Day 122

"Are you ok? You look exhausted! " Is not exactly a compliment. That was the first thing that came out of Heloise's mouth this morning. I couldn't exactly turn around and say "Actually yes, your children exhaust me". So instead, I blamed it on my lack of sleep over the past couple of days. I immediately regretted saying those words as they left my mouth...but it's not like typing...you can't just hit backspace. Annoying sometimes don't you think?

Anyway, the morning was decent. I was ready, and the boys had their breakfasts and did their homework. Unfortunately Josh had a ridiculous tantrum and went up to his room...and Nathaniel was taking forever to clean his times tables sheet, so we were leaving the house late. That's never fun. But it gave me the opportunity to change their routine. On our way to school I told them they would no longer be waiting to do homework in the mornings. Instead, they would do it at night when they got home from school. Neither of them liked this idea and tried to tell me they wouldn't have time because of their activities. We'll see about that.

I dropped the three of them at school, after a brisk walk...and then I came home. I searched for "Drawn to Life" - a game for the DS that the boys just got and I've been dying to play. I couldn't find it. I later found out Zach had it last, and although they only got it at Christmas, Surprise Surprise, no one knows where it is. I settled for "UP!" but after finishing a level in 7 minutes...I was pretty bored. I switched it off, and came upstairs to grab my Eddie Izzard DVD. That's when Toni called. She had today off, and will have tomorrow off as well. She came to pick me up, and the two of us went to Braintree. Our first stop was Starbucks. Then we walked around the shops in the snow. Neither of us wanted to buy anything, so we just walked and talked. It was nice. We ran into Xavier's mom (Michelle), and spoke for a bit. We then came back to Heloise's and watched Eddie Izzard until I had to leave to get Zach, and she had to go to the doctors.

When I got to the school, I stood and spoke to Michelle while we waited for the boys. Zach came out, and you could tell right away that he was upset it was me picking him up. He had cried in the morning because Heloise mentioned picking the other 2 up at 3:20, and he couldn't understand why she wasn't going to pick him up at lunch. I explained the reasoning to him several times, but as most 4 year olds wouldn't...he didn't understand. We walked home, and he held my hand the whole way. We spoke about the "witch" that apparently lives in one of the houses along the way, and decided that after lunch, we would draw a picture of what she looked like. He told me all about him and Arthur (our next door neighbour), going to visit her and her locking them in the house, but then Zach shot her in the mouth. The story only got more and more interesting from there.

When we got home, I made lunch while Zach did some of his work book. I highly doubt he did any while I was in the kitchen...but anyway.
I sat down with him, and the two of us ate. When we finished we went straight to the drawing. We gave her a yellow face, green hair...of course some warts (although he wasn't sure why). She was riding a broomstick in front of her stone house, and her pet frog was on the back. Although we later changed it so that the frog was actually who Zach was saving when he stabbed the witch through the doggy door. The witches name is Albert. She's really a boy, but if she hears you say that, she'll turn you into a pig. She's 21. The frog's name is Tree Head. He's 9...same age as the house that is named Spooky. When we finished drawing and colouring, we decided to find a video on how paper is made. He asked me the question, and when I wasn't able to elaborate as much as he wanted, I got my computer. After that video, we watched how bubble gum was made, and then moved onto potato chips. We then sat on the couch and watched the last half of "Hook" together.

Now up until this point, you'd be thinking "what a great day!" I'm glad she finally had such a lovely day with Zach. But as I said at the beginning of that sentence...it was only so lovely UNTIL this point.

Heloise walked in with the boys, and everything went to sh*&!
Zach instantly began acting up. It's like a little switch goes on in his head that makes him hate me. I won't elaborate on the whole thing, but by the end of the night, I was close to tears. So close in fact, that it took me ages to begin this blog. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The boys were told to come say good night to me, so I hugged Josh, and then Zach came up, but he had his head down, said night, and walked away. Josh tried to get him to hug me, but I told him it didn't matter, as Zach was struggling. Then Nathaniel came to say good night to me and gave me a hug.

Sorry my brain's all over the place. Let's rewind to before bed time...

Josh had a friend over, and the 3 of us (before Heloise, Nathaniel and Zach got back from Beavers) sat and watched American Idol on my laptop. I loved it. The boys kept peeking, then running off to play a game on the computer, and coming back. When everyone got back, Zach was acting up again, and we all sat down to eat dinner. When we got through the meal, Josh's friend went home, Tim came home...all the boys went up to bed, and that's when I came to my room to wind down. I was so stressed, I needed to take a bit of time to myself. I've been up here ever since. I'm still wound up. My mind is racing, and even though I'm extremely tired, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fall asleep very quickly. Guess I'll give it a try anyway. Good Night xx