans and Darren was wearing Justin's....as in snapped with no problem and probably some room to spare!  Except for the length, Justin's 2T jeans fit perfectly.  People think I am crazy when I ask if they make 4 slim talls.  Even those are a little bit loose in the waist.  That boy needs to get some meat on his bones!

Green spots

Whenever I buy the French Onion flavored potato chips and Darren sees them, here is how he asks for them.  "Can I have the chips with the green dots on them?"  I always have to chuckle as it sounds like I am giving him moldy chips to eat.

Almost a bad day

In almost a conspirator voice, last night Darren tells me that he almost had a bad day at school.  I ask him why.  He tells me that he almost got his name on the board and he looked properly scared that he almost got it on.  I asked him what happened and in true Darren-fashion, he tells me.

Darren - In the hall is Christopher's bike and she told us not to touch it, but I didn't hear her so I touched it and got in trouble for it.  That was the first thing.

Me - What was the second thing?

Darren - I forget, but she said the next time I get my name on the board!

Me - So did you behave yourself the rest of the day?  Were you quiet and kept your hands to yourself?

Darren - That was about the end of the day so I didn't have to be good much longer.

Really?  That was the lesson you took away from the whole experience?  That you didn't have to behave much longer because school was almost over?

It was really the correct answer

As I was looking at Nathan's school papers last night, I saw an answer that was marked wrong that I felt should have been marked correctly.  They had just read a story about space, who the first woman was in space and the work she does with robots.  The test was over the story.  The question that Nathan got wrong (at least according to his teacher and not his Mom) was,

A robot is a __________ that does a lot of hard work.

There was something like six fill-in the blank questions with six possible choices at the top.  My smart son filled in the blank with the word "woman"  and it was marked wrong.  He was supposed to put "machine" in the blank, but I still think he got it right!

Words I regret

Last night was another typical chaotic night at our house.  I am trying to get Nathan to sit down and do his homework but all he wants to do is run around and wrestle with his brothers and destroy the house.  I would man-handle Nathan into the kitchen so we could get his homework started and he would get mouthy or fight me the entire time.  I decided to put myself in time-out before I completely flipped out as I was already screaming at all the kids like a crazy woman.  The kids left me alone for about ten minutes until they realized that I wasn't there and starting knocking on my bedroom door.  I ignored them for a while but I had to open the door after they started ramming it as I was afraid they would break the door. 

Once I took myself out of time out, I decided to see what kind of damage they did to the house.  I was trying to bribe, cajole and threaten Nathan into doing his homework the whole time.  Seeing the mess they made in that short time frame and then having one of the boys come up to me and tell on his brother because the other one hit him or whatever, I lost it.  I yelled some things that I am not going to repeat and which I am not very proud of.  After I quit seeing red, I hear Darren crying.  I ask him what is wrong.  He does not answer me.  I ask again.  He does not answer again.  It dawns on me that he heard what I said and he probably had his feelings hurt.  I crouch down and ask him if what I said hurt his feelings.  He said yes so now I feel really bad and I apologize and tell him that I should not have said that and I do not mean it.  I explained that it really hurts my feelings when they do not listen and I get mad.  Obviously we need Nanny 911 in our house.

What to do???

As I alluded to several posts ago, Nathan has been seeing a behavioral therapist for a couple of weeks now.  At the first session she diagnosed him with "oppositional defiant disorder."  If you are asking what it is, the title pretty much says it all.  The symptoms she described fit him perfectly...hostile, openly defiant, not following adult requests, angry, lies or accuses others, spiteful/seeks revenge, has a temper and several other things.  Of course this is hard to hear as a parent because you wonder where you went wrong.  Because his two younger brothers see Nathan act like this, they are starting to think this is normal so I need to get it nipped in the bud before all three boys have to go to a behavioral therapist. 

After our first meeting she asked if he has ever been screened for ADD/ADHD and I told her no.  She sent home several papers for me to fill out and I was to try to get his school teacher from last year to fill out some forms also.  His first grade teacher filled out the forms and so did I.  When I meet with the therapist, I admitted that I may have been to lenient on some of the answers because this is my child as his teacher gave him high scores on most of the questions.  At the end of the session, she said that Nathan fits all the criteria for ADHD.  That was two weeks ago.  I have not taken him to the doctor yet as the only late day appointments they had were three plus weeks out.  Bruce says to medicate him, but I have some reservations.  How long have these drugs been out?  What kind of long term side effects could they cause?  My husband had two cousins who were on Ritalin several years ago and they are just different now.  Not sure if that is because of the personalities they were born with or the result of the Ritalin.

Someone told me that if he had diabetes and needed insulin you wouldn't hesitate to give him that, so what is the hesitation of giving him something so that he can focus?  Even though I know it is a brain chemical imbalance, part of me thinks that he should be able to "shake it off" and fix himself.  I know that isn't logical, but I can't seem to shake that thought.

By the way, if Nathan fits all the criteria for ADHD, his younger two brothers will have to be screened some day also.  In my opinion, all the criteria of ADHD fits his two brothers also if not more so.

Changing the way they do snacks...

This year, for the first time, they decided to change how the kindergarten and first grade kids have their morning snack.  Instead of me packing a snack for Darren on the days he has school, I am to supply a store-bought, list approved snack for the entire class to share.  No homemade treats are allowed.  This is all done for the kids that may have a peanut allergy.

I see pros and cons to this arrangement, but I guess it is a fact that if I send in a peanut butter treat with Darren, it could seriously injury or kill the kid next to him.

UPDATE:  The first week of school students with the last name A-K were to bring enough snacks in for the entire class and the snacks would be stored until they were needed.  Once those are gone, then the students with the last name L-Z were to bring snacks in.  So I am not sure how often I will have to bring snacks in.  For instance, I brought in (2) 12 packs of snack size Cheez Its.  With 17 kids in the class, that means they will have a surplus of seven Cheez Its.  If every parent sends in a surplus, there is a chance that I may only have to buy snacks once more this year.

School issues already

As many of you may know, I was hesitant about sending Darren to school this year and I did not know what I was going to do from one moment to the next.  I ultimately decided to send him and his scheduled school days are Tuesday and Thursday with every other Monday.  That means that he went to school on Thursday (they started on Wednesday) and when asked what his favorite part of school was he said it was riding the bus.  I was picking on him and asked if he got his name on the board and in all seriousness he said, "not on the first day of school Mom.  Maybe later on."

I asked what they did all day and he said he could not remember.  I asked if they held hands and sang songs.  Noooo.  Did they stand on their heads all day.  Noooo.  Did they play games all day.  Noooo.  I asked if he made any friends.  He told me that he made a friend and her name was Kaylee.  I told him that didn't count as that is your neighbor and you already play with her.  He said that he also played with another little boy but he could not remember his name.

Then this past Monday when I get him out of bed and tell him that he has school today, he tells me that he does not want to go to school anymore.  What?  I don't know if he was picking on me or if he saw what all the excitement was about and decided that school was not as cool as he thought it was going to be.

He was super excited though last night because he knew one of his popcorn words and thought that it was neat that he could read.  We had to do the "can" flash card about a dozen times last night.

Tired of therapy

I know that Bruce has to be tired of busting his butt after work to get the boys picked up and meet me in Sidney twice a week for Nathan's vision therapy.  Luckily since school starts this week, he has this week off.

Although, Nathan is now seeing a therapist once a week so he will still have to make one trip to Sidney this week.  I am not sure how much to say on Nathan seeing a therapist as it does make me feel like a failure as a parent.  I know that isn't necessarily logical, but that is how I feel.  Hopefully she can help him and we will see improvement and that will also help the situation with his younger brothers.

Victory!

