Good news & bad news

Well... the good news is Cocoa is back home now. He's hyper and cuddly and his old self again. What a relief! Vet says NO table scraps at all for him. We're still not sure exactly what happened. I didn't have to sell any of the kids to pay for the bill though so that's good. It was a very reasonable amount. ;-)

The bad news is that Middle Son *did* in fact break his arm. *sigh* Actually he fractured his Humerus bone up by his shoulder. The very good news is that they don't usually cast for this kind of break and since it's just a hairline fracture and not a complete break he'll only have to be in the sling. The fracture is aligned beautifully and the DR thinks he'll heal fine in 2-3 weeks - wow, the body is an amazing thing! Especially the unaged body. LOL I would have snapped my bone in two! ;-)

The even better news for Middle Son is that DR. H said he can go on any ride in the amusement park this Friday when we go. He was so worried he couldn't go on anything. DR. H said he may be a little sore but he won't injure his arm seriously unless he hangs by it, gets is pulled sharply, or falls far on top of it. This is good news since he's my rambuctious one. I wish I could give him Motrin all day long but I find that if I do that, he uses it too much and is sore later. So, the pain serves as kind of a guide for him on how much to use it. And it's not terrible pain, he's pretty much himself so that's good, he's a tough kid. I give him Motrin at night to help him find a good position to sleep in.

Would you believe that Middle Sons total DR bill (X-Rays included) was about HALF of my vet bill? LOL

Thanks for your thoughts & prayers!

J

Negatives...

Alright so I'm at.my.wits.end tonight. I had gotten a full day of school in, prepared 3 meals plus snacks. Played with the kids, read to them, did everything that I could possibly have done and I was just plum worn out. Because ya know, kids keep taking because they just don't have empathy yet. Well, my 10yo does and my 8yo is capable of it but the 6, 4, & 2yo - not a trace of it yet. So I'm into full lecture mode in the van as we went to surprise daddy at work with a homemade grilled steak and potato dinner. I'm telling them that I'm grateful for the help they provide but that they cannot continue to take advantage and it's not fair for mom to clean up or have to yell at them to clean up their mess. I'm sure they heard blah...blah...blah... But I was done. I was ranting and raving, bordering on tears and my 10 & 8yo know enough to just shut up and listen. They have the wisdom. When I'm done talking at them my 10yo says, "Mom, you are always telling us how important it is to look at the positives in every situation. Why are you bringing so many negatives up now?". *sigh* How can you argue with that?

Later I'll write about my reflections on bathrooms and kids. LOL

Snoopy's in the genes!

When I was in elementary school I wanted the part of Snoopy in the school play SOOO bad I could taste it! Almost as bad as when I wanted the part of Wendy in Peter Pan. But, my low voice didn't cost me the part of Snoopy because he didn't speak, just held up signs. I LOVED being the comic relief! I remember my mom putting my hair into pig tails dog ears. I even remember calling my grandmother and excitingly telling her I got the part! To have that excitement again over something so small!

A couple of weeks ago I read a 4-H e-mail that there was going to be a show in town for our county. In our 4-H group they were casting a Peanuts play. I asked my oldest if he wanted to be in it (the rest are Cloverbuds or younger) & he said he did. I asked which part he'd want and he immediately said "Snoopy!". Later on I told him I was Snoopy too, pretty cool. Well, he got the part because we're probably the only family up as late as the time that the e-mail came.

So, I had less than 2 weeks to get creative and make a Snoopy costume. I have a lot of creativity in my head folks but executing is a very different story for me. But, I'm proud of the end result:

It was cute and all but it was L---O----N-----G. And apparently the teenagers in officer positions thought a good way to entertain us all was to drink soda and belch into the microphone for laughs. I'm.dead.serious. Yeah.

I think this picture illustrates best how dad, the kids, & I felt by the time it was over:

So, being the corny folk we are (it really rubs off on the youngin's which is quite fun to watch!), I had to take this shot right before we left. He had gotten his tail stuck in the door and we all thought this was hilarious. Maybe we were just so happy to be outside again! ;-)

*No fictional dogs or real children were harmed in these photos*

**Please ignore how filthy my van is**

Have a great weekend!!!

