Today I made the grave error of taking all 3 kids to the doctor for a check-up at the same time. I almost had to excuse myself and duck out the car for an emergency Valium. I’ll give Dr. Whitman credit…he didn’t lose his cool even though he was stuck in a 10′ x 10′ exam room with 3 kids in their underwear and me (fully dressed) for an extended period of time. He did have to remove the roll-y stool from the room because Adlani wouldn’t listen to him and stop trying to use it as a ride-on toy.
All of the kids are healthy and on-track for growth, etc. I asked Dr. Whitman if Adlani was going through a phase (please, PLEASE, let it be a phase), and he said, “Yes, but I have a feeling this phase is going to last until he’s about 16.” I told him what a good boy Adlani is when it’s just the two of us and he said it was because then Adlani didn’t have an audience. That’s a really good point. When there’s an audience he suddenly gets loud(er) and unresponsive to my threats.
Well, his behavior today meant that he couldn’t go out to dinner with Aliya, Norah, and me, and he was really upset about that. Ben felt sorry for him and at one point before we left for dinner Adlani came downstairs and said, “Mommy, please just take me to dinner with you. I’ll kiss your feet.” I said, “Go tell Daddy, ‘Nice try’ but you’re not going.” Ben doesn’t want to see the kids upset and he hates to deny them anything, but if we give in, Adlani quickly figures out that there are no consequences so why bother behaving?
The rest of my day was spent at a jobsite in Boston, and giving blood this afternoon (Yes, I was so desperate to leave the house alone that I donated bodily fluids.). The evening was “Girls’ Night Out” which was comprised of dinner at Joe’s and a trip to Walmart to buy bras. BRAS? Yes, for ALIYA. Apparently she’s “in second grade now” so she had to have bras. I hope third grade doesn’t mean that it’s time for her first tattoo or piercing.
I saw this “oops” at the jobsite this morning (copied from my work blog)…
