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Zero video games, zero sugar = a good night's sleep?

Zero video games, zero sugar = a good night's sleep?

Well, hubby and I have come to the conclusion that:

a) if J plays his DS after school, he won't study
b) if K plays his DS after school and/or watches too much t.v. in the evening, he'll scream in the middle of the night

And also:

c) if K has anything overly sugary after school and anytime in the evening, he'll scream in the middle of the night

So today the kids do not have possession of their DS games. During a typical school week, we don't allow the kids to play the Wii. Our reasoning is that if they have time for that, they have time to study. They can play outside (gee, let them use their creativity for a change), but playing video games and watching t.v. all afternoon isn't in the plan.

I felt my hubby patting my arm in the middle of the night and I immediately heard K screaming. I got up out of bed and tried not to trip on the dogs (I didn't turn on the light), and when I opened our bedroom door I saw K's door open but he wasn't in his room. He was down the hall and in the living room, screaming away. When I asked, "K, where are you?" He came back down the hall and I helped him into his bed. I told him to stay there (I've learned that asking what was wrong does no good as he mumbles something that makes no sense) and when I was convinced he was settled in, I went back to my room and into my bed.

Not a whole two minutes had passed when the screaming started again. This time, my hubby went to see what was the matter. K said, "I need to ask dad a question." Dad said, "I'm right here. What do you want?" K mumbled something and went back to sleep.

We were able to sleep the rest of the night without more interruption. I told my husband that K had candy at his church group and that might be the culprit. Hubby said, "Then he isn't going anymore." I said, "What if I talk to them and see if they can provide a different kind of snack or maybe they just don't give any of the sugary stuff to K?" He said, "That wouldn't be fair to him." Well, something must change. K loves going each week and seeing his friends and being active in his church group. I just need to figure out a happy medium.

Alarm clock from Hell

I just realized, after the alarm did not go off, and after having spoken with my husband whose alarm it was and who had asked if it was set for radio alarm instead of beeping alarm, that maybe, just maybe, I set it incorrectly last night.

This morning begain badly. My husband's alarm is set for 4 a.m. For some reason, he woke abruptly at 5:30 and looked at the clock and said, "How did that happen?????" His alarm didn't go off. The display showed that it was set, yet it didn't go off. My blurry morning eyes couldn't see if the display showed a little alarm clock or music notes. As my husband wandered off to take his shower, I played with the buttons on the clock to see what was wrong. I couldn't figure it out but left my alarm alone as I wanted to see if it would go off at 5:35. It did. Hmm...
This makes me wonder if last night, when I was setting the alarms, if I didn't put his on music alarm.

We have had bad experiences with music alarms on clocks. They often don't cooperate. The radio/alarm clock we are currently using is only a couple years old, at most. However, I probably should have taken it back to the store after a couple episodes of setting the music alarm and having it go off, but without volume. And the volume was turned up pretty loud. Me thinks there's a short somewhere within the alarm/radio portion because the radio works just fine when you want to listen to music. :s

After talking with hubby on the phone just a little bit ago, after he mentioned perhaps the alarm was set for music instead of beeping, he asked me to go set one alarm for 4 a.m. and the other for 4:05 a.m. I did that before I started this post. I'm pretty sure both will go off tomorrow because why would mine go off just fine this morning if his didn't? Because I probably had his set for music. ARGH!!

A sore throat cure?

Today I'm dealing with a sore throat. It comes from a little man in my house who has been congested and coughing the last few days. Since I'm trying to work and stay focused, I haven't run up to the store to get something to ease the pain. So far, I have tried:

Sucking on Halls Fruit Breezers throat drops (these do NOT work, especially when they expired September 2010)

Drinking a miriad of hot beverages (tea, Ghiradelli Extreme Chocolate cocoa [complete with marshmallows] (these did not help, either)

I then decided a cold bevvy would do the trick. DO NOT ATTEMPT A COLA! Ohmygosh, the carbonation, which I thought might help (why, why did I think that??) feels like pins going down my throat!

