We Have a Hit on Our Hands

Well, it was bound to happen. We produced our first offspring, a cautious, thoughtful and deep-thinking soul who, at 13, continues to be thus. Our penultimate was more of a risk-taker who would leap off furniture, usually onto her thoughtful, deep-thinking sibling; was running at 9 months and taking charge at 2 but who was funny and bright and very happy. She, too, continues in that mold. This leads us to the third in line to the throne who is more 2 than the other two ever were; who challenges everything by screaming like a banshee in your face then spins on a dime to laugh and say, "Hi, Mommy. I Mommy's Babe," or "I Mommy's Brigid." The third child who loves "Pusah" (her new word for Patricia) more than life itself but continually pounds on her; the child for whom a "time out" is merely a break in the action until she can once again come at life full force with both fists. Literally and figuratively. Yes, dear readers, we have produced a hitter. This kid hits when she's happy; she hits when she's sad; she hits when she's tired; and she hits when she's mad. All I have to say is, "Go to your chair" and she heads in to her room and climbs on up. To her credit, she sits there in a time out without so much as a protest for the most part until I come to release her, like releasing a dog from a down-stay command. She seems contrite and offers a hug, yet her recidivism rate is very, very high.

It's something they're addressing with her in day care as well. However, it's not as bad as the serial biter they have. Brigid was again the target of his dental fixation. For the third time since March I've picked her up with the perfectly formed outline of human teeth, uppers and lowers, on her body. This time, he bit her by the crook of her elbow; one time, she had a bite on her back; the first time -- her first day of school -- he bit her on the upper arm. They fill out incident reports. Today they said they've addressed it with his parents, but that doesn't stop the kid from biting. I've witnessed him do it twice to other kids in the last week. He's a menace, and I don't know if they boot a kid out of the wobbler room for biting, but I'd like to fit him with a mouth guard.

Today, Margaret and Patricia had their musical theater performance, the last day of their summer musical theater program. They did the musical, "Once on this Island," and they were fantastic. Disappointedly, they were chorus members, but they had such fun, the chorus numbers were great, and the dancing was outstanding. I was so proud of them. It is such a wonderful program. They participated last summer, for those of you who remember, having done "Seussical the Musical Jr." Patricia's fourth-grade teacher and his wife, also a fourth-grade teacher, do the program each year. The performance topped off three weeks of learning the parts, songs and very complicated dance numbers.

Now that their theatrical experience has come to an end, it's time for us to pack up and head to the Cape via White River Junction, Vt., where we'll visit with my college friend, Kathleen, and her family before heading out the rest of the way for the rest of the week. I have one more day of work before I can breathe a sigh of long-awaited relief. It can't come too soon, but, I'm afraid, will end all too soon.

What's Higher than An A+?

I know I was bragging on Patricia in the last post, so now I'll brag on Baby Brigid, who knows her colors, at least most of them, and can count to 10. Sometimes she skips over that pesky 5, but who needs 5 anyway? She is showing more signs of potty readiness but hasn't taken that next step where she wants to actually sit on the thing. She's happy as a naked clam when she's in the buff, and when she knows she has to go she'll ask for a diaper. As soon as she has a clean diaper on, she's going in it. So She's aware of the functions. She just has to get to the point where diapers are less convenient than sitting on the potty. No hurry, no pressure. Both Margaret and Patricia were 3 when they put on their big-girl panties.

While we're turning pages in the brag book, I have to point out that Margaret did incredibly well in her 7th-grade year, earning straight A-pluses again. We told her she's going to have to find a way to improve. Obviously she's a slacker if she can't find something higher than that. ;)

We're worried, however, that teenage angst and funk have crept over her. It could be a combination of things -- true teenage angst, PMS, or the fact that her best friend is moving to Ohio at the end of the week. I'm inclined to think it's more that than anything else. She's trying to spend as much time with her friend as she can, but it won't put off the inevitable where they'll have to say goodbye. I dread that scene.

On the plus side, we have Cape Cod to look forward to at the end of the month, so that should help her over a hump. After vacation, it's a slippery slope until the beginning of the school year. It flies by remarkably fast.

Both Margaret and Patricia are participating once again in the Summer Safari musical theater program. This year, they're doing "Once on this Island," a musical retelling of the little mermaid tale. We've been trying to impress on them the importance of being members of the chorus -- the principles aren't on stage as often or get to do as much of a variety of things as members of the chorus do. Also, a number of the kids who were cast in the principle roles have been in the program a lot longer. If they stick with it and participate in the program over time, they'll land those roles, too. The three-week program is in its second week. Next week, they'll do a public performance at the end of the week.

We did the book sale at the church bazaar again and managed to raise $880 pure profit from the donated books. As a bonus, I get first dibbs on things because I put them out. As a result, I found a few kids' videos, including the Teletubbies, which both Margaret and Patricia enjoyed as toddlers. Now, we have a new generation of Teletubbies fan in Brigid. I was always kind of creeped out by them, but Brigid loves them. In addition to everything in the Disney vault, she's also fond of Veggie Tales and, of course, Shrek. Right now she's into singing the song from Little Mermaid where Ariel gives her voice to Ursula -- a lot of Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah, ah ah ah and then Ursula yells, "Keep singing!" Brigid does the ah ah ah's and then says, "Keep singing!" at the right beat. It's amazing, and what's more, they recognized it at Sibley. I walked in to pick her up the other day and Jenn was putting the music on so they could all sing...they recognized what she was singing!

To my chagrin, she also started singing, "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family..." in the car the other day. That's the Barney song. I didn't even know she watched Barney, at least she has never watched it with me. Someone has been showing her that big dumb purple dinosaur without my knowledge (you know who you are).

Pretty princess dresses are still the way to go when you want to get her dressed. She'll still ask to wear her princess dress on occasion at home but more so at Sibley where they have a very pretty pretty princess dress for her to wear. Now if we could only get her to want to wear pretty princess dresses when she's being a pretty naked princess. I suppose nudists have to have their royalty, too.