Recently Bruce was at a family auction of his grandparents and bought a bedroom suite with the intentions of putting it upstairs for the boys.  Before we invested in a lot of time and materials in cleaning, painting and such, we decided to do a test run.  All three boys slept upstairs last night! 

I may be a little premature in stating victory as the boys had fallen asleep on the couch and then we guided them upstairs to tuck them in.  We will see how well they do when we send them up one at a time and expect them to stay up there and fall asleep.  I am not above bribery if it works!

Share Bear

Bruce and I were talking the other night about how Nathan and Justin bond together over tormenting their brother Darren.  We were trying to figure out how to get the oldest and youngest from picking on Darren so much.  I am not sure if they pick on him because Darren is the sibling closest to them in age or what.  While Darren is definitely a troublemaker, he is also the kid that is the most giving. 

He will let Justin have the last piece of cake.  He will get off my lap so that Justin can sit down.  He just shares everything better than his two siblings.  Last night, for the first time since showing the boys that I can make milkshakes at home 6-8 weeks ago, I asked if I could have a drink of Nathan's since he got the cup with the most.  He told me no and then walked away.  I just stood there shocked.  Darren then speaks up and says that he will share with me and Dad too if he wants some.  Thanks D.  At least someone will share with me!

Sound off

I think my boys have super sonic hearing.  This magic power only works when I go to the bathroom, otherwise they can't hear me ask/yell at them eighty gazillion times to pick up their shoes or whatever.  I was in my bedroom folding a load of laundry, Nathan was in the living room watching TV, Darren was on the computer and Justin was visiting with his brothers and trying to find trouble. 

I walk into the bathroom, pull down my pants and sit down to pee.  In walks Justin who then insists on opening the drawer that hold my brushes, hair ties, headbands, mirror, etc.  Then Darren walks in a few seconds later and starts trying to make Justin mad.  Nathan comes in a few seconds after that to ask me a question and I finally lose it.  I told them to get out and stay in the bedroom because I want to talk to them when I am done.

I explain that I need some privacy when I am going to the bathroom and that is not the time to ask me to get them something to drink, or ask if they can go outside or to show me something.  I told them that if I walked in on them going to the bathroom I always walk out and let them have some privacy.  They are no where to be found when work has to be done, but the second I sit down (on the couch, toilet) they are right there demanding something.

Next challenge please!

The other day Darren found the index cards I had made for Nathan that were numbered from 1-10.  He put them all in order and asked if I would make some more number cards from 11-20.  I gladly made them for him and shuffled the entire stack.  He laid out all the numbers in numerical order.  I have not even been working with him and he continually surprises me.  He wants to learn and Nathan, for the most part, could care less.

Most definately ready for school

Yesterday later afternoon Mom came over to drop Nathan off after spending the weekend at their house.  We got talking and Mom reminded them that school would be starting soon.  Justin chimes in that he is going to sit with Nathan on the bus when he goes to school.  Nathan goes' "No way.  I'll be in, like high school!"  Mom and I laughed and said that he will not be in high school when Justin goes to school.  Mom explained to Nathan if he is going into second grade now, and Justin has three more years to go until he starts school, what is three plus two.

Nathan is puzzled and thinking about it (I know he was tired, so I hope that it why it was taking him so long to answer) and Darren speaks up.  "I know.  That is easy.  He will be in 5th grade!"  He is so ready for school.  I just hope he is mature enough and can sit still long enough as we all know that is a problem for Darren.  Darren did offer to let Justin sit with him on the bus when Justin goes to school.

Train track

Nathan has been going to vision therapy now for about a month.  Bruce usually picks them up from daycare and I meet him at the eye doctors office in Sidney.  One of us takes the younger two boys home while the other stays and waits on Nathan.  The past several times I have taken the younger two boys home and we have a route that we take most times which crosses us over two sets of train tracks.  Justin always exclaims, "crain cracks!"  I guess he has a bit speech problem despite me repeatedly sounding it out for him.  Each word separately he does okay, but put the two of them together and you get "crain cracks."

Justin's 3rd birthday

My baby boy is three today.  It seems like only yesterday he was a little baby, and now he is out of the toddler room at daycare.  Today was the first day in eight years that I did not have to fill out a sheet in the morning that said what time he got up, if he ate breakfast, etc.  This is the same sheet that at the end of the day tells us when they changed their diapers (or used the restroom if they are potty trained), when they napped and what they ate. 

He is so stinking cute, but without a doubt competing with his brothers for the title of "Troublemaker."  Instead of telling everyone good-bye tonight, he was telling everyone Happy Birthday!  He is my stink-pot with the cutest smile and cutest cowlick.  When I was frustrated with him tonight because he was so tired and refused to go to sleep, I told him "stick your thumb in your mouth, grab your blankie and lay down."  He informs me that he is a big kid now.  I am not sure if that meant that he wasn't going to suck his thumb or curl up with a blankie.

This little piggy....

Because it has been so stinking hot, we have been using the crock pot to do a lot of our cooking this past week.  One of the crock pot meals was a roast.  As we were sitting down to eat, one of the boys asked what we were having.  I told them roast beef like (and I recited the rhyme that coincides with each toe)

This little piggy went to the market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy has roast beef.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy went we-we-we the whole way home.

The next thing I knew Justin has his shoes and socks off, propped his foot up on the table and said, "do the piggies."  I must have looked at him blankly and he said, "that goes market."  I finally caught on and had to do the rhyme to each of his toes on both feet.  Then Darren takes off his shoes and socks and I had to do both of his feet.  Of course Nathan wasn't about to be left out, so I had to do it to his toes too.  Although his feet stunk and aren't nearly as cute as his youngest brother.

Blogging problems

I know I have not been posting but that is for two reasons. 
1) I have been super busy and
2) This blog spot has been acting up and I cannot get it to work correctly.  I cannot figure out what the problem is because of reason #1.

Look for some entries in the near future.

Grounded from bike

I know it is common with all kids, but my kids seem to have a real listening problem lately. We will tell them to stop, they look at us and go back to doing whatever it was they were doing. Only when we start walking towards them do they stop.

This past Sunday we spent the afternoon at my sisters house for my niece's birthday party. I tried to stay long enough that once we got home, they could just climb into bed and go to sleep for the night. When we get home I am telling the boys to go in the house. Darren gets on his bike and starts to ride it. On my several trips between the van and the house unloading the van, I told Darren to park the bike and get in the house. It was only after I foced him off the bike that he listened. To get his attention, I took his bike away from him and have it riding around in the back of my van. Every night he has asked for it and every night he does something that prevents him from getting his bike back. I know he is enjoying the freedom of having a bike with no training wheels, but he had better start listening better if he ever wants to ride a bike again!

Riding a bike

About a month ago Darren wanted to try and ride a bike without training wheels. He got on the bike and I tried to help him by hanging on to the back of the seat, but he just didn't quite have his balance mastered yet. He wanted to keep trying but I thought it was a worthless cause and I was starting to feel self-concious running behind him....not to mention out of breath.

Then on Tuesday night Darren asks me to come out and watch him ride his bike. I was prepared to watch him crash when he surprises me and rides the bike without training wheels! How and when did he learn how to do that? He is still a little shaky on the take-off and stopping, but he is riding a bike. He is so proud of himself.

Cow sightings

We were at my parents Friday night and Saturday afternoon processing a steer. Stacey even came home for the weekend and all the kids were excited to see her. On Satruday they begged Stacey to take them out to see the 'cows.' They come back after a while, and Stacey is laughing. We ask why she is laughing and she tells me it is because of my son Darren. Apparently there was a steer in heat and Darren excitedly exclaimed, "Look! That steer is popping a wheelie!" And if that is what he chooses to think he/she was doing, that is okay with me.

