Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hanging Out

The kids haven't had much work the first couple days of school, so we've been able to hang out in the evening and not deal with the stress of homework yet.

 Jessica and I went to the store and loaded up on fresh fruits and vegetables for school lunches and for stew for last night's supper. We added homemade Amish noodles from Shipshewana to the soup.


Adam was gone when we did the homemade strawberry shakes during the summer, so we made those again. 

 Yes, Tyler is drinking his shake while playing Wii. Maybe the calories don't catch up with you that way.

Adam


 Jessica and Adam decided to play a competitive game, but I think there was a whole lot of cheating going on. Both players are supposed to be on the mat! "Oops. Did I bump you?" (Lots of fake innocence!)




Jasmine was at drum lessons, but we saved her some shake.

You don't see Kaleb in these pictures, because he has decided he is deathly allergic to strawberries. It started when a neighbor was watching the twins and gave them strawberries for snack. He'd wanted something else. 

Then he told them that at camp because he wanted something different (which didn't happen, but he didn't eat the strawberries). 

He insisted that he couldn't pack strawberries in his lunch for today. So when it came time to make the shakes, he already knew he wasn't getting any because he'd just said he couldn't eat strawberries.  He got a little popcorn instead and did play Wii. He's just not in the pictures.

Kayla is not in the pictures because she has really gotten much, much worse about taking other people's treats. Today I set out four cereal bars for school snacks. She packed hers, then she grabbed Adam's and ran off and ate it. Hid the wrapper. Lied about it. Then she got hers out of her lunch and ate half of it. She has to take her lunch in a stapled paper bag, but I hadn't stapled it because they were taking tuna sandwiches and I always make those in the morning so the bread doesn't get soggy. And I don't always put the snack in so she doesn't open her lunch at snack and eat the whole lunch.

Lest you think she takes the food because she's hungry, she'd already eaten the grapes in the first picture when I told he she could have some for after school snack. So she had to give Adam her shake to make up for the cereal bar he doesn't have for school today. 

And she has to mop the kitchen floor this week to pay back Jessica's special candy she ate and doesn't have money to replace (not to mention it was homemade candy Jessica had saved from Shipshewana). 

And she's cleaning the bathroom for Tyler this week for about the same reason. And it doesn't even faze her. While she was mopping the kitchen floor, she was trying to get Jessica's candy she'd brought back from the movie theater and set down.

I went through this with two of my boys for twelve years and was so glad to be done with it, and here we go again!! This time I'm not taking it personally, and I'm making it her problem not mine. A lot less stress and anger that way. 

She's no longer allowed in the kitchen unless someone is with her. That doesn't keep her from sneaking out, but everyone is getting better about watching her at all times because it is just so disappointing for them to have saved something special for themselves for later and to find it gone. And many times it's something Kayla had too, but ate hers right away. Like she had a piece of chocolate cake, but Tyler said he'd rather have his later when he wasn't so full and could enjoy it more. He went back later and there was one bite left. She'd eaten her and then snuck back and ate his. And there was none left to give him.

Well, I didn't really plan to talk that much about Kayla's stealing on an open blog, but probably many of you adoptive parents have dealt with this too. And it has been such a problem this week. To the point that all the kids are upset with her. They've tried to tell her how it feels to save something and have it taken, but she gives them the ugliest sneer. Ah. Life. 

It's so much better when they are having fun together and everyone is getting along. And thankfully five of them were interacting well together last night.

 He's goofing. He's not really mad at her.

She enjoyed the shake!

2 comments:

jahkamakura said...

What fun slow, first days of school. Enjoy!

Kathy Cassel said...

Thank you. I wish I thought they'd last.