Wednesday is kind of our "enrichment day" around here. We used to go to story time on Wednesday mornings (more about that later) and now Rachel and Ford are both taking art classes on Wednesdays. It takes up just about the whole day to do a 10:30 story time for an hour, figure out lunch for an hour, get Ford to art at 12:30, pick him up at 1:30, try to squeeze in a nap for anybody who will take one, get Rachel to art at 3:00 and pick her up at 4:00. So, today, I learned a lot.
1. No more story time for this crowd. Why? Well, Rachel has definitely aged out of story time, the stories haven't been that great lately, and too many people want to talk to me and take my focus away from the kids. The crazy thing is the people who I like to see at story time weren't even there today...they're the ones I like to talk to, but not today, boy! Allen used to work at the library, so everyone that works there wants to talk to us and check out Baby Baxter (understandable, but hard to do with three other kids tugging at you and making bad decisions like pulling all the books off the shelves--Ruby!). Some of the people who work at the library I have known for a long time and enjoy talking to, but other people come get in those quick conversations and make them take way longer and test my patience and politeness because I'm just not good at cutting people off. I think I'm going to start getting better at that! The kids don't like the stories, they aren't real sure about the crafts, and we usually end up in an argument about how many Thomas or Fairy books they can check out or why they can't play on the computers or take all the books off the shelves. I'd rather go to the library when there aren't a ton of other kids there and nobody cares about talking to us! I can do my own story time here at Ingram School.
2. My kids trust Ms. Lisa more than just about anyone else in the world. I don't know what we'd do without Lisa. She teaches their art classes. She could tell how crazy I was after the library today and was there to help out when Baxter decided he needed to eat and Ruby had an accident in her tights all at the same time. She offered to bring Ford home so that we wouldn't have to load everybody up again in an hour and Ford jumped on his chance to ride with her! I'm pretty sure the only other person he's ever ridden with by himself is Hobo. The boy knows who will take care of him. When she dropped Ford off, she offered to come back by and get Rachel (who has never ridden with anyone else by herself) after picking up her nephew at school. Now it was Rachel's turn to get excited! Lisa promised me that she'd let me know if she had too much going on to pick up or drop off, but I think we may have a system here! Allen picked Rachel up afterwards and I spent a lot less time in the car then I had thought I would today!
3. Cloth Diapering a newborn is not for me. I have done four loads of laundry today and I can't keep up. Most of it is the diapers, some of it is the muddy clothes from the two middle children who make bad decisions outside like going head first down the slide into the muddy spot of the yard. I know that newborns poop a lot more than big kids and it could get easier when he only poops once a day, but goodness gracious, does every.single.diaper have to have poop in it?!?!?! I can't figure out a good system in our house, so for now these cloth diapers are going back on the shelf. A million jillion trillion times thank you to Amanda and Chris for letting us use their diapers and possibly, just possibly I might pull them back out when we're doing one poop a day, but for now, I need to just throw that sh*t in the trash (pun intended!).
4. Screaming doesn't help, but it makes me feel better. Well, then it makes me feel worse. Hell, I might need to give up screaming for Lent. We live in a teenie tiny house and I still have to scream from one room to the other to get a certain little girl to come when I call her. I get mad at her for screaming all of the time and then I realize where she gets it when I scream at her! Same thing goes for the hand on the hip and the mean faces. I know I do those, too, but does she have to be my exact duplicate?!?! I make a lot of bad decisions, too, we're soulmates, I know it. I am seriously (again) going to start over (again) tomorrow and be more intentional about giving her consequences. I just really don't know that she cares. Sometimes I feel like I'm being so mean, too, that I remind her that I love her, I just don't like how she's behaving or the choices she's making. I'm pretty sure all she hears is, "I love you...." then her mind wanders. Maybe her Pavlovian response to "I love you" is to just tear things up and go crazy. Tomorrow. It's going to get better tomorrow.
5. Babies cry the most when you're the most frustrated and especially when you're trying to calm everyone else down. Two nights in a row Baxter has screamed and cried during story time right before bed. So much for hearing the story, but we just plow through. I just had to laugh tonight as I'm reading (loudly) and bouncing Baxter and I look around to see everyone covering their ears. I guess covering your ears drowns out baby crying but not story telling??? We've got to get this figured out soon, though, because Allen will be teaching four nights a week during the summer and I'll be solo for bed time. Baxter will be old enough to cry in his crib at that point! I'm just glad Allen will be home during the day!! Yay, summer vacation!!
6. When is a baby most likely to spit up?
a) After a nap.
b) When you're wearing old clothes that are already dirty.
c) Never, my baby doesn't spit up.
d) Right after you've finally calmed him down and given him a bath and he's all nice and clean!
every.single.bath.time...spit up follows immediately, and sometimes pee all over the towel, I'm sure poop will be next
7. Even the worst days at Ingram School have great moments. Ford, Rachel, and Ruby all did such great school work today. Everyone ate their meals so nicely today. It was 70 degrees and despite the mud, we had a great time outside today. There are always high notes and I'd rather write about those, but sometimes I need to remind myself of the things that drive me crazy, too. And learn my lessons!
No comments:
Post a Comment