Another hospital visit

It has been a few days since this happened, but I have been super busy with work. Over the weekend we were at a friends house enjoying his pool in the hot weather. Sunday morning I was in the shower and Darren comes in and said his ear hurt. I didn't say much and he starts crying that his ear hurts. I ask if he hit it. No. I ask if he put anything in his ear. No. I ask if a bee stng him. No. By this time he is really wailing. After I get out of the shower I give him some Tylenol. It doesn't help and after an hour he is still crying and whining about his ear hurting. I decide I am going to take him to Urgent Care.

We get to Urgent Care and luckily there was no line so by the time I filled out the paperwork, we were shown directly to an exam room. The nurse practitioner looks in his ears and said that his ear canals are to full of wax to see the ear drum. They decided to flush the ear to see if they can see anything. He gets both his ears flushed and they said that his ear canal looked a little red, but that could be due to flushing. She speculates that there was water in his ear and the wax shifted causing the water to be trapped. He acted like it felt much better, so we left.

After we were home about a half hour he started complaining that his ear hurt again. I took him into the bathroom, stripped him down and started flushing his ear. The whining, crying and complaining went on for about another hour when I took him with me to the dollar store to get some more drugs. I give him the drugs and told him to lay on my bed with me since he just wanted to be held. We couldn't go in the living room because Nathan and Justin were napping and his crying would have woken them up. He finally fell asleep. When he woke up later his ear was fine. Now I wonder if some of his pain didn't simply come from him being exhausted...

Stitches

As many of you know, I do not like blood, guts and gore. Therefore when Nathan fell off his bike and gashed open his chin, I think I handled it pretty well. I was only home from work about 15-20 minutes, and I was just getting stuff out to make dinner, when I hear a kid crying off in the distance. The sound keeps getting closer and I realize that it is Nathan. In walks Nathan with the neighbor lady kind of cupping his chin. I get a wet washcloth so he can wipe it off before I look at it. I just glance at it and realize that he will need stitches. It is about an inch long and probably gapping open about a 1/4". I didn't faint, pass out or feel queasy. I calmy asked Bruce if he was staying home with the kids or what when the neighbor lady voluntered to take the younger two back to her house.

Unfortunately when we get to the hospital all the ER beds are full so we had to wait in the waiting room for about an hour. The physician assistant who stitched Nathan up was great with him. He kept talking to him and making him laugh and just kept his mind off his cut and stitches. He did really well and left the hospital with seven stitches under his chin and several band-aids on his arms and legs for his minor scuffs and scrapes. He thought he looked pretty tough with all his scrapes and band-aids.

On the way to the hospital and in the waiting room he kept telling us that he did not think he should go to school tomorrow because he was hurt. We convinced him that it was his last day and he won't do anything but party today. He went to school today willingly to show off and he was already enjoying the attention he got at daycare this morning.

School chaos

I have been feeling a little conflicted about our school lately. I know that Nathan has been getting in trouble and some of it is bullying and some of it is a kid being a kid. But because he has been in trouble, they are certainly watching him closer than any other kid.

The other day they were learning about Wilbur & Orville Wright. Apparently one of his friends said this was stupid, and why does he have to learn it. Nathan repeated it and he is the one who got caught. Of course he got in trouble and had to stand at recess.

Nathan is still having problems in school with reading and when I was venting to my friends several months ago one of them suggested getting his eyes checked to see if his (in simplest terms) eyes and brain were talking. He had a vision test at the end of March and he sees 20/20 but when I was telling Dr Fortman some if the issues we were having in school she suggested a DV (developmental visual?) test. We just had that test done on Monday and out of the 12 criteria they score, Nathan flunked eight of them. The other four sections he passed at or above his age/grade level. The results still have to be shown to Dr Fortman but I was told that Nathan will have to have vision therapy. I felt some relief knowing there is a reason he is struggling as I know he is smart. I was disappointed to hear that our insurance will not pay for it and the therapy costs are out of our pocket but it is worth it if it helps.

From day one in preschool Nathan has consistently confused his b’s and d’s. He also flips his 3’s and 9’s and makes mistakes similar to that. At every parent teach conference I have expressed concern over this. Both of his teachers have told me that it does not become a concern until second or third grade. Knowing the troubles that my brother had in school and the fact that my maternal cousin also struggled, I have been on the lookout for problems. My Mom was told that these issues are predominant in boys and often runs in families. She recalls her brother having the same problems when he was younger but he was never “diagnosed” with anything. I should have pushed the issue, but I figured that they see kids every day and they know what is normal.

On Tuesday I sent an e-mail to Nathan’s teacher and the principal re-telling them everything I learned the previous day. I was not trying to be a vindictive Mom, but I felt that some of their practices and standards should be questioned. Would this have ever been caught or would he always be labeled a troubled child? My management training tells me not to accept status quo or you will never grow or develop. Constructive criticism is a good thing. If anything, I just wanted them to look at their system to see if there are areas that could be strengthened.

Then I find out that my Mom took my Grandma to the eye doctor yesterday. While there Mom was asking Dr Ahrns which doctor is running the therapy department. Mom then told him what I found out with Nathan this week and he said that a first grader still confusing his b’s and d’s and flipping numbers is not acceptable. Especially not in this age when most kids attend preschool before kindergarten and they are expected to read by Christmas. I guess the moral of the story is to always trust your instincts.

Stuck in the Mud

My boys are without a doubt all boy. This past Sunday we were at Mom’s house for Mother’s Day. Luckily it was pretty decent out so all the kids played outside. Mom has a bike that is Nathan’s size and one that is smaller with training wheels. Since Nathan is the only grandchild that can ride a bike without training wheels he never has to share unlike the younger kids. On Darren’s turn he managed to find the only muddy spot on acres of ground around the house and barns. His training wheels were stuck and the back tire was free-spinning as it must have been higher than the training wheels.

My three boys come up to the house and they are filthy in mud. Darren has a streak up the back of his shirt where the free-spinning tire kicked up mud. His legs were caked. Nathan was all muddy and his legs were dirty. Ditto for Justin. When I asked how all three got dirty Nathan said that he had to give Darren a push to get out of the mud and Justin was not about to be left out of helping. So my kids are filthy and Carla’s kids do not have a speck of mud on them. Straight into the tub they went and I was thankful that I packed pj’s for all three boys. It must have been a mother’s intuition.

Wednesday random rumblings

Darren made me a book mark at daycare for Mother's Day. On the one side they made flowers with paint and on the other side they had to put a reason they loved their Mom. Darren's read, "I love Mom because I grew in her belly." I told Darren that was really nice but how about because I am funny, or I am a good cook or I am pretty or I like to have fun. Apparently he had a hard time thinking of a reason of why he loved me other than obligation!

Our whole family went to Nathan's ball game Monday night and while Nathan was playing, Darren and Justin were running around with a bunch of kids and playing. Bruce's Dad was there and looked over and saw a kid with no pants on and mentioned it. Bruce looked over and realized that it was Justin. Yep, that was my kid stolling around the yard with no pants on. He must have said that he has to poop and an older kid told him to take his pants off and poop right there in the yard. Fortunately a second kid told him not to and to go find his parents so that they could take him to the bathroom.

Last Friday Nathan was farting up a storm before he left with Bruce after dinner. I asked Nathan if he had to poop first and he said that he did not. Once Bruce got to the neighbor's empty lot where they are going to plant a garden, Nathan has to poop. He popped a squat right there in the field/lot (in the country) and took care of business.

A few days ago while Darren was getting ready for a bath, he realized that he left something on the porch. Stark naked he walks outside down the driveway to reclaim his toy that was left on the porch. Luckily he didn't get to far before I called him back into the house and no cars had gone past. My boys have no modesty!

