A rant about the kids and some pics of George Washington

I have to do a post about Smiley's 3rd birthday party, but to be frank the # of pictures to upload is intimidating. So in the meantime here's a post I wrote over the last week, 'round about the 4th.

To tell you the truth, I was disapointed in YaYa today. She came home having been scolded by another parent for co-ercing (albeit nonviolently) a cookie from her friend. She also had her name put on the board and was kept in from recess for arguing.

Frankly, she's a bit of a Junie B. Jones.

It's all cyclical. A month ago Smiley was the terror of the house. Then LuLu. Now it's YaYa's turn. Soon enough the worm will turn again. It does get old fast.

[I do realize that when you put an Oldest Child used to bossing around her siblings into a social cliche of Youngest Children used to being bossed around by siblings, someone's gonna rise to the top of the pecking order. I think she is ill-served by that setup and would have been better off in a cliche of stronger, more dominant personalities who wouldn't take her guff, but que sera and all that.]

But what really disappointed me was her refusal to participate in this years Reading Rainbow Child Authors contest. She seemed very interested up to recently, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to do the 5 required illustrations and then she just up and said it wasn't something she wanted to do this year. Never mind all the stories she writes on her own; she didn't want to do it and, reluctantly, I honored that.

Fine, I guess. Certainly not the first or last time one of the kids will make the ol' regret meter ping, but to me it just seems like a waste of talent and ambition.

One of the apparent reasons for Lu's recent turnaround was a promise that after 5 'perfect' days she would receive a new Princess area rug for her room. We figured it would be start-stop-start over for weeks, but nope, she reigned it in and won the prize. Here it is: Lis surprised her with it tonight after dinner. Lis also tossed in the Belle lamp Lu is looking at.

And the President's Day masks finally came home. Here's the work she bragged about:

Look at Lu's hair. She was complimented on it all day. I tease her and say that I want my hair back, as I had that thick dark hair most of my life. Maybe some day she'll donate to my hair transplant :)

Here's a pic of Lisa and Lu on the way out the door to Stars on Ice; yeah, I know Lis has her eyes closed and Lu looks dopey, but concentrate on the outfit. The alternate pics have Lu scowling and being a typical unco-operative kid.

To balance the scale, here's a pic of Lisa and Smiley that day.

Today (the 8th) YaYa had a screaming fit on the way out to the car, calling me the worst Dad ever, followed by Smiley having a crying jag in the store over a balloon (I finally weened him of it, and in the checkout line this[redacted] woman comes up to us and says 'here, yourboy forgot his balloon!' and started it all over again), and then Lu joined the fray when we got back home.

Happy happy joy joy.

Tags: LuLu, smiley, YaYa