The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Yesterday was a "wonky" day. Especially for Rease.

The good thing about having cousins visit that are close in age is you get to "share" on a different level. Someone closer to your age. Someone who understands your "girly things". That's how it is with Rease and Hope - right now anyway.

But yesterday went south from the very beginning. The girls were ready for the pool as soon as they walked in the door from spending the night at Paul's - about 7:30ish. I had to hold them off til near 9:00! The nerve of me. Well, Hope's bathing suit was in the laundry. I gave her one of Rease's, but for some reason that didn't fly with her. She looked fine in it, but refused to wear it. Attitude big time - which resulted in loss of pool privileges for the day. I sent Rease and Helena out to swim - which lasted a total of 15 minutes. For some odd, unknown reason they couldn't swim without Hope. Hm. . . strange phenomenon here. So, in they came, changed their clothes and they too lost pool privileges. Thus starting the bad of the day.

As time wore on, and Hope was able to play, things went farther south. They were on my sofa all busy with "girly things" when Goldilocks came and snitched on them. They had been wrestling around and got RED chap stick on my couch and the load of clean sheets I had put on the end to be folded. I. WAS. NOT. HAPPY! ! Rease was devastated - they had broken the rules - no pens, pencils, markers, crayons or make up in the living room. (See why?) She does have a tender heart and I knew she was mortified at what they had done - I could see it in her eyes - the remorse was punishment enough. She spent the better part of an hour (hiding outside) getting herself togther.

Rease cannot for the life of her keep things out of her mouth. Toys, pencils, erasers, pool noodles - you name it - if it's able, it goes in the mouth. So it was yesterday. A small plastic ring one of her friends had given her for her birthday - was her object of choice. She had been told to keep it out of her mouth. But did she listen? Goldilocks came to me and told me Rease had swallowed a ring! (see a pattern here - Rease trouble - Goldilocks tattletale?) I called Rease to me. I asked if she was ok - did she hurt anywhere - yes, her chest (I'm thinking the ring was quite hard and hurt on the way down). I asked her if she understood why it was important to keep things out of her mouth. I told her it would be ok - she would probably "poop" it out. Oh my - they anguish in this child's face. Of course now - Helena hearing this - wants to make sure she is around when the ring makes it's "exit"! She has a quirky mind - just let me tell ya. She is on pins and needles waiting the "blessed event"! She was actually wondering if we were going to fish it out?! ! Heck no! Good Gravy Marie! It's going to sewer heaven!! PERIOD. So poor Rease spent another hour or so (this time behind the sofa) pulling herself together.

All was well -or as well as could be expected for this particular day - for the remainder of the day. We had dinner, baths, dessert. Things then got ugly for her. This poor child. Sarah had jumped out of the pantry and scared some of us. She wanted to "get " Rease. I told her no - not Rease - she would not do well with that. Did Sarah listen? She waited until I went to the bathroom and she and Alicia set Rease up. They sent her to the pantry to get crackers for Alicia because Alicia was holding Alaina and couldn't do it herself, and Rease being the tender heart was more than willing to help Alicia out. As soon as she opened the pantry door, Sarah jumped out and growled at her. Rease burst into tears and lost all composure and screamed at Sarah. I heard the screams in the bathroom and knew instantly what had happened. When I came out, I found Rease in the back room in a puddle of tears. I had warned them. She is NOT the one for those kind of pranks. Once she got herself together, apologies were made and accepted and laughs were had by all the girls.

Rease informed me this morning that she did not sleep well last night. She said she was cold - but I wonder if she was reliving the events of yesterday.

So. . . we will patiently - or not - await the exit of the ring. We will work on attitudes. We will have fun. We WILL survive! I think.

In the meantime - could I just have a boy or two? Just askin'.