Hearty appetite

I know that I have posted before about the amount of food that my boys eat, but I was astonished by the amount that Nathan ate last night. I am behind on the vaccinations for Justin so I told Bruce to meet me here in Sidney so that we can make it to the vaccination clinic at the health department. I took Justin in while Bruce went home with the other two boys. Before they left Bruce told Justin that if he is good that maybe Mom (me) will bring home McDonald's for dinner.

The shots went as well as expected so we took off to get some food to bring home. I did not want McDonalds so I picked up a 12 pack of soft tacos from Taco Bell knowing that Bruce will eat tacos with me. Nathan has been complaining that he is hungry after eating a happy meal so I ordered him a mighty kids meal. That meal contains a double cheeseburger and a small fry. He ate all that and then asked for a taco. He ate that and asked for another taco. Then he asked for dessert. I only had three tacos myself!

Trouble at school

I am unsure if I should post this, but if I am being honest and keeping this as a 'memory book" for my boys, I guess I have to.

Nathan has been having a spot of trouble at school lately. He has been called to the principal's office several times for touching or bullying kids. One day he tackled a boy in the bathroom. When we asked him about it he claim they were just horsing around. For that infraction he had to sit in the principal's office during both recesses. Another day he grabbed a girls arm and put it behind her back and twisted. When we asked him about that he was not sure why he did that. We reminded him that he is stronger than he thinks and he can't be doing that. Again I think he had to stay in at both recesses. Then last Friday he poked another boy in the butt. That promted a meeting with the principal. I meet with him on Tuesday morning and Bruce was unable to get off work.

Basically it boils down to the strict anti-bullying policy most schools have implemented. Something happens again this year he will face in school suspension. There is talk about sending him to an alternative school. They don't call it that, but that is waht it is. I guess I understand their view, but some of it is kids being kids. It was a very hard meeting for me to sit thru. It kind of makes me feel like I have failed as a parent.

Bedtime conversations

Darren must be a kid that does not need a nap anymore because bedtime has been a struggle lately. He is forced to lay down and at least rest at daycare and he must fall asleep most of the time. Darren will willing go to bed if I tell him that I am going to bed, but if I tell him to go to bed and stay up to read, he is in and out of that bed eight hundred times.

Last night about 9:15 I finally tell him that I am going to bed and so Darren said he will go to bed to if I tuck him in. As I am tucking him in we had the following conversation:

Darren: Are you going to bed now too?
Me: Yes.
Darren: Are you going to sleep?
Me: Yes.
Darren: Are you sure? Sometimes I know that you and Dad go to bed and ............(a very long pause) talk.

Whew! I think everyone is thinking that he was going to say something else because I know I was expecting something different out of his mouth too.

Infomercial

I usually try to keep my post about my kids and what is going on in their life but occasionally I will venture into something about me and what I am feeling. This is going to be one of those posts...

I have wanted a Dyson vacuum for a really long time, but the price tag has always kind of scared me off. I know that the Friday after Thanksgiving they run great sales on them, but I hate the frantic scrambling you have to do to get any deals. Recently I was in Target and they had the Dyson sweeper on clearance for $279. That is the Black Friday price! I am guessing that it was on clearance because they are trying to get more people to purchase the Dyson ball vacuum. Needless to say I picked one up.

I love it! It really is a superior vacuum to the one I had. I had a full canister of filth when I was done vacuuming the entire house. It would take my old vacuum several sweepings to accumulate that much dust and dirt. I will be glad to let you "test drive" it at your house before you make the big ticket purchase if you have been thinking about getting one but were hesitant because of the price. Overall, I feel it is money well spent.

A sad day

It was a rough day for me yesterday, but not as rough as it was for my friend Gail and her family. Unfortunatley my friend Gail lost her baby on Sunday, and there was a memorial service and graveside services yesterday. Standing there looking at that little coffin and knowing that Kendall did not have a chance to meet those who loved her, was hard. It was hard for me to watch my friend in pain and not be able to do anything to help her. I know she said it helps by my just being there, but that doesn't seem like enough.

It doesn't seem fair that "bad" things happen to such a good person, but I realize that God does work in mysterious ways. It is not for me to question what His plan it although it is hard not to.

The situation makes you appreciate your kids a little bit more knowing that birth is indeed a miracle. I try to remind myself how lucky I am to have healthy, curious kids when they dump out the junk drawer or spill the entire pitcher of water. It is really hard at that moment and time, but I usually feel grateful when they are sleeping for the night. (That feeling might also be a result of finally getting a moment to myself!)

Hot hands

Last night Justin learned why I am always telling him to stay away from the stove. I had just turned the stove off and pulled a pot of boiling noodles off the stove to drain. As I was over at the sink, Justin had climbed up on the bar stool and placed his hands on the still hot burner. He kind of yelped and as soon as I turned around, I knew what had happened. I grabbed an ice pack, shoved it in his hands, and gave him to Bruce and explained what had happened.

About a ten minutes later he was complaining about them hurting so I gave him some Tylenol. I couldn't really spray anything on his hands for the burns. At dinner time he just sat and looked at his food the whole time and held his hands on the ice pack. Finally when I was done eating I asked if he wanted me to feed him and of course he accepted eagerly. I feed him and then tried to convince him it was time to take a bath. He refused, and I decided I was not going to push the issue. Later that evening he was trying to fall asleep, but everytime he got close to sleeping, something must have reminded him of his hands. I gave him some Benadryl hoping that would make him tired enough that he forgot about his hands. He was still in pretty sorry shape this morning, but I told him that I was done babying him and he had to start using his hands again. I gave him some more Tylenol, but I am anxious to hear how much he used his hands today.

Birthday gifts

My birthday was Saturday and several years I started taking the boys to the local dollar store and picking out gifts for their Dad when it was his birthday. Bruce went that same route, but he obviously did not guide them to "practical" gifts as I would have. One year Bruce got a belt, an OSU mug and a football. He uses the belt, he drinks out of the mug but he does not really play football with the boys.


Saturday morning Bruce gets the "gift bag" out of his van and the boys hand me the gifts they picked out. I got a set of handcuffs from Nathan, a whoppee cushion from Darren and a big ball from Justin. Almost as soon as they handed them to me they asked, "You don't want these gifts do you Mom? Can we have them?" Jeez, did they have an ulterior motive in mind when they picked out my gifts??

Hoping for miracles

I went to the hospital yesterday afternoon and spent the afternoon visiting with my friend Gail. I can honestly say that I have known her my entire life, so when she called me yesterday morning crying, I wanted to be there for her. We spent the afternoon alternating between laughing, crying and just talking. I am not going to say anything "publicly" about what it going on as it is not my place to say other than she is going thru a very physical and emotional journey. Any prayers you can say for her, her family and unborn baby would be much appreciated.

Night owl

Running on about 3 hours of sleep today and still feeling pretty good. About lunch time yesterday I got some distressing news about one of my friends, so by the time I left work, I had a headache. I called and talked to her for a few minutes once I got home from work, and the headache got a little bit worse. Dealing with my three rowdy boys pushed that headache until I had a low level migraine. When I went to bed about 10:00 I lay down for a while and started to feel nauseous. At that point I decided to take some medicine for it and took two Excedrin Migraine. I fell asleep for about a half hour and then woke up wide awake. I tossed and turned for about a half hour and fell asleep again. About 2:00, I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. I lay in bed until about 3:00 willing myself to go back to sleep, but finally gave up. I decided to check my e-mails, see what was happening on Facebook and just watch TV for a while hoping that would make me tired. Nope, not going to happen. About 5:00 I decided since I am wide awake, I have no excuse not to exercise so I changed into some shorts. I think the gods were conspiring against me. I could not get my workout DVD to play because the player kept telling me no signal. I decided that I would work out with the Wii doing Wii Sports except….I could not get the remotes to work! After fifteen minutes of tinkering around, I just started doing some exercises that I recall from watching Biggest Loser. Then (oh yeah, there is more to the story) while I was in the shower I started feeling light headed and nauseous again. I was looking at the drain and wondering how well vomit would go down when I got extremely light headed. I hurried up and rinsed my hair out and quickly washed the potentially stinkier parts of my body. I got out of the shower and I ate a granola bar before lying down for ten minutes. Then I felt fine. Apparently I was suffering from low blood sugar and exerting myself to much. I looked this morning and an Excedrin Migraine has like 65mg of caffeine in it and I took two. Mountain Dew only has 56mg of caffeine. It is no wonder I couldn’t sleep with all that caffeine floating around in my system.

