My Children

They are driving me crazy. Seriously crazy.

Today I think Peaches cried about 80% of the day. Not a whimpering pouty cry that can sometimes be considered cute. But the ear-piercing screaming cry that totally drains a person. And causes minor hearing damage. She did most of this type of crying at Home Depot. Thus, this also resulted in a lot of impolite stares from other shoppers.

This afternoon, while the kids were playing outside right before leaving for Home Depot, Slim cut off one of Peaches' irises with a sword. She was devastated and decided to show just how mad she was by stepping on the blossom and smashing it into the cement sidewalk. This made Slim angry. So he retaliated by taking his plastic sword (he was Captain Sparrow today) and slicing his sister on the arm. He drew blood.

In retrospect, I guess this means he would make a fantastic pirate.

I digress...

My children have been causing me a lot of grief lately. Peaches is, for lack of a better and more appropriate word, a brat. She is loud. She is obnoxious. She is always right. She pouts. She screams. She cries. Loudly. In other words, she is me. I cannot believe the arguments that we get into already. The girl is only four, yet she has the manipulation skills of a teenager.

Slim hasn't been that much better. Generally, he is a kind and gentle boy. He has a deep and genuine love for people that is very admirable. However, he is extremely pessimistic. He is negative. He is contradictory.

I don't know if this is a phase or if these are the traits that my children will struggle with their entire lives. But, I also do not know how to handle them. Complaining and negativity drive me bonkers. Laziness and sarcasm are not things that I admire.

Today, as Peaches was lying in her bed banging the wall with her feet she screamed "I guess this just means I have to hate everybody! Even Mommy and Daddy!"

The fact that she threw Daddy into her hate-pot is amazing. Daddy is her hero, her life-saver, her rescuer.

Tonight, I made Peaches go to bed at 6pm. She ate dinner and then went straight to bed. She gave all the classic tiredness signs throughout the day: crying for no reason, whining, complaining, pouting, crankiness...

However, once we put her in bed, she failed to fall asleep. She ripped her Ikea pink bubble lamp off the ceiling decrying the stupidity of having a light on the celling. She kicked the wall, which butts up to the living room wall thus knocking picture frames askew. She screamed that she needed water, that there was a fly in her room, that she was scared. But what she screamed the most, was that she hated everyone. Everyone was stupid. She did this for two hours.

Just ask me. I dare you. Ask me if there was even a sliver of sympathy in my heart for her. Want to know the answer? Really?

Well, there was none. Not a bit. She was a pill at church and she wasn't letting up anytime soon.

But Daddy, dear Daddy. He did have those sympathy pangs in his heart. Her crying got to him. So what happened? He agreed to let her come out. He told her that she had to apologize to me. He let her know that her attitude was deplorable.

I got my apology. I got the sweet look from her gorgeous brown eyes that will fool any man. She gave me hugs and cuddled next to me. Then, Hurricane decided to go for a run. Left me with the monsters. He was gone for literally two minutes when the fighting started. AGAIN!

Well, this no-nonsense Mama was done. Bed for both. And that is where they remain. Slim is reading but Peaches is out. Finally.

This is going to be a long summer break.