A week or more ago, I had a list of three precious things that were missing. Two of them reappeared, but the third--my keyless entry button-key for my car--just didn't show up with a thorough house search. Stupidly, I stood in my kitchen watching my grandson finger the buttons. "What does this button do? What does THIS button do?" Etc. In the back of my mind at that moment, I was saying, "He will lose those if you don't take them away," but I didn't...and sure enough, I hadn't seen them since. Until tonight. Want to know where they were? Do you REALLY want to know where they were?? Guess! C'mon, just give it a shot! Awww....give up? They were in the bottom of the ice cream cone box! Silly me...I should have checked there first!
Last night, I went to bed early out of self-defense. I had fallen asleep on the couch. Meg and Ryan crashed, leaving Robin loose in the house with me conked out. She got into a bunch of stuff before waking me up to demand that "we" go to bed. Meanwhile, Meg got a phone call which caused her to get up about the time I was trying to settle into bed. Robin had other ideas. We sleep in a waterbed, so all her thrashing and somersaults were transferred to my efforts to get her settled down. I knew that going to bed at 9:30 would guarantee that I would be awake in the wee hours and would have weird dreams. Yup! Robin was upside down in the bed, taking the covers in a different direction. Her feet were at my head. I did all I could to maintain my space. Ha! When it was time to get up this morning, she was crabby...and kicked me in the head, since her feet were up there... <sigh>
I had to take the Junkyard Dog to the vet for her delayed rabies shots. Took her three weeks ago, but she was sick...which resulted in antibiotics and steroids and a delay until she was better. Since she is allergic to whatever they put in the shots, she has to get a special anti-allergen shot, then the rabies vaccination--then has to be observed for a few hours. The vet clinic in Monrovia is practically on my school's campus, so I determined to take her and leave her in order to work at school for about four hours.
I had a donated radio to give to one of my former students, so I called to have him meet me at school...and, interestingly, another of my former students called just a few minutes later to indicate that he could be at school, too...to take practice tests for the Technician's license. I told him I would be there from about 10-2. Guess what? He came at 10 and left at 2:00! I didn't get everything done that I needed to do, but he passed at least six practice tests (failing none), so it was worth it. The trip to the vet cost me $100. This dawg is expensive!
Robin has not been having good days in day care. A few days ago, she had so many time-outs that she called it an X-day. (The gal puts an X in a box where time-outs are needed.) Basically, she hasn't had a good report in many days. There was a pants-soiling episode last week. Today, I was told that Robin wasn't allowed to participate in "Lunch Bunch" sponsored by the library at a local park. She had to stay in the van with Ms. Shelly while the others participated because she "wouldn't listen". Robin is a willful child--very much like her mother was (except her mother was an "only" without sibling competition). This baby has been the light of my life since the instant she was born, and I hate to see her fall into the power struggles of existence. Meg and I had some conversation tonight about Robbie--about the fact that she is more obviously suffering more than Ryan with the divorce, and that we need to spend more quality time with her, softening some of the blows she is experiencing.
The biggest challenge is sleep. It is a vicious cycle. She refuses to go to sleep at night until 11:00 or after, so is crabby in the mornings which gets her into trouble at day care. So she takes a nap at Ms. Shelly's and is better thereafter...but then we can't get her to sleep at night. One thing I know for sure: she has long expressed a certain freedom after her brother goes to bed. That happened very early after his birth!
I don't know what the answer is, but we softened the atmosphere tonight. Robin got more attention than usual, and it seemed to help.
Tomorrow, I have promised Splash Island, but the weather forecast isn't all that good. We'll see. I may be leaving for IL on Thursday evening or Friday. I need to see my sister!!
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