My next attempt at a cure will be ice cream or a popsicle, even though it will be short-lived.

Too much t.v. (screen time) = nighttime freakout fests

I've realized that time in front of the t.v., whether it be just watching a show or playing the Wii, results in my youngest child waking in the middle of the night, screaming and/or walking into my room hollering, "MOM!" I did a test one day and limited his Wii time to one hour. He stayed in bed that night and did not yell or scream or anything. Last night, he woke up and tried to come into my room and was yelling "MOM!" and he had no idea he was doing it. Sleepwalking. He had been in front of the t.v. most of the day.

Hubby decided this morning that both kids are not to play the Wii. I get to break the news to them when they ask if they can play it. Lucky me! They are on Spring break this week and hubby is in school (some sort of cruel joke, me thinks) and I work from home, so of course I'm the bad guy when the house isn't quiet as I do my technical work, and I ask the kids to hush up. My work is very detailed and if I put in a wrong character (keyboard/typing/HTML stuff), everything goes awry. I need to concentrate while working! The kids can play in their rooms or go outside. They can read or go to their friends' houses.

A few months ago, I decided to check the website for Singulair (an asthma medication) and right on the front page was a notice regarding side effects. Guess what one was? Night terrors and sleepwalking! After talking with hubby, we immediately ceased giving Singulair to K. He'd been sleepwalking for years and we didn't put two and two together. His screaming and sleepwalking stopped. Now the trigger is too much screen time.

Haven't you heard the warning - children should have no more than two hours of screen time a day. It keeps their developing brains from the right kind of stimuli. They veg out in front of the thing and become fat and lazy. I don't want that to happen to my kids - do you?? Time to lay down the law with them. They can do something else besides watch t.v. and/or play video games forever.

Yeah, well, you wouldn't post either if you broke your ankle

On January 15, 2011, I was in the yard with family. It was a balmy 54 degrees and I declared, "Let's work in the yard! Let's clean up and make it look good!" I should have known, when J accidentally smacked me in the head with a large branch which was cut from an overgrown Maple, that the day was to go awry.

The four of us were working down in back of the house on a slope. Hubby had the chainsaw and was cutting low-hanging limbs from trees. The boys were hauling debris down to the burn pile. I took a shovel and was digging out a fence that the previous owners had buried. I tossed the slats aside for the boys to drag to the burn pile. I had just tossed the last one aside when WOOSH! Down I went. Excruciating pain and scream from me, I managed to have my brains and yelled, "Call the hospital!!" Hubby had J go up to the house to call 911. Hubby wanted to move me off of the wet ground, and I could not stand on my left foot because it felt all crunchy inside. He carried me to a plastic chair that was carried up from the burn pile (no, it wasn't in the burn pile, but near it) and that's where I waited for the EMTs to show up.

Long story short, in the Emergency Room I was given morphine for the pain. I had never had that stuff before. Hubby has, on numerous ER visits, but not me. X-rays were taken, and I think that was the only time I cried during the whole thing. Turned out that I broke my ankle in three places. I'd always wondered what it was like to use crutches. Never broke a leg or anything up until that point. Walgreen's was open 24 hours, so that's where we went after the ER to get meds and crutches. I hate crutches. I think my wondering what they were like was an omen.

I had surgery on January 24. I now have eight pins and a metal plate in my ankle. I'd show the x-ray to you, but it's a PDF file instead of jpg or gif. I was laid up in bed until February 2. Hubby was nurse, cook, maid, you name it. He was great (and still is!) through it all.

Luckily, I work from home and was able to use a laptop in bed for a while until I felt ok enough to hobble on crutches into the living room where the desk is. That is where I've been working ever since. Now, on the topic of having the laptop upstairs and the desk upstairs - this must have been a sign. My home office is downstairs. After December, I moved up to the desk upstairs and used the laptop. The move was because my downstairs office was so frozen (no forced-air heat) that I couldn't work. When it was 13 degrees in November, that was the last straw. It's almost like this was all meant to be. And it was a Godsend that hubby wasn't working or in school at the time - who would have been my nurse, cook, housekeeper??

