Just Another Day

Today was just another day, but since I haven't posted in a few days, I thought I would share it anyway.

Tyler has suddenly decided to display his independence in a constructive way. He has decided he wants to pick out his own clothes and get himself ready, including brushing his teeth and combing his hair. I talk to him about the day's weather so he can make the right choices for clothing (shorts rather than sweats, etc.) and oversee the brushing and combing. This is the outfit he picked out this morning, blue shorts with yellow stripes and a red shirt with white stripes. And Ron didn't understand why I found it amusing.

We are trying to complete the library's summer reading program but are having a difficult time keeping up with it this summer. (We're out trying to avoid the apartment too much, I think.) The kids and I got serious about it this morning and spent some quality time curled up together in my recliner. One book we read today was Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, by Judi & Ron Barrett. One of the pictures was of a porcupine wearing a shirt. The shirt was all tattered and torn from the quills poking through. I asked the kids why a porcupine shouldn't wear clothes, and Tyler replied, "Because their pines stick through the shirt." Get it? PorcuPINE? Ha ha. (He was serious, though.)

Early this afternoon we went to pick up my van from the shop. During our 4th of July celebration - somewhere between mooning the oncoming truck and peeing in a bag - I pushed the button to open the back hatch and the button fell right through the hole into the door. (That sounds as if I did the mooning and peeing. I did NOT.) Anyway, we were reminded of why we need a minivan the entire way over to the dealership. "He's touching me!" "I want to put my window down." "I want my window up." "She's kicking me." "He touched my side of the seat." This led Ron and I to revisit our conversation about the terrible twos vs the fearsome fours (as we've lovingly dubbed them).

The clouds parted for a short while this afternoon, so I took the kids to the pool. On the walk to the pool Tyler wanted to know if it was ok to fart in his swimsuit. That was followed by a grunt and "Guess I can't make one anyway." We got to the pool and it was completely empty! I worried briefly it was contaminated and maybe I was the only resident that didn't know about it, but I got over it and shoved the kids in. We had the ENTIRE pool to ourselves. Where did the kids want to play? In one spot (both in the same spot) by the garden hose that was pouring very very cold water into the pool. There was a lot of fighting and yelling over the hose. Danielle wanted to wash her piggies. Tyler wanted to swim through it. Finally I declared if off limits and imposed time out on anyone who tested me. (In case you're wondering, they both had to sit in time out twice.) I yelled at Danielle multiple times for drinking the water. Why is it that I can't get this kid to drink water any other time than when she's in the bathtub or pool??

Tyler has been getting in trouble lately for calling people dumb, idiot, or stupid. I think I can probably blame the term "idiot" on me. I think "dumb" and "stupid" are from tv shows. That has led me to reinstate my ban of Spongebob. (I know the show has no redeeming qualities, but the kids were soooo quiet when it was on!) Anyway, Tyler called me a dummy this afternoon for no apparent reason and was sent to his room. I have such a difficult time thinking of effective ways to correct Tyler's behavior. I remember my dad making my brother and me sit on the couch and hold hands when we fought with each other. I've tucked that one away to use at a later date. For this transgression, I decided he should say something nice about me. Guess that was a little challenging for him. He said, "I'm sorry." I told him I was glad he was sorry, but that wasn't what I was looking for. He offered, "I love you?" Nice, but still not what I was looking for. To help him out a little with this daunting task, I asked "Why do you love me?" The perplexed look on his face changed. Ah! He could answer this! "Because you feed me lots of food every day!" (Lots of food = love?) Well, good enough for a 4 year old, I guess. Interestingly, he didn't call anyone stupid, dumb or idiot the rest of the day.

Tonight at dinner the kids were drinking from their personalized cups. Danielle wanted to know if the letters on her cup were T Y L E R. That led Ron and I into a discussion of how Danielle always calls Tyler Ty even though we usually call him Tyler. (Such stimulating dinner conversation.) As if I had a point to prove, I said "Danielle, what's your brother's name?" She said, "Ty." I said, "Tyler what?" She paused and looked at Tyler for a second, grinned, and then said, "Ty Monkey." We all cracked up. Tyler laughed with that deep belly laugh that is so genuine and contagious. Those laughs are my favorite sounds in the world. After the laughing subsided she quietly added, "It's R****. Ty R****."

After dinner we went out to check on the house. Ron met with the building supervisor today to discuss his list of 175 items to be corrected. The building supervisor agreed not to charge us extra for the bulges in the drywall or paint on the woodwork and said everything would be fixed by mid-week next week. We'll see. The house is looking nice, though. They did the initial grade on our lot today. I took this picture while Ron was stuffing the kids back into the van.

We returned to the 'partment (as Danielle calls it) in time for the kids to collapse into bed, tired, dirty, and apparently full since we love them so much. And that's our day.