Not Quite the Hugger

My now 10 year old is really not the hugging type.  He used to be,  I used to get hugs, kisses and rub noses from him all of the time.  Then one day out of the blue he stopped.  These days he is more like a leaner.  If you ask him for a hug he will back up to you or just kind of lean in, no arms involved.  It is quite funny to watch.  He even does this with his grandparents.  If he doesn't know you well you can forget getting any kind of hug at all.

Sometimes to be mean, as a punishment I will make him hug his little sister when he is picking on her.  It is the funniest thing to watch, especially because she loves to hug and he hates to be punished so he gives in.

I am not really sure what got him like this.  In fact I rarely get hugs from him.  I will usually hold him down and hug and kiss him up.  I love to see the smile on his face that he tries so hard to hide. It reminds me that he needs the attention and the affection.

Maybe he will grow out of it, I sure hope so.  But no matter what, he is my baby and he always will be.

I Talking About You!!

When my little one was two she talked a lot, what am I saying, she still does.  The problem was I could only understand about half of what she was saying.   She would repeat the same thing over and over and then got completely frustrated when I just didn't know what she was saying.  Sometimes she would speak really clearly but other times, she might as well have been speaking greek.  I couldn't understand a word.

Sometimes I would get frustrated with her and tell her "I don't know what you are talking about."  Then she would say very clearly, every word understandable "I talking about you." Now she would do this with her hands in the air like she is saying look lady what do you think I am talking about.  It was the cutest thing,  sometimes I would ask her just to get her to say it.

I miss her small.  She is getting so big I keep wondering what happened to my baby.  Sometimes I wish I could just rewind for a moment.

A Monster In The House

A few nights ago my husband wasn't feeling well.  About an hour after dinner he started with severe stomach pains and spent the next hour in the bathroom, upchucking.   We are still not sure what caused it.  Now my husband is like most men and is very dramatic when he is sick.  I could hear him across the house he was so loud.

I was in my bedroom when suddenly my 5 year ran into my room saying, "Mom, there is a monster in the house!"  She was a little panicked by the noise.  She started describing the noise as a roar.  It was then that I realized that what she heard was her daddy in the bathroom, upchucking.  I told you he was dramatic. I can only imagine what must have been going to her little mind playing in her room and then hearing a roaring noise in the bathroom next to her.

I then explained to her that he daddy wasn't feeling well and that he was making that noise.  She seemed a little confused, but eventually understood.  There was no monster in the house, just a sick daddy.  He was fine the next day, but we still get a good laugh out of the little ones misunderstanding.

Laundry

My oldest is 10 now.  Wow, do I feel old.  Here lately I have been teaching him how to wash his own clothes.  In fact he complained all week that he had no clean clothes.  Since he is out of school I told him that if he needed clean clothes he knew how to wash and dry them himself.  So Friday I had to remind him if he wanted clean clothes for the weekend, he needed to wash them.  So Friday morning he started sorting after me reminding him, then I walked him through once again the stages of washing clothes.  He actually does a good job and asks questions.

The little one will actually ask if she can sort and wash her clothes too.  She also puts away her clothes without me even asking.  I think that is just a girl thing, assessing a situation and seeing what needs to be done.  (Of course, cleaning her room is another story.)  I have to remind my son a dozen times before he actually puts his clothes away.

I am really determined to get him doing especially this task independently.  My reason,  well when my husband and I were dating he was 21 years old and once a week he would bring his clothes to his moms.   She would then wash, dry and fold his clothes and have them ready for him to pick up the next day.  Needless to say I had to teach him how to wash his own clothes too.  I figure I would teach my son young and save his future wife the trouble.

Next task would be to sit him down and show him how to fold properly.

Not My Momma Anymore

My youngest is quite the challenge, and with her getting older it isn't getting any easier.  Sometimes I have absolutely no idea how to react to the things she does and says.  Last weekend was no exception.

Last weekend my little one decided that she no longer wanted me to be her momma.  In fact she said that her Grammy (my mother) would now be her mother and she would be moving in with her.  Not sure exactly how to respond to this, I decided to go along.  I guess my reaction wasn't what she expected because she proceeded to tell me why she came to this decision.

"Because you don't let me do everything I want to do and you make me drink green smoothies,"  she said.  As if I would say that I would change that.  I explained to her that my job as her mother meant that sometimes she wouldn't get to do what she wanted to do because it may not be good for her.  As for the smoothies, I explained that I wanted her to be healthy and that is why I made them for her and her brother.

