Unexplored Territory

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Stupid Decision # 1,452,600

I think that count is right and accurate...

Last night, the Queen spent the night at a friend's house so I thought "Hey ... we've done it before. Let's have the Man and Monkey have their own sleepover."

Mistake. In the largest degree.

The Monkey went down in the Man's room just fine. We set her up on her own little bed area, and when the Man went to bed, she was still there in the same spot, but still awake. I thought "ok ... they will talk and goof around for a while but then.... out like lights."

Well, there was a light involved. But it had nothing to do with the kids' lights going out.

It had everything to do with the Man's light being turned on. All the time. Ace got up, took care of it, and didn't think to turn it off at the source, which is a pull knob on the ceiling fan. When I came home from getting some milk, he asked me to look down the hallway to see if the light was on again. It was, of course.

I go in and find the Monkey out of her "bed" throwing something away. This was at 10.

I turn the light off at the source.... because you know, we women have bright and only GOOD ideas, right?

I tell them, under no uncertain terms, that they needed to get to bed. Now. Stop fooling around. Go to sleep.

One hour later after watching .... ummmmm.... ok. We were watching Little House on the Prairie: Look Back to Yesterday. Did you know that Albert had a terminal illness? Did you know they don't SHOW him dying in the end? What a waste of an hour.

The Man comes out, holding his hand under his left eye.

The Monkey THREW something at me. And she peed in my trashcan.

Nice. The "thing" she "threw" at the Man: her sippy cup. While he was dead asleep. Clocked him a good one. He had a shiner this morning.

And never, under ANY circumstances, tell your "I take EVERYthing literally" child that he is going to have a black eye in the morning.

My eye is going to turn BLACK!?!?!?!?!

Peals of wailing emerge from his little body. I am sure it was extremely traumatizing to be sleeping and then have someone clock you the way the Monkey did.

Needless to say, the Monkey didn't make it to morning in the Man's room. She was promptly sent back to her room to stew about what it was she did.

I don't know what surprised me more: the sippy cup used as a deadly weapon, or the trashcan used as a toilet.

I guess she decided it was a cool place to pee, because I saw Ace rinsing her trashcan out today.

I have decided that four is NOT the best year. Who ever coined it the terrible threes was WAAAAAYYYYYY wrong. There's NOTHING good that I can say about this age right now.

Labels: sleepovers

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Reciprocation

Queen gets invited to other people's houses for playdates more often than she invites people over here.

And I am starting to feel guilty.

Starting. Not all the way there yet.

Yesterday, the girl across the street from us called to invite Queen over for a while. When I came home from class, I looked up at their house and had that Mommy instinct kick in, and I knew my child was in that house, sleeping over. And sure enough, she was.

They have a huge house. They only have two girls ... twins. I mean, this house is really big. And then there are other friends who have huge houses and are either only children, or the youngest of a much older sibling.

My house ... just is NOT conducive to playdates. It really isn't. It is stretching it to have the five of us in here, let alone an extra person or two. When it has to be done, I do it. But when it is voluntary, I am SO not on top of things, offering to have people over.

I DO need to invite one of the Man's friends this week, though just so he has someone over. And I don't mind that so much. If that one turns into a sleepover, that is ok because the Man has his own room, and he actually keeps it CLEAN. The girls room looks like five world wars have been waged in there on a daily basis. It just does not stay clean. EVER.

And there are two girls in that room. If the Queen ever had a sleepover, someone would have to be displaced from a room. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

So I will continue to live in the beginnings of my guilt-ridden feelings, but I don't think they will ever escalate into full-blown guilt. I remember spending the night a LOT at friend's houses, but I do not remember at all them spending the night at mine. I think I had one sleepover, and I remember it being with more than one person, and my mother's nerves were frazzled the next morning.

So I guess I attribute this to my mother...

Labels: playdates, sleepovers

I'm a mom of three peeps ... Queen Bee, The Door Man, and the Chandelier Monkey, and wife to Ace, the Helpful Hardware Man. I created this space to get away from the people known as my inlaws, and because life with three kids and a hubby is all Unexplored Territory.

The nine-year-old who seems to be growing older every minute, has an opinion and a comment for everything, and has a true servant's heart.

The seven-year-old who loves the organization of things, will someday be someone's therapist because of his kind soul, and will more than likely be living with us until he is 40 years old.

The five-year-old with the 13-year-old attitude, who has a dictator's personality, asks you to watch her all the time and say "hold on" to keep your attention, and will someday come home on the back of some dude's motorcycle with 10 tatts and a body piercing or two.

The man of the house, the fixer of things, the winner of prizes, and the only person in his family to escape the South.