Strange looks

I know when my kids play outside they get some strange looks. I have had people ask us before if our kids were hurt because they saw them outside rolling down the sidewalk in a wheelchair. Yesterday it was a beautiful day out, although it was a bit windy. When the boys asked me if they could take their shirts off because they were hot I told them they were not allowed. They thought a good compromise might be to be allowed to take their shoes and socks off. I decided to let them since they were in and out of the sandbox, and I always enjoy being barefoot too. I am working around the house and look out the front window to see Darren riding his bike down the sidewalk. Then I glance again because something caught my eye. He is riding his bike in his t-shirt and jeans with no shoes or socks. He is also wearing his safety goggles he got at a Lowe’s Saturday building clinic and mittens. I go out and ask him why he is wearing goggles and mittens. Very patiently he explains to me, “Mom, these are my motorcycle gloves and goggles.” I guess he does pay attention to the eighty gazillion motorcycles that go past our house daily.

Ripped

On Sunday the boys I were sitting in the van while Bruce ran into Dollar General for something. A 20’ish looking guy walks out of the store and gets in his vehicle. I murmured, “Boy. He is ripped.”

Boys: What did you say Mom?
Me: Nothing.
Boys: Tell me!
Me: I said that he was ripped.
Boys: What does ripped mean?
Me: It means that you have a lot of muscles and you work out and you do not have a big belly.
Boys: Dad is not ripped is he?
Me: No he is not. That boy is though.

We went on with the day and I figured the boys forgot about it. Last night we were watching TV and a commercial for Planet Fitness came on. They showed two body builders and Darren, who was sitting on my lap, looks at me and said, “Those two guys are ripped!” I laughed out loud and then I had to explain to Bruce and Nathan what Darren just said. They all agreed that those two guys were ripped.

Opposite ends of the smell spectrum

While at the grocery store Sunday, the cashier at the register behind the lane I was checking out in asked me what kind of perfume I was wearing as she thought it smelled really good. I told her what kind and she said that she really liked how it smelled and that it probably wouldn’t smell as good on her. Rarely am I told that I smell good and asked what kind of perfume I am wearing….especially by strangers.

I told Mom that I would make a taco salad for our family Easter dinner. I made up the salad, went to Mom’s and had a good time and walked in the kitchen six hours later and thought that we had 10 large sweaty men in our house while we were gone. Apparently the taco seasoning smell was still lingering and the onion peels that I had threw away combined to make one ripe smell. We took the trash out when we got home because I did not like my house smelling like a locker room.

UPDATE on 4/11/12: That Sunday Darren picked a few 'bunches' of lilacs off of Grandma's lilac bush and gave them to me. I brought them home and put them in a cup. Nathan smells them yesterday and tells me that they stink....like a skunk!!

Easter Bunny mishap....almost

Saturday night we were at the neighbors for a campfire and because the next day was a big day, we were home by 10:00 pm. We get the kids to bed, and go to bed ourselves. About 3:30 am I wake up and realize that I did not play Easter Bunny last night. I knew that the boys would be up before I was in the morning so there was no chance that I could set it out before they woke up. I am scrambling around in my closet trying to find a pair of sandals or something so that I can go out to the garage and in my van to get the ‘supplies.’

I realize that their Easter baskets are upstairs and every noise I am making seems magnified about 10,000 times, so I was reluctant to go upstairs and get out their baskets. Because the Easter Bunny just got a single movie for all three boys, and some candy, I decided to just dump everything in front of the fireplace. Whew! Crisis barely averted.

D's kindergarten screening

What can I say about Darren’s screening? He did not test as high as I thought he would, but he did not answer all the questions correctly when I know he knows the answer. For example, the first station was body awareness where you had to draw a stick person. They look for hair, facial features, clothes, hands and feet. He basically drew a circle for the neck, another circle for the head and an oblong circle for the body. Then he drew sticks for arms and feet and that was it. He has drawn several stick people before, and he does put a lot of detail in it.

There was a station, not sure what it was called, that asked about objects. They asked him what a watch was. I guess he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say because he said, “it’s just a watch.” He answered that way several times until the lady asked, “what does a watch do?” Darren said “it tells time!” and his tone was like “duh, that’s a stupid question.” A rose was just a rose, but I have never pointed out a rose to him so why would he know it was a flower? What is a doctor? He helps guys was Darren’s response getting another mark against him. He couldn’t recall what month followed June. Nor could he tell us what made the summer hot.

Another station was counting. He did not know which picture had a pair of apples. Nor did he know which picture had the least amount of balloons. I was told that he could not count blocks correctly so they deducted points for that. He knows how to count the blocks; he was excited about being finished so he was rushing.

I know he is a lot smarter than he tested, but he also had a problem sitting still. I had claimed from the beginning that he is probably ready academically, but not sure on maturity. I saw the list of kids being tested that afternoon and he was the only kid with a 2007 birthday; all the rest had a 2006 birthday. When we talked to the kindergarten teacher Miss H, she thought that he would do okay, but she did mention that he would be one of the youngest kids in his grade. Now we have a tough decision on our hands. Darren really wants to go, but with all the issues we have with Nathan, I am more than a little leery.

Ramblings...

This past weekend was the volleyball and basketball alumni tournament. Later that evening there was a dance at the legion which I attended with my friends. Guess which baby sister was there and still wearing her clothes from volleyball? She came up to me immediately and said ‘Hi’ which is when I knew she was drunk as she doesn’t always like to talk to me in public. She was out there dancing with me and my friends in our ‘dance circle’ and apparently she talked to a few of them because they all came up to me and said that Stacey is just like me! Not sure if I should be flattered or insulted???

Yesterday was the Easter egg hunt and we took the boys up to the park for it. They had a firefighter dressed up like the Easter bunny and it gave Justin quite a scare until he recognized the voice of our buddy Mesh. Then he thought that he was cool because he knew the Easter bunny.

I always give Bruce a hard time about being from Versailles. I really gave him a hard time when I realized that at least three of his classmates were living in Loramie. I told him that they knew where the good life is. We saw one of his classmates at the kindergarten screening (more on that later) and she was picking on Bruce. Saying how she didn’t want her daughter going to school with a Kunk boy. I told her that I do not blame her, and I wasn’t kidding! Another of his classmates ran the volleyball alumni tourney this weekend. Then there are several more people that Bruce knows that are from Versailles that currently live in Loramie. It must really be a great place to live.

Dancing in the van

My boys love country music. They will frequently get a song in their head and sing it all around the house. In fact, Darren has been singing, “Shake it for me” by Luke Bryan a lot lately and who can blame him as it is a catchy song.

Anyway, we were on our way out to Patty and Tony’s house Friday night when Nathan asked if he had the CD of “International Harvester” by Craig Morgan in the CD player. Bruce told the boys no, but he did have the Beastie Boys “Brass Monkey” (which is a heavy metal/rap group) in if they wanted to hear that. With a resounding “yes” Bruce turns the CD on and cranks it up loud. I look back and about split my sides from laughing to see all three boys head banging the best they can in their car seats and seat belts. Nathan is acting like a DJ “spinning” records. Darren and Justin are fist pumping. It makes me chuckle just thinking about it now.

