Lifes Like That

I have to tell you all that I am quite amazed at how much homework and projects my daughter (who’s in grade 6) has had this year. I swear to god that every teacher she has thinks they are the only teacher that my child has to deal with. She just turned in two major projects and brought home another project that she needs to complete. This one is going to be a little more time consuming than the others. She has to find some hip hop clothes and do a report on the history and the trends of these clothes. The teacher has given her a month to do this which is a good thing. Now… if only I could find some of these clothes to help her along.

Well I wasn’t able to start work on any type of craft this weekend. Actually I wasn’t able to get much of anything done this weekend. The two kids are home on March break this week and they spent their entire weekend fighting. Well this meant that I really couldn’t concentrate on a whole lot of anything. So…. if they keep this behavior up, it really doesn’t look like I’m going to get much of anything accomplished this week. Hopefully they’ll slack back on their fighting and I’ll be able to get some stuff done. Otherwise, I’ll just have to put everything off until next week when I’m home alone (man…. I can’t wait for next week!)

My son absolutely loves to play video games. Right now he has a Playstation 3 system, a DS gaming system and plays games on the computer. But the one system that he doesn’t have that he has been asking for, for over three years is a xbox 360 system. I personally don’t think that he needs another gaming system, but his father has decided that he is going to purchase him one for a grading present. I have a hard time getting this child to do anything else besides playing games, I can just imagine the trouble I will have if he gets this new system. Oh well, kids will be kids right?!

This morning for the first time in seven years I did not drive my kids to the bus stop. My husband and I felt that our daughter should start having more responsibilities so we allowed her to walk her brother to his bus stop this morning. Then she came home, got ready for school and walked herself to the bus stop. This was really weird for me. But she is almost at the age where by law she can babysit her brother, so we decided to test her out and see how she does with this little bit of responsibility. She did very well so I guess from now on I will not be driving them to the bus stop but will let them head out on their own.

My daughter is starting to become a little teenager and let me tell you all, this is not pretty. She has the attitude of a sixteen year old, and she is only eleven. Just last night she was complaining about her acne (what acne??) and was asking me what I thought is the best acne treatments for her. She has no acne, but just to keep the peace I told her I would check into it. Man, this girl is going to drive me nuts. I really hope this is not a glimpse of what the future holds for me. If it is, I’m really going to have to stock up on a lot of acne products (for her phantom acne). I’ll keep you posted on how or if I survive the growing up of my daughter. Thankfully my other child is a boy. Life should be easier.

I’m really starting to get tired of doing all the housework around here. I’m not the only one who lives here, so why am I the only one who has to do all the work??? I have decided that my two little ones are getting old enough to start doing some chores around here. During their Christmas break I am going to start getting them to do the dishes. And I will also get them to start folding laundry. If I can get help with these two areas, then maybe I won’t mind doing all the other work quite so much. I don’t know how they are going to feel about these changes, but…. they are just going to have to get used to it. I’m just getting really tired of having to do it all myself.

My youngest son is pretty annoyed with me these days. When he started school in September we purchased him two pairs of Cole Haan shoes. One pair was for indoors at school and the other pair was to wear back and forth to school. Well, he destroyed the ones he wears back and forth to school and I refuse to purchase him new ones at this point.

Because the snow will be flying shortly and the fact that we just purchased new winter boots as well, I’ve been making him wear his winter boots to school. Most of the children are wearing sneakers still so my son is pretty annoyed that I won’t go out and purchase him a new pair of sneakers. Well he’ll get over it and soon all the kids will be wearing winter boots. Then after the winter season is firmly behind us, I will then go out and purchase him a new pair of shoes.

Both of my kids have gotten that dreaded flue! My daughter so far is worse than my son, but that could change at any time. For the past three nights, I have got hardly any sleep. So I may need to invest in the best eye cream before I need to go to work again. Last night both kids were up most of the night coughing. This made it so my husband and I were up most of the night as well. Oh well, I think the worst is over now (hopefully).

As the children get older, I have found some distinct changes in their behavior. My son who turned 9 in August seems to be getting better with his behavior. He’s not quite as whiny as he was and seems to take the word “no” seriously. My daughter on the other hand is getting worse. She’s always been quite saucy with me, but now she seems to be turning on her father as well. We’ve had some pretty good fighting matches lately and to be quite honest with you, I’m not sure if she didn’t win most of those. If this is the way my children are going to behave in the future then I’m really starting to get a little nervous.

How do you all deal with an 11 year old child who thinks she’s 18?? I’d really love to hear about your experiences.

Although my daughter is only 11 she has been given the opportunity to take a babysitting course. She wants to take it and my husband and I want her to take it, so we signed her up. She starts the first of a four day course today. Even after she gets this certificate, she won’t be old enough to watch her brother. But at least when the time comes for her to start babysitting, she will have this course behind her.

I realize that it’s only her brother she will be watching for a while. But I really do think this course is important so that is why I have been very supportive in her eagerness to participate. I don’t know how happy her brother will be when she starts watching him. But we will worry about that when the time comes.