Snapshots Needed Today!

Thanks to those who commented on my snapshots over the weekend. As several of you mentioned, it is so necessary to hang on to those beautiful moments to bolster us through the rough bits. Today, I hit some rough bits.

We have been having many difficulties since the storms of last week. One of those difficulties is that our air conditioning continues to fail. It went out last Monday and someone came out to fix it on Tuesday. By Friday, it was no longer working again and we had another serviceman come out (thankfully, I had paid a bit extra and signed a service agreement!). Yesterday, we lost power briefly in the afternoon, and soon realized that the a/c was not working again.

So, my morning began with another phone call to request further service. They put me on the afternoon schedule, so I planned to take the boys and get grocery shopping done in the morning. By the time I left the grocery store, I was in sore need of some precious snapshots to elicit an ounce of charitable feeling towards my older offspring (the youngest was a cherub throughout the entire day!).

Our first stop was with the expressed intent of purchasing Father's Day cards and wrapping paper. Do children ever get to the age where they can enter a store and not think that something will be purchased for them? At least with the toddler, I can put him off because he will happily say, "Maybe I will get that for my birthday or Christmas." The older one, really amazes me because everything he desires to purchase now is in a much higher price range and, for goodness sakes, he just had a BIRTHDAY!!! Still, I remained resolved and we left the store with four cards and a roll of wrapping paper (which MS unwrapped and tore while we were in the van).

The grocery store wasn't really a bad behavior issue. More of a melt-down issue. MS was wearing his Spiderman costume and rain boots. Another mother, with small children, passed by us and her kids said, "Look at the baby dressed up as Spiderman." For the rest of the shopping experience, we had to deal with MS's outrage, first, that they thought he was a "baby" (how insulting!) and then, that they thought he was dressed up as Spiderman (how dare they not perceive that he is THE REAL SPIDERMAN!). To encourage their belief in his superpowers, he began to climb everything imaginable (poles, freezers, etc.).

Why did I think I could commandeer ES to help in this situation? He made matters worse by taunting the poor boy with comments like "See, you're not really Spiderman. Nobody believes you are Spiderman!" Then, he thought he would help by attempting to physically remove MS from the poles. I'm sure you've all seen a family like us in the store before. Are you like the ones who were cringing and thinking, "Why doesn't she get control of that monster? Indeed, those boys are bad news!"

The cashier pleasantly said, "My, you have your hands full." If only I had a dollar for every time I have heard that line! She went on to explain that she was one of four girls and she figures she'll probably have all boys because she'll have no idea what to do with them (was that a veiled comment meaning I have no idea what to do with boys???).

At home, they helped unload the groceries and went straight to their rooms until I called them for lunch. A message on the answering machine informed me that I now had to call the service people to reschedule (I was on the afternoon schedule. I made it home by 1:15 p.m. Isn't that the afternoon?). Thankfully, they assured me that I would be next on their call-list.

MS didn't nap (curse that call of nature which he manipulates us with at every sleep time and meal time, but which we cannot ignore since he struggles with issues in this area already). Then, instead of remaining in his room to do his duty, he stealthily slipped out and headed for the downstairs bathroom. When he came to me for changing, he asked how he smelled. I assumed he meant, "Isn't it smelly?" Alas, no, he was trying to impress me with his counter-approach. He had slathered ES's AXE deodorant all over his body in an effort to squelch the foul odor of his movement! What a clever, infuriating boy. Of course, this led to battles anew between ES and MS, so they were both back in their respective rooms.

ES was fuming because I required him to do a visual sudoku. After all, he reasoned, it IS SUMMER. He shouldn't have to use his brain in the summer. I had made a copy of a recipe in my War Cry Magazine and half of the page held a visual sudoku. No point in throwing it away. Besides, ES clearly needed some stimulation to divert him from teasing his brother.

At some point, MS must have slipped out again because when my husband arrived home from work (around the same time the service man finally showed up), he discovered evidence of MS in two other bathrooms! In one, the sink was plastered with toothpaste. In the other, half a tube of ES's toothpaste was floating in a small bowl.

Thank goodness, I got that toothpaste for free at CVS! Thank goodness, YS can't really talk yet (or at least he can't argue or tease)! Thank goodness, YS still plays quietly on his own without too much toddler curiosity (although, I know our days are numbered). Thank goodness, I can bring up memories of child-joy, even if we didn't see much of it today.