Time for shorts!!

Yesterday morning when I was helping Darren get dressed for the morning, I gave him some bad news when I told him that he would have to wear sweats that day. He started rooting around in his drawer and asked where his sweats were that “are this big?” (He was holding his hands apart 8-10 inches) I asked him if he meant shorts. He said no, my sweats that are this big (again holding his hands apart a couple of inches). I finally grab a pair of shorts out from the tub currently residing in the dining room until I get around to swapping the winter clothes out for their summer clothes. Bingo! That is what ‘sweats’ he was talking about.

Rowdy boys

I got an e-mail from Nathan’s teacher on Thursday saying that Nathan has been running in the halls, yelling and just not listening. He had to stand at recess on Wednesday for not behaving. He repeated the same behavior on Thursday and I think his teacher realized that her punishments were not working. She e-mailed me to let me know how he had been acting and to let me know that she was going to have the principal talk to him. When he got home that night, I also gave him several punishments and threatened not to let him to go to the Monster Truck show.

We got home Saturday about 5:30. Bruce and I were in a hurry because we were going out that night with friends and they were picking us up a little after 6:00. The boys decided that they wanted chicken noodle soup for dinner, so I opened a family size can. Justin tells me that he does not want it. He keeps crying and whining and I tell him that he does not have to eat it if he does not want to. I go into my bedroom to get ready when I hear a pan hit the floor. In a fit of anger, he says that he does not want it and pulls the pan off the stove. Luckily I had just turned the burner on, so the soup was not hot yet. I know he was over-tired, but Bruce and I were not happy with Justin. They ended up eating a frozen pizza that night for dinner.

Monster Trucks

As part of Darren’s birthday gift, we took the boys to the afternoon Monster Truck show on Saturday at the Nutter Center. I knew it would be loud, but holy cow! Bruce managed to get his hands on three ear muffs for the boys because I didn’t think they would keep the ear plugs in. You could feel the rumble of the trucks on the floor and even in your stomach which the boys thought was really cool.

I am not sure why we brought Justin a seat because he sat on my lap the whole time. The boys thought it was really exciting, but they got bored easily in the down time between the competitions. Towards the end, Justin took off his ear muffs, stuck him thumb in his mouth, turned sideways on my lap and fell asleep! Since his one ear was against my chest, I held my hand over his other ear to block out the worst of the noise. Overall it was a pretty fun Saturday afternoon.

Darren's 5th

Today is D Dog’s birthday. My middle child has turned five. What can I say about Darren the Baron? He is built in the exact opposite ways of his brothers as he is skin and bones. He eats like a horse and never gets full (or gains weight). Some of his mannerisms remind me of his cousin on Bruce’s side of the family. They also share the same build. If Bruce says the sky is blue, Darren will say that it is red. Bruce likes the Cleveland Browns, so Darren has to like the Cincinnati Bengals. He will test much better than his brother at the kindergarten screening at the end of the month.

The current warm spell we are having reminds me of the weather five years ago. I may not have been in the 70’s, but it was definitely a sunny 60 degrees plus out. One year and one day ago I was sitting on our front porch with Bruce and Nathan just enjoying the warm weather. I was overdue a couple of days at that point and was curious as to how overdue I would get before my doctor would induce me. Bruce gets up to go talk to the neighbor across the street and Nathan gets up to follow. An almost three year old can move a lot faster than a nine months pregnant Mom, and by the time I caught up to him Nathan was almost on the street. To this day, I am not sure if I tripped, if I tackled Nathan to prevent him from crossing our busy street or if the momentum of my belly just knocked us over. We rush to the hospital and Bruce takes Nathan to see if he needs stitches in his forehead while they put a fetal monitor on me to make sure the baby is alright. We call my Mom in route to the hospital in case she needed to come and get Nathan. Luckily Carla was working at the hospital at this time and after a phone call from Mom, she goes to the ER to check on Nathan and Bruce. Then she sits with Nathan while Bruce comes to check on me.

Eventually I go into labor and deliver Darren later the next afternoon. All three of my boys were easy babies, but Darren was probably the ‘hardest’ of the three. He would spit up all the time, for the first week he would not sleep more than an hour or two at a stretch until I started letting him sleep on his belly. I know that is strongly discouraged, but as soon as he slept on his belly, he slept thru the night. He had to be admitted to NICU at Children’s a few hours after being brought home from the hospital (it was later determined that nothing was wrong). Anyway, I hope you have a happy birthday D!!!

Wednesday Ramblings

Monday evening I thought Darren’s eye looked a little pink, but I just assumed that one of his brothers (Nathan) hit him in the eye. He wakes up Tuesday morning and goes to the bathroom. When he comes back into the bedroom while I am getting his brothers dressed, he tells me that his eye boogers hurt. I pull him into the light and discover that he has Pink Eye. After some serious worrying and scrambling on my part, I finally find some medicine eye drops. That was a serious relief as I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for a sitter if I couldn’t find those eye drops.

Justin has been suffering from a cold for the past several days and so last night I drugged my kid up so he would sleep. He refused to eat dinner last night so I stuck him in the tub. After his bath, about 7:00 he wanted a Pop-Tart. I told him that he couldn’t have that until he took some medicine. He was disappointed that it was not the chewable generic Tylenol that tastes like candy, but the Benadryl that has a funny taste. He took it without too much complaining and fell asleep on the couch. He sounded like he was breathing better when I carried him to bed later that evening.

It was Grandparents Day at school yesterday for Nathan. He had his Grandma Joan and Grandpa Mark there and his Grandma Deb. Grandpa Ken was supposed to go but got ‘busy’ and forgot. I tried to get some details out of him, but the only thing he could recall was that he had an easy afternoon at school and ate cookies and drank juice.

Biggest Loser

Last night we were watching “The Biggest Loser” on TV. Nathan was sitting on my lap and in complete seriousness, Nathan said, “Dad. You and I should go on this show.” Bruce acted pretty offended so he asks Nathan, “What about Mom? Doesn’t she belong on that show?”

Nathan: No
Bruce: Are you sure? Don’t you think she needs to get rid of her belly? Her chest? Her butt?
Nathan: Nope
Bruce: Are you sure? Isn’t there something on Mom that can be smaller?
Nathan: No
(I am thinking that I have a kid that will defend me and doesn’t see my flaws)
Bruce: Come on Nathan be honest. Mom doesn’t need to lose any of her belly?
Nathan: Well, maybe a little bit.

I was glad that Nathan defended me for some time with all of Bruce’s pestering.

Trash eaters

For as picky as my boys can be, they sure have no problem eating their favorite foods out of the trash! We had opened a bag of Oreos a couple of weeks ago and the boys ate most of the pack. However, the ‘self-seal’ bag of Oreos was not properly sealed when they were put away on a high shelf. They were put on the high shelf so they were “out of sight, out of mind” for the boys. I noticed the other day that the self-seal bag was not sealed properly and more than likely not been sealed since they were put away so I threw the pack away.

The next thing I know, I see Darren sitting in front of the trash can eating the Oreos out of the trash can. Granted, they were sitting on top of the trash, but still.

Last night I see a stick of butter just laying on the shelf in the fridge and the wrapper a shelf below it. I pick up the stick of butter to discover that someone (Justin) has been taking bites out of it as if it was corn on the cob! He has only done that with butter sticks and not margarine sticks, so I know what he prefers.

Baby memories

My sister Carla had a baby boy yesterday, and I went to the hospital to visit my newest nephew after work. He is a cutie, but I can’t figure out which of his siblings he resembles. I must have been feeling kind of sentimental as the drive home had me reflecting on many things.

How I had my first baby almost eight years ago and I have absolutely no recollection of my in-laws visiting that night with Bruce’s brother and wife. I was told they were there and there are pictures to prove it, but I must have been so exhausted during their visit that I recall nothing.