Painting with children

OK so I took Dys' advice and decided to take on more household projects with my kids. Our 2yo is just not ready to paint (although he thinks he is) so while the others were helping I gave baby *T* a clean paint brush with a bowl of water and a clean wall to "paint". All good, right? Would I be blogging about it if it was? LOL!

So, I'm deep in paint-land thinking to myself, "Wow, this isn't so bad after all. Everyone is doing a great job!". Then I turn around. Somehow little Mr. Sneaks-a-lot got his little brush into the rolling pan. And so he painted a wall we didn't have any intentions on painting.

But, it wasn't that bad.

And he was SO happy.

And it was my risk.

So, we just laughed and took lots of pictures. Looking at that wall makes me smile.

Enjoy!

Yoga with children

OK so I'm really, really trying hard to get into my best shape. Partly because I really want to be around for a long time and well, to be honest, partly because 2 of my in-great-shape friends want to take me to Europe next Fall. It's an awesome opportunity I'm thrilled about but not as thrilled lying on the beach in between those too. LOL Of course, I don't NEED to look my best for anyone since my husband has never stopped thinking I was beautiful but I really want to for myself and for my health.

SO... one of the new routines I'm adding to my day is morning Yoga. My original plan was to get up before the darling little ones and have my morning coffee & breakfast bar, do a Bible study peacefully at the table watching the sunrise and then do my Yoga routine before cheerfully greeting my children as they wake with a hot breakfast awaiting. Yeah, I watched WAY too much Nick-at-Nite growing up. Damn Donna Reed and the delusions she's caused me. *sniff*

So into my world of color, my reality. I wake up with the kids and drink my coffee as they enjoy their instant oatmeal and I read through e-mail instead of being productive. Then I remember the Yoga tape and pop it in. My older daughter wants to try it too so I give her the spare mat and away we go. For the first 20mins the kids played in and out of the room and left us alone pretty much. Then my daughter got tired and gave up. I was the sole yoga survivor.

So, I'm attempting the Downward Facing Dog pose and all of a sudden I peer down my shirt from the collar (you are supossed to hang your head) and I see my 2yo peering in from the waist side and he says cheerfully, "Mum?!??". Mum is our word for nursing. *sigh* Yeah, weaning is going well.

So... onto the mediatation series. HA! I've learned 2 things. #1 I am EXTREMELY good at ignoring the rest of the world and focusing inward. & #2 My oldest son (10) finally has developed EMPATHY! WooHoo I didn't think it would ever happen folks! I didn't think they EVER developed that trait! But, as my 4yo DD was screaming in my ear that the 6yo hurt her (this is commonplace and I promise you it's almost always not as bad as she says and no, I do not normally ignore it), my 10yo came to my rescue. He reassured her and told her to "leave mommy alone, she's exercising". At this point I'm lying flat with my eyes closed deep in focus and I hear my 4yo, "Is she dead?" Then comes the Peoples' Elbow (not normally involved in Yoga). My 2yo was the elbow culprit but doggonit, I kept focus!

So, that's Yoga for ya, mommy style. I think when I'm 100 and I'm doing Yoga peacefully I will miss the chaos of today. Or maybe it will be my husband peering down my shirt unexpectantly when I do Yoga in those days. LOL

Santa Baby....

OK - I debated whether or not to post this because it's a "santa spoiler" so to speak but if you're reading this you're probably either a) An adult or b) A child who typed in google/yahoo "is Santa real". Either way, you can probably handle the following. ;-)

If you are a "Pere Noel" believer you may not want to read any further, consider yourself warned. ;-)

Alright so most of y'all know I have an 8yo brother. Let's call him Ed. So my mom was curious if Ed still believed in Santa. She hints around about him until Ed says, "Mom, I haven't believed in Santa since I was 1 years old!" Cute right? You don't know Ed. He has these snappy 1 liners that make me laugh SO darn hard while at the same time glad it's not my kid saying it. LOL Eds father says "Well, who do you think the man at the mall is then?"

