The bathroom is finished, although all the stuff, has not been stuffed back inside. Next week the ripping out of the old kitchen dining nook will start, then the refinishing of the wood floor, which will be messy. I am not looking forward to that part.
Mark and the kids are going away for his grandfather's memorial service, but I have my Director's Cohort, second to the last seminar, both Friday and Saturday, so I will stay in a hotel in Clackamas.
Staying in a fancy hotel sounds kind of fun, but staying in a business park type hotel sounds gloomy- I was being cheap, but didn't want a cheap motel, so this is a compromise.
We had the most delightful sun Friday and Saturday, or so I am told, I worked with a group of colleagues on some writing revisions that wound up taking six hours. It was one of those projects that leave you feeling victorious over long winded and nonspecific language, but mentally spent.
I came home, laid on the sofa for an hour and announced "we are going out for Chinese!" Off we went to Canton Grill on 82nd, a fabulously tacky place that has been slinging chopsuey since 1944! The number 4 dinner is huge enough to feed all of us, not that we are ever wise enough to stop there.
We came home from dinner and dyed eggs.
It was then that the evening took a rather unfortunate turn, when Rolf came home with his girlfriend, who for some reason I cannot fathom had stored a giant stack of candy in his room (she has her very own apartment, without curious children).
It seems that Freyja got into a package- intended for her brother- of little jewel tone, jelly eggs and ate two.
Which lead to the girlfriend crying thief, and demanding that Miss F get in trouble for stealing.
Normally I am very strict about not taking things that don't belong to you, etc. but, in her defense Rolf is constantly plying her with candy, that we forbid her to have.
I try to establish boundaries around privacy and he allows her to rifle through all of his things, on and on for her entire life.
I can see that while she knew she should not have been eating jelly eggs from Germany, she would not have viewed it as stealing.
When I reminded the girfriend of this habit of Rolf's one she has been frequent witness to, she said ominously "it is never the child." which led me to feel a little defensive. I was at work all day! Mark, did you leave Freyja unattended, so she could stick up Rolf's room for candy eggs?
Much little girl sobbing ensued, and I became a little cranky toward the end of it.
Take your candy the hell out of my house.
Was on the tip of my tongue, but I contained myself very nicely.
So now I am attempting to rally, to make some sort of festive dinner for this evening, while totally NOT IN THE MOOD, good times.
Oh gads, what a nitwit. (I say this as someone who also does not reinforce much better boundaries on my stuff than kids' mothers often do, e.g. 'Oh, they're kids, they're curious, they're going to get into things,' etc. etc.) You don't hide candy from children in a room they're been historically allowed to pilfer, what is the matter with her? She has no sense and can't be taken seriously. And geez, Frey only ate *two*, that is not a capital crime anyway, when a WHOLE BAG was available, TO A SIX YEAR OLD, holy hell, that's barely a misdemeanor! She showed incredible restraint.
ReplyDeleteHallie, the candy wasn't hidden at all, it was just sitting on the dresser, at eye level, out in the open, no bag, not request to leave it alone, just sitting around.
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