A brief glimpse into the daily happenings of a 6-year-old, his new baby brother and his family.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Holiday Hangover

Boy, do we have a case of Holiday Hangover at this house. I don't think kids who spend Spring Break in Mexico have this level of difficulty, pain, and suffering returning to normal. The harsh reality of day-to-day living (even with a plethora of new toys) has been full of grouchiness, unreasonable demands, and tantrums. It goes something like this...

As soon as he wakes up (since December 19):
B: When do I open presents today, Mommy?

Since December 25th:
H: We're all done opening presents.
B: What? (wails loudly) No presents? I don't get ANY presents? Oh, I'm am SO SAD. (cries uncontrollably for 5-15 minutes)


After recovering from not opening presents:
B: I want chocolate.
H: Chocolate milk? Sure.
B: NO. I want kisses or candy presents. I want CANDY.

Today at Target:
B: WAAAAAAHHHHHHH (serious crying, tears, sobbing, choking, more crying)

H: What's wrong?
B: Harper and Abby don't have any presents. They have no toys.

Yes, the holiday season has left us with a candy-seeking, on-the-road-to-juvenile-diabetes, crying, blubbering, tired child. Where is that darn Santa when I need him most?

Since Thanksgiving, I've been using the "Santa camera" (Santa Cam) as a way to encourage good behavior. As in, "Oh my gosh, Ben. You better follow directions... the Santa Cams are on." --or-- "Do you see that white thing in the ceiling (at Target... it's totally a fire sprinkler)? That's a Santa Cam. He's watching here, too."

I sure hope those Santa Cams have been disconnected or Santa is going to become the "Re-po" man and take back the cool stuff he brought. And, I hope that doesn't happen because I think Don and I are having more fun with Ben's crash car race track than Ben is.

In an effort to return some "normal" to our house, I took down all the Christmas stuff today. Ok, it's also because I can't stand to look at that stuff even a day after Christmas and the fact that it's the 27th and it was still up was making my eye twitch.


As I pulled the garland off the entertainment center, Ben looked up and said, "Well, down with Christmas."

I couldn't agree more.

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