My biggest playground pet peeve.

It freaking bugs the hell out of me when little kids climb up the slide the wrong way. My kids slide down the thing and end up running into a kid who is climbing up. And my kid starts crying and the other parent says and does nothing about it. It's simple playground etiquette.

I know I am probably just overly sensitive about it. But it's hard to teach your kids the right way to play (wait for your turn, use the equipment the right way, etc.) when other kids are playing anyway they want to.

What do you do when you run into children doing the wrong thing in a public place? Do you correct the child in a nice way? Do you talk to the parent? Or do you simply just ignore it?

When a kid is climbing up the slide when my kids are trying to come down, I say something like "oh hunny, please don't climb up the slide right now, my children are coming down and I don't want you to get hurt" and they usually comply. I would never correct another person's child though.
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I've created little monsters!

Massage monsters that is.

Ever since I took the girl in to get a professional massage a week or so ago, they have been asking me to massage them. And of course I can't get away with just one of them, they both want it done. It's cute as they just lay there, soaking in the good feeling.

I've tried to give Karl a massage, but he gets to squirmy. I used to give him infant massage, but he's grown out of the times he'd lay still for one. He does, however, let me soft tickle is belly and his back. He could be all active, but the moment I start tickling him, he lays completely still.

Do you do this for your children? If you don't, I highly recommend starting. Although once you start, you've got to be committed doing it every night! It's part of our bedtime routine now.
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So smart.

We had parent/teacher conferences this week. They grade the kids on a 1-4 scale. 1 = way behind. 2 = needs improvement. 3 = meets standard. 4 = exeeds standard.

Allison got all 3s with two or three 2s. The 2s were things they were just starting. Ella, like always, got all 4s with a sprinkling of 3s. All of her 3s were in behavior because she is a chatty Cathy and she always gets into trouble for speaking out of turn or getting up out of her seat without permission.

Ella's teacher asked us our permission to enroll her into an extra curriculum gifted program. They think her talking and moving around stems from being bored with the class work because she is so advanced. She is already in advanced math, literacy and science, but they want her to go one more step ahead into this gifted program. They want her to be challenged with her work.

I'm so very proud of her.

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How much work is three kids?

Anyone out there who has two children close in age knows adding the second one doesn't just double the work. It's more like quadruple. So how much more work is it by adding a third one? Times eight?

I just got done feeding all three kids and them cleaned up. Now its bathtime. Baths exhaust me. No wonder I don't give them baths every night like good mothers do. We're an every other night type family. Sometimes they even go three days. Of course if they are visibly dirty, a bath is given, but if they look and smell clean, a day or two may go by in between baths.

Another thing that is tough is changing sheets. It takes a long time and it requires one or two loads, two of we are washing blankets.

The girls don't have school this Friday so their spelling tests are tomorrow. I've administered 4-6 spelling tests today to .ake sure they know their words. And they still have homework to do. I can't imagine what its going to be like when all three kids are in junior high and high school. Getting homework done for a kindergartener and a first grader are hard enough tasks. How am I going to survive the teenage years?

Ah. I'll take it one day at a time for now. It's all I can do.


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Tattletelling.

I'm having trouble with my kids in regards to tattletelling vs telling me when something is going on that I need to hear about.

I sound hypocritical when I try to explain it. They try to take things into their own hands instead of telling me so I can step in. Yet, I tell them not to tattletale. How in the world am I supposed to tech them the difference when I don't even know the answer myself?

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