Monday, July 6th, 2009

AHHHHHH!!!!! It's 10:15 pm and Mallie and Jack are STILL awake upstairs. I have, at this time, put Mallie back into bed 5 times. Tommy has done it once. I am SLOWLY and PAINFULLY coming to the realization that maybe naptime isn't needed anymore. Or at least the 2 1/2 or 3 hour naps that they take...that I love....that I need and don't know if I can let go of. Oh LORD! I hear her up there AGAIN. She is up... now she's coming downstairs. This is truly ridiculous. Now she's sitting on my lap as I write this. I'm too tired....


Anyway, today Annie had her swimming lessons. Tommy took the kids to the splash park and met his parents and Joseph there while I was in the pool with her. She hasn't exactly been herself the past few days. We are wondering about whether she is teething or maybe has an earache. I always hesitate to call the doctor for a possible earache, because she will want me to come into the office to check it out and then I always feel like an overreactive parent when there's no ear infection.....Although, my mind always floats back to Mallie's 1 year old well visit check up. She was perfectly fine, to me...but apparently had a raging double ear infection that was causing her to get up in the middle of the night. I blamed this on teeth.

The really big news with Annie is that she is officially a crawler. She crawled across the basement floor on the 4th of July. SHe's been doing the up-on-all-fours and rocking thing for a week or so. But she really covered ground on Saturday and has been getting more and more endurance each day. This morning I put her in her usual place in the living room to play with her toys while I did the breakfast dishes. The next thing I knew, her little face was peering around the corner into the kitchen. SHe came right over and pulled herself up on the dishwasher and started going through the silverware! It's like having a new kid because we now have to re-baby-proof the house AND she is so much more determined and persistent (dare I say a bit irrationally angry) about getting to things. Not to mention the fact that she is into Mallie's toys now (which is a GREAT lesson in sharing.... albeit a very slow lesson learned) and into Jack's things (so now we're working on playing up high so Annie can't get to his stuff). There's just a lot to deal with now and it'll take some getting used to. She's real cute though and her little crawling motion couldn't get more adorable. I use the 'squeak, squeak' sound affect when she gets going because it's her movements are so small.


In other news, we had a great 4th of July. On the 3rd, Tommy was off work and we took the kids to the History Museum. We met my Aunt Di and my cousins Lauren, Tommy and Halle there. The kids had a BALL. Annie was awesome and the other two LOVED running around the museum with the big kids. We went to a party at Brian and Elissa Hricik's house that night. Then on the 4th, we had a relaxing day at home and went to Di and Kevin's for a cookout. Jack and Mallie did some sparklers (surprisingly!) and ran around with the other kids. We came home to put the kids to bed, but the neighbors were shooting off fireworks. I told them to just lay there and listen to the fireworks for America's birthday (which, by the way, Jack keeps calling Barack Obama's birthday). Anyway, I left them in their room listening to the fireworks and came down to watch the Boston Pops on TV. As I sat on the couch, I heard Jack yell, 'Mommy! Isn't this FUN!!?" This made me feel sorry for them for putting them to bed without seeing any fireworks and only making them listen to them in their bed! So I had them come down and watch the display with us on TV.

On his last day of preschool, Jack won tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra concert at Blossom on the 5th of July. So last night, we packed a great picnic dinner and all the kids into the van to drive down to the concert. We were soooo excited about it. We got there, set up our blanket and ate our dinner. Kids were running around and chatting and it was a great atmosphere.....Then the concert began and the whole thing changed. You could have heard a pin drop. It was truly like we were watching this concert at Severence Hall. I hadn't even prepared the kids about being quiet during the music (not that it would have made a difference). They were FULL of loud questions (Where is the conductor? What is he doing with his arms? Where are the violins? Etc.) So we moved to a less crowded area on the lawn. It seemed OK to let the kids kind of run around and dance. But an usher promptly informed me otherwise. He said the concert was being broadcast and he was told that they could hear children over the broadcast so to keep the kids quiet (I can only assume that he was not referring to my children specifically- Oh dear Lord, PLEEEEASE!!) So, up we got and home did trot (with our tails between our legs and me nearly in tears of disappointment and embarrassment).


This Blossom debacle has opened a whole other can of worms about discipline. I may be naive and totally biased.... but I honestly think our kids are pretty good kids. Not only sweet and kind-hearted (I pretty much think that about most kids) but pretty well-behaved and decent in public. Of course we have our flare ups....In fact, we've had lots of flare ups. But I've certainly seen worse- WAY worse. And our kids are still small. Jack's not even 4 yet! Tommy, however, is of the school of thought that it doesn't matter about their age. But that they should listen to us at all times. He says that he listened to his dad whenever he was told to do something...even at age 3 and if he didn't he was spanked. Now, I find it hard to believe that Tommy remembers what he was like at age 3- I certainly do not. But I just have kind of a hard time being that tough on a 3 and 1 year old. I consider myself a pretty stern mom and sometimes worry that I'm being too strict. I don't let them get away with much- especially in public. But, I also have age-appropriate expectations of them. If you take a 3 and 1 year old to church, they are incapable of sitting quietly for a full hour, unless they are tired. If you take them to a orchestral concert and do not tell them that this is a quiet event and to whisper, there is NO CHANCE of them doing so on their own. And even if you do issue that warning, they probably won't follow directions. Especially with a huge, open field at their disposal. Anyway, it's really gotten me thinking about who's way of disciplining is right, better, more appropriate. It's easy to say that I like mine.... But then there's a huge naggin question in the back of my head about whether or not I'm spoiling them and letting them get away with murder. Needless to say, I've been super-strict today with them. Mallie's been in time out 3 times and Jack twice- all completely justified. It's probably good to crack the whip a little once in a while to make them see that I mean business. I just don't want to be unfair with them when it comes to expectations. It's confusing and leaves them sad, scared, unsure, and feeling confused.