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!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
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.
Friday, September 14, 2012
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?
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!
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!
Friday, September 7, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
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.
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.
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