The Good: When the front door was left ajar for about two minutes none of the children got out.

The Bad: The third time I have to get any child away from something they shouldn’t be doing I find it impossible to keep from becoming Big Mean Yelly Mom. Remember the Calvin and Hobbes where his parents turn into ginormous screaming alien monster things in his imagination? Bout like that. “IF YOU MESS WITH (insert noun) ONE MORE TIME YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!!!! GET OUT! OUT! OUUUUUT!” Then my children are sobbing and it hasn’t particularly helped. Gah.

The Bede: Bede’s reading and language have EXPLODED in the past few days. He read “My Dog Never Says Please” yesterday, a book we had gotten for Christmas but not put in the rotation. By “read” I mean read it out loud to me, like, you know, someone who can read would. Right now he’s really wanting to use the computer (climbing on my back, pulling my hand off the mouse, etc) so I’ll keep this short.

We’re here! Everything is chaotic but slowly twirling, twirling towards order.

This is the day!

I’ll be away from the internet for a while.

Tanja - sling came! it is so, so lovely. I am getting the knack of it. At first I felt like it was too snug, but I don’t think it really is. And at any rate I’m getting thinner as the days pass, so it will fit differently even next week than it does now. Thank you so much!

That is all. I’ll see you all in a few days!

to get nice one-piece magnet letters for Bede, and maybe that Leap Frog Word Whammer
Hamtaro toys for Abby and Faith, ask A what else shwants 4 her birthday
glittery lip stuff for girls

hmm

this is my notepad because I can’t lose it!

Shine with Unschooling discussion group.

Everything I’ve read about children like Bede is from a schooled perspective, and tends to focus on altering their behavior to fit in with a school setting, and needing to make those alterations posthaste so their years of lovely cog-in-the-machine time won’t be upset by the fact that they’re not as able to be bent to the will of the government institution as their peers.

I don’t bend my children. At least I try not to. And Bede is basically unbendable. He’d break, or I would.

I’m sticking with the Shine folks, and letting my boy be who he is.

Yesterday he wrote

BUGA HI (Bugga, hi)

Bugga is my mom (as regular readers know) and she was sitting by the tub with him.

I had a Twix bar last night, and today I’m short and snappish. Sigh. No more chocolate for me.

Of course it could have somethng to do with the fact that somebody has been yelling at me all day. Not the same somebody, but some child or other has been screaming 90% of the time, and for some reason I feel like it’s my responsibility to help them stop, you know, because I’m the (relatively) stable part of their world and they’re attached and stressed out about moving in their own way. Mostly I seem to be robbing Peter to pay Paul, because as soon as I stop comforting one child to move to another, the first one starts up again.

Wears on you.

I’m beginning to feel very panicked about moving. Well, more specifically about packing to move. What I don’t pack myself will get done, but I’ll have no idea where it is. This freaks me out. I don’t know why it should still affect me though - every move we’ve made since having children has been mostly out of my control. I think it makes me upset because I don’t want to appear ungrateful for the help I get from others to pack stuff, while simultaneously I am wishing I could do it myself. I also think that I have some kind of post traumatic shock still lingering from our unspeakable move from Wichita to Oklahoma City. Egads. Sean still won’t talk about that. That was horrible. Like leaving a war zone, only with no fear of imminent death.

My mother keeps reassuring me that this move won’t be like that one, and she’s right. I’ll deal with this better. And there’s no war zone feeling.

Now I’ve ignored the children for a few minutes and I have to go back to packing after the current chld stops yelling (I think it’s Bede, but it might be Faith) and before the next one begins. I’ll be so glad when this is over.

Pray for us!

The Child with Special Needs by the same fellow, Stanley Greenspan.

Today we got

CAROT
PIZA
FOWER (flower)
TRAIN
UMBRELA
TRE3 (tree)
JIUCE (juice)

Again, thwarted by lack of doubles of the letters.