I've had good days and bad. I've been sad, depressed and a crying mess. Why isn't my ankle moving very far? Why is it stiff, even though I've been exercising it? Why did I have to fall in the first place? Why me??? Can I just turn back time, please?

Today is April 5. I am still using crutches, but I've been given the go-ahead to put weight on my foot and try to walk. I am anxious for physical therapy to start but first need to get through my next appointment with the surgeon. He'll move my ankle and see if I need more work (I do, I know that already) and he'll send me off to PT. That's why I haven't posted in eons. I will be better about it, I promise.

What causes stress?

I'm sitting here at my desk, working away, thinking about something I saw on J's dresser. About an hour ago I decided to check his online grades and saw that he got an F on an assignment for his Health class. I had gone upstairs afterwards to see if I could find the assignment in his room. I looked on top of his dresser because there were papers piled on it and if an assignment was anywhere in his room, it would be on top of his dresser.

There was a green folder on top of the dresser, and this I knew was his Health folder. I decided to take a peek and look for the assignment. That kid has no sense of organization - I found a History assignment! I also found a different Health assignment covering the topic of Stress. Glancing through, I learned that my husband and I are #3 on J's list of stress causers (is that a word??). Now, how can parents cause stress? Really. Think about it. We want our children to do their best in school. We try to teach responsibility by doling out chores to the kids. Is it our fault that our child chooses not to do his best in anything? Is it our fault he is getting bad grades? I don't think so. I think it's his problem because he has decided to just skate by and do the least amount of work. Is it our fault that we want him to learn what it means to be accountable for his actions? I don't think so. How are parents causing stress on their kids? Maybe someone needs to enlighten me.

What is worth $10?

The bus for the middle school came and went. I heard it from my office downstairs. I knew J was still asleep. Here we go again. I called the school and talked to the attendance-line voicemail and said that J overslept and missed the bus AGAIN and would be walking this time. I said that I didn't know when he would get there.

At 7:15 a.m., I went upstairs to make a cup of tea and noticed that K had woken himself up and was in the bathroom. I opened J's door and said, "Are you planning on going to school today?" He seemed somewhat awake but not really, and said rather groggily, "Yeah." I said, "Well, you've missed your bus and you're walkin'!" The anguished cry that came out of his mouth was almost heartbreaking, but I had to stand firm and hold my ground. He cried, "NO!!!!!!" but I walked away and went back downstairs.

A little bit later, K hollered down the stairs, "I guess J didn't have a poptart today." I yelled back, "No, that's because he didn't wake up. He's in his room crying because he missed the bus." Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but it was the truth.

Around 7:45 I heard the front door open and close and I ran upstairs, knowing it was J going off to school. I knew he didn't take his meds, so I opened the door and found him on the porch. I asked him if he took his meds and he said he hadn't. I said, "You need to take those." He came back inside, took them, and went back out the door. I said to him, "Run."

You may be asking yourself, 'what does the subject line of this post have to do with being late for school?' Earlier in the week, J missed the bus and had to pay his dad $5 for a ride. I told J that I would take him if he paid me $10. Yes, $10. I work and driving him to school would take 30 minutes out of my day and I figure that's a good rate for me missing work. So, the way I figure it, either J didn't want to part with his remaining $10 in his wallet or he just forgot about that offer. He didn't bother trying to coax me into driving him. I think he knew he had blown it by turning off his alarm and going back to sleep. Maybe he'll learn a lesson.

Responsibility

We are teaching our 13 y.o. about responsibility. In fact, he is "learning" about it in his Health class, but I don't think he really knows what the word "responsibility" means.

Last night, before bedtime, we were discussing a Parent Gram that comes home each week from the Health teacher. This discussion took place between my husband, our son and I. The Parent Gram is a sheet of paper that tells what is being taught in the current lesson. There are questions the parent can ask the child that pertain to the lesson. One of these was, "What does responsibility mean to you?" When our son was asked this question last night, his answer was, "Knowing you have to get stuff done and you do it." He's 13. I guess that's what he thinks it means.

