Some weeks seem longer than others and some just fly by.
The past month with Doug & family here just flew at the speed of sound! Those rare moments when we were still and able to talk I kept telling myself to “Remember this time; hold on to these moments; cherish this time with Doug,” because I knew it wouldn’t last and that he would move onto the next place. I didn’t always think he was all that great, i.e. when I was nearly 4 years old at the time he was born. And then the years pass and we’ve suddenly grown up. And he’s turned out to be one really cool guy.... Next to Michael, my brother ranks at the top of my very short list of people I consider my best friends. The part I love the best about these people, is that no matter how long it’s been since we’ve talked, we just pick up right where we left off and if feels like the barriers of time & space cease to exist. So this week has dragged because I’ve been missing my bud.
Then there was the Monday holiday. I don’t know about you, but these 3 day weekend holidays just throw me for a loop and I spend the rest of the week discombobulated and trying to catch up.
In contrast to me, the week has flown by for little miss Tabitha. Since school is out this week and ESL Summer School doesn’t start until June 5th, she has spent 4 of 5 days with Michael’s parents. (I’m going to put in a gratuitous plug here – I have the best in-laws in the world! On little-to-no-notice they dropped everything and have driven to our house 3 of 4 days to baby sit. My MIL even did chores in my kitchen today, which I appreciate beyond all belief; especially since today was another not-so-great day on the work front.... Mom & Pop, Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!!)
Wednesday I had off and got to just enjoy being “Mom” all day. We checked out the school that summer school will be held at. That was a bit freaky because from the outside it looks exactly the same as her regular school, and inside the layout is exactly the same, but the colors are all different and the mascot theme is all different. Definitely Surreal. She’s not too keen on the summer school idea, especially because her friend from school won’t be there and neither will Mrs. T, her first grade teacher. So the entire ride home I got to listen to round after round of “Ni Hachoo!” or the Russian version of “I don’t want to!” The whining quotient has really started to go up around here, which while very annoying, is a good sign that she feels pretty comfortable here with us. Next on our agenda was fetching her friend, Megan, and heading to the movies to see Over the Hedge. I have to tell you that all three of us laughed the whole time. Tabitha particularly liked the bits that she’d previewed the night before of the clips I downloaded. Apparently they get funnier the more often you see them.... She & Megan decided that they liked Hammy the best, and T’s reason why is because he can burp his ABC’s. Which she tried to replicate several times since then. I’m sure that parents across America cringed with me at that plot point.... Megan came home and played with us the rest of the afternoon and then we had to take her home. She then had her first swimming lesson. Michael had booked a private lesson for her and she just had a blast. They even got her to jump into the deep end and dog-paddle back to the pool wall, hop out & repeat. All in all, Tabitha had a great time & a great day which was her reward for good behavior two days in a row (i.e. no full body screaming tantrums – have I mentioned that she’s a bit headstrong??). She kept asking me “So this is what happens when I’m good?” And I kept a straight face and told her very seriously “Yes.”
Thursday was grandparents’ day and involved serious video & play time. For dinner the five of us went to Christina’s for some of the best Mexican this side of the Denton County line. We almost didn’t get there because little miss decided to warm up with some whining that she didn’t want to go, she didn’t want dinner, she was tired.... yadda yadda. We quickly ramped up to screaming protests and then defiant posturing. At that point, which was the icing on the cake of a not very good day for me, I had my own little temper tantrum, told her that I was hungry, that I wanted to go to this restaurant, and that my child did not have the power to make these decisions, and that I was not going to let her determine where I was eating my dinner (mostly in Russian). At which point she got walked to the car, put in the car and we left. Michael had some misgivings, but I told him that basically she needs to be shown that we are in fact, the boss of her. As we had left the house my father-in-law commented to Michael & I, “That’s right, can’t let her have too much power.” Pop, you have no idea how much that meant to me, that you didn’t think I was crazy for trying to take her to a dinner she said she didn’t want. We ended up having a very good time. She whined until the big bowl of chips arrived and then she got down to serious business. She experimented with bites from all of our meals and determined that right now she likes guacamole, Mexican rice, tacos, and definitely sopapillas.
Today was grandparents’ day also. All I really hoped for them to accomplish today was getting to Wal-Mart and buying a couple of swimsuits, since I‘ve figured out that two is not nearly enough to get through this summer. In hindsight, that was probably not a smart “Mom” choice since Grandma went a little bit crazy shopping. So 3 skirts, 2 swimsuits, a t-shirt, 2 more pairs of shoes, a PJ set, a set of headbands, a new princess video and a slip’n’slide later, they came home. It just boggles the mind how a child who arrived in this country with one small suitcase, now owns enough to overflow a closet and overwhelm a bookcase in her room. She’s starting to struggle with keeping everything put away so I can tell that this weekend, some time will go towards some organization. I empathize entirely. My brain doesn’t work well when I’m surrounded by chaos and I always feel a bit more settled when my home is peaceful. A few weeks ago she started blaming the cats for the mess piling up on the floor of the closet and gets very dramatically upset about it. So tonight I told her that if they were causing that much trouble, then she must not want them around anymore and that tomorrow we could send them all outside and they could find new homes. Oh Ho! There was some serious back-peddling after that and she wanted to be very sure that I knew that she still wanted to keep the cats around.... As if I would really do that, but she thought I was serious! And so she got the point and some of her clothes started making their way back to where they belong.
She is overall a tidy child, who requires the regular amount of reminders to pick up her stuff. The first weekend that Doug, et al arrived, I had just finished her laundry and the full laundry basket with her folded clothes went to her room to be put away. I told her once and she ignored the basket for Saturday. Sunday morning I told her again to put her things away, and I was ignored again. So by Sunday afternoon, I told her that I needed my basket back and that since she hadn’t put her clothes away she must not want them, so I was going to keep them for her. They got packed up and put on the top shelf in my closet. It took two weeks before she really started to miss that half of her wardrobe, and when she got them back they were put away right then. Since then, I’ve had to do a few reminders that what Mommy picks up, she keeps. Once is all it takes to get the message through. Right now, I’ve got a swimsuit hostage as we’re learning that one doesn’t leave one’s dirty laundry on the bathroom floor.
So that concludes this evening’s installment of “Tabitha Tales”..... Stay tuned, more to come....
