My kids and notes: Year 9.9
December 18, 2024
Life with JB
I am continually amazed by how fast they make friends. It turns out that it’s also hard for them when they have conflict because when they make a friend, they want to KEEP the friends.
Large and deep sigh. Parenting this age is feeling really hard right now. I can’t tell how much is it being complicated and hard versus how to tell how much of this is our own failings as humans and parents versus how much is that it’s just hard to deal with younger humans whose brains are still developing and whose emotions are still all over the place and big and loud. Some people don’t find kids confusing and difficult and those people are not me. I know I’m trying my best, we both are, but sometimes our best is really not good. It’s hard not to have a right answer to every situation. It’s hard not to feel like it is so damn messy and that we’re making mistakes that will require intensive therapy later. Maybe my parenting suffers when I don’t have a dog, because dogs are my refuge and I have no refuge in those hard moments when I want to scream and/or tear my hair out because the kids are being totally irrational and nothing I can say makes things ok or better or make sense.
Life with Smol Acrobat
Smol Acrobat loves their electric toothbrush.
They also love tacking on “pants on fire” to literally any phrase they might be saying at the time. Guess what chicken butt PANTS ON FIRE!
They’re a completely grumpy noodle when they wake up most mornings now, any excuse to pick a fight and grouch. Which is super awesome when combined with the grumpy noodle that is their sibling. I think this is related to their inability to nap at daycare anymore – they’re not getting enough sleep. Usually when they get an afternoon nap in, they’re good for a 630 am wakeup. Not that we WANT that, 7 is more civilized, but they’re groggy and overtired even at 715 or 730 on weekdays after not napping. We make sure they can nap on the weekends, and, boy do they, but we can’t do anything about the weekdays. Unlike JB who dropped their nap at 3 years old, this one still really needs that sleep. And naturally, now that we need them up early, JB is also not sleeping enough even with an early bedtime so they’re always tired in the morning. Two grumpy noodles is two too many.
Pupdate
We still aren’t adopting yet. We had Cousin Dog over for a week and he’s so easy and my heart was so happy to have him here. But he’s easy. My friends are remaining me daily that we’re still on Team Not Yet with all the stories of their dogs and shenanigans: one is eating all the non food she can get her jaws around, including their fence and their walls. One is having a tantrum about going out for walks. One is not allowing Mom to go home yet because she has to walk walk walk walk play!! then run then walk.
I laugh a little and remember Ahhhh, right. We don’t have time for that yet.
Precious Moments
SmolAc: da wadder is too cold
*Turn up heat* how about now?
SmolAc: still cold
*Turn up heat* how about now?
SmolAc: still cold
*Turn up heat* how about now?
SmolAc: still cold
*Turn up heat* how about now?
SmolAc: still cold AUGH TOO HOT TOO HOT I DIDN AH-SPECT DAT
🤦🏻♀️
*****
JB: I heard the teachers saying that she could spend some amount of money and get a free turkey at Safeway…… It was like $200. I guess that’s a lot.
Me: Why is that coming up now? It’s 10 pm.
JB: I heard you say turkey.
Me: Nooo… I said I was trying to order COVID tests.
JB: Oh, I heard COVID turkey.
Me: Gross.
*****
SmolAc: I got DIS ONE. *waves a rock around*
JB: that’s a pumice! (Pronounced it poo-mus)
SmolAc: poo??? EWWWWW
Me: Puh-mice, y’all.
*****
Smol Acrobat’s aphorism: if it works, great. If it not works, not great.
*****
Smol Acrobat got mad at me one morning because I picked clothes for them. They wanted a different shirt and asked if they could wear that one instead. I told them that was fine, just go hang up the other one I set out. “But YOU unhanged it!”
