Squeaky’s Blog

It’s getting close for my husband to come home now.  I can’t wait.  I am so worn out mentally from the kids and the house.  Every day is a disaster lately.  I am fixing things like crazy wondering what is going to break next.  I have fixed two things this week and now my vacuum seems to be broke.  It is making this awful sound.  I am thinking of taking it apart to see if something is stuck.  I don’t know though because I am afraid I won’t be able to get it back together.  Then there are the kids.  I love them to death but wow are they wearing me down.  The baby has his moments where he just wants constant attention, to be held, and won’t let me get anything done.  Then there is W.C. who is on this mission to disobey every little thing he can.  It starts every morning with him.  I ask what he wants for breakfast and most days we argue for a while about what he can or can’t have.  Some days I will make muffins and he will refuse to eat them.  Then when I am not looking he will steal them off the counter.  I have come to learn that.  So those mornings I don’t ask, I just tell him they are there.  Then like today at lunch I offered him food and he refused anything I said, wanting pancakes.  This after he had pancakes for breakfast that he never finished eating so I threw them away.  Then an hour before dinner he was hungry.  After telling him we were getting ready to eat dinner he decided he wasn’t eating.  He told me that chicken was not boy food and he couldn’t eat it.  Then tonight for dinner he refused to eat got up to use the bathroom and refused to pull his pants up saying he needed help.  He did this for 10 minutes until he striped his pants, underwear and socks off.  Then he got a ball and started playing.  It was one of the ones you sit on with handles and bounce around the house with.  So, I took it and took the plug out of it.  That is when he put his underwear back on.  Then he remembered that he had a second one and said “Fine, I get my other one.”  I took that one too and he amazingly put his pants back on and sat down to eat his chicken.  He took a few bites and by then it had been 30 minutes.  Both boys were done and I was too.  So, they got baths and PJ’s.  It’s now been 4 hours since it started at dinner and over two hours since I read him a few stories.   He is in his bed and isn’t letting up.  He has lost his two bouncing balls, his backpack, his watch, a ton of toys and still gets up every few seconds to get a tissue for his crocodile tears and snotty nose, or whatever excuse he can think of.  He is now at the point he is staying in his room trying to read his books but not go to sleep.  I can only hope it will end soon and he will fall asleep.  The baby is in here with me passed out on the futon.  I can’t put him in his crib until W.C. stops screaming, which has slowed down a lot.  

Well I took a break from writing this while I was on the phone.  It has been a little over 3 hours and I won!  W.C. is asleep in his bed.  He just fell out of it.  It woke him up and he got right back in it.  I won!  That’s round 1.  I just hope tomorrow is easier.  Now I can go put the baby in his crib and go to bed.   I am so happy it’s over for tonight.  I never yelled, or spanked him.  I just talked calm all night and kept putting him back in his bed.  It was like watching Super Nanny at times.  I had to hold back laughter a few times.  But it’s over for now and I am headed to bed. 

So, it always amazes me how different my two kids are!  The oldest will fight sleep forever.  That saying let them cry themselves to sleep, yeah that never worked.  That child would cry all night and never calm down.  The baby on the other hand will go to sleep if I just put him down.  It’s so nice to finally do that.  I have been able to learn the signs with him that he is tired and can just say enough go to bed.  I give him his pacifier which we call tootsie (the German word) rub his back and he will just lay down grunting and go to sleep almost every time.  My oldest though he will fight sleep with everything he has.  We have never had a bedtime routine that we have been able to keep over the years.  It’s sad really.  Every time we get a routine it gets broken and then it’s like pulling teeth to get a new one.  My biggest thing with a routine is not making one but keeping it.  I want my kids to have time with their Papa and not just hi and goodnight.  So, I have come up with a time new time line for dinner baths and bed.  We just have to keep it and make it work.  I think for the baby it won’t be a big deal but the oldest that’s going to be tough.  He has been in his room in bed for over an hour now and he is still up.  I keep hearing him get out of bed or playing with toys.  I think it’s going to come down to someone lying down with him.  I really don’t mind but I always fall asleep and that’s never good.  So, now I want him to learn to go to bed by himself.  I am hoping it doesn’t take more than a week or two so I don’t lose my mind in the process.