Tuesday, October 29, 2013

It's a Wash.

Lots going on around the Jones house. Some of it good, some of it not-so-good--life's been kind of a wash lately. The good rubbing out the bad, and vice versa.  That sounds a tad depressing, but the depressing counteracts the exciting...you get the idea. Here's what I mean:

The good:  Amelia is learning so much! She's so curious about the world, which means she asks great questions. Lots of questions about people getting married (she insists she's marrying "Isaiah", a boy with whom she's had a special relationship for going on a year--I should probably meet him), why things happen in nature, etc.  She also suddenly has great listening comprehension. I can read harder books with fewer pictures, and she can answer really tough questions. The teacher in me can't help but be excited about this recent turn of events.

The bad:  Amelia has apparently picked up a pack-a-day smoking habit. Okay, maybe not, but she has developed a very, VERY nasty cough. It started about a week ago. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it kept...well...not getting better. In fact, it started sounding worse. Then, Marty got sick, which brought back lots of fun memories and fears, and I figured they were sharing the same awesome germs.  Marty went to the doctor (in a timely manner! Exciting!) and got some antibiotics, and then he got better. Amelia...well, she continued to hack incessantly.  The thing is, she wasn't running a fever! She didn't even act sick, with the exception of nighttime, when she coughed to the point of gagging--YAY!. Finally, I could take no more. Took her to the doctor yesterday, and found out that she doesn't seem to have an infection of the respiratory kind, but she did have a raging ear infection.  The doctor thinks the cough is allergy-related. He asked if we had a family history of allergies. Insert ridiculous-because-I-have-no-control-over-it-but-yet-it's-still-there mom guilt. I'm the most allergic human alive. So yes...she has allergies. We upped her dosage of Zyrtec, added regular inhaler use, and put her on the fun antibiotics that turns kids' poo red. Nice touch.

Yeah--it's a wash.

The good:  Anderson is a walking episode of "Kids Say the Funniest Things".  He comes up with things...I don't even know where he gets them. It's like he overhears snippets of conversation and stores them in his memory for later usage, then inserts them into his own talking whenever he sees fit--sometimes it might make sense, and sometimes it's just waaaaaay out there.  Lately, he's been VERY into cooking. Specifically, pretending to use the mixer to make mashed potatoes or cake. I actually own THREE mixers--one that works, one that is missing the beaters (which he calls "blenders") because he lost them, and one that broke from his rough handling. So, the two that are non-functional are his. He pretty much puts on a show worthy of Rachael Ray fame in the kitchen on the daily. I hear him in there, describing what he's doing, and it's so funny.  Yesterday, he was talking away while I was looking for something. I think he could sense my frustration, because suddenly he said, "Mom, you need to make a decision..."  Ummm...thanks? It was fantastic. Of course I laughed out loud, which of course makes him repeat whatever he says that is hilarious. He has no idea what a decision is. Trust me.  Another thing he says lately is "I'm the teacher, you're the kid"--which I'm sure comes from school.  When I questioned him further about what it means to be a teacher, he said, and I quote--"Teachers say EVERYTHING!"  Pretty sure he is implying that teachers talk a lot. But I think my absolute favorite conversation lately happened last week. Marty had a late meeting at work, and made the dreaded mistake of taking Tofu with him in the car. Bedtime came, and the boy was beside himself. Since it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to settle in to bed, I told him he could get in bed with me until Daddy came home with Tofu. Now Anderson likes his bed; he was leery of getting in my bed but I assured him that I'd leave the lights on. So, he climbed in, and I went ahead with my nightly ritual of reading all of my blogs and then playing Candy Crush. I told him he had to rest his eyes and be quiet, so that his body could rest (I wanted him to get sleepy). He would lay there for a bit, quiet and still, then talk a little, mostly to himself. He told me his nose was itchy. I tried not to comment, so as not to break the quiet restfulness. Then, he says, "Yeah, I have a meeting tomorrow at school..." He knew Marty was at a meeting, so apparently he decided that he also had one. THEN...he goes on to add the following: "Tomorrow, I am going to wake up, and eat my breakfast, and scratch my nose with a toe-stick, and get my clothes on and start the car and go to my school meeting!"  Ummm, which item doesn't belong in that list? If you guessed toe-stick, you'd be right!  Toe-stick is an Anderson-ism for fingernail file.  He saw me giving myself a pedicure and it became a toe-stick. Now, why he'd want to scratch his nose with a toe-stick? That's beyond me. I guess he figured it was nice and scratchy. At that point, I laughed profusely, put the iPad down, and we talked and snuggled until Daddy brought home the much-missed Tofu. It was a memorable, sweet night.

The bad:  Anderson is having a pretty rough time in terms of sleeping and temper tantrums. Unfortunately, they have a reciprocal relationship--the less he sleeps, the more he has tantrums, and vice versa.  Anderson was ALWAYS my good sleeper. Always. Slept through the night early, never once fussed about being in his bed. I'm not saying he is always ready to go to bed when it's time, but he would sleep through the night with absolutely no problems. Until recently. He gets up anywhere between 4:30-6:00. When it wakes us up, we tell him to go back to bed, but I don't think he's always getting back to sleep. Sometimes, we don't hear him get up.  Marty found him laying on the floor outside of the guest bathroom one morning. The hard, laminate floor.  He's starting to get dark circles under his eyes. It worries me.  He's also having pretty severe tantrums.  Not violent--he's never been a violent kid at all--but all-out, on-the-floor screaming and crying tantrums. The kind that break my heart. However, two days ago, we decided to tell him that he had to go to his room if he was going to continue screaming and crying. He didn't go willingly, but for whatever reason, as soon as he got into his room and sat down, he was able to regain control.  The next two tantrums, I repeated the process.  We are also talking a lot about calming our body down by taking deep breaths. He does it on his own--and it is 100% adorable.  We are trying to give him practical strategies for dealing with his frustration.  I am not dumb enough to think that a little deep-breathing is always going to help, but if it works now? That's enough for me.

So--the good and the bad? It's a wash. Again.

The good?  Halloween is almost here.
The bad?  Anderson is convinced that he's wearing a costume that we do NOT have and are NOT going to get.

The good? The school-year is flying by!
The bad?  I'm so busy at work that I literally cannot keep my head above water. I have about 10 partially-finished tasks.

See how that works?  Waiting patiently for the day that the good outnumbers the bad!

Leaving you with a little funny from Amelia:

Me (to Amelia, as we listen to the song "The Jungle Sleeps Tonight" in the car): "We could watch the movie 'The Lion King' if you weren't such a Scaredy Cat!!"
Amelia: (silence...)
Amelia: "I'm not scared of cats!!!"

:-)  Enjoy the rest of the week! It's Red Ribbon week at school, which means we dress up differently every day. On Thursday, we are busting out the hideous formal dresses we've had lurking in our closets. Potential pictures to come...

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