Well, the kids have finally figured out that there is no enforcement of bedtime right now. M told me this morning that he was up until about 10:30 pm reading a new 3-D book he just got from a school fund raiser. I guess if you are going to be up late, that is as good a reason as any. And tonight they asked me point blank at 8:30 pm, “Dad, do we have to go to bed now?” All I could say was, “You don’t HAVE to do anything, but I’m going to bed. Or maybe I’ll just fall asleep here on the couch while I watch some football.” I thought that would be a fate worse than bedtime, but they out-flanked me by deciding it was a good time to call Mom on the phone. In the process of talking to her they managed to sound despondent that she was away, missing her terribly. It was the first time they mentioned her absence all weekend. They also decided that they were sad after watching the movie Desperaux and needed to watch something funny to break the mood. After one episode of some silly sit-com on the Disney channel I headed upstairs to remove my contacts. It was then that they decide to head to bed – that was 9:45 pm, but there are still rumblings as of 10:15 pm.
This morning started with a bit of a revelation. K went to pour a bowl of cereal and said, “Ugh, there is no room on this table!” I said, “I know, I had to push one pile of papers on top of another just to make room for my laptop. It’s a little annoying, isn’t it?” After agreeing, K proceeded to clear a spot on the table just big enough to fit her bowl. Not the huge breakthrough I was hoping for, but recognition nonetheless. Then when K went to get her bowl she found there were none clean. Without saying a word, she opened the dishwasher and put one bowl from the dish train on the top rack, picked out one drinking straw from the train and put it in the bottom silverware tray, added nearly the proper amount of dish detergent and started the dishwasher. Again, not a perfect resolution, but moving in the right direction. (Initially, I was actually afraid she was going to try to get one more use out of that bowl.)
A moment later M came to the table and started to get his own bowl of cereal. He exclaimed, “This milk smells bad!” He brought it over to me for confirmation and I asked if it had been out all night. He said, “No, I got it out of the fridge just now.” Then I asked how long it had been on the counter yesterday. He thought a moment but couldn’t remember. I said, “I can’t say for sure, but I think it was out between breakfast and lunch. If so, that is enough to let it warm up and go sour, even if it does get cooled off again.” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh, I guess we’ll have to have dry cereal today.” It didn’t seem to bother him at all as he poured ¾ of the container down the sink. K decided soy milk was a better alternative than dry cereal. Amazingly, the soy milk made it back into the refrigerator right after the cereal was eaten. I can’t remember if either of their bowls joined the dish train or if they just sat on the table. It’s becoming a bit of a blur.
After breakfast it was time to go to M’s ice skating lesson. K didn’t want to skate. I said she could just watch, but we all needed to go to the rink as a family. M said, “K, you get to wear the figure eight skates.” K said, “Oh, yea. Cool!” And there was no resistance after that. Gotta love kids that know how to pull each other’s levers so I don’t have to! But it wasn’t all smooth; as we were headed out the door K said, “Dad, I don’t have any socks.” I said, “Why not?” Without answering, she ran upstairs and got a pair of socks and put them on while we drove in the car. Like I said, it was not bump-free, but I was pleased with myself that I didn’t take any of the bait that was offered me and was able to refrain from prompting, directing, or nagging.
When we got back from skating it was time for lunch. K said, “I want pizza for lunch.” I said, “You can make anything you want for lunch.” She immediately countered with, “But we make our own lunch all week. Can’t you make it on the home days?” I said, “I’ll make dinner tonight, but you guys can make your own lunches.” There was silence for about 2 minutes, then, “Dad, can you come out with me to the garage and see if we have any frozen mini pizzas?” I smiled and helped her get a package out of the deep freeze. She cooked two batches in the toaster oven, enough for herself and for M. (She did call for M to come to the table four times before he finally came over, but I said nothing.) When M finally did make it to the table he said, “We really need to clean the mess off this table before we can eat.” I said I thought that was a great idea. Again, just enough space was made for a plate and cup, mostly by shoving stuff closer together into the middle of the table. But still, recognition is recognition.
After lunch, M went to a friend’s house for a play date. I watched a little football and napped on the couch while K played on her own. She decided she wanted to paint and even cleared another small spot on the table by herself. Her painting came out great, and almost half of the art supplied found their way back into the art closet! Way to go, K! After an hour or so on her own, K needed some company so we played Twister a while, then broke out her Magic Science kit. The only problem with Magic Science is you need a fairly large, flat surface on which to work. We haven’t had one of those for a week. K simply asked, “Dad, can you help me clean some of this up so we can do the magic?” How could a dad resist that? I let K take the lead, but together we cleaned up almost half of the table. As soon as there was enough space to work, K was done with cleaning and wanted to make some magic. So we did, and at the end of our three experiments we put everything away relating to the kit (I have to admit, I took the lead on this part of the cleaning, but I did so without saying anything – K was an active participant, washing and drying test tubes with a smile).
Since we picked up our science stuff the table was already clear (enough) for dinner. So when M got back from his play date they didn’t have to do anything but get plates and cups out. M even managed to close both garage doors behind himself on his the way in! After dinner, all of the dishes made it onto the back of the sink train. I made a little production out of clearing the lone bowl out of the dishwasher and putting my own stuff into it, but neither kid had any interest in joining me.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Not much prompting or reminding. Not much cleaning. Maybe we have reached steady-state. I don’t think they can really make much more of a mess without having to clear something in the process. Although, now that I say that, we did bring all the Halloween decorations up from the basement tonight and many items are now littered across the kitchen floor. Maybe it’s a good think Mom is away for the end of this week…
No comments:
Post a Comment