Discipline and stuff
Today, I made the idiot speech. sigh. I suppose it had to happen. (Y'all know what I'm talking about and for those of you that don't: may you blessed with angelic children who never challenge your patience)
I can so distinctly remember my mom's idiot-speech. "I don't tell you these things just because I like to hear the sound of my own voice. Do you think I'm an idiot?!"
(In fact, I think my mom still gives us that speech) Worse than the speech, though, is the fact that I can also distinctly remember standing there as an adolescent, thinking, "...uh...yeah...of course we do..."
So I promised myself that I will not be making the speech again. Whew. Discipline is challenging. Especially when the kids' language skills mature and their vocabulary starts expanding and I learn that they don't even understand half the words that I've used for the last four years.
Again, I heard history repeating itself when the words ushered forth from my lips: "...I'm not going to tell you one more time.." Which means, to me, that if the behavior continues, mom's going to morph into a raving monster who sends everyone into their rooms and cancels all afternoon fun.
What it means to them, of course, is "woo-hoo. she's not going to bug us about this again."
One truth from my mom (that even frightened me at the time, quite frankly) - who stayed pretty calm in the face of our brattiness (compared to a bad hair day anyhow) - "you know, the payback for giving your mother a hard time will come in the form of your own children"
karma, baby.
Superkid made it onto the Mt Hood Swim Team last week. Yayhoo. She's worked really hard this summer and can't hardly wait until Sept. to start. Nine is really proving to be a pivotal age with huge transitions.
Junior's trying to walk. He just can't keep up with the other kids by crawling alone. We've heard "mama..." but that's the extent of his vocab for now. Except that one time when he muttered "nuclear fusion" while checking out Sis' Abacus homework.
And Mr. Griffin's testosterone is doing it's job. Overheard between him and step-brother: "My weiner is bigger than your weiner." (weiner's not even on the family vocabulary list!)
Last week, we ventured to the Enchanted Forest. Hasn't changed. At all. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Mr. Griffin the stories of Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel (and various others) before we went, so he didn't quite get the full experience. Still, we had lots of fun and watched a cute little comedy show. The giant witches' mouth used to be sososo scary; but apparently there's much scarier things - so these kids weren't phased.
Scarier things? for example, the Wood Village family night sponsored by the local police dept. (which is actually Mult Cty Sherrif)
I pride myself on being cautious about my children's entertainment and what they are exposed to; but, holy hell - I walk away for less than ten minutes (older kids left with Superdad) and when I come back there's a full-on fright show called a "police demonstration" where my children saw one of the K-9 teams attacking a "perp" (a real guy!) in a vehicle. That'll help my 4 year old's fear of dogs.
Following that was apparently officers shooting off bean bags at a stuffed dummy. The dummy was engulfed in smoke when I returned to see the set-up for a guy (touted as a "hero" for his bravery by our all time favorite Officer Gates) to be shot by taser in front of everyone.
I didn't get there in time to round up my children and get them the hell out of visibility; I did, however, freak out, experiencing my first panic attack ever. And I'm still beyond furious at this blatant scare tactic disguised as family entertainment.
Today's adventure is Oaks Park.
How many days until school starts again?
I can so distinctly remember my mom's idiot-speech. "I don't tell you these things just because I like to hear the sound of my own voice. Do you think I'm an idiot?!"
(In fact, I think my mom still gives us that speech) Worse than the speech, though, is the fact that I can also distinctly remember standing there as an adolescent, thinking, "...uh...yeah...of course we do..."
So I promised myself that I will not be making the speech again. Whew. Discipline is challenging. Especially when the kids' language skills mature and their vocabulary starts expanding and I learn that they don't even understand half the words that I've used for the last four years.
Again, I heard history repeating itself when the words ushered forth from my lips: "...I'm not going to tell you one more time.." Which means, to me, that if the behavior continues, mom's going to morph into a raving monster who sends everyone into their rooms and cancels all afternoon fun.
What it means to them, of course, is "woo-hoo. she's not going to bug us about this again."
One truth from my mom (that even frightened me at the time, quite frankly) - who stayed pretty calm in the face of our brattiness (compared to a bad hair day anyhow) - "you know, the payback for giving your mother a hard time will come in the form of your own children"
karma, baby.
Superkid made it onto the Mt Hood Swim Team last week. Yayhoo. She's worked really hard this summer and can't hardly wait until Sept. to start. Nine is really proving to be a pivotal age with huge transitions.
Junior's trying to walk. He just can't keep up with the other kids by crawling alone. We've heard "mama..." but that's the extent of his vocab for now. Except that one time when he muttered "nuclear fusion" while checking out Sis' Abacus homework.
And Mr. Griffin's testosterone is doing it's job. Overheard between him and step-brother: "My weiner is bigger than your weiner." (weiner's not even on the family vocabulary list!)
Last week, we ventured to the Enchanted Forest. Hasn't changed. At all. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Mr. Griffin the stories of Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel (and various others) before we went, so he didn't quite get the full experience. Still, we had lots of fun and watched a cute little comedy show. The giant witches' mouth used to be sososo scary; but apparently there's much scarier things - so these kids weren't phased.
Scarier things? for example, the Wood Village family night sponsored by the local police dept. (which is actually Mult Cty Sherrif)
I pride myself on being cautious about my children's entertainment and what they are exposed to; but, holy hell - I walk away for less than ten minutes (older kids left with Superdad) and when I come back there's a full-on fright show called a "police demonstration" where my children saw one of the K-9 teams attacking a "perp" (a real guy!) in a vehicle. That'll help my 4 year old's fear of dogs.
Following that was apparently officers shooting off bean bags at a stuffed dummy. The dummy was engulfed in smoke when I returned to see the set-up for a guy (touted as a "hero" for his bravery by our all time favorite Officer Gates) to be shot by taser in front of everyone.
I didn't get there in time to round up my children and get them the hell out of visibility; I did, however, freak out, experiencing my first panic attack ever. And I'm still beyond furious at this blatant scare tactic disguised as family entertainment.
Today's adventure is Oaks Park.
How many days until school starts again?