Eds reply was, "Some guy with a crappy job!"

Oh my that child is full of stuff like that. Like I said HYSTERICAL 'cause he's not mine. hehehe

Oh and check this out - who says all the fun in pumpkin pie is eating it? (sorry it's so blurry but you get the idea)

Some people have ants on the counter, some people have cats on the counter, I have an epidemic of diaper clad children on my counter. ;-)

Pair-a-bullish

The other day I watched my newly 8 year old (!) daughter rummaging through the cabinets. I asked her what she was looking for and she said, "Mom, do you have any non-pairabullish food I can donate to Harvest for 4-H?".

"pera----what?" I asked, perplexed.

"You know, non-pairabullish, they have to store it for 2 weeks and so it can't go bad".

I tried so hard not to laugh in her face, she's old enough to get her feelings hurt so I explained that it was perishable, not pairabullish and we had a good laugh together.

I love that 8 is not too late for the cute things they say catagory. ;-)

From baby to big boy...

It's amazing how much a pair of scissors can transform...

From my little curly mopped baby:

To our little man:

*sniff, sniff* but at least now they'll KNOW he's a boy!

My apparent curse with cameras

I must have pissed a gypsy woman off one day by getting in the way of a good shot she would have had or something. Every.single.camera.I've.touched goes KAPUT. Well, every camera that's MINE thank goodness. I somehow manage to borrow cameras and return them in pristine shape. It's mine that get stolen, frozen, stuck, "errored", or just plain broken. *sigh* I think I was on my 6th one in 2 years and on the way to the pumpkin patch both my father and my camera broke. Yeah, I guess it wasn't meant to be. Thank goodness I have friends with great cameras, friends that manage to keep them for more than 2 months at a time.

Today I was wishing I had a camera. There were a dozen things, like usual, that had me reaching for an imaginary one but one in particular had me really kicking myself. My dad was showing me how my little long-haired chihuaha would go and retrieve the practice golf balls he was hitting in the backyard. Except Cocoa likes to chew them and didn't always want to give them back right away. I ran into the kitchen and cut up a piece of bologna and put it in a ziplock. I told my dad to reward Cocoa every time he brings the ball back and maybe that will help. Well, after the first time he gave him the bologna Cocoa wasn't interested in the ball anymore. LOL But when dad put the bag back in his pocket he's focused back on the ball. So, a few times it worked like that before the dog started to catch on there was a pattern to this. But apparently so did my little son, *T* who will be 2 in December. T started competing with Cocoa and he ran and got the ball and wnet to my dad and gave it back. After he handed it back he put his hand out and said "eeeeat? Eeeat grampoo!" (grampoo is grandpa). So, after verifying it was indeed good bologna with me he gave T a piece too. I would have loved to have a picture of Cocoa, Sheba (our non-ball-retrieving dog that just thought she deserved bologna too), and T all lined up in front of dad, T with his little hand reaching up for the bologna. LOL!!! Dad was joking the second time and said "sit" and T sat right down on command. Too bad it doesn't last much past 2 eh? LOL

OK so since the house has been on a bre@stfeeding theme lately I thought I'd throw the latest at you if you weren't weirded out enough yet (for those of you that aren't bre@stfeeding immune like we are by now)

Yeah, those are balls up there. She put them in and told T, "mum T, mum" (mum is baby-ese for "nursing" with T). T played along the first time, giggling like crazy. OK so we're weird but it's entertaining! lol

Cm'on, think of your best caption for that pic! lol

What could possibly keep all 5 kids happy and interested for an hour?

