Man Up Little Boy!

On Friday night, Craig took Aaron to the Long Island Ducks baseball game. I've never been, but they are a minor league team and the games are supposed to be geared towards the kids and really super fun. So when Aaron's school sent home a flyer that they were having a group ticket sale for Friday night's game, I sent in a check and bought 4 tickets thinking it would be a great family night. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans right? Ya, G-d was certainly having a good laugh at my expense. With Camryn skipping her nap two days in a row, a 7pm baseball game with a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms forecasted was not my #1 choice of place to take her. So with me and Cam sitting this one out, Craig and Aaron had a boys night with the Ducks.

For me, taking my kids anywhere is always stressful. Why? Because I want them to behave. No, change that. I expect them to behave. I am certainly no drill seargent and my requirements are not too much. Don't scream at the top of your lungs. Don't run around like an animal. When in a restaurant, don't go under the table. And when I say something, listen. Understandably, 6 year olds and 3 year olds don't listen 100% of the time. Like I said, I'm no drill seargent - a 50% success rate would make me happy. But when in public, listen to me when I tell you something. And knowing in advance that that most likely is not going to happen usually stresses me out before we're even out the door. Craig though is different. The antithesis of my Type-AAA personality, he's laid back. Sometimes it irritates me how laid back he is. It takes alot to get him riled up. So when he came home from the baseball game on Friday night with a look on his face like he was ready to clobber someone with his own baseball bat, I braced myself. Because he'd already had a 30 minute car ride to get over it and he so clearly wasn't.

For the next 20 minutes, I listed to why he was so mad. Did Aaron run around like an animal? No. Streak across the baseball field? No. Not listen? No. What then? He cried. Four times. So hysterically that every single person sitting in the section stared. And stared. And kept on staring. For a long time. And the worst part? The crying was for absolutely no reason. As Craig is relaying the goings on of the night, I'm slowly coming to realize why he's so pissed off. Because for someone who absolutely hates to be the center of attention, he had the entire section of the stadium staring at him 4 separate times while Aaron hysterically screamed his head off. I understood that if Aaron had actually been hurt or anything that warranted hysteria, Craig would not have cared who was looking at him. But for no reason? He was absolutely mortified.

I'm sure that those reading this (all three of you!) are on the edge of your seats wondering why all the crying. The first time, he legitimately got hurt. The other three times, in order, were:

1. He wanted ice cream. And then he didn't like the flavor ice cream that he got.
   
2. He wanted a t-shirt.
3. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to sit with his friend and her dad or go with Craig to the bathroom.

Basically, he was acting like a brat. A giant spoiled brat. A giant spoiled brat who is about 3 years old. Not 6 and in kindergarten. But this is Aaron. The sweetest little boy in the world, so cute, nice and funny, but man, a total infant. At home, if he wants something and we say no, he cries. I'm talking anything from wanting to watch tv to wanting a snack to wanting to go outside. We're at the end of our rope with the crying - so close to the end of our rope that the other day I actually looked at him and said, "Man up, Aaron." Seriously. I told a 6 year old kindergartener to man up. Because I can't take the constant crying.

Our current solution is just to ignore it. Let him cry. I'll send him to his room until he's done crying because I just can't take the sound of it. But when we're out in public, it's a problem. Like Friday. Poor Craig. I don't think we'll be seeing the Ducks again this season.

I'm Still Here.....

Hi blog! I'm still alive, although my days have been a series of one day melting into the next. It's been awhile so I'll try and catch you up via a bullet pointed list. It was going to be a "Top 10" list but I'm not sure I have 10 things to talk about. And away we go....

• We surprised the kids with a trip to Disney last month. I will have to sit down and write about it in detail but in a nutshell, it was amazingly awesome. The kids had fun, we had fun, Disney World is this seriously magical place where only good things happen and everyone is super nice. We didn't watch tv, see the news or read the newspaper for an entire week. I called it our state of blissfull ignorance. We got home just in time for the swine flu outbreak and truly had no idea about it until we got to the airport and people everywhere were wearing surgical masks. Special thanks to my Mom Panel friend Darcie for helping plan this spectacular week. Oh, and great surprise to be able to hang with Maria Bailey, Leanne and Laura and their mommy bloggers to watch the fireworks, even if my 6 year old cried the whole time.
• After our week in Disney, I think I seriously fell into a depression when we came home. I spent the whole first week not wanting to do ANYTHING, which then depressed me even more.
• We're home almost a month and I'm STILL waiting for this rain to stop here in NY. If I wanted Seattle-like weather, I would have lived in Seattle. It's the end of May and we're still wearing jeans and sweatshirts. Definitely need to clue Mother Nature into the fact that a little rain is okay and necessary but at some point it's gotta stop. Bring on the sunshine!
• I'm glad that Kris Allen won American Idol instead of Adam Lambert. I don't think Adam is commercial enough and if my all-time fave Danny Gokey couldn't win, I'm glad it went to Kris. I didn't vote, although I did try - the lines were busy and I gave up. I did though download Kris's version of Heartless from iTunes - it was awesome.
  
• I've moved from The Real Housewives of NYC to The Real Housewives of NJ. While I love the NYC girls (other than Kelly. And Ramona. And Alex.) the NJ girls are good for a laugh. A really, really, really big laugh. And a bunch of "Oh My God"s. Jersey girls, understand that this show is a huge reason why people think what they think about NJ. Just sayin'.....
• Camryn has turned into a major bitch. That may be wrong to say about a 3 year old but I'm saying it. And saying it loud. She's driving me insane. Everything is "NO!" or "MINE!" or some other loud and obnoxious one word answer. Today she told me "I don't love you, I love only Daddy. But that's okay because Aaron loves you." I mean, when did 3 year olds get logic? If this is a sign of things to come, I'm done for.
  
• Camryn also has decided that she loves to say inappropriate (and embarrassing) things at any given time, making me not want to take her anywhere. Ever. Some examples? In the bank, we walked by an older man (by older, I mean somewhere in the 80+ range) and she sniffed the air loudly and said, "That man stinks, mommy." Fantastic, right? In the next store, she decided to point to a bald man and said, "Isn't that man's hair funny?" And this morning, I had put some cream on her private area because she said she was a little itchy (just finished a round of antibiotics), and when I picked her up at school and whispered to her, "How do you feel?" she said, "I fine Mommy, and my vagina's great!" Note - all of these things that she said are at a volume of about 1000.
• Heidi from The Hills is killing me. I mean, why does she not realize what a total ass Spencer is? And I'm bummed that LC is leaving. Let's not talk about why I am still watching this show. Sigh....
• Frequency is so my favorite movie. It's Jim Caviezel before he was Jesus and Dennis Quaid before he started looking old. I think I've watched it about 100 times in the past two months (it's on cable). If you haven't seen it, see it. Now.
  

Had enough? I think that's about all. Not all that exciting. Miss me much??