Lost

We are officially into Fall. I love Fall,  it is definitely my favorite season. I hate it for what comes after it, but the festivities of Fall are still my favorite. This year, I thought it would be fun to do a corn maze with the kids. Alex and Anna had done a mini one several years ago but never a full fledged, get lost in the field corn maze. So, we bought our tickets and headed in. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that doing a corn maze with 3 children and 2 adults is a really bad ratio. All 3 wanted to go in different directions and at times we just had to choose which child to lose (it was usually Alex as he is best fit to survive in the wild based on his dedicated viewing of man vs wild). If I must admit it, it was about 20 minutes of pure parent anxiety and a bit of panic. Sounds fun, huh? The worst part- we actually PAID to do this- we paid someone money to make us feel like we were going to lose our children in a field and make us choose which ones we would keep. I think that this Fall festivity is one that we won't need to do again for a long time.........

Ups and downs

Do you ever have one of those parenting moments that actually makes your stomach turn? The kind where you would give anything to have a screaming infant again? Yep, I said it- screaming, colicky infants are easier than lying, stealing, grown up third graders. I knew it was coming, I knew we would have to face this. But, I didn't want to, still can't say I have handled it completely. It's not over, it's just the beginning. The start of new questions and harder issues and a sort of loss of innocence. And we can't make it stop :( Alex knows. He knows there is no Santa, no Easter bunny and no tooth fairy. He doesn't believe in fairy tales and there is no such thing as magic. My baby boy is gone. He has been replaced with a conniving, lying, stealing third grader who doesn't "need" any of that stuff. It all happened after we received the second call from his teacher since school started (yes, that is correct, school has only been in session for 3 weeks). He had been caught sneaking out of class to buy candy bars (with stolen money from his sisters piggy bank) and then lied to the candy bar seller by telling her that his teacher sent him to get it. He then threw away his I-care plan (basically a report letting his parents know when he gets in trouble). We found out about it from a call from the teacher. Not the way you want to start the school year. So, I decided to have a discussion with him (again) about lying in which I made the example of saying that his dad and I dont lie about things. He stared at me for a second and then it happened- "well, actually, you have lied to us about Santa, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy because you said they are real but it's really you guys". And the girls looked at us and we lied again(I know, I think we may really have a problem). I later had a talk with Alex and tried to get him to understand that he needed to keep the magic alive for his sisters no matter what he believed in. We'll see. He's not good at secrets so I have a feeling that Anna will also be a non-believer as well.

On an up note, Alex asked to play Chutes and Ladders before he went to bed. It has been years since I've played that game. I think, somewhere, he knew that he is on the verge of growing up and it was his way of being a little boy again, if only for a few minutes....

First Day Back

Yep, school is back in session. Second and Third grades, here they come! I tried (really) to get some good back to school pictures, but sometimes the subjects have their own agenda (aka "hurry up mom someone is going to see us" and "please tell me you aren't walking us to the bus stop again"). It's good they are growing up but bad that it means they want (and need) us less. On a positive note, they both came home with everything they left with. Overall, day one was a success :)

In case you are wondering, I thought it would be brilliant to have them hold up the number of fingers representing what grade they are in (ya know for when I'm old and have no idea what age they were!). In the end it just looks like Alex is making some weird gang symbol and giving me the look like he'd rather be rolling around in dog poop than participating in my picture session. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.....