If you didn’t know all ready, I have two boys, aged 5 and 2. Poor Princess E is sandwiched in the middle, but I suspect after growing up in such a household, she’ll be able to hold their own.
Let me tell you a few things that I’ve learned about my boys - they do not care. Mookie, my oldest, will lounge around in his pajamas for days if I’d let him. In fact, there was one day where we did not leave the house, and I”m NOT ashamed to say, he refused to get dressed and slept in his nightclothes from the night before. Hey, if he doesn’t care, why should I?
Boys are rambunctious. Think of a pinball in the pinball machine. They hoot, holler, careen, run, bump wrestle, knock down and just keep on going. Right now, they are eating popcorn with their sister on the living room floor. Mookie is holding up a plastic basket while Mr. J is banging on said basket with a plastic ruler with one hand while shoving popcorn in his mouth with the other. I just have to sit here and marvel. Who would think to do such things? “Oh, I think I’ll eat popcorn and bang on this here basket.” Insane.
Mr. J also likes to pretend he is a cat. His name? Catty. Yup. As in “stop catty”, “Don’t jump on my back, catty”. “stay there catty.” and the inevitable - “Leave me alone catty!” I don’t know how, or why he decided he wanted to be a cat. However, if I dare to call him “Catty” he gets quite offended and walks away.
Speaking of walking away, here is a funny for you. My husband and I are fans of Family Guy and ofen use some of the less-racy tag lines around the house. Here’s one:
So basically when I would tell hubby “You need to drink more water” and he wouldn’t answer because he knows I’m right, I would say, “Oooooooh, walk away.” You get the idea.
Scenario:
Before you ask, yes sometimes I refer to myself in the 3rd person. Try it, it’s fun!
Princess E is fingerpainting with brothers and mom at the table. Princess E. starts to pull at the fresh flowers that mommy has on the table.
Mommy: Don’t do that E. Why are you messing with those flowers?
Princess E: Because I want to play with them. They’re pretty.
Mommy: Well, don’t touch them again. Those are mommy’s flowers and I don’t want you to play with them.
Princess E: (whining, escalating) But I WANT TO!
Mommy: (mean mommy voice) If you can’t do what Mommy says, you can leave the table.
Princess E: All right, I will (leaves the table, stomping, rubbing eyes, fake crying)
Mookie(who has been watching the back and forth silently): Oooooooooooooh, walk away.
I think that I nearly, um, well, I burst out laughing. That was the LAST thing I expected to hear from his mouth! I suppose there are many of you reading this thinking “she needs to get out more”, but I’m telling you, it was durn funny.
Ok, back to the topic at hand. Boys will be boys. They will wrestle, tussle, roll over each other and jump up to start it all over again. Best thing for a mom to do is let them wreck the place and clean up after they go to bed. There’s no use is trying to to clean when boys are on the scene.
As a note, however, I will say that Mookie is very good at cleaning up when he’s not “in the potty”. As soon as I say “clean up” (and I don’t say it that often), he’s got to go potty. The kid is learning at an early age, right?
Ooooooh, walk away.
