Raising a 4 year old in a household of much older brothers is a very different experience for me. When my older boys were this small, it was a very different household. I was a different mother. I was still forcing kids to finish their vegetables, go to bed at 8, and there was not a video game in the house. I worked full-time then, so their lives were full of structure. They went to pre-school all day, then we did dinner, baths, read & had a little play time, then off to bed. They had time-outs, and even the occasional spanking. I am so busy multi-tasking these days that if I do put Nick in time-out, I often forget he is there, and he just starts playing again-- totally ineffective I know. He plays DS, PlayStation 3, and XBox. He plays roller hockey, and can ride a skateboard. His vocabulary (while his speech is still a little difficult to understand), is like that of a 10 year old. He changes the channel on the TV, and says, "oh no, Mommy, we'd better change it, that isn't appropriate for me". He is definitely having a different toddler experience than his brothers did. In good ways too. We do everything together, like peas and carrots.
I am swirling in chaos! Our little remodeling projects, ie: painting the boys rooms, have resulted in a whirl of mess, mess, mess. My husband has been diligently painting walls, repurposing furniture, meanwhile all of the clothing, shoes, toys, junk, furniture we are no longer using, etc... is lining the hallways and rooms of my house! We have tried to engage the boys in this project, but it has somehow eluded them that they have any responsibility for putting the house back together, so it it a painful exercise of command and whine. Today, we must put it back, we cannot start the week in madness. So my day, is going to be interesting. They need to help, a lot. I need to figure out how to motivate them to help, without them feeling like they are being tortured. Wish me luck, at 10:30, video games, and NFL TV go off, and cleaning commences. I'd better have another cup of coffee, and pray for the next half hour, I'm gonna need it.
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