....and then he learned the phrase "vagina fruit"

* Nixon didn't have a good day at school. But it wasn't a bad day either. He didn't cry or whine, but he wasn't exactly participating either. When we got into the car, I laid down the law: no PSP, no iTouch and more than likely no TV tonight. We got home and he did his learning path, and then took a nap.
   He watched one TV show tonight of his liking.

* Nixon helped Mac and I clean up the sidewalk today. We all cleaned up the fallen leaves and bagged them. Nixon was a great help, using the rake and his hands to make piles for Mac to scoop the leaves up from. He helped us bring out trash and recycling too!
   Then he had a meltdown.
   Time out to the spare bedroom (no toys for him to play with in there). Then he did the crying and whining. It's fake crying. For every fake wail I heard, he added another minute to his time out. After reaching 15 minutes, I decided to try a different approach.
   I calmed him down and gave him a choice. He could settle down and write "I am sorry" 5 times or he could keep crying and talking back and go to bed. He chose to write "I am sorry" 5 times, then went downstairs and showed Mac and apologized.
   We were all good right after that.

* While I was making dinner, Nixon kept coming out to the kitchen and asking if dinner was done yet. For some reason I felt like he was under the impression I was not going to feed him.
   After the billionth trip of Nixon coming into the kitchen and saying "Mommy, is the pasta ready yet?" I kicked him out of the kitchen. I realized I needed to ask him what he wanted to drink, so I called him to the kitchen....he didn't respond. I called him again...no response. I called him a third time, this time calling him "vagina fruit" and he came running over, laughing. "Mommy, what did you call me?" he asked. I told him and then asked him my question. He was cracking up and spent the rest of the time before dinner calling me, the cats and everything "vagina fruit".
   I had to tell him that it's okay to say that, but only at home. Never outside of the house and never, ever at school. It's a family nickname sort of thing.....his teachers will thank me, assuming they knew he was saying this.

Nixon's very advanced...he's not going to runaway from home, he's taking an airplane!

* Mac woke me up today and said Nixon was asking for eggs and bacon. I promised him I'd make breakfast for him last night and he was ready for it!
   I made bacon, eggs and toast for the three of us. During breakfast, we started talking about football (duh, it's Sunday, of course football came up!) and Nixon says, out of nowhere, "The Eagles are going to beat the Giants!". I'm an Eagles fan so that was music to my ears!
    Nixon went on to say that the Dolphins (Mac's favorite team) was going to beat the Jets. He didn't actually know who was playing whom, but he was making these predictions and he was sticking to them.
    Sadly, the Eagles did not win and the Dolphins lost to the Patriots.

* Nixon: I'm going to pack my things and fly away?
me: Are you running away from home then?
Nixon: No, I'm going to the airport and go on a airplane.
me: Oh, okay. where are you going?
Nixon: I don't know.
me: How are you buying your ticket? You're cute but you can't fly for free, kiddo.
Nixon: I don't have any dollars!
me: Well, it's a good idea but I think you need to plan a little better.
Nixon: Well, fine! Then I'm not taking BeBe! *as he leaves to stomp upstairs to his room*
me: Oh Nixon, I'll take BeBe. I'll love him while you're gone.
Nixon: Fine! You take him! *brings me BeBe and stomps up to his room*
This was brought on by....well, I have no clue what brought this on. He just decided he was going to fly away from us. And he was unimpressed by my lack of emotion as he tried leaving! Later, he did try extorting a thousand dollars from me, I think for his plane ticket. I was coming downstairs and he was sitting on the bottom step. He stood up and tried blocking my way, telling me "Give me a thousand dollars and I'll move!", I gave him a kiss and tickled him as I passed him.
   I ain't got no thousand dollars for him!

It was an interest day....was totally a Monday!

* Today is Monday. Nixon didn't have school on Friday, so he has had 5 days off since his last school day. This morning my alarm goes off, I snoozed it twice and got up just before the 3rd time it went off. I walked into Nixon's room and let the alarm wake him up because, shockingly, he was still sound asleep.
   He rolls over, barely opens his eyes to look at me and says "Ugg... really, Mom? It's too early for wake up, the sun is even still sleeping, see? Can I have 5 more minutes please?"
   What could I do but give him 5 minutes?!? I made a cup of coffee before going and getting him, this time he was sitting up in bed but still not totally awake yet.

