Just your average

Boy. The four HUNDREDTH post.....and nothing spectacular to blog about. Actually, just another wild night with walls who listen better than the kids. FA-RUS-TRATING!!!!!

I invited another 8 year old boy to spend the night with bouncer since we had a little birthday dinner here for bouncer tonight. Dinner went.....okay. We invited over our friends who are in the process of getting licensed so they can adopt him. Everyone was great except bouncer and munchkin. *shaking head*

The munchkin was super excited b/c somehow she figured out that we were having spiderman cake (actually it was cupcakes) and she kept saying PIDE-MAN CAKE NOW??? I was trying to keep bouncer from figuring it out and I kept telling her to hush. I can't even count how many times she ignored that request. And then the other irritating thing from her was "WHY?" Everything I answered her with tonight was "WHY?" UGH. But even that wasn't SO bad....

Bouncer? Well, excited doesn't even begin to describe HIM. Hyperventilating b/c a friend was over and his other mom and dad were here and it was his birthday and we had pasgetti (spaghetti)......well.....he had a REAL hard time listening and remembering any of the rules we've been over and over a zillion and one times. And we laid off since it was his birthday and all.....so when he was finished, there was pasgetti all over his shirt, all over his face (LITERALLY) and on the floor, on his hands, on the chair....you name it. Every one of our gentle reminders was pretty much ignored and he ate like a wild untamed thing. Thankfully our friends already understand and were aware of these tendencies when he gets excited (and love him anyways....although I'm sure they are going to be working hard, like we have, to break some of these bad habits)....so it wasn't as embarrassing as it could have been.

The guest? On his best behaviour! I know he's got some just as bad behaviours, but thankfully none of them were exhibited tonight. He's done extremely well. Thank heavens.

So KC put bouncer to bed after our friends left, guest is on the computer and I put the munchkin to bed after reading her book and cuddling. The usual routine. Tonight though, she's more than a little more excited than normal b/c of guest being here. So she cries for a minute after I leave the room and then silence. And then banging on the wall. UH UH! NO. WAY. JOSE. So she knows the drill.....first offence, the stuffed animals are moved to the rocking chair (so far she hasn't figured out that she can go get them after I leave....and one night in the middle of the night, I put her favorite back in the bed with her and I walk in the next morning right after she'd gotten up and she'd put him back in the chair before she left her room....hahahahaha.....good kid!) Anyways, so I leave the room.....routine is repeated. All the way down to banging on the walls. second offence, lose nightlight. Then it was ONNNN. And the bouncer is already asleep. We do NOT want to wake him up. So I cover her mouth and let her scream into my hand to muffle it a little. She'll calm down, I'll let go and wait....silence, so I get up and start to leave and then shrill screaming again and the routine is repeated. I tried to tell her that if she wanted to scream, she needed to roll over and do it in the pillow so we wouldn't wake up bouncer. Nope. Can't do that either. I explained to her that I loved her, but that she was making the choices here, and if she didn't stop screaming, the next choice she would be making, would be to lose her music. That didn't seem to make anything better, so finally I just got fed up. I said, okay, if you want to keep screaming, you can sleep in the garage. You can scream all you want out there, but if you're going to sleep in here, you have to be quiet so that everyone else can sleep. NOOO. More screaming. Okay then. I pick her up, pick up her pillow and carry screaming child out to the garage. I step outside with her and close the door behind me and then tell her that if she wants to keep screaming, she needs to do it out here but if she wants to go back to her bed, then she has to be quiet. Lots of nodding and sniffling but no screaming now! So I pick her up and walk back in the house and toward her room and then she starts having a problem again, so I ask her, which is it going to be, your room or garage, and you know the rules! She points to the garage. Okay. Suit yourself. I carry her out to the garage. Lay her pillow on the floor and gently lay her on the concrete with her head on the pillow. Kiss her goodnight and tell her I love her, like she's not anywhere out of the ordinary and walk inside and close the door. (and just so I don't look like a totally horrid person, there is a small little light on the side of the freezer out there, plus the light shining through the crack under the door, so it wasn't any darker out there than in her room) Silence for about 3 minutes. Then crying. Screaming. And then banging on the door. So I open the door and tell her that if she wants to come inside, that she needs to be quiet, is that what she wants to do? DRAMATIC nodding and she, in complete silence, walks past me dragging her pillow behind her, to her room, in total compliance, lays the pillow on her bed and crawls in, sniffling every couple of seconds. Then I tuck her in....AGAIN.....and kiss her and tell her that she made an excellent decision and I was proud of her for making a good choice. Not a SINGLE peep since. Not even anything louder than a sniffle when I left the room. Sheesh. I feel like SUCH a meanie. But I had to do SOMETHING.....I couldn't let her keep screaming and wake everyone up, neither could I give in to what she wanted, which was for me to stay in there with her (for however many hours it takes her to fall asleep). And if it hadn't been so pitiful, I would have had to laugh at the way she just meekly drug her pillow behind her back to her room.....

Some days it's great having these guys....and other days, it feels like a HUGE struggle.

For my 400th post? It was one of the "other" days. Bummer.

Anyways....I'm extremely tired and tomorrow morning I have three kids to get out of the house by 7:05 (yeah right....in my dreams.....it usually ends up being 7:25 and I end up late....*sigh*).

Sorry for the gripey post.....I think part of it is Pretty Mean Syndrome, Pathetic Monthly Stupidity......whatever ya want to call the PMS stuff.....so just please forgive me. I'm trying.

I'll try harder later. Maybe after a little sleep......