Yes, that's the washing machine. Hey, whatever works right? lol

My brothers take on country folk

I have one brother. We'll call him "E" here. He's the best thing that came out of moms temporary insanity to leave NY and meet his father, we'll refer to him as JD for Joe Dirt. She met Joe Dirt in an recovery chat room. Yeah, 'nuff said. He sent her pics of him on his Harley with long hair and she was sold. She dusted off her soul she had hung in the closet years ago when she met her then boyfriend, put it back on and hightailed it out of there, hours after my wedding. What JD didn't tell her is that his motorcycle had been traded in for dozens of useless Scout parts that littered his drive and that his long hair was in actuality, a mullet. So there she was living in the middle of nowhere with JD, 2 dogs, and nothing but the Arkansas countryside. Her new favorite pasttime was running snakes over back and forth and laughing manicially. We were all pretty worried about her. My MIL said to me one day, "Don't worry honey, you know I will always be here for you". Even the in-laws were scared.

But after some long summer days in Arkansas the honeymoon was over. She came to visit me in Florida where DH & I were living at the time and told me the news. More surprised at the fact she was keeping the baby than her being pregnant at all I was elated! I had always wanted a brother, even if he'd be 1.5 years younger than my oldest child. ;-) She had him in Texas one bright April day with JD hiding in the corner and my oldest son and I there by her side. By then I was pregnant with our second child who *E* is 7 months older than. Anyone feeling like singing "I Am My Own Grandpa" yet?

So anyway *E* spent most of his life in Southern Oklahoma aka "deep country livin'", like you've stepped into a time machine and went back 30 years kind of living. My mom went back to work when he was about 1 and she's still with the same company and is really good at what she does. Last year she was offered a promotion which included a transfer to Ohio. She jumped at the chance of more money and civilization again and they've been living quite happily there, my brother and her. She's pretty much eradicated the hillbilly from him and what's interesting is how he's slowly forgetting anything about the South. I embrace the very things they are more than happy to leave behind.

So mom calls the other day and tells me out of nowhere *E* tells her, "Mom, I think *J* & *G* (dh) must fart a LOT!" My mom cannot see where this is going at all and asks what in the world he means. He tells her very matter-of-factly, "Well, country people fart a lot and J & G are definately country. So they must fart a lot. In fact, mom I hate to say it but well...mom... they're hillbillies, that's just a fact."

I can't wait to go visit the little creep and go all "Cousin Eddie" on him. ;-) Actually I just find it amusing. I adore him but yes, he's becoming quite the snob in his ripe old age of 8.

I'd take a happy laid back fartin' hillbilly any day. I bet Jesus would have hung out with hillbillies. ;-)

Road rash

So my 3yo (Jedadiah if you remember) is dancing around the living room at this very moment with the mop. She's singing, "My beautiful, beautiful girlfriend".
----------------

So I'm really glad I posted baby T's picture when I had the chance. Would you like to see what he looks like today? Still happy, still sweet, but he looks like a motorcycle stuntman I'm afraid:




My older 2 was helping him out of the van when Miss. Jedadiah decided to "help" by opening the second side door that the baby was leaning against. Yeah, OUCH. He landed face first onto the driveway. Thank God he is fine. The DR told us what to watch for and after his nap he was back to his old vibrant self again.

Feels like Egypt around here

At the time of the plagues that is. Lately it's been quite common to be sweeping or mopping the floor and come across one or two or three jumping frogs and toads. I don't know how Middle Son smuggles them in so ingeniously, I don't think I even want to know. I just know when he's coming back in the house he has this "I-did-something-bad" face on. But try as I might, I even frisked him once, I just can not find the toads/frogs! So, we'll deal with the occassional jumping creature, at least he's not smuggling in locusts. ;-)

OK so those of you that have known me for at least 4 years know what fun my Middle Son was as a baby. He liked to eat things. Especially things that weren't supossed to be eaten like pennies and medicine and carpet cleaning fluids. :-/ He also liked to climb high and too many times fall high. Oldest Son was like this too but he calmed down so much as he grew that it seems like a faint blurry memory. We have been to the ER with the first 2 boys at least 5 times combined. Probably more. My girls had their share of scary times but it was more natural things like ear infections & high fevers.