* Nixon's had so many good days at school, a bad day was bound to happen. Today was that day. According to his teacher he was loud and disruptive, but did participate after his outbursts. So he was just loud, but still not a good day.
   Ugg.....

* And then, finally, Nixon's entire Halloween costume is finished. He even got to try it on....which he pouted about while wearing it, then demanded to wear it longer after he took it off!

Damn his defiant and back-talking mouth!

* From the minute I got out of bed, Nixon was almost non-stop defiant and talking back. I swear, he changed my name to "NO!" and didn't tell me, I heard it come out of his mouth so much today.
 me: Nixon what do you ant for breakfast?
 Nixon: NO! I don't want breakfast!
 me: Okay, let me know when you get hungry.
 Nixon: NO! *a few minutes later* Hey, where's my food?
 me: I'm sorry, what did you just say?
 Nixon: Oops. I meant, may I have something to eat please.

 me: Nix, I think it's time for a nap.
 Nixon: NO! I'm not taking a nap today!
 me: Nixon, you need a nap, you're super feisty.
 Nixon: NO! You are....what did you say?  
 me: Feisty?
 Nixon: You are that word!

 I'd have taken it personally, except when Mac got up Nixon was just as testy and moody with him.

* But then, just like *that*, he's sweet again. He was bringing BeBe over for me to give hugs and kisses to. He also asked me to "babysit" BeBe. I tucked BeBe in my tee shirt for his nap. Then Nixon would come over and tell me "He's done sleeping, I'll take him now." My payment? Hugs and kisses from Nixon.
    He's such a caring single teddy bear father.

* Nixon asked for scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner. He then offered to cook the eggs. And he did a good job too. He used the spatula and kept stirring them in the pan for a few minutes, until they were almost done. Then he said "Okay mom, now you finish, I'm thirsty."

he's so adorable! I just can't get over it....

Today felt like a Monday, not a Friday at all.... but then I remembered it's Friday the 13th, so maybe it felt like a Friday afterall, just a really, really bad one!

* Let me start by saying: none of what we're being told is unexpected. There is a reason I was adamant that Nixon get into a preschool program this fall, before he goes to kindergarten next year. I knew the transition was going to be difficult for him.  

   Onto today: First Nixon didn't want to go to school. His reasoning was he'd be hit again. Did he really believe this? I don't know. I do know I used momlogic and worked him into getting ready for school little-by-little.
   He was told if he stayed home, he was in bed, sleeping with no TV because the only way he was staying home was if he was sick. I asked him if he was sick and he said "NO!", then he says, very matter-of-factually "I should go brush my teeth so the other kids aren't scareded of my stinky breath."
   Take him to school and he is fine. There is the cutest little girl in his class who was so happy to see him! She started saying "Nixon! Nixon's here! Hi Nixon! Hey! Nixon! Nixon! Nixon hi!" as he was putting up his backpack. He played it cool (or rude, depending on your point of view I suppose) but did smile when she came over and joined him at the table he went to play at.

* And then we (Mac and I together, because Mac promised Nixon he would be there...which turned out to be a huge help) went to pick Nixon up. All the kids were in a nicely formed circle, but I didn't see Nixon...until I heard him, in the office, with the head administrator.
   Nixon decided to act an ass most of the day. He was refusing to do any of the choices of activities he was given, arguing instead to do only what he wanted. He was getting to the point of disrupting the rest of the class, so in swooped the Admin and off to her office they went. The goal was to calm him down, which today was not happening. He was rude, talked back and full of sass. When we arrived, he heard our voices and started crying. Until that moment he hadn't produced real tears.
   Mac took Nixon out to the car while I spoke to the Admin. She is amazing! Together, during about a 10-15 minute conversation, we discussed Nixon's issues and how to best address them. She said "He's smart, and he's stubborn. He's a difficult one because he knows what he's doing and he chooses to do it knowing the consequences thinking he can outsmart his way out of the consequences." Yep, that's Nixon.
   Our joint plan of action, during which I explained he'd been evaluated and is a self-led learner and can be very determined to get his own way, is to let her us the punishments we use at home as leverage at school. I also told her he responds very well to sticker charts (because they do individualize things for each child as needed, a HUGE plus and big reason why we chose this particular school as Nixon's intro).

