Author: Melissa

Tonight we're going out!

Without kids!!

On a double date!!!

With one our favorite couples!!!!

WITHOUT KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Remember how I wrote about how Colin was refusing to drink from a cup?

And all the posts I wrote lamenting that he wouldn't take a bottle? Ever?

Today – realizing I needed to do something if I am ever going to wean this child – I gave Colin a bottle.

He drank it. Drank it right up. Guzzled the entire thing right down, like he's been drinking out of bottles his whole life.

Then he looked at me and – I swear – grinned… like he totally knew why my mouth was hanging open in disbelief. Like he totally knew that he was messing with me.

He's going to be trouble, this kid. I can feel it.

Grace brought a friend home from school today for a playdate. We've had this little girl over several times and I've learned to keep an eye on her, but she's a pretty good kid.

We all piled inside the house and I sent the kids upstairs to the girls room while I made the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then, Ellie came running in the kitchen.

"Mom, you have to come! Hurry!"

Gracie's friend was putting nail polish in Grace. On the floor of her bedroom! On the CARPET. FOUR-YEAR-OLDS! With NAIL POLISH!!! That she had in her backpack!

Luckily, Ellie notified me before it split or got anywhere other than all over Grace's fingers. (Thank goodness!!)

But now I wonder…

Should I tell her mom? Does her mom know she has nail polish in her school bag? I don't want to be a tattle-tale, but a four-year-old with nail polish seems like trouble to me….

Every family has one.

Gracie is ours.

Just in the past few weeks I have repaired:

• three stuffed animals with busted seams (including one poor Webkinz puppy who had its arm ripped almost completely off)
• a pair of underwear
• a pair of pants
• pajama pants
• a dress

That's just the things I have sewn. I have lost track of the things I have glued, taped, cleaned up, and otherwise dealt with.

The best part is asking her how she broke something. She'll come up with the arm ripped off a teddy bear looking genuinely confused as to how it got that way.
"How did that happen, Grace?"
"I don't know!"
"Well, what were you doing when it broke?"
"I dunno! Just playing regular!"

And she's actually sincere! She's not lying to try and get out of trouble, she really didn't mean to and can't understand that she was playing too rough.
We have this issue when she plays with her ten-month-old brother. She doesn't see that sitting on his stomach while squeezing his cheeks and screaming "HI COLL BALL!!" right in his face is not just fun for him.
This problem is getting worse as the things she is destroying are getting more and more expensive. And, more and more often, do not belong to her but to her sister or brother. Or her parents. (Yes, this is the child who broke our digital camera. By "accidentally" throwing it down the stairs.)

Can't wait until she starts driving.

Ellie is home sick today.

But I'm 95% sure that she's not the least bit sick.

Its so hard for me to make a decision before 9am. And she was laying on the couch, looking tired with dark circles under her eyes, telling me her throat hurt and her tummy hurt like it did when she had the stomach bug. She looked so pathetic and was looking up at me with those big blue eyes…..

So I let her stay home.

I'm pretty sure that she feels totally fine. She's acting tired, but other than that she's fine.

Little Miss Gullible. That's me.