Pity Party and a Baby Devil

Tonight Elsa was over the moon because Charlie's basketball coach invited her to practice with the team this Friday.

Charlie was less than thrilled.

"Elsa gets EVERYTHING!"

"I get NOTHING!"

I tried to tell him that the way he was feeling about Elsa

is the way Sarina has felt about him.

For ages she has felt he gets more attention,

he gets whatever he asks for.

Now Charlie is having the same feelings about Elsa.

I tried to reason with him.

I reminded him that she's his baby sister.

He muttered, "she's the baby devil."

Yes, I laughed out loud at that one.

It's funny!

Maybe sometimes she is.

Aren't we all at some point?

I wish I'd been as patient with Sarina about her feelings, as I'm finding myself far more patient with Charlie's feelings.

I'm beginning to see that they each are going to see a sibling as a rivalry 

in some sense.

My job as a mama is to affirm each one's strengths and unique qualities.

My job is to help them feel secure about who they are 

without comparing themselves to everyone else.

All four are so wonderfully different 

and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Baby devil.

Ha!

Hahahahaha!

Charlie and His Terrrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

Last week, Charlie had a terrible horrible no good very bad day.

Dad didn't make his fluffy 4 egg scramble with ham and cheese before school, mom served eggo waffles and yogurt instead.

He wanted to play on his kindle, but he'd had it taken away for a WHOLE WEEK.

When listening to music with headphones,

no one wanted to be in the same room because he sang too loudly.

Then mom only let him turn it up less than 1/2 way.

He fell at art walk showing his fantastic leopard gecko habitat.

He fell again during circus hands-on part of the art walk, trying unicycle.

He fell yet again trying the stilts.

Juggling was hard.

He didn't want to leave, even though mom CLEARLY said 7:30pm was the latest he could stay and he didn't leave until 7:55pm.

He almost didn't get mud pie,

even through turned down ice cream at school because he was waiting patiently for mud pie.

He ate mud pie and proudly put dirty bowl into dishwasher...

full of CLEAN dishes.

Before bed, he pooped and peed but didn't flush.

Then he played with Lego guy too crazily

it bounced off the ceiling,

hit the mirror,

slid down the counter

and some how landed in ️the UNFLUSHED toilet!

Then what the heck, he got completely crazy and

wiped bum with his little sisters bath towel and

left it on the floor.

He knew he was in trouble.

Mom assured him she wasn't mad,

just disappointed.

And to top it off,

he JUST

COULDN'T

SLEEP.

Charlie had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

Somedays that happens,

even in Olympia.

Tilak Mark

Over a week ago our family was enjoying watching Sarina in her fourth school play performance.

She was a narrator in Aladdin which meant she had a handful of singing solo lines and she was marvelous!

Anyway, the chairs were nice and cozy so when Charlie stood in front of me to talk we were really close.

In an unfortunately timed reach into my purse-on the floor-my poor little buddy also happened to bend forward at just the right time.

His little beaver tooth (I can say that because he inherited it from me...) perfectly collided with my forehead slicing right in.

Yes, I felt nauseous.

Yes it hurt like hell.

And yes I thought I was going to pass out.

But I couldn't show it.

His beautiful little face crumbled when he saw that he'd hurt me.

Truly, I think it might have hurt his heart more than my head hurt.

I smiled,

told him I was ok

then tried to bee-line it to the bathroom to get some tissue to stop the bleeding.

Of course I was right behind an old lady with a walker I could not dodge

no matter how many attempts I made.

Mark has laughed that my wound looks like a tilak mark.

Today, over a week after, I wrapped up in a scarf I love.

Charlie looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes,

"Now you REALLY look like an Indian lady", he said.

I have to admit, though I fall quite a bit short of their exotic beauty...

I can see where he's coming from.

What do you think?