Elizabeth has a real attitude problem thee days. She is exceptionally rude and argues with us about everything. She has been sent to bed early 3 days in the past week. Tonight, after such an occurrence, Parker delivered this note from her.
Yesterday, I got Elizabeth and Parker new shoes. Parker goes through a pair of sneakers in about a month or so. He never complains about them falling apart, but at some point, I notice massive holes in them and throw them out. Elizabeth got some boots a month or so ago and they too had fallen apart. So Parker got a new pair of sneakers and Elizabeth got some new boots; a very nice pair of Kenneth Cole brown zipper up the side boots. I can only describe them as classy. On clearance, $20. I told her that she couldn't where these boots for PE or other hard playing as they were too nice. Miranda's shoes don't fall apart as quickly as Parker and Elizabeth but I'm not sure why.
So today she asks if we can go to the park. I told her to go ask her siblings. She did and reported back that everyone wanted to go. So I said, Great, tell them to brush their teeth, you need to change into some play shoes or sneakers, and then we can go. She walked away. Ten minutes later, I went out into the living room and she was on the couch with her head buried in the pillows. I asked what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell me. I asked if we were going to the park, but she wouldn't answer. I started to get annoyed and she finally said, "BUT I WANT TO WEAR MY BOOTS AND I WANT TO GO TO THE PARK!"
As I have no patience for such nonsense, I just walked away muttering I guess we won't go to the park. Then she starting hysterically crying. This went on for a good 10-15 minutes before I told her to go upstairs if she wanted to cry that loud. She immediately went silent.
Then I went back out to check on her about 10 minutes later and she was asleep on the couch in the same position she was during the crying bout.
Meanwhile, Miranda is upstairs making drawings on the computer and Parker is building with the legos.
I guess we aren't going to the park.
Elizabeth is like me in many ways. One of them is that she enjoys rearranging rooms. Today we did the playroom.
The girls are just now getting old enough to play games (as opposed to start games and then lost interest) so I think our family game playing is going to increasing, which is good.
As you have probably surmised from the lack of blog posts, I've been in a bit of funk lately. Haven't felt much like doing anything. I have some cute pics to post and some funny stories, but don't seem to be able to pull it together. Hopefully it won't last long and I'll be back with witty anecdotes and cute kid pics soon.
Susan and I took the kids today to Cull Canyon, a lovely man-made lake in Castro Valley. Michael and Parker had a ball game (where Parker hit a grand slam and several triples.) The weather was perfect and it's a great place for all age kids even little Annabelle. I told Elizabeth that she could take the swim test so she could swim to the dock on the other side of the lake if she wanted. She was hesitant and on her first practice, she freaked out. She, like me, doesn't like the lake water (even a man-made one) and got scared that she couldn't see very well. She got upset and said she couldn't do it. I backed off but then she tried again on her own an hour or so later. She did it. So I suggested she rest and try again before doing the real test. She did. She got a little off track (started curving too much) during the test and got a little upset, but I told her the lifeguard didn't see it and she could swim back. She collected herself and swam back perfectly. She got her wrist band and then a little later in the day swam out to the dock with Roy. To say she was proud would have been an understatement. Miranda played the entire time in the sand with Sebastian and/or Fletcher. It was a lovely way to spend mother's day and Susan's birthday.
Michael and I went out on Friday night to dinner and a movie in celebration of his birthday. We saw Iron Man which I was dreading but which turned out to be pretty good, even for a stupid action movie with too much violence and things blowing up.
The kids went to a co-op at a family that is on Parker's baseball team but who go to a different school. I like the mom and the kid, a third grader, seems pretty nice.
The next day, Elizabeth was telling me about the co-op and told me this:
"Parker was playing jump rope at the school and I asked for a turn. He ignored me so I asked again. He kept ignoring me so I stuck my foot on the jump rope so he couldn't jump and then Parker said, "Move your fucking foot.'"
"Wow," I said. "What did the mom say?"
"She told Parker it wasn't ok to say that."
Michael and I discussed it and found it really hard to punish him for this since it seems like a completely appropriate use of the word fucking. He didn't say it to anyone like Fuck You! And he didn't tell anyone to Fuck Off. He didn't even say something was "fucked." He used it as an adjective to describe his frustation at his annoying sister. He could have hit her or whipped the jump rope at her, but he didn't.
So I talked to him about it reminding him that were words that some grown ups didn't like to hear from kids and fucking was one of them. If he said it at school, he would get in big trouble. He said it just blurted out and he understood the problem. I came *this* close to congratulating him on his word choice, but left it at, Be careful what you say.