* When we came home, Nixon was told NO PSP and NO iTOUCH for the day. Because of how he acted in school. He asked to go to his room and take a nap. He told me, as I tucked him in for his nap "I just need some time to be alone right now", and I get it. He's dealing with a lot of changes, but he also knows better.

   This weekend we'll be focusing a lot on proper behavior at school and why how he acted in school today is not okay. He learned the hard way, I wasn't joking when I said a bad day at school would mean to video game play time at home. He got none of that today.

This is what I saw when I walked into his room...an empty bed!

He's lying on the floor, next to his bed. This is a photo from under his bed. How cute is he?!

Sleeping, goofy, singing child...much better than the punkass I had in his body this morning.

* Sometimes, you just need to tell your kid to "go the F*^# to sleep, you obviously need the sleep". Today was that day.

   It started with Nixon coming over to me, with his water bottle, and saying "It's empty, this is not right!". I looked right at him and said "Excuse me?", to his credit he quickly changed his tune "May I have more flavor water please?". I told him I'd be happy to get him water, but he needed to apologize first, because his first way of asking for water was rude and very disrespectful to me. He said "I'm not sorry!" and stormed to the stairs. He immediately came back over to me, I'm expecting an apology from my sweet and loving baby boy, instead I get: "I said do it now!"
    Nope, sorry son, it's time for you to go lie down because you have obviously just lost your damned mind!

   We got upstairs and I snuggled with him. I told him I still love him, I'll always love him, but he can't be rude and demanding to me like that. It's just not okay. Sometimes we just need to rest and reset our mood.
   He and I napped together in the spare bedroom, because Mac was still sleeping for the day in our bed. When he woke up....whole new mood!

* Nixon is making up silly songs. He made one up tonight about Daddy.

He just needed to know that Pinkie Pie had a best friend to make his bad mood go away...or at least that's the only logical explanation I have for his total mood change today.

* This morning did not start out good at all. We all got up and got ready to do our Monday morning tradition of breakfast at Denny's, even left and got to Denny's....only to have Nixon lose his effin' mind over Angry Birds! I mean, he LOST his mind! Crying, yelling...an epic tantrum that resulted in us getting back in the car and coming right back home.
   The end result was a family nap and a much happier Nixon. We went to Denny's for breakfast for dinner. Nixon was totally awesome. Ordered his meal, sat quietly, ate his whole meal...just a total 180 from the child he was in the morning.

* Nixon is becoming great at cleaning up his bedroom and living room before bed. Tonight he cleaned his room while his bath was filling up. It was great!

* Nixon woke up from his nap today and was walking down the stairs. I told him, to go bring his Pinkie Pie down with him. He stopped on the stairs and peeked around the corner at me and asked why. I told him there was someone who wanted to play with her...then he saw that my Build-A-Bear Princess Twilight Sparkle arrived and he got the biggest smile on his face and said "Pinkie Pie's best friend is home!"
   Best.Reaction.Ever! He brought Pinkie Pie downstairs and set the ponies up so they were hugging. It was adorable.

A long day with the cousin

* Lazy sleepy day with the family. Late night last night, very early morning today. The boys woke up at 630am!! And they were ready to play!

* Nixon and I took his aunt and cousin to the mall. Nixon went to the child care drop-off center while we shopped. He was upset when it was time to leave and I ended up carrying him out of the mall and to the car. It was no short walk and no easy task with  wiggly, crying child in my arms.

* At dinner he made up for his behavior. He sat and played Star Wars Angry Birds, quietly, the entire time we all ate. He was wonderful! He had eaten dinner before we went to the Bar-B-Que place, so he wasn't hungry and he was content to play and sit quietly.

It's a rough day when Nixon reminds me I haven't had coffee yet....

* Nixon woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. That is, he woke up at all. He was in an evil, punk, talking-back mood from the moment he got out of bed. We had plans to meet Mac at Third Eye Comics for a signing this morning. (On a Wednesday?!? Yes, because it's the summer and because they can!) It's a bad morning when Nixon gets sent to his bedroom less than 30 minutes after getting up for the day.

