By: Revanche

My kids and notes: Year 8.6

August 15, 2023

Life with JB

The return to school period is still shiny and happy for JB and I’m glad. I don’t know how long they’ll continue to enjoy this sort of thing but I’m glad they still do. Back to school was always a fraught thing for me.

This year I found myself awfully uncertain about the right thing to do about JB’s bully. I used bully a little loosely (uncertainly) because their actions were mostly microaggressions. Thanks to a dear friend, I could see how they might lay a foundation for more aggressive bullying in the future if left unchecked. It’s weird for me to be the parent in this sort of situation. During my own school years, I was entirely on my own so I dealt with bullies with my own hands. Literally. One bully tried me at every school. My disproportionate response set me up for the rest of the time in that school to be left alone because no one was willing to risk getting punched for the sake of running their mouths where I could hear them. That was me as a student. I’m much less certain about what response is right as a parent. In the end, I’m glad that we have this history documented. If the kid doesn’t lay off, we have a paper trail in place. Hopefully they back off from here on out. They’re still young and there’s still time for them to grow up.

Life with Smol Acrobat

Very little makes me feel like a more inept parent than trading caretaking shifts in the Toddler Arena with PiC and spending half the time talking Smol Acrobat down from one tantrum after another. It’s so frustrating. They were fine for the first 5 hours of the day (which included a nap) with him, why is it Meltdown City during my 3 hours? Sigh.

~~~~~

In a two week period, their language has burst through in a tidal wave. They have pronouns not just their name, possessive words, past tense, declarative statements… It’s like a logjam became unstuck.

Banana. (They’ve never once tried to say this correctly, they just made up an entirely different word to represent it.)
I need this! (refusing to give me something back that they didn’t need)
Mommy said yes. (I did not!)
That’s my toy. (Yes it is)
I breaked it. (Yes, you did)
I need different book. How ’bout dis one? (What?)

~~~~~

They haven’t figured out “you” yet, though. This makes their instructions confusing.

This you can understand quickly: Patting my arm, “I’m mommy.” Patting their chest, “I’m Smol Acrobat.”

This is less clear: I do it!
Ok, you do it.
No! I do it!
…. That’s what I said …
No! Mommy! I do it!!
Mommy do it?
No! … Yes.

Pupdate

Sera’s been on probiotics for a couple months. I was a little skeptical (but hopeful) that it would work for her gas. However, our incidences of being gassed with doggy emanations has dramatically decreased. This is great! Especially since she’s starting to spend more time in the bedroom and office with me which I absolutely love. She’s always been welcome but chose to stick to her bed mostly, unless she was following Seamus around. Now she’s choosing to be closer and I love it.

Precious Moments

Sera 🐶 walking slowly by the dining table.
Smol Acrobat: SE-WA! NO!
PiC: what’s Sera 🐶 doing?
Smol Acrobat: Wunning!
Everyone: no, she wasn’t!

JB: can we have burrito night?
PiC: I don’t think we have any ingredients for it….
JB: we have tortillas, and …and …
SA: ham! Cheese! Eggs! Apple!

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