a rant

Are we really already one whole week into the month of September???

How did this happen?

Right now I'm sitting at the kitchen table with Mercedes as she does her homework. And it's EXCRUCIATING!!!

My second grader is required to answer essay questions about ANARCHY and BULLYING.

Seriously?

Brent just said: "I don't think that I even knew what anarchy was in the second grade."

The teacher is following some discipline theory. The first two levels (anarchy and bullying) are "unacceptable behavior." The other two, which I'm sure we'll be covering tomorrow, are "acceptable behaviors."

This poor girl gets home at 4 pm and is tired and hungry. She feels overwhelmed and so do I.

Is this the rest of my life? I hate homework. Kids are in school ALL DAY. They need time to develop OTHER skills too.

In other news, Cooper is currently BUCK naked. This is because he's in the process of learning to use the "potty." Every time I've tried to train him, he's completely wet his pants (down the leg) several times within the first hour. So I gave up. But last Saturday, Brent had HAD it. So he took over. I told him, "the only way I was able to teach Mercedes not to wet her pants was to REMOVE all pants - so that she'd feel it right away." And I've TRIED that with Coop. But this kid is so "OCD" that he can't handle not having pants on. He FREAKS. But Brent is more stubborn than I am, so for the first two days he dealt with it. Cooper still does not like being naked from the waste down, but he's not freaking anymore.

We go through about five pairs of pants a day. Every once in a while, he convinces me to let him put pants on. "Mommy, I promise I won't pee-pee in my pants," he says. And I feel bad for him. And I give him some pants to put on. And then he wets. He DOESN'T wet if he's naked. He RUNS to the potty.

The sunshine in all of this is that I have not had to change a dirty diaper today (at least not of a boy older than 20 months). The bottom line? Cooper's having a much harder time getting it than Mercedes did (she was trained - nights too- within about a day). But I still feel like shouting, "YIPEE!!!!!!!!"

And then there's my Lincoln.

Lincoln is a crazy kid.

Feisty.

Mean when he doesn't get his way.

Lately he's been turning on the sink faucets.

And leaving them that way.

And he always goes for the dangerous items in my bathroom drawer (scissors, razors, toothpaste) when I forget to lock him out. Yesterday I found him in the bathroom sink, about to poke his finger into one of the sockets that I didn't think I needed to child-proof.

I've found him doing things that the other kids didn't ever try. I'm learning new things with this one. But I still love him to pieces. He was my peace and comfort while Brent was away. It's only recently that he's evolved from a mellow, happy and easy-going baby to a MONSTER with too much smarts. (Like he can reach into the knife drawer - those "childproof" things don't work because his middle name is HERCULES.)

That's all for now.