Just call me Bree

I wish it was because of my immaculate house and 4 course meal I will be serving for dinner tonight.

HA!

No, it's because of a note from Stuart's teacher today, which read "Hitting and throwing rocks at recess!! :-( !!"

Have you seen that episode of Desperate Housewives where Andrew steals Mary-Alice's garden gnome and Bree forces him to apologize and say that his actions are no reflection on her mothering skils because she has imparted right from wrong on him??

I totally get how she felt. Motherhood can leave you yearning for some kind of proof that you are doing a good job.

And negative feedback - that your child is hitting (again) and throwing rocks (??? WHEN HAS THAT EVER BEEN OKAY??? I want to holler at him) can really derail you.

I am trying to focus on Stu and what is going on with him - in the long run that is what is important, not that my mothering skills might be in question. Problem is we've been here before - and he also lies about these things. It's a little hard to take on top of his growing sensitivity - every day I pick him up (sometimes twice a day) he groans "not good" to my enquiries about his morning/afternoon.

He cries because other kids don't want to play with him at recess - we try to explain that if he's hitting that people won't want to play with him.

We've spent a lot of time lately trying to compensate for the move, to understand that he is going through huge changes etc. Today I got tired of being Nice Cop and told him (in a calm voice, so he should know to be scared) that I was angry and dissapointed. And that I was going to impose some consequences.

1) no field trip on the 19th if he hits again (the teacher actually has his name on the white board and has threatened that same thing)

2) no indoor soccer after Christmas if I hear that he has hit again - registration is the 21st of November, so he has almost two weeks where he has to be good.

Why does it have to come to this?? Why aren't my nice calm talks with him about wrong and right working??

Sigh.

In good news, Julia seems to have turned a bit of a corner this afternoon. She is still tired, raspy and prone to tears, but she was hopping!! Hopping I tell you! This child of mine who has been like a wet noodle all week - she hopped. And she giggled. Even her brother said "Wow Jools, you're feeling better arent' you?"

Now my mission is to get some sleep. Hopefully before this flu hits anyone else in the family.

Oh, and on the domestic goddess side of things - I just realized that dinner tonight has been marinating since this morning (frozen porkchops, but still), that we're having the leftover risotto that I spent an hour making last night, and that Julia and I baked Swedish Apple cake from scratch this morning. So maybe I am not doing so bad.