C. had a ballgame tonight against the only team that has ever beaten them. They beat them again. Bad. The game was at 7:00 and the other team started practicing for it at 5:00. I think that's crazy. At this age they should be playing ball to have a good time and learn skills. I wish I could say they had a good time but I don't think they did. Competition when you're 8 should be seeing who can spit the farthest. Geesh... you'd think they played and lost the World Series.
I sat with a couple of friends and laughed my butt off at them. Some of the kids were being total brats. Jonda, who has no kids, was carrying on about how "if that was her kid, she'd take him by the ear and beat him" I offered her money to go pull someone's kids off the field for bad behavior but she wouldn't do it. However she did yell that she was going to dump her lemonade on the kid who was standing in the outfield screaming "I'm thirsty!!" over and over.
Christopher played very well and was all business. When it was over, he was a little too testy for my liking so I told him we were going straight home so he could adjust that attitude. He'd left his Game Boy at my aunts and was arguing that he had to get it. I told him no and he fuzzed into me. Hit me in the arm with his hat and lemme tell ya, that could've gone much worse than it did. I grabbed his wrist and walked him in a very rapid fashion towards the car. Amazing what a brisk walk for three blocks can take out of a kid. When we got home I offered to let him try that again. He sat down on the floor and started crying so I sent him to his room to work it out in his own mind. He rarely ever gets like that and when he does, I come down pretty hard on him. My mom used to be amazed that I would leave a full cart of groceries in the grocery store if he started to have a fit for something. The way I see it is this: You can throw a fit with the kid and both of you end up looking like jackasses. You can give in and end up with a spoiled rotten brat or you can remove yourself and the kid from the situation immediately and privately remind the small one who the parent is. I hate it when a parent makes a public display of authority. I am not interested in seeing a kid belittled in front of other people.
I'm still here. My DSL isn't. Supposedly they'll have it fixed tomorrow. Where have I heard *that* before??
Todd came home with his July schedule tonight. If it holds (which it seldom does), we won't have weekends together and he'll have to get his kids during the week. They'll want to be with all of us but I'll be at work and C. will be at his babysitter. Likewise, C. and I will want to be with them so it's going to cause a major mess as everyone readjusts. I absolutely hate people jacking around with a kid's routine. Having a dependable schedule is important to them and all three kids have grown quite used to the every other weekend thing. Emily doesn't like it when I have to work just a couple of hours on Saturdays when she's here so I can't imagine what 9 or 10 hours is going to do.
Oh, that Eric... he's soooo clever. *cough* Revenge is sweet... maybe I'll send him a bottle of contaminated lake water.
Speaking of contaminated lake water.... we took the kids down to Nine Eagles State Park this evening. The water has been declared contaminated there because of all the rain and fertilizer runoff. When that happens, the park still has visitors/campers but not as many and the beach area is vacant. It's nice to go there and just stroll along the water's edge without all of the noise. I took the camera and shot about 50 pictures. They all turned out great. Emily used to go stiff as a board when she saw a camera. I've finally convinced her that people love to see her gorgeous smile so she gets to acting all goofy. I wish I could share some of them but I don't post pics of the kids here anymore. Here's one of my sweetie smilin' at me. He gets that serious look for a camera too but I just keep it in his face until he smiles. Persistence and patience always pay off.
