Wednesday

Anna and I are out in the living room, watching Wubzy on DVD *the most annoying cartoon EVER* and Jonathan is still sleeping in his room. I can hear him breathing all the way out here. I am going to start calling him Jerry *the loudest breather in the family*. I told Jonathan last night that he will have early dismissal. He said, I heard that already, but I don't know what it means.
Um, yeah, of course! I explained, Mama will pick you up an hour earlier every day the rest of this week. He said, Earlier means I spend less time at school, or more? Less, right?
I told him, Yep, less time at school.
He replied, That's the best news I've ever heard.
Ditto! I think we are ALL in need of a break from this get up and GO GO GO routine. The kids will be out of school from the 19th through the 4th, and Dave has part of that time off. I won't be working my normal schedule, because the schools will be closed, and as far as my home clients go, they aren't too receptive to tutoring when there is no school. I understand! Everyone just wants a break! I am starting to think that it would make a lot more sense for me to just work a normal full time schedule so that we would all be home at similiar times. And I would not always be leaving in the afternoons or working through dinner time. Oh, well, one of these days I will figure some of this out.
We booked tickets yesterday, all 4 of us will go to Kentucky for spring break. I am very excited. The kids are happy because we are finally taking Daddy with us on the plane. We have done some travelling without him the past few years. I am looking forward to seeing his family up there, and it will be really nice because we are flying directly into Lexington. Last night Anna asked us, Why did you choose Florida to live? I told her, Papa Larry came here for work when I was a little girl, and Daddy moved down here for a job, and then I met Daddy and we have just stayed here. She said, Well, I don't like it here! I wish you had picked somewhere colder, because I don't like being HOT ALL THE TIME!
Wow. Do most 3 year olds criticize their parents for choosing where to live? She is something else. I love that child to pieces, but she can make me nuts! Just lately, she has been going through some changes. (That makes it sound like she is turning into a werewolf or something. Not that bad.) I think she is learning how to deal with her emotions, or something... She gets very tearful,very quick and very emotional about things. It is almost like being around a hormonal teen... but I know that can't be the case. Last night she was just crying her eyes out about how she is NEVER going to get to give her teachers their presents. I have no idea where that idea came from. I think because I told her she wasn't going to school today, even though I explained that she would go on Friday, and that is when they were having their Christmas party. To which she replies, No! We are never going to have a Christmas party! Sob, sob, big tears running down her face. I am trying very hard to be sympathetic to her, and to help her deal with her feelings. I don't like it when I hear parents tell their kids, Oh, stop crying. Or, Don't be such a crybaby. I don't think it is helpful at all. Maybe in Anna's world, these little things just seem really overwhelming. I think sometimes being a little kid is hard because you hear everything that is going on and that is said around you, but you don't really fully understand or process it yet. Like the other day, Jonathan was buying school lunch for the first time. He told me that his "tummy was wiggling a lot" when he was in line. I said, Oh, were you really hungry? No, he said, I was scared! I wasn't sure if I had enough money in my account to buy lunch.
He had heard Dave and I talking about how we did not know how to put more money in his account, but there was never any question that he had enough money in his account for lunch. Poor kid, he had probably been fretting over this all day. We tend to forget that they hear everything we say, but they don't necessarily understand everything we say.