We’ve been having issues with Ethan lately. And not just us, he’s been causing trouble at his school as well. He has been kicking, hitting (punching, really) and spitting on his friends and teachers. Obviously, not acceptable. Unfortunately, Ethan has always been a bit of a problem child at school, and we have a “Good Choices Chart” where he gets a sticker when he makes good choices and has a good day at school, but it hasn’t really been working that well recently.

At first, I thought all this was because he had been sick, and got used to being pampered and getting what he wanted. James and I were feeling pretty dejected about the entire situation. Then we finally realized what had caused all this havoc — we let Ethan watch The Incredibles while he was sick.. Now he keeps punching everyone.. Gee, what do you think? It makes us feel a bit relieved that there is actually a REASON he’s suddenly decide to go kung fu on everyone’s ass, and it isn’t just random. It also makes us feel like dopes, because we KNOW that those sort of movies can have this effect and it didn’t even register with us. Doh.

So we had a meeting at his school this morning with his teacher and the administrator and it was all good, and we’re all now united in our efforts to turn this behavior around. I think he has already started to “get it” that this sort of behavior isn’t going to be tolerated. His Geotrax train (his prized possession) went into time-out the first day I brought him home after spending the afternoon in the office. He freaked out, I went and plopped him in his room where he screamed, “I’m mad at you mommy!” for the next 40 minutes. He got his train back after the next day, when he made good choices and there was no visits to the office. However, the NEXT day, another visit to the office, the train went back into timeout. This was yesterday. Hopefully he will have a good day today, and he’ll get his train out of timeout tonight.

Jocelyn has also just been little Miss Trouble lately. She will throw a tantrum at the drop of the hat, and if you displease her, she will just shout, “NO!” at the top of her lungs, even if she really doesn’t mean it. She freaks out because you move her drink, but then if you ask her if she wants it, she will shout, “NO!” and then freak out again if you don’t hand it to her. It can be trying.

Ahhhh… kids. Think hard before you have them 🙂 It’s times like these I’m glad we’re done breeding.

“We’re done breeding?” you say.. Yes. We’re done breeding. James and I decided last year that 2 kids seemed like a good number. We pondered it for a good long while. I came from a large family (6 kids) and a part of me would like to have more, just because that’s how I grew up and I have great childhood memories. I always thought that 4 would really be the right number for me, but I really took my time to think about it, and was even a little surprised to realized that it felt like our family is complete. I didn’t feel as if there should be a baby on the floor while the other two run around, I didn’t feel like someone/ something was missing. It feels like this is right. Plus, the logical side of me is quick to point out that with 2, we’ve got a man on man defense. When we go to amusement parks, there will always be an even number of people for the rides. And plus, with 3, you have that whole middle child issue, but then 4 seems like WAY way too many. Also, I like the idea that we’ve created 2 people to “go on after us,” so to speak, and when we’re gone, there is only 2 to replace us. We’re not contributing to overpopulation! I have no idea of the population statistics, I’m not saying it’s really a huge issue that we feel strongly about, it just seemed like another reason for 2 to be It. So, we thought about it over several months, and we decided together that two kids was right for us. We’re done. Of course, if by some accident another one came along, we would be fine with that, but by our choice, we’re done. We’ll probably take steps at some point in the future to make that a permanent decision. (cough snip snip cough)

I feel like I haven’t been writing here nearly as often. (Is that true? I don’t even know..) Life has been busy. Work has been busy. February is turning out to be a CRAZY busy month, what with weddings, and home improvements and school events and birthday parties.. March is shaping up to be pretty busy as well, and relatives will be visiting in April. This year is going to whiz by. Yikes! I love to write though. It’s almost therapeutic for me. So I shall endeavor to do so more often.

– amy demands clearly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!