Differing Opinions

Okay - need some help!

My wonderful daughter has a habit of getting up in the middle of the night, turning on the bathroom light, going #1, turning off the bathroom light and going back to bed to slip off into dreamland once again.

What's the problem, you ask? She misses a couple vital steps - wiping, flushing and washing her hands. Although, if she's not wiping then I guess washing her hands isn't needed...

Over the past year, I have been telling her that it's okay to flush the toilet 'cause it will not wake up mommy and daddy. And I've told her about germs and how nasty ugly they are. And everytime I talk about germs, she has a very disgusted look on her face so I think she's getting it. The wiping part I will deal with a later date when I get another great brain wave.

Well, this morning (7:30am pst), I am lying in bed wrestling with my inner self on whether or not to get up and start my saturday when I hear Raynae pop into the bathroom. She turns on the bathroom light, goes #1, turns off the bathroom light and she proceeds back to her bedroom to start playing. What is she not getting???

That's when it hits me! From now on, when I get up in the middle of the night and see the nice little gift she has left for everyone, I will immediately go to her room, wake her up, advise her to get up at once to flush the toilet and wash her hands and then tell her to go back to bed and sleep. How can that not work?? I will be disturbing her sleep and if I have to do it a couple of times, she will definitely learn! Who likes to be woken up like that??

I am excited about this idea and eagerly anticipate the awakening of my dear husband to tell him about this. I tell him. He immediately tells me that that is so very cruel. I am crushed. I go from being a great problem-solver mom to wondering how God could ever put this idea in my head?? Is He trying to make Raynae hate me?

Thinking I can outsmart my husband, I ask him how he would deal with the problem (other than complaining to me about it) and he quickly says to take something away during the day and tell her why I'm taking it away. Interesting. But where is the direct punishment for not flushing? And not wiping? And not washing her hands??

I will try this method of my husband.

But I reserve the right to try mine out if his does not work out...

My boring days off...

Raynae was been home sick for a few days this last week. Dave was home with her on Monday and I got to stay home with her Tuesday and Wednesday and let me tell you - I was bored out of my head!!!!!!

Both days I went back to bed and slept until 10am. Tuesday, I did some cardmaking and cleaning and Dave's mom came for a visit (which was nice to talk to an adult) but Wednesday was a different story. I could not motivate myself to do anything! I borrowed a book from Bek last night and read a couple of chapters in the afternoon. I cleaned our oven and did a few dishes. But that's about it. I was basically stuck surfing on the net. I did a tiny bit of church work. Pretty sad, hey? In my quest to make staying home sick as brutally boring as possible for Raynae, I have made it absolutely unbearable for myself! I CANNOT stand her cartoons for one more second!

I went for a tan to make myself feel better...hahaha. Really, I'm not vain!

I've always said that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom if we could afford it but I don't know if I could do it. I know it would be different 'cause the kids aren't generally sick so I would be able to go out and do stuff but I would definitely need to be involved in groups or clubs or something just to feel connected to other adults. I am definitely a people person and need to be around people. People my age.

I have to brag about Raynae, though. She has brought me so much joy. I love watching her grow up and learn new stuff. She's learning to read and she actually swam by herself for the first time in her swimming lesson on Saturday. She is amazed that Emma is 1 year old 'cause she remembers when Bek was pregnant and Emma was in her belly. She watched Brother Bear (her favourite movie that I hide every now and then for my own sanity) yesterday and started finding stuff funny that she didn't understand before. And her hunger for God is amazing. We have a children's bible that we read to her every night and she is starting to tell me what the story is about even before I start reading it to her. It just amazes me, sometimes, that God has trusted me to be her parent. Sometimes, I don't have the patience that I should have and I do and say stuff that I have to explain to her that I don't know how to explain and I end up saying "Just 'cause". I hate that phrase but I understand now why parents say it!

I'm excited to watch her grow and become a woman. I'm not excited about the teen years. I'm not sure what to expect with her birth mom and how Raynae is going to be with all of that so that really freaks me out. Plus, I have this uncanny fear of her becoming goth. I have no idea why. Not that I won't love her if she does but she is just so perfect the way she is and, I'll be honest - goth freaks me out!! I saw a girls t-shirt at VV a couple of weeks ago that said: "Oops - I went goth!". What is with that??!!

Hello!

Well, I've decided to move over to blog here 'cause the site I currently blog on drives me nuts that noone except members can post replies. And I only know 3 people that are on the previous site. So, needless to say, I don't get many replies! And I like replies! Even though, I'm not the best at replying myself but I will work on it - I promise.