Enter Baby T. I'm not quite sure why I was given so many daredevil children but I'm not going to question God on it. I'm grateful for them all and love them more than anything but well, I am banking on a lot of gray this year.

The other night while I was cooking dinner Baby T and my 3yo were playing with the oversized rocks and gems I keep in a large coffee can. They like to sort them and count them and make up games with them. For some reason the scoop I have in there for the kids was a small glass bowl, like the kind you keep Betta fish in. You know that saying "Hindsight is 20/20"? Yeah, it's a bitch sometimes isn't it?

So he's standing on the chair with my 3yo DD playing nicely. I have my back to them cooking at the stove. I turn around to check on them just in time to see baby T fall off the chair with the bowl in his hand. I run over to him and pick him up and immediately see the stream of blood splattering onto the floor. I do what any self respected concerned mother would do, scream for DH (who has had prior medical training) to get in there. Now I'm good in emergencies, only if I'm the only one there. Otherwise I gladly give the medical reigns over to DH and I become The Nurturer. DH takes ones look and says he's going to need stitches, I try to make the room stop spinning. Thank God my dad is here because he was able to clean up the mess, finish dinner and watch the kids so we could go to the ER.

So let me fast forward through the waiting. We got great doctors and nurses for the most part. When they put in the stitches he cried but laid perfectly still. He was a trooper. Six stitches later DH is insisting I buy all kinds of pain meds for him at the store. I'm trying to tell him I don't think the baby is going to even miss a beat tomorrow but DH is thinking in terms of us adults and how much this would have affected us. Sure enough, by the next morning the baby hardly even mentions his "owie" and has adapted to use his forearm to climb up the playground instead of his hand. THey are simply amazing! The only time he gets upset is when we unwrap it to clean it he says "BUGGY! BUGGY!" because he thinks his stitches are bugs I'm assuming. LoL He really is a trooper.

When we followed up with the DR the first thing he said was "So this little guy is giving you a run for your money eh?" and I told him if he was anything like his brothers he hasn't seen the last of him.

Why this child will never have a diaper rash...

Baby T is changed more often than any of my other children were. Is it because I finally got my act together and realize the minute he's dirty? Nope, that's not it. It's because the child has a strange fascination with p*op (edited to keep the pervies away - hopefully). Every single time he needs to be changed he comes up to me and I hear a slow whine:
Uhhhhh....ohhhhhh...pooooooooooooohhhhhhhhpeyyyyyyyyy.

But that's not it, the entertainment doesn't end there, no siree. When you turn to look at him he'll be wagging, ever so gently one finger with a rather disgusted face and more whining. And at the end of that adorable pudgy little finger is the very thing he's whining about. That's right folks. Every.single.time.

If he was my first child I'd probably be worried about future feti$hes and analyze the crap out of this. But, since he's our 5th we just look, wrinkle our noses, and laugh all the way to the shower for the 3rd time that day.

OK - more than you ever wanted to know I'm sure. The saddest thing about it is I'm really wanting to videotape it - I've become rather desensitized.

Cheesy...

OK again I'm just blogging a short entry. I can't keep my eyes open lately. Man.

So Middle Son comes up to me saying "Mommy, mommy! (DD3) has the PapaJohns cheese!" to which Oldest Boy replies, "Parmesian, not Papa John!"

I'm glad I have kids or I'd have nothing for ya. lol

Backfire!

Don't let me get away with not posting our drama this weekend with baby T. But right now I'm delirously tired so I'll stick with a funny kid story again.

Middle Son, "Mr. Mischief" is always getting into the fridge & freezer. He steals bits of daddys birthday cake, ice cream, anything he can get his hands on. It has become worse as of late so I picked up a fridge child lock Sunday night. I put it up, went to bed and DH stayed up so I could sleep in a bit. I was woken by Middle Son whispering to me "Mom, I saw what you got for the refrigerator! It's a good idea. I got the milk for (DD3)because she can't open it".

