Boys NEED their fathers!!!!

Richard is gone and suddenly I am the enemy! Joseph hasn't really said a whole lot about daddy being gone, but it is obviously affecting him quite a bit, and he appears to be blaming me! He crawled in bed with Annalina and I at about 2am last night. He laid next to me and I swear he turned circled for about 10 minutes before I woke up completely. He just could not get comfortable. So I asked him if he wanted to go back to his own bed and surprisingly he said yes. So he was up super early which meant Curious George time. I fell back to sleep on the sofa and awoke to Joseph kicking me in the shins, ouch! Obviously he was a bit grumpy and needed my attention, but as the day went on he got more and more contrary so that I finally just left him home for Annalina's soccer camp instead of bringing him along to play. Adrienne was kind enough to watch him so I could have an hour of peace watching Annalina. Upon my return, she reported that he had been pretty stinkerish. He came up to me and said very matter of factly, "Adrienne put me in time out". I asked him why and he said, "Cause I was kicking her". I told him he better go say he was sorry, but he would not. So I told him he wouldn't get to go to his own soccer class so he went up and yelled through the bathroom door at her that he was sorry. She was in the shower, so she probably didn't even hear, but its the principle right? ::sigh::

At 1 Annalina and I took him to his soccer class which was fine, until the last 5 minutes when the teacher asked the parents to play a 1 on 1 game with their child. He got really upset that I would try to take part in his class! I know he was tired, so I am trying not to take it too personally. He yelled all the way home and kicked the back of my seat, so he earned himself a nice little nap. A good break for me and he desperately needed the rest. I think its amazing that he lets me put him down for naps. He whines and cries the whole way up, but once I get him on his bed, I can usually distract him with choices. Do you want the shades up or down? which music do you want to listen to? I think he feels in control of his nap environment so he willingly stays in bed and falls asleep. And it does him a world of good!

Swimming lessons were good. Although I was sitting on the other side of the pool watching, Joseph tried to throw water at me when I waved at him. He looked mad, then he smiled. Who knows!! I just think its my turn to go away next, but perhaps I need to wait for the boys to get home!

We got home and I noticed the lawn is looking not so happy. Its been very hot this week. Hmmm...we have a temporary sprinkler system set up, why isn't that helping? OH yeah, I ran over one of the sprinklers last week so Richard must have turned it off. I tried to turn that on(its all VERY complicated), but a fountain erupted out of the broken one (what was I expecting?), so I had to take that one apart and set up the big rainbow like sprinkler. It was successfully watering our yard and the neighbors truck, and most of his house when the kids came out. They have fun getting drenched while I made adjustments. Good thing my neighbor is out of town! The other good news is his house is safe if a wildfire goes through the area.

On a happy note, my bathroom is clean! Except for the shower, I hate scrubbing that textured floor. Any suggestions on keeping that clean would be appreciated! That's about it for my to do list so far, but my room is about halfway there. I can walk down my side of the bed without stepping on clothing or anything else!!

The other good news, we got a postcard from Richard today. They are having fun riding horses and doing other scouty things. I doubt Richard has been kicked at all this week! We miss him and are glad he is having a good time. Annalina thinks scouts sounds great if you get to ride horses!! She misses daddy too, but she deals with it by being extra helpful. Its a nice contrast to Joseph!

Sorry for the tantrum earlier, typing in all caps is not as satisfying as kicking and screaming, but it helped take the edge off and I am trying to set a good example for Joseph! Maybe I need to introduce him to blogging!