The Boy Ain't Right (but we love him that way)

Hello? You all still there? All 11 of you? It feels like forever since I've written a post. I've waited all week for sum'pin good to write, yet nothing has come to mind. I almost wrote an entire post about how much I hate (HATE!) my white tile floor, but decided that that post should wait till a really PMSy day. That way I can legitimately blow off some steam that otherwise may be misdirected onto my family.

I bet you all can't wait.

Anyway, alls I got for you is a long and kinda boring video and a cute story bout my son, J.

Mr. C and I have been saying to each other for some time now that there is something not right about him. Maybe a processing disorder? Or ADD? Perhaps he has a spot somewhere on the Autism Spectrum? Don't get me wrong- we adore him. Mr. C pointed out to me that we probably love him harder than we love the others. That's cuz we have to. 9 has always been mellow, Princess G is a people pleaser, and Baby Roo is well, the baby. But J? He'll exhaust my reservoir of patience by 9 a.m. He loves drama and will do anything to create it. It's exhausting and there are many days when I think I need the help of the Supernanny. Then, there are worse days when I'm sure that not even the Supernanny would know what to do with him. Those are the days you'll find me at 9 p.m. on the couch, self medicating with a bag of Kettle Chips and a glass of Chardonnay.

(Not really. The truth is that 9 p.m. on most nights you'll find me on the couch with Kettle Chips and wine anyway. It's just that some days, I start yearning for it earlier than others.)

As I was saying, J is a handful. But one thing I've noticed about my boy is that he has got an imagination. Sometimes it astounds me. Most of the time, he is knee-deep in his magical world and I am only a visitor there. I think most of our problems come from the fact that I require him to pull out of that world and do mundane things like, I don't know... brush his teeth? Use the toilet? It's an on-going battle that I often loose.

Yesterday morning he arrived at our breakfast bar with his favorite stuffed dog, "Mateo Ruffy" in tow. I told him he couldn't have Mateo up at the counter cuz he'd get sticky from the pancake syrup. He asked if Mateo could then at least eat at the dining table, to which I replied "Sure." So we got Mateo situated and then naturally, he had to have something to eat. So I, playing along, placed an apple from the fruit bowl under his chin. This particular apple was designated for smoothie status, since Baby Roo had bitten a giant chunk out of it at the grocery store, a fact that I hid from the kids. If they'd known, the apple and said smoothie would've been pronounced as having "baby cooties" and would've been doomed to rot away, uneaten.

Anyway, when J was done eating (and I had fought the battle to clean his hands before he ran all over the house rubbing his sticky hands on everything in sight), I jokingly pointed out that "Oh look! Mateo took a big bite of apple!"

Now Princess G's mouth dropped open. She was dumbfounded. Even Roo looked a little suspicious. But J? He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yeah. Only one bite. Guess he wasn't hungry mama."
Because stuffed dogs take huge bites out of apples every day in his world. No biggie.

So, with that in mind, I tried to capture a little bit of his imagination on the Flip for you guys to see. It's a very long video, and truthfully, you can probably get the gist of it in 30 seconds or so. I just couldn't find a good point to edit. Okay, truthfully I'm just feeling lazy tonight. You'll hear me nagging Princess G to get ready for school in this and once again, I can't turn the dang Flip off- which really has more to do with the fact that I think the buttons get stuck than with my technological skills. Also, J makes a few comments that sound a little disturbingly violent about relatives dying. Don't worry, I already talked to my therapist mother about this. He has stuff like that floating around in his head because of the last few weeks. He's just acting out his confusion through play, which is why you hear me just kinda roll with it.

Anyway, here's my crazy kid. He does have the attention span of a gnat, which you'll see here:

Untitled from Tacy Cauthron on Vimeo.

See? He's a nut. But, like I said, we love him that way.

You all have a good night!