* Nixon says to me, as we're finally leaving the house to go meet Mac, "Mommy, I know why you're so cranky. You forgot your coffee." Captain Obvious everyone.
   I didn't forget my coffee, so much as choose to get Nixon to Mac ASAP in order to save my sanity. There's a bagel shop in the same plaza as the comic book store, so I grabbed a (large) coffee from there within 10 minutes of getting to Third Eye.
 
* I don't know what his issue is, but he has been on a total "NO" and "I don't wanna" streak. It's not floating with me.

Long live Tantrum King...long may he reign the kingdom of TimeOut!

* Nixon, Tantrum King of the World! Well, it sure felt like he was today. He was sent to his room on 3 occasions and in time out on the stairs once, all before 3pm. I have half-a-voice, it comes and goes, but for the most part I could talk all day long. Which unfortunately for me meant no more unheard, sarcastic cussing responses to Nixon's outbursts. Yeah, I forgot that more than once.

* Uggg....damned Lunchables! They've ruined Nixon's eating habits. Not that he won't eat anything but lunchables, but instead, he asks for candy every time he finishes his food. Finished his waffles for breakfast? "I gets candy now?" Finished his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, banana and granola bar? "My food's all gone, I get my candys now?"
   Two of his trips to his room was because I denied his request for candy.

A bad day from the start.....

* Nixon and I's day started with him coming to my side of the bed, where I was still sleeping and him saying this to me "I don't love you, mommy". I was too stunned to even react. But it pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. I was emotionally numb, try telling a 4-year old that his words hurt your heart...no, really go ahead, I'll wait.
  Normally Nixon is a very loving and caring child. Today, and yes I'm about to make an excuse for him, he was woken up early and unexpectedly by a construction crew of vehicles and loud men not more than 20 feet from him bedroom window at 7am. His whole day was set into a free fall of chaos and I was just collateral damage.

* He also refused a nap...yay.

* He found a bin of toys that I'd hidden with the intention of donating them. He picked through them, taking the ones he wanted and leaving the ones he didn't. He did not ask to go through them because he was told not to go into the box that they were hidden in. As a result, I cleaned out all the toys from his room. He stole toys from my room, I took all his away. He has only books now in his room.

* He was upset because I vetoed Mac's suggestion to watch Star Wars.

* He rolled his eyes, sassed back at me and "nuh-uh" when I asked him to pick up his toys.

* He ended the day by giving me a half-pedi. He painted the toes on my right foot with the same brown nail polish I had used on his toes earlier in the evening. I didn't even ask him to, he just started doing it because he said my toes looked lonely with no colors.

Big, important day of sorts

* Nixon had an evaluation today with the county's public school system. I'll write a more in-depth post about that on my Random Mom-ments blog, but the jist of it was: Nixon is not on the autism spectrum (a concern of mine) but he does have some sensory issues (we've known this and have made adjustments when possible accordingly), he's doing things above age-level and is perceived to be intellectually bright with above average cognitive skills.
  He is a self-led learner, which may be an issue in a classroom setting, so we were given information for a program to see a behavioral therapist to help with that.
   And no day is complete without Nixon being given tasks to complete, completing them and then when it's time to leave (before he's ready) he offers a tantrum of epic proportions as a parting gift.
We'll be hearing from an occupational therapist soon about the evaluators findings overall.

...and then he made my dad laugh!

* Nixon came into our bedroom at 630 this morning:
Nixon: Mommy, Amber peeded on my bed
me: what?!?
Nixon: *walked over to Mac's side of the bed* Daddy! Amber wetted my bed!
me: Nixon, come here, what?
Nixon leaves our bedroom and goes into the spare bedroom: Nana, Amber peeded on my bed!

Yes, there was a small spot of pee. I took everything off his bed and went back to sleep, he stayed up with Nana. But not before he started yelling at Amber (which is not okay, and he was told as much. )

* I called my parents tonight. It's been a few weeks, and I got some news so I called them immediately. After talking to my mom and my dad, I let Nixon talk to my dad. First, Nixon does his latest (a-hole) move, and yells into the phone. Then he hands me the phone and says he can't talk. Finally he sits still for a minute and really talks to his grandfather. When I got the phone back, my dad was genuinely laughing at Nixon and his antics.
  Thank you, Nixon. I haven't heard a sincere and genuine laugh from my dad in quite a few months.

Sunday...the best lazy day ever!

