Winter Break: Day 1

Don't get me wrong, I love my little guy.  I love spending time with him, really I do.  But long breaks from school don't always bring out the best in either of us.  I'm sitting at my desk right now trying to convince myself that obsessively cleaning my kitchen is a better choice than having two pieces of apple pie for lunch.  I think I need to sit here a little bit longer.  I have patience for a lot of things when it comes to Isaac, but it's when he gets the shrieking bossy tone with me that makes me crazy.  We had just pulled into the garage, and I had hit the garage door button closed and started opening my door to get out when- "No, mommy! Close your door!  I have to undo my seatbelt!"  I somewhat calmly explained that I have to get out of the car in order to open his door for him and that he doesn't need to yell like that.  He starts screaming again when I go to open my door and my head did this funny thing, maybe similar to the girl from The Exorcist (I blame demons that I don't believe in unless convenient for me to do so.) and it yelled "STOOOOP!"  He, of course, started crying and I took him out of the car and put him up in his bed all the while explaining why he did not need to yell at me... when I just yelled at him.  Lovely.  Where's that pie?

Why can't winter break always be like last night when we sat on the floor and made a necklace together?  Hey, who says you  need daughters in order to make jewelry?  This is better.   He helps string a really long necklace (great for fine motor skills, patterns, and counting), and I get to keep it.  Win/win!  We laughed and joked the whole time... it was magical.  Today it's arguing, mini meltdowns, and time outs for both of us.  I guess it's true what they say: too much togetherness isn't always a good thing.  Is my eye twitching?

This is the necklace.  Note the TV on in the background.  It's rest time for Isaac and writing for mommy.  We're planning to salvage the rest of the afternoon.  Tonight I'm going to brush up on the blogs of better moms- moms with patience and craft skills.  Check out artfulchild.blogspot.com.  This woman is my winter break hero.  I'm hoping some of her ideas will come to the rescue for us this week.