The end of summer and start of Fall weather has been great until...today. It's the first day of gloomy skies, rain, wind and cooler weather - and the kids' behavior has been about the same. Let's start off to say that Lincoln had a great 5 hr stretch of sleep last night - from 7 p.m. until midnight...hmmm...we'll have to work on the timing of that. Because then he was up every 2.5 to 3 hrs after that. So, I was a bit tired and less than thrilled when Clayton came down the stairs at 5:45 this morning. I didn't get a chance to shower before Mike left for work which usually makes things a bit tricky because I have to lock a sleeping Lincoln in his room to keep him safe from curious fingers and hope that the other two don't have any major meltdowns/arguments while I'm in the shower. Both kids had quite a few timeouts this morning for just plain not being nice to each other.
By 11:45 a.m. we were FINALLY out the door for the 2 errands I needed to run today. I let Brooke and Clayton out the backdoor to walk to the car. (Clayton has finally figured out how to walk nicely to the garage without running through the yard, playing with the garage toys or stomping in puddles on his way. I made him ride around for last weeks errands in wet pants after he stomped through the puddles - so I think we cured that!) As I was walking out with Lincoln (about 15 seconds later), I found Clayton laying on the garage floor crying and a very apologetic Brooke. She didn't want him climbing in through her side and decided to push him out of the van. Her intentions were to have him out of the car and not to hurt him - so she was upset too because she "didn't mean to hurt him." He wasn't hurt, just a bruised ego and Brooke's consequence was that she didn't get to pick out her own books at our library stop. (She was devistated.) So we made it through the library with no issues and then stopped at the Starbucks drivethrough - between lack of sleep and the events of the morning I justified the stop.
All the kids were quiet and Lincoln was still sleeping so I thought I'd make a "quick" stop at Sentry to pick up the things for dinner given that it's way too windy to take a walk there later. We got into the store and Clayton "lost it" that he had to sit in the regular cart and not the car cart (broken seat belt in that one.) After a great battle to get him seated and buckled he was still a bit hysterical as we entered the store. It was one of those scenes where lots of people are looking at you and I just give my best smile in exchange! As we approached the end of the produce area, one of the managers walked up to our cart and said to Clayton, "it sounds like he's having a rough morning - would a cookie help. Mom, is that okay with you?" I think that was code to me for - "you're distrupting the entire store - will a cookie shut him up." So although I wanted to explain to this well meaning lady that I was not about to reward his awful behavior with a cookie, I bit my tongue and politely accepted her offer.
The rest of the trip, lunch and naptime routine all went great and all kids are now sleeping! Success for now. We'll see what the evening brings...
In our Sunday school class we just started a series on Parenting. I'm so grateful for the lessons - although they aren't rocket science, they are GREAT reminders that I'm working toward my children to be productive members of society 20 years from now....one day at a time. And when all was finally quiet I did give myself a small pat on the back for not "losing my cool" during all the drama. (I can't say that happens every day!)
No comments:
Post a Comment