So apparently he's mighty proud that I bought something to keep his little sister out of the fridge. And he feels even prouder that HE can open it to help her out.

*sigh*

Different worlds

I was on the phone with DH on the way home from another LONG shopping excursion. *sigh* Remind me to talk about my 3yo and how 2 HOURS later she can still cry from the tiniest thing that set her off. So I'm talking to DH and he said he was on his way home already and would beat us there. The kids didn't expect him home so I decided to surprise them. My 5yo was up front with me and he started to say, "HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT?!?!?!" I stopped him (he *always* does that and said "Shhh I want to keep it a surprise". He looks at me really strangely and says in a very bewildered tone, "You want to keep the white cat crossing the road ahead a surprise?!" Wow we live in 2 different worlds sometimes. lol I told him that it was OK, I was thinking of something else and he could tell them about the cat. He looks over and says, "Nah, I want to keep that a secret to us". LOL

Testing 1...2...3?

DS9: "Mom, dd7 just took dads hammer and put a hole in the door" (how did I not hear this?)

DD7: "He TOLD me to do it!"

Mom: "So because he said so you did it?" (then to ds9) "And why did you tell her to do that?"

DS9 mutters to DD7: "I told you I was going to test you sometime today"

DD7 righteously: "No you didn't!"

Mom (leerily): "What do you mean test her?"

DS9: "Test to see if she would really do something really bad if I told her to... I'm going to test her 2 more times today"

Mom (with finality): "Oh no you are not!"

Not exactly Moses but we parted something...

So yesterday I went to a craft store with my kids. I had a stepping stones craft session with friends that night and needed supplies. I don't usually even bat an eye taking my kids places. My middle son has an tendency to throw fits every so often for not getting a toy (we hardly ever buy things!) if he's tired. But even that's rare anymore. So I happily trotted into the craft store not knowing I was stepping into a nightmare.

It started out innocently enough. We visited the bathroom first. My 3yo dd decided to get upset way too fast that we passed the water fountains without allowing her to drink. I told her not to cry, that we could easily give her a drink if she just asks. She did and we took her back and all was right with the world again. In hindsight, I should have taken that minor tantrum as a clue. So we walked on and I'm reading a (fiction mystery) book about art pigments and whatnot so I took them down the art aisle and we spent some time looking at all the different styles of paintings and we guessed which ones were paintings and which were photographs. I told my 9yo how there was speculation about Van Gogh licking his paintbrushes and getting poisoned by the toxic chemicals in his paints. That could be a reason for his mental illness and odd perspections in his later works (halos around the stars in Starry Nights for example). We covered art right there in the store. ;-)

So things were going fine. We headed down the models aisle at my middle sons request and spent some time looking at planes, trains, & automobiles. We talked a lot and just had minor annoyances of being asked to buy random things Middle Son was looking at. I reach the aisle that has the things I need for the Stepping Stone.

I don't even remember how it started. But do remember vividly how it ended. I just recall at one point telling my 3yo dd (the first to throw a fit this time) that she was to get out of the cart NOW so we could leave. She took this as a cue to scream louder. *sigh* Let me tell you something folks. When you're the lone adult with 5 small ones there is no fast escape. I handed the baby to dd7 for a second so I could get dd3 out of the cart. Baby T did NOT like this one bit and proceeded to scream at the top of HIS lungs. It was starting to sound like a duet until Middle Son decided he wanted part of this concert. As I'm lifting wailing dd3 out of the cart and onto my hip Middle Son asks me if he could get a toy. A stern "NO" is all it took and then the screeching duo turned into a Trio. So I hoisted the baby back on my other hip, ignored my poor older 2 kids questions about buying what we had in the cart and started walking.

So, there we were. A sight to be seen. As the crowd parted (yeah, it was quite busy of course) and stared I couldn't help but think about Moses and giggle internally. Everytime I passed a concerned person (one that didn't have that "I've been there" stare in their eye) I'd say something like "I'm sorry guys but we just can't continue shopping if you insist on screaming" Just so that they'd know I wasn't kidnapping these children. I've never heard dd3 scream like that in public and combined with Middle Son (baby T calmed down the minute I took him back) it was just not a fun experience.

