Monday, March 12, 2012

little imp

This picture is worth a thousand words.  It shows how impish this guy was today.  This child absolutely exhausted me and wore on my nerves all day.  He was so unlike his normally well-behaved self.  It was like he was out to cause trouble and found satisfaction in my frustration.  Every time I turned around he was on the counter, after I asked him repeatedly to get down.  He interrupted every phone call and bossed me around with no please and thank-yous.  That just does not work for me, so he had to try again and again.  Every time I asked him to do or not do something I was ignored multiple times until I was upset with him.  He cried and whined when I wouldn't buy him something he wanted at the store.  He went into my room and messed with stuff; he broke a few things that didn't belong to him.  After getting in trouble and having a long talk about how we don't touch things that aren't ours without permission, I was wishfully thinking that the day would turn around.

Later, he ventured down to the basement with his brother. They played and giggled and made a complete mess. We had plans to meet friends at the park so I went down to get them and smelled my spray-polyurethane immediately.  I asked Kaden if he sprayed it and he swore he didn't.  I'm just not really sure what you're talking about mama.  We had to have a talk about honesty and how it is always better and he finally fessed up, saying he had used it as air freshener.  By the way, this was put away and hidden, but that kid will find anything.  I wanted to cancel our park day because I didn't think this boy really deserved fun after the naughtiness exuding out of his every pore, but I needed it.  I needed to see friends and get out.  I told him I wasn't going to forget about this and we would talk when we got home. We put jackets and hats on and left.

Fast forward to the park.  He was pretty good.  He played and ran all over. I had him run around the track as fast as he could to burn some steam.  That kid can run.  He kept throwing things after I asked him not to, so he was sent to time-out.  As I turned to walk away he threw a handful of sand at my friend's 1-year-old.  I couldn't believe his blatant defiance.  It really isn't like him, but it made me so mad!  Later he told me, I love you! I love you! over and over.  I think he did feel a little bad for making Mommy sad, at least I like to think he did.

After dinner I noticed Beckham's hair felt gooey and sticky.  He had been wearing his hat so I hadn't noticed it earlier.  I smelled it and realized he had been sprayed with the polyurethane.  I asked Kaden about it, he denied it, finally fessed up and got in big trouble.  I sent him to bed and he fell asleep crying.  It really broke my heart, but he had it coming all day.  It is so hard to explain to a kid how his actions affect other people--how he can't have everything he wants all of the time.  Kids, and especially Kaden, live for themselves and what they want.  I think most of the time, Kaden has absolutely no idea how his actions affect other people. I am sure he doesn't mean to hurt anyone in any way, but he just goes about doing what makes him happy.  It's been hard trying to teach him and get him to understand.

Maybe he just needed extra love and attention today.  Maybe he was too tired.  He is always spunky and full of energy, but his naughty actions were over the top.  Today was a rough day for him and not typical, thank goodness.  Doesn't every mom have a plethora of stories like this? About that bad day that will go down in history?  A day that will be funny someday?  It wasn't all bad either, we had some really good moments today.  He had some sweet times and said things that made me laugh.  Tomorrow we will start fresh.  I will have renewed patience (I hope) and he will have hopefully learned at least a little something.  I am so excited that spring is nearly here and we will be able to spend much more time outside burning off steam and energy.  We've all got some pretty bad cabin-fever around here.

1 comment:

Robin Randolph said...

I think your getaway this weekend will be good for you! You can run off 13 miles of frustration and steam.

And Michaela might know something about a "very bad day," but I might have been meaner than you!

Love you. He is a good boy, but needs to learn when he can be wild and when not to be. Sigh.