Well I guess that is not what she wanted to hear so she continued with her charade.  This started on Friday.  Getting up Saturday morning getting ready for church I thought that she was over this not my momma stuff.  Well she didn't talk to me much, somewhat ignored me.  My husband and her went to church ahead of me and me and my oldest met up with them later.

It was there that I found out she was telling everyone I was no longer her momma and her reasons as stated above.  I guess to see if anyone would agree with her.  I will admit it started to hurt my feelings a bit, but I wasn't about to let her know that,  I just laughed it off.  This continued through out the day, she continued giving me the cold shoulder.  She even ended up spending the night at my moms house.

I didn't pick her up till the afternoon the next day.  But her attitude changed dramatically.  "I love you momma,"  she told me when she saw me.  I responded, "Oh, I'm your momma now."   I am assuming that she must have really missed me because she spend the rest of the day hugging and kissing me and keeping really close by.  I guess I'm not such a bad momma after all.  But it really blows me away the things that this little girl thinks of.

What will she come up with next?? Dare I ask.

Another School Year- Gone

These days my little ones aren't so little.  This past year has been like most, a challenge.    But as a family we press on.

This past school year my oldest started a new school.  His old school started having problems with structure and we realized that it was time to move on.  We had started my youngest in a k-3 program at a church close to our home last year.  It just so happened that the following school year (this past school year) they would also be starting a school from K5-12.  After talking with my oldest ,who is extremely shy if you have realized from past post,  he agreed to go to the same school as his little sister.

I did bribe him the first week of school ;)  I told him that if he went the entire week without any complaints that he would be rewarded.   I wanted him to try to like his new school, not already have his mind made up that he didn't like it.  I figured that if I at least made it worth it to him, that he would at least try. The first week passed without complaint.  The second week did also.  He loved his new school and he made new friends almost instantly.  I felt so relieved about our decision to move him.

We went through an entire year with him only calling home once or twice to come him because he had a stomach ache.  It was awesome.  He was actually a little disappointed when the school year ended.

And for the little one, she absolutely loves it too.  In fact now that the year is over she really misses going too.

I can't believe that next school year I will have a kindergartener and a 5th grader.  Boy how time flies.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Anyone who knows my oldest knows that he is extremely shy.  He wasn't always this bad but as he has gotten older it seems to be getting worse.  When strangers talk to him he usually puts his head down and smiles and doesn't reply.  Sometimes he is even that way with with people he does know.

Well, last week once again we went to family camp in Arkansas.  We had a blast, especially the kids.  One evening we decided to go to Hot Springs to check my email and get a bite to eat.  We had to go to the main building of the camp to sign up for the next day activities before we left.

We had signed up for the next day actives and we were walking out the door when we realized that my oldest wasn't with us.  About two minutes later he flew (and I mean flew) out the front door.  I figured he thought we had left him.  We went back to our cabin to get our stuff to go to town when he started.

He seemed really nervous and very antsy.  He said, "Mom, I got to tell you something that happened."  I said, "ok, what?"  He said, "never mind I will tell you in the car."  So I said, "no tell me now."  This went on for about five minutes until  I demanded him tell me what happened.  I was getting nervous now because he seemed terrified.  I was thinking the worst, did someone say something to him, did someone hurt him?

Then finally he spit it out.  "I thought he was dad,"  he finally said.  I was confused.  Then after the mumbling I finally made out what he was trying to say.  Apparently he thought one of the staff was his dad from behind and he went up to him and hugged him.  The guy was sitting where we usually sit and my son was playing with his friends so he wasn't paying attention to where we were.  When the guy said, "hey buddy."  He realized that it wasn't his dad and proceeded in flight mode.

He was crying saying he was so embarrassed.  I explained to him that the staff work with kids all summer long and are used to that.  He wanted me to go explain to the staff what happened but he didn't remember who he hugged he left so fast he never saw the guys face.

I couldn't help but laugh, it was too funny.  I am guilty of teasing him about it for the rest of the time we were there.  At first he would be upset but after a few days he just laughed it off.  I told him to go hug one of our friends that was there so that they would just think he was a hugger.  Of course he said no to that.

These kids always keep me laughing.  What to do with them??