After dinner at Lisa's house tonight--the BOYS (minus James) hanging out on the sofa...
Lily holding baby Trevor...
Jonathan L (Ty's VERY best friend) having fun in the pool
Ty told me he was fishing...
Lily and Ty at Monica's...
Cold water!!!
Little Trevor L with a BIG smile!
Jonathan, Lily, Nicole (Monica's oldest), and Adrian...
Mommy and Ty Ty...
Adrian ready for action in the pool...
Lily ready to hop in the pool...
Ty Ty doing the same...
With school out we have been entertaining ourselves with friends in their backyards and ours, trying to curb whining and tantrumming through excessive play--so far it's kind of working. The kids have been having fun in the pool and being barefoot, but they also come home VERY over tired and cranky and we end up tearing our hair out each evening as it is a struggle to not spank them before bedtime. Lily especially has been a very difficult child these past few days--whining and falling apart over nearly everything and wearing my patience very thin. I really never expected this age to be quite so hard and I am praying that with each passing month she grows ever closer to growing out of it. I feel like every positive moment during the day has a very negative one attached to it. Even as we are getting into the car to go to the pool to have fun, these are the things she complains about: she didn't get to get in first, she wanted water in her cup and not milk, she didn't want to wear her shoes, she wanted chocolate teddy grahams and not cinnamon--she wasn't even buckled in yet and she was already in tears--so was I. She conveyed all these things through this shrill whiny cry where she can sustain a single note for over a minute it seems. She pulled it together for the pool and we had a good time and then Ty took over acting up--he's on a throwing jag right now, which is fine, except he seems to aim for people. He had time-out twice during our forty minute pool session. I know I am a decent mother and I know it will get better and I will look back on this time with great fondness and nostalgia, but as I am living it and experiencing all these things, I am sometimes having a hard time enjoying any of it. I wake in the morning ready for battle and I seem to be engaged in it with someone the whole day. Pretty much anything gained in our house is achieved through crying. The babies cry and I can only change or feed one at a time, so even as I am satisfying one of their needs, I am listening to crying the whole time. And inevitably as I am feeding/changing the second one, Lily or Ty start up and I don't get a second of quiet--it's like one long cry session shared by four children committed to keeping it going from sun up to sun down. And everyone has given me excellent suggestions for dealing with unruly behavior, many of which I've used--but it is darn near impossible to stay consistent with anything at all while all the crying and whining and feeding and changing is taking place. My kids are going to be the ones who walk all over me in middle and high school because I could never follow through with anything when they were small. I oscillate all day long between anger and guilt. I feel like I am teetering on the edge of insanity sometimes. I love my children and I see their wonderful qualities and I so wish that I could draw out those wonderful qualities more often--but lately I feel as though I only induce whining, disappointment, anger, frustration, disobedience, loudness, and hostility. Kudos to any of you still reading... anyway, part of the therapeutic aspect of this blog is offering to God all the things I type--so thanks to all of you in sharing my prayer. The pictures I've included probably paint a different picture from what I've described because we have been having fun. But I feel like I ascend and descend Everest emotionally every day--the highs are incredibly great, but the lows are really low. Tomorrow will be a better day...cheers