How Carla was 20(!) years old and working second shift at Dorthy Love and the nurses allowing her to visit me after visiting hours that night. How I woke up to see she was in the room and was absolutely thrilled and fascinated with her nephew. How she told me to just go back to sleep and she was going to sit and hold him and look at him for a while. How when I was emotional and crying that my son had a cone head, Carla said his head would be fine in a few days (and it was round the next morning).

Fast forward to five years next month when I was pregnant with Darren and fell on my belly while falling on Nathan. How labor was a pain (get it? Pun intended), but recovery was a breeze. How my scrapes and body hurt more from the fall than the actual delivery.

This July will be three years since I delivered my last and how I was so antsy just to get out of the hospital. How when the doctor told me that since it wasn’t my first kid, and if I was comfortable with it, how I could go home when Justin was released. I jumped all over that opportunity just so I could go home and get some decent rest.

Everyone says to enjoy the early years as they will fly past although it doesn’t feel like it now. And day-to-day it seems like a forever, but looking at it in a year time frame does make the time fly.

The Power of Suggestion

Last night Bruce was at his boyfriends’ house and I was sitting at the bar writing out bills while the boys were watching TV in the living room. Darren walks thru and tells me that he is going to go stinky (code for going poop). Nathan and Justin follow Darren into the kitchen about 30 seconds later and Nathan asks where Darren is at. I tell him that he is taking a poop. Nathan then decides that he has to poop now too. I tell him to use the front bathroom. (We keep the front bathroom toilet water turned off as the toilet leaks and that is on Bruce’s fix-it list. For the last six-nine months….) Nathan says he does not want to use the front bathroom. Of course Justin chimes in that he has to go stinky, so I tell him to use the front bath. Along the way, Justin gets distracted and decides to play.

Nathan goes into the master bath and decides to start harassing Darren by telling him to “hurry up.” From my experience, when you tell the boys to hurry up at anything, they move even slower. I finally convince Nathan to use the front bath. By this time Darren is done and now Justin remembers that he said he had to poop. Justin must have thought that he had to poop because of the power of suggestion because he just sat on the toilet for a while before hoping off and declaring he was done and didn’t have to go.

Rough weekend for Darren

Darren got a few battle scars this weekend. Friday night he was running around and I went to grab him so that he could stop. Somehow in the process of grabbing him and he trying to evade capture, I must have scratched him with my ring. On the right side of his nose, almost beside the inside corner of his eye, he starts bleeding. Luckily he was able to shrug off his injuries after I apologiezed and kissed it.

Then on Saturday night Darren walks too close to Nathan while he is playing tennis or golf on the Wii. He got hit with the remote on the back swing. That scratch is about a 1/4" closer to the outside of his nose and starts bleeding. I confirm he is okay and then proceed to tell him this is why he needs to stay back when someone is playing on the Wii.

When Nathan hit Darren, he immediately claimed that it wasn't his fault. I told Nathan that I know he didn't do anything wrong. However I did have to yell at him a little later as he was swinging the remote and let go of it and hit Justin in the ribs. I told him that he better put the safety strap on and if I see him without it, he was grounded from the Wii for two weeks!

Kindergarten

I signed Darren up for kindergarten screening/registration the other day. He goes on Friday, March 30. When I told Darren that I signed him up for kindergarten screening/registration, his eyes got real big. I think he was excited to be tested for school. However, he will have to test better than about a 85% before I send him. I think he is ready academically, but not in maturity. I'll keep everyone posted!

Lots of sleep

I hope my boys are in good spirits today. For the first time in a long time, they got 12 hours of sleep last night. They were up late Friday night, up early Saturday morning and repeated the process that night and Sunday morning.

Sunday morning about 7:00 Justin walks in my room and walks around the bed and stage whispers, “Mom. Mom. Mom.” Until I reply “what?” Justin tells me that he has to go potty. I tell him to go and that he does not have to wake me up so he can go to the bathroom. (I can’t wait for him to outgrow the announcing of when he needs to use the restroom.)

After that he decides that he is going to crawl in bed with his big brothers and sleep. Of course that just wakes the crew up and soon we hear all three of them forgetting that they are supposed to be quiet if Mom and Dad are still in bed. Then Justin comes in and tells me he is hungry. I tell him that there are Pop Tarts on the bar and to help himself. I have got to get the third one trained to be more self-sufficient!

Reflections

I grew up hearing that I resemble my mother the most out of all my siblings. Last Friday Bruce and I happened to be in the local watering hole with the boys. My aunt Patty (who is more like a big sister than an aunt) comes up to said local watering hole and spoils my boys. The local watering hole was getting a crowd so it was decided that I would go home with the boys when Patty decides it is not fair that I stay home while Bruce is out. She calls her teenage son and convinces him to watch my boys for a few hours so I can join the party.

(That is a lot of back story to explain the next part!) Anyway, I am back in the local watering hole when my baby sister walks in with her friends. She of course ignores us, while her friends all come over to say hello. Sometime later, little sister is at the jukebox and makes some comment. I must have rolled my eyes or made a face and Patty looks at me and said, “You looked just like your Mom when you did that!”

Not sure why, but that really struck me for some reason. And I did not take it as an insult; to the contrary I thought of it as a compliment.

How many are you?

I just thought of this story and decided that I had to share it.

Last Sunday afternoon we were getting ready to go to my Mom’s house for her birthday dinner. Which was probably the reason that prompted Darren to ask the question, “How many are you Mom?” I hesitatingly reveal my true age of 35 to Darren. Darren confesses that he does not know how to count that high, so I make him count with me. Once we reach 35, I stop. Darren then asked, “How many will you be at your next birthday?” So then I count up one to 36. Seeing the question forming on his lips, I tell him that I will then be 37, then 38 and I stopped counting at 60. Darren then looks at me with wide eyes and innocently asks, “And then you die?”

Chuckling I explain that it is up to God when we die and I might live to be a 100, or I could die tomorrow and no one knows how long they will live. I guess to a boy, who is almost five, 60 seems like forever away.

The need to vent

I am going to take a brief foray into a self-pity party. I know that I have many blessings, but sometimes you just need to vent.

I am a salary employee at work which sometimes has its advantages, but it obviously has its disadvantages too. I left the house yesterday morning at 6:30 am so that I could get the boys to daycare and be at work by 7:15 am for a meeting. I did not get home from work last night until 6:10 pm. I was away from the house for almost 12 hours! And while I did take a lunch, it was work related. To get lower premiums for workers comp, you can attend safety meetings once a month. Kurt was unable to go yesterday so I went to the meeting and had lunch all the while a speaker talked about OSHA safety standards.

It is because of days like this, that Nathan hasn’t learned the prayers that he is supposed to for religion. We struggle just getting homework done at night. By the time dinner is made, cleaned up, baths given and taking care of whatever else may pop up that evening, it is 8:00 pm. I have to sit down and relax with the boys otherwise they keep getting up and seeing what I am doing. It is nice to sit down and relax with them and watch some TV because once they are asleep, I am in bed about 9:30-10:00. I require too much sleep and morning comes entirely too early to get much else done.

'J'

I was working with Darren the other night in a kindergarten workbook and the exercise was to fill in the missing letter of the alphabet train. Darren knew what letters were missing although he struggled a little bit trying to recall what the letters looked like so that he could write it in the blank spot.

We get to the letter ‘J.’ He writes the letter down, only he puts the ‘hook’ to the right instead of the left. I tell him that is wrong and that the ‘hook’ needs to go the other way. He tells me that he doesn’t like the letter J that way, so he is going to write it the way he wants to.