This morning, as I type this, it is just about 7 a.m. My son should be on the school bus. Instead, he is asleep. He has yet to wake up. I reckon he'll awake suddenly, look at the clock on his nightstand, burst into tears and run downstairs to tell me he just woke up. I know this will happen because it has happened before. Usually my husband is home and is able to take J to school if he misses the bus, but today I am here with just two sleeping children.

My husband and I once decided to make J walk to school if he missed the bus. First of all, the school is several miles away and the road to the school is not safe during commuter hours. There are no street lights. There is no sidewalk. We then decided that if J missed the bus, my husband would drive him IF J would fork over $5 to cover gas, time, etc. I thought that would end the missed-bus scenarios, but no. Here we are again, today.

So, you see, we are teaching responsibility to my teenager. I cannot wait until I can explain to him that being responsible means waking up on time and getting to your bus stop on time. It means not being dependant on other people to get you where you need to go.

In ten minutes, I need to wake my other child if he does not wake up on his own. He is eight and in third grade and has the exact same alarm clock as his brother and, guess what? It DOES work and it DOES get set and my little man wakes up most days on his own because he had the forethought to set the alarm the night before! Now, if only his big brother would think like that!

Roger

You've heard of kids having imaginary friends, right? Well, my son has an imaginary pet. My son is 8 and in third grade. He brought this "pet" into our home a couple days ago and it is a dog. When J asked K what kind of dog, K simply said "Brown."

Roger, the imaginary pet, is quite the little trooper. He likes to come out and play and ... he looks just like K! Imagine that! K said that he likes to dress Roger up in his own clothes because it's fun. This is the only way that I have ever seen Roger. And guess what else? No one else has seen Roger in K's clothes (if at all) but me. Wheee! Lucky little me!

After dinner tonight, Roger came out of hiding (yes, he likes to hide in K's room) and decided to play in the kitchen while I cleaned up. I did mention to Roger (or anyone else that wanted to hear) that K needed to take a shower, and I went about my duties in the kitchen. Not a whole minute later, K came into the kitchen to say that Roger would play with me when I was done cleaning up. Wow, how polite of Roger!

Right now, as I type this, K is in the shower. I asked him several times to take a shower but gee, Roger kept coming along to play. Hmm... oh, and totally off topic - I hear K messing with the bath drain. Why would he need to do that? He took a shower, not a bath. And it's getting downright annoying hearing the bath drain go up and down. Oh. I heard the shower curtain move (thanks to the metal hook roller things) and now he is singing and toweling off. I don't want K to get out of the bathroom and come to read what I'm typing, because he is classic at doing that. Oh for the days before he could read!

So I must end this abruptly. Oh, but wait. I just heard what sounded like a dog bark coming from the bathroom. Did K take Roger in there with him?

Cereal

I am starving! It's almost 10 a.m. and I haven't had breakfast yet. I've had two cups of coffee (yes, I decided on coffee today instead of tea) but no breakfast. A couple minutes ago, I went upstairs to fix my hair and put on a little makeup and who did I find in the kitchen but J, holding a practically empty bag of Raisin Bran Crunch. He said, "There's just a little bit left but not enough for another bowl." Knowing that he can't stand raisins, I asked, "What are you going to do with the raisins? Eat them?" He answered, "Pick them out." I said, "It's Raisin Bran. There are lots of raisins. Get real." I then took the bag from him and his bowl and poured the cereal from the bowl back into the bag. He doesn't use milk in his cereal, so I didn't have to worry about it being wet. He says milk "ruins it and takes out the sweetness" but Raisin Bran isn't much sweet to start out with. The only reason he chose that cereal was because there wasn't anything else. I decided to go downstairs and get a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios out of the locked pantry. Locked, yes, that's what I said. J once had a problem of hoarding food, so we have to lock the pantry.

