That is what Moose called today in his prayer before bed. Let's just say it was a "lying" 24 hours. We had quite the event last night. Moose kept coming out of their room to tell us that Monkey was taking his "babies" (dolls he takes to bed) away, as well as his pillow. So she kept getting in trouble. Well, we eventually realized he was doing it. We don't know if she was originally, but by 8:15, he was getting out of bed and putting his babies and pillow in her bed. It was ridiculous. He had been lying to us the entire time and she was getting in some serious trouble. I was so annoyed and just downright bothered. He's lied before, about small things. But this just irked me something awful.
Today he has taken to lying a bit more. He lied to me this morning, right after we talked about what happened last night. Then when I picked him up from his preschool group he lied twice in a row. These were all about small things, but still. I couldn't believe it.
Aside from the lying, it was an emotional/screaming day. Me and Moose just butt heads over and over again. For some reason I wasn't handling it well today and reverted to some of my older/less desirable habits. (yelling) After he had a breakdown with his preschool teacher (thankfully, a great friend of mine) telling her all about our scream out, I realized I had to reign things in.
Fortunately, despite the awfulness of today, I've learned a lot. Or re-learned, or remembered. However you want to call it. Moose just doesn't respond to yelling. He yells back. Or if I catch him off guard enough with it, and growl just right, he breaks into tears and just bawls. Not only this, but he's starting to yell at Monkey. Totally unacceptable.
After some chatting with the hubs (he's such a great sounding board, and always on my side, no matter how horrible I've been) we realized one of the problems that led up to today. All week long, Moose has been giving me some serious sass. When he deserves a time out he comes back with a sassy, "No! I don't want to go to time out." Which is then repeated multiple times. Just today when he asked me a question about what was driving me crazy, I told him he was driving me crazy. He responded with a sassy, "You're driving ME crazy!" Little things like this, all week long. I don't know where he's getting it from, but I'm guessing it's what's been bringing me to the boiling point, very slowly, all week. So after our discussion, me and the hubs decided we need to crack down on the negative behaviors. Moose and I are going to have a long chat tomorrow morning (hopefully before he's done anything worthy of discipline) about what's not acceptable, and what the punishments are. His most common removals are: computer games (one hour a day), tv/movie watching (2 hours a day) or candy after meals. We are also, most likely, going to institute a reward type system of warm fuzzies. It's something he's been doing with his preschool group that he really responds to. We take an empty container, and whenever he's good or does something really nice for someone else, we put a little fuzzy ball in the container. (A "warm fuzzy") When he does something bad, we take one out. When the jar is filled, we give him a reward and start all over again. Teaching a child good behavior, and getting rid of the bad, is so much work. It's completely worth it, but goodness it can be trying. (As well as bring out your own worst behavior, which doesn't help any.)
Wish us luck. Oh, and the doctor's appointment went great. My weight gain is right on track. (At about 16 pounds, I think.) My uterus size (for those not knowing, they measure your uterus, not how big your belly is. Two completely different and separate things) is perfect too. She made me feel a bit better. Sometimes I get comments on how small I am. I was starting to think maybe this baby would be smaller than my last. But she said that how you show has no bearing on how big you are inside. Even as a doctor she can be wrong, by looking at someone, at how big they really are inside. So I'm just right, she said, and that makes me feel better. I still have over 2 months of growing yet anyhow. And it's not like I want to be huge or anything, although I do love a pregnant belly. I've just always loved my big belly and when people tell me I'm small I guess it makes me feel like they don't see all the hard work I've done. (Nor do they remember how small I was before hand.) :)
Anyway, 10 more weeks to go. Hopefully me and the kids will survive til then. (And maybe we'll even pick a name for our poor nameless baby.)
I feel for you on trying to enstill good habits. Even though it is really hard for you it is good to know that I'm not the only one with kids that act like this sometimes. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteby the way I was just thinking the other day that you were looking pretty big belly wise so don't worry about be too small. It is definitely true that it doesn't mean the baby is small if you "look" smaller. When I was pregnant with the girls people always said, "Your pretty small...at least you aren't bigger". I hated that. It was like they were telling me I had it easy because I wasn't huge. In my opinion that just me the baby is hugging your back and maybe that hurts even more. : )
Good luck with Moose.