* Everyone needed a day to recover from Friday and Saturday. We had planned to go take photos today, but it was cloudy and we decided to stay inside for the most part.
   Nixon had a couple epic meltdowns, at one point I had to carry him upstairs and calm him down in my bed with me holding him while he screamed his displeasure. He was a very upset little boy. He did eventually calm down.

* We had Wilcox-Ball family nap time in our bed today. All three of us. It was great, until Nixon rolled over and popped me in the throat with his fist! That's what I get for sleeping on my back I suppose.

 

Nixon, guardian of freshly made beds

* Nixon has been having a real issue with cleaning up his toys lately. So much so that it's come to 3 times of getting asked to clean them up, and then Mac or I clean them up and take them away. Today was that same thing, Nixon had just gotten his cars back and he decided to not pick them up. I was picking them up and he knew that meant they were going to be taken away again. So what does he do? He sits on the stairs and says "BOOOO" when he realizes I'm not going to let him come and save his "favorite" truck.
I ushered him into his room and put him in Time Out for that. I can ignore a lot of things, but a blatant disrespectful act like that...no sir, we're going to address that.

* Nana (Mac's mom) is coming for a week long visit starting next week. Nixon is excited and has even been happily, even at some points begging, helping me getting the house ready. Today he helped me wash the sheet for the spare bed. He then told Amber, after he saw the fresh clean sheets on the bed, "No Amber, that's Nana's bed. You have to stay out! Okay? I said stay out!"

It's SUPER CRANKYPANTS!!

* Nixon has been in full-on crankypants mode this whole week. Some days he's okay, other days like today he admits he's being bossy and he's mad. I let him go, as long as he's not throwing things/hitting anyone/hurting himself.
  We had errands that HAD to get done, but I needed to let him get his bossy attitude out before leaving the house. It worked. Eventually he came to me and said "I'm done being bossy and mad. Can I get dressed and go bye-bye now?"

* Four-hour nap today! What?!?! Yeah, thinking his never-ending appetite and this mood thing might be a growth spurt in the making....

* After he went to bed, he wasn't asleep. I checked on him and he says "Mommy, youse being too loud I cannot sleep because your mouth is too loud!" I was downstairs talking to Mac, not laughing outrageously loud! Thankfully, Amber went back into the room with him and he quickly fell asleep with her in bed with him.

sometimes I get pure, accidental magic in these photos. this is tonight's magic shot. Nixon rubbed his eye as the photo was taken.  

Sometimes visual aids make for clearer learning

*Nixon was having another bossy day. He kept trying to set the rules and ignore what was being told to him, by both Mac and myself.
I finally took a different approach, after getting sick of yelling and threats and spanking...nothing worked.
I picked him up and took him to our family photos on the wall. I pointed to one of the 3 of us:
me: Nixon, is this a grown up or a little kid? (pointing at myself in the photo)
Nixon: grown up
me: What about this? (points to Mac) Grown up or little kid?
Nixon: Grown up.
me: And this one? (points to him)
Nixon: A little kid!
me: Okay, so now grownups make the rules and little kids have to follow them. SO, let's try it this way now: Is Mommy a grown up or a little kid?
Nixon: A grown up.
me: And Daddy is...?
Nixon: A grown up.
me: And you, Nixon, you are...?
Nixon: I'm a little kid, Mommy.
me: So, if grown ups make the rules and not little kids, who makes the rules in our house?
Nixon: I don't know.
me: Nix, who are the grown ups in the picture?
Nixon: You and Daddy.
me: So who are the grown ups in our family?
Nixon: You and Daddy?
me: Yes! That's correct. And who is the little kid in our family?
Nixon: I am!!
me: And who makes the rules in our house?
Nixon: grown ups not little kids.
me: Who are the grown ups in our house?
Nixon: Not me!
me: Close enough!

Thank gods today is over!

* Today was honestly one of those days that just started bad and never really got better. Nixon was in a funk of a mood and it showed. He was cranky, bossy, sassy and all kinds of mouthy. Instead of going and running errands with us, he was sent to take a nap because I could not take his attitude for another minute.
I thought his behavior would improve when he woke up, and it did for about an hour, and then he was just as horrible as before.

Thank gods today is over. I can not stress enough that while I love my son, today had me seriously looking for a bottle of wine and a child that hadn't been stolen by aliens overnight replaced by a rotten pod-person.