Thank God for natural herbs like St. Johns Wort that's all I can say! I had started taking them 3 days earlier and I could really see how well they were working. As I lifted the crying ones into the car I realized how embarrassed and angry I was. But, it was as if I was looking outside of myself analyzing it. I felt distant from the emotions. Distant enough to act calmly and rationaly, something I don't always do unfortunately.

So, after everyone was strapped in I explained sternly but calmly how I will never tolerate that behaviour while shopping. That even if the cart was FULL, we would leave it just like we did today and come home with nothing. I figured natural consequences were punishment enough. I have a feeling they'll be little angels for awhile in public anyway. ;-)

As for my 7 & 9yo, I later thanked them for being so calm and compliant and wonderful in such a difficult situation. It's got to be rough for them sometimes too.

So share your hideous public moments with children and make me feel better will ya? ;-)

Outsmarted...

...by a mouse. DH came home with those hideous glue traps to finally get rid of the mice we've been having visit lately. Well, we caught one and then today we learned they are pretty darn smart. One took a bunch of junk it found around the house and laid it across the glue so it could walk on the trap to get to the seeds in the middle!!! We're amazed by that. I think DH may go for the $20 electrocuting trap next. rofl I'm kidding, I think.

So tonight we're driving home from a busy night. My oldest is in a good mood and he sighs deeply and happily from the passenger seat and says, "I think we should write a book" "About what?", I ask. "About our family. When we grow up we could all write some and put it together and bring it to playgroup and stuff to read." It's a good feeling when they're happy enough they want to share it with the world. :-)

Speaking of sharing with the world. Those of you that have known me awhile know that I have some difficulties with my middle son. The screaming in public fits are getting fewer and far between but they're still there, especially when he's tired. Well tonight he whined about "just wooking" (looking) at a video game. I told him we would go look at it after we were done shopping. So, true to my word I took him back to the video game aisle to just look. I was clear. WHen he asked if we could buy the game I told him no, we were just looking. He had a minor meltdown. I told him my usual, "I will talk to you when you calm down" and the other kids and I were having a blast playing this American Idol Karaoke video game. I tried to get him to join in but once his mind is made up that's it, he thinks of little else. So while I'm singing "Proud Mary" at the top of my lungs and dancing in the aisles with the other kids while playing this game he is VERY upset. After we were done and started to leave he got increasingly upset. I repeated that he never got things from me by throwing a fit. And that we were NOT buying anything like that today. I told him to ask for his birthday. But he was just overtired and throwing a fit. I've gotten good at not caring about being in public and doing what I need to do for my family. We checked out and he was reasonably quiet but still crying. As we left the store he started dragging the cart so I couldn't push it. My friend was with me and she pushed my cart while I picked him up and carried him to the car. It's a wonder no one called the cops on me for kidnapping some frantic child. lol I put the other kids in and sat in the parking lot with him holding him while he cried. It didn't help and I had to wrestle him into the car but I knew he'd calm down once he was in his seat. My middle son has never shown remorse for these fits before. So it was like a shining beacon of light, like angels singing and harps playing when we were driving a few minutes later and he said: "Mommy, I'm really sorry I acted like that."

My gosh he's growing up guys!!! He's growing OUT of it!!! He will be a normal functioning adult one day, I got a glimpse of that today. God will use his strong will for good. And I praise God for letting me see that in him today. It was the best gift ever. I love that guy so much. He's got a great heart but he's so much work sometimes the rewards are harder to see. But when they come they are huge like this. It was awesome!

OK - I'm exhausted! I'll have pics to post soon...

Oh, the question of the day is if there's a guy selling bonsai trees on the side of the road why would he have an enlarged framed photo of JFK in front of them? I swear sometimes I find the strangest people...