Thursday, November 27, 2008

Milliscent and Mortimer

This morning was much better than yesterday.

The bus rides were also much better.

My daughter was an angel for most of the day.

My son WAS NOT.

I'm certain to either turn more grey or have my hair fall out if this keeps up. I think this phase has been long enough, thank you very much.

The part where my daughter was not quite an angel happened during school. Math. She was learning to count by sevens and eights. I was trying to help her do this and this began her meltdown mode. Before it reached its height, I got smart (contrary to yesterday) and suggested that she go into her room and find eight objects, anything she wished. So, she excitedly learned to count by eights using her elastics of different colors. Cool huh? Just because I would have been content to use my fingers doesn't mean my daughter has to be.

Then, on the bus, she excitedly asked me to "take away" 9 from 14. I told her it was 5. Then she even more excitedly said to me,

"Mom, let's say you had 14 kids on this bus, and 7 got off. How many would there be left on the bus?"

"Seven," I answered, wondering if this was a trick question.

"Well," she said, "that's how many chapters I have left in my book!"

Huh? I think she is getting more abstract in her thinking by the week (like a certain wonderful aunty, the one married to my brother - I'm very sure she would understand this thinking process entirely. I'll have to remember that I can always go to her for interpretation).

Now for my boy. I will not go into how grumpy he's been. I just hope that he isn't getting sick again. In the last week or so he's called me a poop-head - yup; said, "Mom, I told you that I have to make faces to be mad!" when making a face in church after getting into trouble; insists on being first in everything; and the list goes on.

The only bright spot was tonight before bed (to which he again got his bedtime story taken away because of his sassy mouth). Surprisingly, he handled it well (which likely means that this form of discipline is becoming ineffective), because he skipped to bed singing,

Clang, clang, rattle bing bang
Gonna make my noise all day
Clang, clang, rattle bing bang
Gonna make my noise all day

We recently resurrected Mortimer by Robert Munsch last week for the first time in over a year. We have to switch our books around because we have too many and no space, so some are put into storage and eventually switched. The switch came last week (you'd have thought it was their birthdays or Christmas!). He heard that book, once, last week. I asked Hannah if she read it to him again and she said that she didn't. The little turkey remembered every word and the correct tune (as sung by Robert Munsch himself).

Fortunately, he did not sing it in bed and I did NOT have to bring in the police! And he went to sleep happy! Perhaps it's a sign that tomorrow will be better. One can only hope and pray.

By the way, in case you wonder where Milliscent came from, she's the character in another Robert Munsch book. And sometimes my girl reminds me of her. Just a little.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Dar, I can only say that your household is never boring and I absolutely love reading your blog! And yes, for difficult days, the "other" auntie could definately be the interpreter for Hannah! Come to think of it, I sure could've used her for Jenna a few times with her growing up!