I Can Do Three - Bwuahahahaha!!!!!

You'd think I've learned this lesson, but apparently, I HAVE NOT!  The lesson is this: as soon as you start feeling good about any aspect of parenting, your children will bring you down to your knees, begging for mercy for EVER thinking you had any aspect of their nurture and care figured out.  They are complex beings, dang it!  They smell confidence and then they SQUISH it.    

Tonight is the first night in more than a week that Boo-boo is going to bed without a fight. Actually,  EVERYTHING has been a fight, since he turned 3 last Sunday.  We have been living in a constant string of dramatic episodes.  The day is beginning?  Boo decides to wake the entire house by screaming "DADDY!!!!!!!!!!  DADDY!!!!!!!!!!" one hour before anyone is due to wake up.  Would you like to hear today, my dear Boo?  May I put your ears on?  "NOOOOOOO   EARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Time for breakfast?  Not without crocodile tears and a tantrum.   Let's get changed for your appointment.   Thank you for cooperating.  Last step, shoes and socks.  "NOOOOOOOO  SOCKS!  NO SOCKS!  NO SOCKS!!!!" I find myself holding my breath around him, hoping not to set him off.  Pointless.  Everything sets him off.  DAMN if you do, DAMN if you don't.   

Living like this for a week has short-circuited my brain ... I can't finish any thoughts!   I have been roaming around my house like a zombie.  Care for child, prepare for insults and drama, have a little spat, do a household chore, referee sibling screaming match, check Facebook, repeat.   

As I write this, the boys' African Lullabies CD has ended.  No one is yelling for me to put on "MORE NOONIC (music), PLEASE!"  Bill is in the other room and I want to go and do a cheer because this is the first normal night in I don't know how long.   But I won't.  I will humbly remember my state as servant.  I will not allow myself a little celebration, lest my children decide to put me in my place.