Meanwhile, I am still starving. I chose not to eat with J because he isn't much fun to be around right when he wakes up. I could bring something downstairs to eat, but it's hard to eat cereal and type at the same time!

K is 8 today!

Yes, it's true. My baby is eight years old today. I can't believe that he is the same age as his brother was when they came to us. He doesn't like being referred to as the baby of the family, but I still call him my baby. He was three years old when he joined this family, and the lady that was his foster mom at the time had called him a baby. Um, hello, a three-year-old child is not a baby!

Anyway, we have a nice little day planned for K. My husband and J have some errands to run (J had neglected to get anything for K) and they have to pick up the birthday cake as well. I plan on taking K to McDonald's for lunch - this is a big deal as we rarely go there. I highly doubt J will be back from the errands by lunch time, so it'll be a sad day for him when he realizes he missed out on McD food.

We will open presents later this afternoon, followed by dinner out. Oh - and all the little toys and things that we had taken away over the past year will be given back to K today. These are all the things that he left out (outside or in other areas of the house) instead of putting them away, which is the rule. Things got taken away and put aside for this particular day. I thought it would be funny to wrap them, but then again, why? How do you wrap a scooter?

Technology

This morning, my husband was online trying to create an e-card for his parents' wedding anniversary which is today. He was having difficulty getting a font to cooperate and was getting frustrated. I happened to be in earshot and heard him muttering to himself, and I walked over and suggested he copy the text and put it into a Wordpad or Notepad document so he wouldn't lose it, and start over with the card. Our oldest son J was nearby and said, "I'll get a notepad."

My husband copied the text into Word and then restarted with the card. Just as the card disappeared from the screen, J said, "Oh no! I wasn't done copying it down!" I looked at him and said, "J. This is the information age. Dad is sitting at a computer. He can copy/paste text." J just said, "Oh." He knows this stuff. I think it was just too early in the morning for him to comprehend.

It's a sad day when...

1. You admit that you know your way around the Emergency Room at the hospital because you've been there often.

2. You admit that croutons are a delicacy. You say this because they are mighty tasty and you can't afford really good crackers.

3. Does there really need to be a #3 here?

Last night I had to take K, who turns 8 tomorrow, to the Emergency Room because he was screaming in his room with a really bad earache. My husband had tried calling the doctor for an appointment, but the pediatrician was unavailable. There are several branches of office and the one that could get us in was an hour away. Um.... no, ain't gonna happen. The nurse advised us to go to the ER since child was in so much pain.

It was decided that I take K to the hospital so my husband could take our other son to his martial arts lesson. I drove K, after giving him Jr. Tylenol to subside the pain, to the hospital. I knew exactly where to park, where to go, etc. I had been there a couple months ago when my husband fell ill and that's where we ended up going on doctor's orders. At least I was confident with K that I could find my way around last night. And we were only there a little over an hour, whereas with my husband we were there for nine!

So far, so good, on the ear issue. It is 6:39 a.m. and K is sound asleep. He'll get the elixir upon awakening if he has some pain. At least we all got a good night of rest without listening to him screaming/crying.

Pain in the ... ear?

Here I am again, twice in the same day even!

Someone please tell me why my child, who just came downstairs to explain this to me, put water in his ear because it was hurting and now he says it hurts worse? Why does he do things like this??

K came down to ask if he could watch t.v. and I noticed he was hanging his head to the side, over his shoulder. I asked what was wrong with his head and he said his ear was hurting, so he put water in it thinking that would help. It made it worse.

Earache, here we come!

Yes, I am still alive

Being a mother and a wife and a work-at-home employee is a challenge and it truly doesn't allow me the time to blog at the drop of a hat. I don't even remember what I last blogged about. Hmm... I do know that it is summer and the kids are at home and I am trying to work and my husband is trying to find a job. It's kind of difficult to keep the sanity when the kids are loud whilst the parents are sitting at computers and trying to concentrate.

