Things You've Missed

- I have read three out of the four Twilight Series books. Jer gave the first one away, but in 7 days I've managed to COMPLETELY neglect my children and read books 2, 3 and 4. Books 2 and 3 were read in a single day each. Book 4 took some effort. It started out good, got really crappy for a really long time and then finally ended with a great big bang that left me on the couch, ignoring my children all over again, today.

This week I have managed to forget to write an email back to a friend who was trying to nail down a play date, forgot Kyra had ice skating, didn't realize it was my sister's birthday today until it was too late to call her (Happy Birthday, G!) and remembered just a few minutes ago, after Kyra came in my room complaining that her ear hurts, that we had a doctor's appointment we missed on the 4th to recheck her last infection.

Yes, yes, I know. I'm a stellar parent.

My thought was the books were laced with Crack, however, according to our resident ex college student druggie dropout, Jer said that Crack is a speed drug, if the book were laced with crack I would have actually got off the couch and done some of the house hold chores and not neglected them so much. I guess now I need to Google a drug that renderes one helpless to do anything more then the basic childcare necessities.

- Lydia has perfected her walking abilities. It was probably due to all that down time she had, what, with a mother who's head is stuck in a book all day, she had nothing better to do then to practice her walk. No, no... I still don't have any footage on camera.

This must be where the second child syndrome begins.

- Kyra has lost her damned mind.

No, really. She has.

In fact, just today she proved it while we were at the mall playground. She was being rude and ugly to a girl who just wanted to play with her, a girl she so happily played with for the 20 minutes before her melt down occurred.

She played happily, then she abruptly started giving the girl dirty, glaring looks- eyes creased, chin down, hands on hips, death rays shot from her pupils- because the girl didn't want to climb through the tunnel. I called her over, told her she needed to sit next to me until she found her happy place again. She cried. I told her we were leaving. She stood up and with a blood curdling, tantrum trowing voice, screamed NOOOOOOOO! and proceeded to sit down on the floor and kick her feet on the ground.

My jaw drops, gaped mouth, even now.

I bent down, told her to get up and get her boots on now. Went to retrieve Lydia and heard another scream of NOOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO GOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOO! WAAAAAAA!

I'm horrified. This is not my child.

I compose myself as I walk back to her and inform her that she had better get her boots on her feet before I leave her in the mall because Lydia and I are going home. She stands up, drops back down in the sitting positing and proceeds to kicking her feet again while she screams hysterically.

As I strap Lydia into the stroller, Kyra's hysterical cries make their way next do me. She screams through her tears that she doesn't know how to put her boots on. I resist the urge to strangle her. She must see that in my eyes because she suddenly puts her boots on all by herself, while still crying a pitifully fake, yet still quite loud, sob that seems to end just as quickly as it began.

We leave the mall in silence.

On the drive home I calmly talk to her about the way she handled herself and how she should have handled herself. I also inform her that she is grounded today. For the entire afternoon until she went to sleep, she stayed in her room, allowed out only for bathroom breaks and meal time.

And, yes, I find that last sentence a bit humorous to say when talking about a 4 year old.

I told her it was so she could find out what it was like to have no one want to play with her because she was being ugly. I told her it was so she could see that in order to have friends, she needed to lean how to play nicely, use kind words and remember how it is she is to compose herself when playing with others.

She may not understand all that I was trying to convey to her today, but she didn't enjoy staying in her room alone. Sure, she had a small selection of her toys and books but she didn't have anyone to talk to. I didn't answer her How do ducks fly? question. I dismissed her request that I fix one of the flaps on her toys. And when she called out that there was a bug in her room, her voice showing no real concern, just a need for attention, I told her to deal with it, no one wants to be around someone when they're being ugly and rude.

Tonight I put her to bed, gave her hugs and kisses, told her that tomorrow we would start over. We reviewed the wrongs of today, she offered her versions of how she could be nicer and she promised to try harder next time.

Tomorrow we will try anew. We'll hit the mall again, though not the play area. (mostly because, have you seen the children who show up after school hours and on weekends? No thank you, Kyra clearly gets her devious and defiant influences without without their help) Tomorrow, I hope Kyra finds her mind again, because, seriously?, who was that kid today?

There, now that you're all caught up, doesn't that make you feel like I haven't skipped out on you all for an entire week, again?

No? Well, I'm sorry. I'll try harder next time.