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… Noelle said in response to this sight.

It was pretty awesome.

Here are the kiddos after tubbies and before bedtime tonight:

That belies the true state of the evening. I must admit that I really dislike this 3 year old stage. Who me, listen to you? Carlo is particularly bad because he thinks everything is a joke, so its hard to get him to take anything seriously. He was playing today instead of eating and when I noticed he was walking around with his fork in his mouth, I told him to put it down before he got hurt. Instead of doing that, he walks away waving it. I told him to put it down or I would take it away and he says no and waves it some more while walking away. So, I grab after him and it. In hindsight, not a great move, really — given that my concern truly was safety. A battle for the fork was not the most adult, responsible choice. I did take it away from him (and no one got hurt). Then he cried and cried because he had nothing with which to eat his pasta. I got him a spoon and we talked and cuddled and he did eat some. He plays through dinner, so he is always left behind when the other kids are excused. We did have some good moments playing with cars and he was very good in his tubby. Book time was another nightmare … playing the “game”. Moving and dancing saying he wants to get off the bed, changing his mind and saying he wanted to read. Eventually I took my naked baby and plopped him in his own bed and went back to reading with the big kids. Carlo eventually came back to my bedroom, but he didn’t try to climb back into my bed and I just ignored him. He got dressed OK — we are at the stage where he has to go to bed dressed for the next day because it is a horrendous, stressful scene trying to get him to get himself dressed in the morning. Noelle went through this too, and I have to say that maybe just dressing the night before is a cop out, but it is so much better than getting up early enough to dress them or harassing and haranguing them until they get dressed. Potty and tooth brushing OK. Then there was the whole lotion incident. Noelle put lotion on. Carlo wanted to, also. He wanted to pour it out. I just wanted to be done, so poured some in his hands. He sat there looking at it. He walked away holding it. I finally picked him up and plopped him in his bed. He said my lotion. I said, well put it on., you can put it on as easily in bed as standing next to bed. I pulled the covers up. He kicked them off. I kissed them both good night. Carlo cried because his covers weren’t on. I did eventually come back upstairs and put them on, but only after I finished reading with Nicky. Did I give in and reinforce the bad behavior? Its such a crap shoot at this age, what’ll be successful and what’ll scar them forever.

Ah well, Noelle aged out of it and I’m sure Carlo will, as well, eventually. He has now lived with us longer that he’s lived anywhere in his short little life and I suspect that some part of him is waiting for that other shoe to drop, maybe even egging it on. By this time, his family always relinquishes him … maybe for valid reasons and with everyone’s best interest at heart, but I suspect its hard for the soul of a 3 year old to understand that.

OK. That’s too much of a bummer. Here’s a better story. On Sunday we went to the Circus with Grandma (thank you Grandma). The kids enjoyed it, though Noelle had to put her puss on for a chunk of it. I enjoyed it, too. Before that we did stuff around the house, per our normal Sunday routine. I went to shower and wanted the kids to relax a bit because they’d been up late the night before and early in the morning and I thought some down time before the circus would be wise. I suggested they pick out a movie while I showered. They each picked a movie and then they voted. Can you guess how that vote went down? Yup. One-One-One. Mom, what do you want to watch? I told them they had to work it out and find something they could all agree on. They went to vote on those three movies again and as I walked to the shower I suggested they might actually need to go back to the shelves of movies and start over on this compromise. It took them awhile and at least one trip to visit me in the shower to try and make a decision. I told them that if they couldn’t figure it out by the time I was done, I was going to sit down and watch a Dr. Who. Well, I am happy to report that they successfully compromised and selected a movie agreeable to all — The Last Unicorn.

Here are some shots of them from several weekend’s ago. We had an art project to make sun prints with some beige cotton fabric, textile paints I purchase on sale eons ago when my art store went under, and some plants and glass stones:

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Family, Noelle, Nicky, Adoption, My Valley Of Love and Delight, Carlo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.