The Latta Family

Kids.  They're a total mystery.  You think you have a handle on them, everything is going just like it should, when out of a nowhere  . . . BAM!  Crisis!!!!! I assumed Alexa would be the difficult one.  The hard one.  The one that required more parenting. And she's certainly had her moments, but frankly when it comes to discipline. . . she's not all that hard.  I just have to tell her I'm disappointed and make a sad face at her and . . . "BLAHHHHHH"  it's tears, and throwing herself down on the nearest object (or floor) and then we kiss and hug and it's over- (I am fully prepared for this to change).  Not Andrew.  His has to build and build and build and then suddenly it all has to come to a ginormous head, and I have to be Psycho Mom, with my guns blazing, handing out over- the- top, harsh punishments. Here's the situation.  For the past year we've been dealing with Andrew not applying himself like he should and could in school...

I took Alexa with me on a walk.  I had originally planned for this to be a calorie burning walk, but I hadn't spent much time with her tonight, and so I brought her with me and the dog.  If listening to Alexa talk, burned calories, I could easily eat a guilt free ice cream sundae. Here are some of her reflections, in no particular order. 1. Gracie took care of her business pretty quickly into the walk.  Alexa exclaims, "Ewwww, Gracie's poop stinks!!!"  I said, "Well, Alexa- yours does too.  So does mine."  She says, "Yeah, Dad's and Andrew's does too.  You know, everybody (big gesture to the nearby houses) in our neighborhood has poop that stinks!" 2.  "Oh no!  This rock is away from it's family!"  So she picks up the rogue rock that has gotten away from "its family" and puts it back in the drive.  A few steps further and she says, "Oh!  This rock has gotten away from its family too!"  A few steps furt...

I think I've told you this before, but when I was younger (heck- she still does it, when my siblings are being particularly annoying- not me though- I am never  annoying) my mother used to say, "I hate kids!"  Now that I am a mother, I know what she really meant, "Doggone, aggravating, pain in my rear end- KIDS!!!!!" Alexa, Doug, and I finished off some cookies in secret- while poor, deprived Andrew slaved over his vocabulary sentences one evening not too long ago, I figured I owed him a treat (in fairness- he has no idea he missed out on the cookies- as it was done in secret).  So, when I ran to the grocery store for the 50th time that week, I picked him up a treat of his choice: a Hershey bar. Since I told him I hoped rats wouldn't eat his face off for leaving trash around his room recently, he's been doing a great job getting all his wrappers and trash up in his room.  Except tonight- instead of getting the Hershey bar wrapper in the trashcan- he ...

Hello.  My name is Kate.  I am a control freak.  Rigid, drill sergeant, unrelenting, uncompromising control freak. Only about the things I care about though.  Don't bother me with things I don't care about, because then I become overwhelmed, flustered, and irritated. Good luck figuring out what I care about and what I don't. The things I do care about, look out because it's my way or the highway. It's starting to be a problem though.  Thank God I can laugh at myself.  It doesn't stop me from being rigidly controlling, but I can laugh at myself about it- sort of. Here are some examples: 1. Last year at Christmas we were packing up and putting away the Christmas decorations.  We use a fake tree that sheds it's needles.  It's like having a real tree, without all the good smells.  Doug decided he was going to "help" me vacuum.  I, unfortunately, had a cruddy vacuum and there was a very specific way one must go about vacuuming.  First...