| Ah...to be stranded in the desert | | Date Created: Jan 23, 2007, 12:58 PM |
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Sorry for the desert picture as opposed to one of the boys. First of all, my camera is all out of memory and I need to get a new card for it so I can take some new pictures. But most importantly, I'm in a desert state of mind. Meaning I sort of wish I were back there. Especially in that big beautiful bathtub in our hotel suite. I've never been a big bath person. But on a day like this, I dream about that bathtub.
Not that it's been that bad. It's just that Tuesdays and Thursdays are always unscheduled. And without some kind of structure the boys and I just sort of roam around the house in our PJ's and then get really mad when anybody trespasses on each of our territory. Territory could be my office--where I hide and check for email 80,000 times a day. Territory could be the plastic measuring cup that George has adopted as his own personal play-toy. It could be the dining room table where John wants to color by himself while his brothers color at the little table. An example of trespassing in this case, would be, say, James running up behind John while John sits coloring in no shirt other than his cowboy vest and coloring only with the black crayon and reaching around John and scribbling on his page with a pink crayon. That is trespassing. John doesn't respond well to trespassers. Earlier we had a tea party for snack. I thought a little structured activity might bring everyone together. And it did. For about five minutes. Then James hit George with the teapot. Then James took off with John's much-loved black measuring poons (spoons). Then George spit chewed-up blueberry into his tea (apple juice). Ugh.
And it's cold and yucky outside so no running off energy out there. But if after Quiet Time (or All Your Favorites Sung By George hour) nothing has improved I may bundle everyone up and go outside anyway. Speaking of outside, though, the boys have thoroughly enjoyed the birdfeeder Will's parents gave me for Christmas. They love to watch the birds eat and know cardinals and blue jays. Everything else they call robins and chickadees no matter what they are. And of course they're always those wily curls running around (squirrels).
The boys aren't being bad bad bad. They're just driving me crazy! I remember this time of year last year and my therapist validated some of my woes by telling me this is truly the time of year our bodies and minds want to hibernate like all the animals. And that is exactly what I feel like doing. In that big bathtub in the desert curled up with a book and a cup of tea. Speaking of books we did read some books this morning. They have one book about Florida that is a tad wordy and informative for three-year-olds. But they picked it out to read. For that one it was John's turn to sit in my lap and as we flipped through it he would stop me when we came to something the piqued his interest. He pointed to the pictures of the Daytona Speedway, Disney World, and baseball spring training and said, "Can we hear about that, please?" And speaking of Speedway, we had a short experiment yesterday evening. The boys wore big-boy undies for about an hour and a half! John's favorite pair is black with red trim and a NASCAR car and logo on it. George likes the one pair I could find with jungle animals and zebras. And James likes blue stripes. John did a great job staying dry for a while and then made one really big puddle, but after a change stayed dry again for a while. James stayed dry and T-T'd when we put him on the potty and never did wet his pants! We now know Georgie T-T's about every 1 and a half minutes. So we went through quite a lot of undies. But towards the end he did start saying "Potty! Potty!" even if it was a few seconds too late. Overall, I was very proud. When my mom gets back to town, I think she and Will's mom are going to come over for a whole day or each of us take one of the boys and have a day in their undies when that's all we focus on. Last night was a good trial run, but it was quickly apparent that I don't have enough ears, arms, hands, or towels to hear everyone when they need to go, get them there, or locate and clean up the damage. But I think they can really do it. I've gone cold turkey on bottles, milk, pacifiers, so I'm hoping that will be the way to go once we coordinate the reserve troops. Please don't tell me if you know better. A girl's gotta dream!
Sorry to be so blah today. I'm really not in a bad mood and I got great sleep last night. I think it's just a Tuesday! Writing all this down, no matter how blah truly has a bracing effect on me. I feel a lot better. If you're still checking in, thank you! I really need you. Now if I ever get that big bathtub it may be a different story... |
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