child abuse & other ramblings

now that i've got your attention (and possible been flagged by some child protection organization) it's not the kind of child abuse you are thinking of. in fact it's altogether the opposite. i have a few rather large (about the size of a quarter) bruises on my upper thighs from my child . . . he abuses me!! so, what child? you ask . . . since i have so many. i'll give you 5 guesses! actually, you might only need one if you know my kids at all (ok, so there might be 2 options, i guess -- oh, wait, i said 'he' earlier, so you probably figured it out). so, anyway it's joe! lately he has been quite a stinker (i told a couple people on monday that i was considering posting him on craigslist . . . for free!) and he is also very strong willed. so, when i need to physically restrain him to get him to a time out for, let's just say, kicking one of his siblings in the head or something minor like that, i have to pick him up and bring him to his room (and usually hold the door shut while he cools down for a minute). the whole time i am carrying him he is kickin' the living daylights out of me! thus the bruises. (i would post a picture of the bruises, but i'm quite certain noone wants to see a picture of my thighs . . . yuck! it's not pretty!) he's not 100% horrible or anything and many, many times is a very sweet, funny, wonderful kid. but he does have his nasty moments.

so, i have lots of "mandated reporters" in my life, but is there a cps (child protective services) equivalent to protect abused parents, i ask? let me know if there is.

now to speak to the nasty things he does to get himself in trouble. he is to blame, but he must share that blame, at least a little, with his siblings who love to provoke him . . . and know exactly how to do it. listen in . . . (this is just an example, not an exact word for word incident that actually happened. just a culmination of many things that have actually happened in the past weeks and months in our ever-so-peaceful home)
jacob, in a very whiny, crying voice: "joe is kicking me"
me: "jacob, you are 9, he is 3! just go away!"
jacob: "but i can't get away, he just comes after me."
(poor jacob! honestly . . . i think you can figure it out, but whatever!)

doesn't he just look like trouble?
anyway, that's enough of that.

i haven't said too much about anna lately but, man do i love that girl! she is so sweet and adorable and laughs the best big laughs. she totally lights up our lives (and lots of other people's too, i'm pretty sure!) she has just started eating cereal. i can't believe it! i don't want her to be big enough for that, and, i must admit, the whole baby food thing is not my favorite stage of mothering. i love nursing them and having them be tiny. i love this age in general, but my least favorite thing of all is eating time from when you start giving them food until they can actually pick up solid stuff (not ground up, mushed up yuck) and put it in their mouth by themselves. now, i've done this 4 times and i know it is short-lived and that there really are less than 6 months of having to feed them yucky "baby food"-type stuff, but still i don't like it. the bibs, the multi-colored drool and spit up all over, the spitting it out all over you, the big messes it makes, blah, blah, blah. she's still not sure about this whole cereal thing. she's just not sure she likes it. most of what goes in comes right back out, but with time and lots of effort, most of it gets down eventually. i'll have to actually photograph the whole ordeal and post one. when not sitting in her highchair to spit stuff out at me, anna is a mover. she's crawling with more skill every day and can pretty much get wherever she wants to go. she not to skilled, though, at going from a crawling position (hands and knees) to her back (for whatever reason she may want to be on her back). so, yesterday i'm in the kitchen and anna is crawling around the living room where some of the other kids are and i hear this loud thump. i ask what happened and rebekah is upset when she tells me that anna flipped over and thumped her head. anna is not even crying yet at this point (although she starts to a little bit after everyone starts checking on her to make sure she is ok -- she's learning to playing it up at such a young age!!). i guess she had been way up on her hands with her arms extended to their full (really long, i know) capacity when she flipped over onto her back. ouch . . . that would hurt. anyway, she's fine so don't worry, but we find her to be a very fun, very entertaining girl.

rebekah is rebekah. she is so mothering and nurturing and caring and sensitive. not that i am all those thing in as wonderful a way as she is, but, honestly, in so many ways she is completely and totally ME! yikes. it's like a double of me, but with curlier, nicer hair! (who looks like a girl version of her father!) she is great and i love her.

jacob is great too! 4th grade is tougher than 3rd and he is a little frustrated by that. he is mad that he has so much more homework than the girls (hello, do you remember 2nd grade and 1st grade, buddy? you didn't have much homework either. their time is coming). he loves to play with legos, read, listen to adventures in odyssey, play outside and ride his bike! he is also a sensitive kid and kirb says that jacob is exactly like he was as a boy; which might make his childhood a little tough but if he turns out like his dad in the end, will make him a wonderful, wonderful man as some point along the way!

lydia is lydia. what more can you say. she is totally her own person, with thoughts, ideas and fashion that i never would have come up with! she is a good friend and has fun at school. much to my surprise, her teacher told me that she has made friends with a set of twins in her class who are selective mute (they have never, ever spoken one word at school). this surprised me quite a bit and seemed a little out of character for my lj. i asked lydia how she "plays" with them if they don't talk and she said "we just point at stuff." well, good for you, honey. i'm sure you will be a good friend to them. she is a fiesty little thing though (even if she doesn't always look the part), so don't mess with her!


well, that's more than enough for now! bye bye!