Yesterday was quiet for me as my husband was out running errands, J was at a friend's house, and K was happily playing a board game in his room. I got a lot done at work, that's for sure!

This morning, J is outside washing the truck and I believe my husband is out there helping him. Oh wait, no, that is not the case as now the printer on my desk is going and out come a bunch of pages. Resume's. Well, hopefully J is able to use the 8-foot ladder by himself to reach the top of the truck. It's one of those land yachts - a Ford F350 crew cab with an 8-foot bed. It's rather tall, so that's why a ladder is needed to be able to reach the top [with a long-handled brush].

K is happily playing his Leapster but he finds it necessary to come down to my office to explain that he is getting a high score or that the game isn't working properly or some other thing. I hate to shoo him away, but I am trying to work!

Anyway, my plan is to update the blog more often so you don't go worrying about me! There's something new that happens each day in this house and it would make for great material!

The truth comes out

Last week I found out the real reason my little man cut his own hair. Sure, he may have wanted straight hair, but he told me at bedtime that some of his classmates had been calling him a girl because of his longish hair. Wow. I asked him why he didn't just tell me or dad that he wanted a hair cut and he just said, "I don't know." Hmm...

My 7-yr-old, the barber

I was happily working this morning when my son came into my home office with a baseball cap on his head. I said, "What is with your hair - you look like a girl." It looked as if he had pulled his hair up inside the cap. He took off the cap and proudly announced that he cut his hair. Now, let me tell you, I wish there were someone to take a picture of my expression because I know my mouth was wide open!

Yes, he cut his own hair. I asked why he did so and he said, "I wanted straight hair." This kid has (or had)the curliest hair and it's lovely but apparently he got sick of the curls. He said, "I like it." When I got a good look at his hair, I noticed that he has great clipping ability. However, there were long strands around his ears that just had to go.

I took him upstairs while telling him that he just needed to have some of it cleaned up a bit. I went into my bathroom to get my hair-cutting scissors and then back into his bathroom. I had him sit on the toilet and I wrapped a towel around him like they do at the barber shop. I only had to clip around the ears where the hair was still a bit long. While clipping, I asked him what scissors he used, and he said his school scissors. You know, the safety kind? Little-kid scissors? Yep, he used those.

After a bit of cutting, I decided it was good enough and told him that he'd be going to a barber after school today to get it so it looks more normal. I said, "If you wanted your hair cut, you should have told me or dad. We would have taken you to a professional who knows how to cut hair. Someplace like Trisha's." Trisha's is a barber shop up the road where he has gone before. K asked me, "Are you mad at me?" I said, "No, not really. I'm just surprised." He said, "I thought you'd be mad."

I couldn't pass up the chance to take pictures with my camera phone and post them on Facebook and e-mail my parents. I wanted to text my husband, who was not at home at the time, and attach a picture. I decided to wait until he got home to explain the whole scenario.

Anyway, K was ready to get outside and get on the bus and he said, "I hope they don't laugh at me." I said, "You like your hair, don't you? You said you liked it." He said, "Yeah, but I don't like people laughing at me." I said, "They may laugh, but maybe you could ask them if they have ever cut their hair. They probably haven't. You could say something like 'I wanted to try straight hair so I cut off my curls. I did it all by myself!' or something." I also didn't want his classmates to get the idea to do the same thing at home. OH! I should have taped a note to his hair that said "Don't try this at home." HA!!!

After K got off to school, I went back into the house and made a cup of coffee. Hubby came in and I said, "We had quite the morning already. Do you want to check your e-mail or Facebook? Or should I just tell you now?" He said, "Which kid?" I said, "K." He said, "Tell me now." So I went into every little detail about the hair and then a thought struck me - where were the curls??? We ran into K's room to see if we could find the cut hair. I checked the bathroom wastebasket but only saw the few bits that I trimmed off. Back into his bedroom - we checked the bed, the drawers, everywhere, but no hair. Back into the bathroom I went and dug deep into the wastebasket. I found a blob of curls down at the bottom. It was like he was trying to hide them. The blob resembled a dead animal. It appeared that K had tried to roll it all up into a ball or something.