Furniture disaray

Bruce and I ordered a new king size bed two days before New Years Eve. It came in last Friday, so Bruce went and picked it up. We put the new bed in our room on Saturday. We now have our old mattress in the garage which means that Bruce cannot park in the garage any longer. In the almost week since we have had the bed, I have not woke up with lower back pain so the new bed is soooo worth it. If you sit on it, it is pretty firm and maybe a bit uncomfortable, but is great to sleep on.

That same week, our old tube style TV loses the sound. We don't want to spend the money for a new TV right now, so we decide to get my Grandma's old TV that has been sitting in her garage. That means that we have to move the huge entertainment center that houses the TV, DVD player, VCR, DVD's, books and VHS tapes. I didn't realize that entertainment center held that much until I pulled it all out.

Between all the bed moving, TV moving and entertainment center moving, I am glad that we have a neighbor across the street that provides a strong back to help. Bruce is less likely to yell at him than me. This also helped the neighbor out as he got a new bedroom suite for his daughter's, so guess who had to help with that. I'll give you one guess and I will tell you that it wasn't me!!!

Current Events

Coming home from Nathan's tutoring session we got talking about Mexico for some reason. Bruce and I try to explain to the boys that it is another country that is attached to the United States. Later that evening Nathan is working on a puzzle of America, so I have him bring it over to me and we have a little geography lesson.

I point out Ohio and tell them that is where we live. I point out Michigan and remind them that is where we went on vacation this past summer. I show them Texas since they are fascinated with Texas since uncle Bill goes there every fall. I point out Oklahoma where Bill also goes in the fall. I point out California and tell the boys that is where aunt Lynn lives and Mom and Dad went out there to visit a long time ago. They ask where Florida is and I show them. They ask what states I have been to and what states Bruce has been to. Then they ask what states they have been to.

Nathan then asks me the question that made me realize that he knows more than I give him credit for. He asked me where the big ship is that was laying over on it's side in the water. At first I didn't think that he could be talking about the cruise ship in Italy as I barely know anything about it. When I clarify, I realize that is indeed the ship he is talking about. I ask him if he remembers what a globe looks like. I help him remember by reminding him that it looks like a ball. I tell him that the boat tipped over in Italy and that is a country on the other side of the world (ball). I was flabbergasted that he has some knowledge of current events. I don't give him enough credit.

Actual conversation

You can tell Justin is getting older and picking things up. The other day I called him a monster and he gets kind of mad and goes, "I not monster. I Justin Kunk!" He said it quite forcefully and with gusto.

Driving to New Bremen to take Nathan to his tutoring session, Bruce and I are talking to the boys. I am not sure what we were talking about, but from the back Justin pipes up, "No way Dad!" Bruce and I thought it was hilarious as he used it in the correct context and it was funny because that is not something you hear come out of a 2 1/2 year mouth that often.

A non-hyper Darren

At 9:00 Saturday morning the boys are asking to go outside and play in the snow already. I tell them to wait a while and hopefully it will warm up a little bit. Around 11:00 I had enough of their begging, pleading and whining that I let the older two go out. Of course that upset Justin but with the cough that he has and the fact that he gets bronchitis so easy, I refused to let him out.

Darren played outside for about a half hour and then came in to “warm up.” He stood on the carpet by the door for a few minutes and then went back outside. After about ten minutes he came back in and said that he was going to stay in. I help him get out of his snow clothes and hang them up while warning him to be quiet as I am trying to get Justin to take a nap in the living room. As I am making lunch I realize that I have not heard from Darren for a while and that is very unlike him. I find him in his bed under the covers and ask him what is wrong. He tells me that he is cold and is trying to warm up. When lunch is ready Justin is sleeping on the couch and I go to tell Darren that it is time to eat. He tells me that he is not hungry and wants to take a nap.

Around 2:30 Nathan and the neighbor girl come in from outside after me coaxing them to come in and warm up. I had made cheesy-potato soup for lunch so I warmed up some bowls for Nathan and the neighbor girl. At this point Darren comes out of his bedroom and Justin is up from his nap so there is a lot of laughing going on in the kitchen. Nathan asks for hot chocolate for himself and Leslie. Of course that means that Darren and Justin want some too, but I only had three packets left. After everyone left the bar, Darren is still sitting there. I ask Darren if he feels okay and he tells me that his head hurts. I knew there had to be a reason that he was laying around all afternoon and he volunteers to take a nap! I give him some Tylenol and hope that is his only symptom.

Later that evening the boys had a sitter while we went out. Darren tells us that he played a game with the sitter and watched two movies with her after his brothers went to bed. So I am not sure how long he was up, but apparently resting all day recharged his batteries!

No more diapers!

Dare I say it? I don’t want to jinx it, but I think Justin is potty trained. He has been wearing underwear for the past two weeks or so with only one accident. He has even been wearing underwear to bed and waking up dry!

The only drawback is that when Justin has to use the bathroom, I have to go with him. Although I am not allowed to turn on the light, help him with his pants, lift the seat, flush the toilet, pull up his pants or turn off the light. I guess he just wants the company. Bruce is not allowed to go with him (unless we are out in a public bathroom) so I always have to drop what I am doing to go with Justin. And he insists on “wiping” himself every time he uses the bathroom and uses a quarter of a roll of toilet paper in the process nearly clogging the toilet.

How many are there?

As a parent, you want your kids to be smart, and I really do want Justin to learn how to count correctly, but I hope he keeps counting this way for a while. It is too cute to hear him count. When he counts, everything is one, two. One, two.

We were driving past Continental Express on Saturday, and if you have ever been past there on a weekday that is nothing compared to the amount of semi’s they have sitting on the lot on the weekends. I pointed out all the semi’s to Justin and he says, “I gonna count them. One, two, one, two, one two” until the semis were out of sight.

Attitude

I know I have mentioned before in previous posts how stubborn Nathan is and I willingly admit that that trait comes from me. So let me give you a little back story to the story.

I talked to Mom briefly Saturday afternoon and she told me that my sister Carla was coming over to their house on Sunday as they were going to pick up an old kitchen table at my Grandma’s house. Mom told me that I should come over with the kids. I told her that I was going to go to Sears and do my monthly return of jeans, so Mom told me to just bring the kids over and they can play with their cousins while I run to Sears. When I tell Bruce of my plans he decides that he is going to come with me and help Dan get the table out of the basement at Grandma’s.

Sunday. We get to Mom’s house. Bruce leaves with Dan, Dad & Bill to get the table. I leave shortly after. I return some stuff, exchange some jeans and head back. I call Bruce to find out where he is at. He tells me that he is at my cousin Jason’s barn with my brother Bill. (He claims that he was helping cut wood, but I think there was more story-telling and beer drinking than anything). I get back to Mom’s and see that Justin is feeling pretty miserable, so I ask the boys to get ready to go. Nathan insists that I bring him to Jason’s barn and come back to Mom’s for his brothers. I tell him that we will all go to Jason’s at the same time to get their father.

(Now for the story part). Nathan is throwing a major buck fit and is whining, crying and demanding that I take him over the Jason’s now! After a few minutes of this, my parents are more amused than annoyed and I admit that I was borderline amused and annoyed. Finally, in a fit of amusement, Mom or Dad suggest that Nathan walk to Jason’s barn. Well, he thought that suggestion was great and took off down the driveway. I wasn’t too concerned since it is a ¼ mile long lane, it was in the mid-forties and Jason’s barn is about a ¼ mile down the road. I get the boys buckled in their seats and catch up with Nathan at “the hill” in my parent’s driveway. By this time he has cooled off considerably, but refused to get in the van even. I could see him trying not to smile, so I decided to let him just finish walking the end of the lane. Once he gets to the end of the lane though, I tell him that he has to get in the van as it was getting too dark to walk on the road.

I am not sure what I am going to do with the attitude in the future…..