Field Trips

We have a really nice butterfly house in our area and there's talk about taking the kidlets. I'm not so sure. The main reason is that my sweet and very sensitive boy likes to stomp on things. This is what boys do. Plus, I'm always telling him to "Be my big, brave boy and stomp on that bug for Mommy". I didn't think for a skinny minute this could be a problem, because one of my kids needs to be taught how to kill things that freak me out - what would I do if John was out of the house and some spider was stalking the family? Someone has to squish the horrid thing and it certainly isn't going to be me.

So I was showing the girls some crocuses that were just popping up and they were appropriately ooh-ing and aah-ing over them. Then Johnny stopped by for a looksie and, after I repeated "look at the sweet little flowers!", he appropriately (in his mind) tried to stomp on them. As I said earlier, that's what boys do. But if his response to something pretty like these:


is to smoosh them, what's to keep the child from extinguishing an insect this beautiful?



Knowing my luck, he'd probably do it in front of some little school children...or start a chain reaction among his siblings and it would be like a horror-show grape-stomp and we would be forever banished from the butterfly house.

Decisions. Decisions.

Going Insane

Two of my sweet little cherubs believe that proper sleep is a waste of my time and energy. I've been to tired to post (even though there are about 8 that are in the "draft" phase of existence). I've been too tired to do: laundry, shop for Christmas, exercise, blah, blah, blah.

And that takes care of most of my whining for today. I'm going upstairs to let them out of their cribs since they've now had 1 1/2 hours of Happy Dance Party in there.

A Little Schoolyard Justice

It's going to be hard for John and I to do, but we're going to have to learn to let the kids work things out sometimes on their own (I'm talking over the next few years - I realize that 2-year-olds should not be allowed to rule themselves). Obviously the goal is to teach them how to do this so they just aren't beating the tar out of each other when disagreements flare up, even though I expect fisticuffs to happen sometimes (just no blows to the head, okay kiddos?). I'm going to struggle with it because my knee-jerk reaction when disputes happen is to jump in to fix everything and attempt to make things right.

My sweet little boy has acquired the frustrating phrase "No! Stop it!". He uses it indiscriminately and, while he WILL figure out quickly it definitely should NOT be said in the direction of his parents, he uses it whenever something does not go his way - which is about one thousand times a day. Very, very annoying.

Well, he had the nerve to say it towards his older sister the other day while I was out of his view and too far away to take care of things. I saw the whole scene and wish I had video: Ainsley was on the couch watching Dinosaur Train and The Boy decided he just couldn't bear to leave her alone. So he tackled her legs and she rightly shoved him off. He then pulled his finger-pointing "NO!!! STOP IT!!!" and she looked at him, leaned forward, and yelled "No! YOU Stop It!". And he stopped it. And it took everything I had not to laugh because, well, that's just what he needed.

Nothing like a little schoolyard justice to bring about some equilibrium. Unfortunately for Johnny, though, I have the feeling the pendulum of power will rarely swing in his direction.