I showed the pictures from my phone to hubby and all he said was, "Oh no. Oh no." He then said, "Guess I need to take him to a barber today. He's going to get pigshaved. That's what he gets for doing this." Actually, K's hair will get cleaned up a bit to make it look more uniform. At least he'll have a nice cut before my parents arrive next month. I was going to let him grow it out for a while and he had been fine with that. He must have just got tired of curly hair. I don't know. I'll never know. I now can totally say that kids are full of surprises.

"This is the worst afternoon ever," he said

When J came home from school today, as soon as he walked in the door he said, "This is the worst afternoon ever." I looked at him (he was wearing a hoodie with the hood up) and asked what happened, and he said he had to cut gum out of his hair with scissors. Ok, my first thought was "oh gosh, it probably looks like a hack job on the back of his head." I said, "You should have waited until you got home so dad or I could get it out. You don't have to cut it off; you can use peanut butter." He looked suprised and asked how, and I said, "You put a blob of peanut butter on it and rub it around the gum and it dissolves." He simply said, "Oh." Anyway, I asked when this happened and he said, "On the bus." I asked if it was just now, on the way home, and he said it was. I asked what happened. Here is his story.

J was happily sitting on the bus, not bothering anybody (or so he says). W and some other kid were sitting in back of him and one of them put gum in his hair. J didn't realize it was gum, but felt something heavyish on his head. He put his hand up and felt the gum. He asked someone for scissors and cut the gum out.

Now... if it were YOU who had gum in your hair and you figured it came from someone behind you, wouldn't you get mad and turn around and say something??? I asked J if he got mad and if he said anything to the kids sitting in back of him and he said no. Hmm... I asked if they sat in back of him a lot. He said they did. He went on to say that they had been touching his hair for a few days. I said, "And you let them?? Why? I wouldn't let someone touch my hair all the time." He didn't say anything. I asked if this W person is the same W as is on his soccer team and he said yes.

Meanwhile, husband was sitting nearby using his computer, and he decided to give his two cents. He stated that he would have beat the crap out of the two kids who sat in back of J today. J didn't respond. What could he say? "Sure dad, next time I'll beat them up." Nah, that ain't gonna happen. J is a smaller dude than a lot of guys his age. So he's getting picked on because he's small and he doesn't fight back. He's letting these guys do things to him. So... husband and I both told J that these kids are going to keep messing with him because he doesn't do anything. J said he told the bus driver but apparently nothing happened with that.

I looked at the area where J cut the gum out of his hair and I am pleased to say that that kid really has snipping skills! I'd never have known there was gum in that spot.

Husband said to J, "On Monday, throw gum back at them." J said, "I can't do that." I agreed. I said, "He can't. He has braces and can't chew gum." Husband said, "Then take raisins and throw them at them." Raisins. HAHA!! We do have a box of Sun-Maid raisins that aren't being eaten...

Immature 13

Ok, I don't know if it's because he's an ADD child, an adopted child, or what, but J's babyish talk has got to stop. This morning he said in a very high-pitched and childlike voice, "Hi mommy." My husband, who was sitting in the living room and in earshot, said something like, "He's being three." I asked J, who is 13, why he talked like that. He said, "Because it's silly." I said, "No, it's not silly, it sounds ridiculous coming from a teenager. You need to stop it. Now." He just said 'okay' and moved on.

He's a tiring kid sometimes. I had a long talk with husband about it yesterday and I said I thought J was regressing. Husband thinks J is trying to compete with K (7) for our attention. We share the love - we don't play favorites between the kids.

Sometimes Jared's maturity level is way down. We know he was neglected in his birth home and he probably didn't get the nurturing he needed. A lot of times he acts like he is 3, 4 or 5 years old. He doesn't do the temper tantrum thing, but his voice goes to a higher pitch and babyish. Some days are better or worse than others. I hope he listened to me when I said 'you need to stop it' and stops it.