The real menace about dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.

-- Jean Kerr

4-5 yr olds are hard.They are toddlers in one sense of the word- but technically they aren't.
I guess you could call Rory a preschooler- in the literal, she is PRE school age, way..

They are cute, they are caring, they are adorable, they are funny,they are fast learners,they are imaginative, they are playful-
but they are also DIFFICULT.
It's hard not to beat yourself up a little as a parent,when the only way to survive a day is in letting them wear a costume,

It's hard,When you fear every trip out could lead to a melt down..
when you feel like every time your beautiful sweet child is hungry, or tired, they are replaced with a fired breathing monster from the underworld..
When every "No" has to come with a detailed explanation about why you need to say no, and a warning of a time-out.
It's hard to remind yourself that it is just your child learning their boundaries, and/or being grumpy- and it is NOT you failing miserably at pretty much the only thing you do.parenting.

It's hard to keep from banging your head into the wall and join them on grumpy days, by acting yourself like a preschooler, at the 900th utterance of "why" or "whadyosay" in five minutes.

Don't get me wrong, I love this age,and I love my kid.
I love watching her play. I love her stories, her drawings,her songs, her dancing,her imagination, how fast she learns and watching her figure out new things every day...it's just hard.

-sigh-
I guess you can figure out Rory has been learning more and more about time out lately.
She has been doing some really cool other things. She spends most the day drawing- her drawings have become so detailed, she will sit down and look around her and draw everything around her- she is even figuring out scale ,drawing things behind her smaller..I still haven't got that concept!She has been SUPER sweet and cuddly-needy- too.

She even went with us to Val's and learned to play Monopoly..she probably would have won too, if she didn't get bored,but I am amazed she played for as long as she did. She would rather just run and play with Seth.

Saturday we went to Ri's freind/boss's house for dinner.Their son Asher really wanted to play with Rory again.
I have said before I think Asher is the boy version of Rory- they are soo freakishly alike.They way they act and talk is identical..Just replace littlestpetshop with cars



I don't know why Rory decided she had to wear her lei.. but it wasn't a full costume and at least I had already talked her into the pants..

We had a great time. Dinner was awesome. Rory LOVES Asher now, and now she isn't so sure she will marry Damian.Asher actually said "stick with me ,Rory"- oh dear!
I did have to remind Rory not to be soo bossy,but she was really good.
There was a bit of a melt down.. it was Asher, he was tired -the whole situation I have seen play out soo many times in reverse,and the way they handled it was OH sooo familiar, that even Rory's face showed. He apologized and Rory forgave him and they went back to playing like nothing happened.It was me that benefited most,to see that this age is hard for other parents.. to see that I am not a failure as a parent- through someone elses sweet funny little kid getting tired, and acting out
They are soo cute together, they were watching Peter Pan and sprinkling glitter pretending it was fairy dust-though we had to remind them not to actually try to fly.
Ri tried to help fix Jerry&Bobbie's computer but he couldn't figure out what was wrong with Itunes.(Which reminds me.. he needs to figure out what is wrong with out webcam since he installed Win7.)
We stopped at publix for basics and got Rory a box of oreos. She hula danced through the whole store.

I have spent the last few days cleaning.
I am feeling overwhelmed with the clutter. I keep trying to tame it, knowing I need to before the holidays- but it is just too much. I have cleaned everything - and it still feels cluttered and messy.Some days, I just want to throw everything away...
and I swear ,I spent Sunday conquering that laundry pile- damn ,if it didn't just magically reappear!

Speaking of holidays..
Am I getting ready for them? Only mentally. I haven't done anything much physically (beyond cleaning) to prep for them.
Thanksgiving,We are planning to go to GrammaGrape's only for a little bit- to visit my cousins- and then to Momo's where all Ri's cousins will be- with her health this year he really wants to be there.We have done this a few years now..
and yet everyone seems surprised, come Thanksgiving, that we are doing that instead of going to their dinner?
Maybe we will plan something else for our families/friends to get together after thanksgiving.
The truth of the matter is ,we see our siblings pretty often ,and few of our close relatives work if we want we can easily arrange dinner another time,right?
Our many scattered cousins and aging grandmothers are a different story,so we make the time for them on thanksgiving.(and xmas eve in my grams case).It seems reasonable in my head.

Some quick updates- since I am far from the topic I began this blog about:
The timid, people shy, gray kitten is still hanging around. Still shy. Ri calls it Lil'grey, Rory calls it Grace , and I have been calling it Bizzarro- or busy. I doubt any of those will ever stick when it perceives any noise we make as a threat.

Mom quit her job. I think she is applying a few places. Libby is doing the application shuffle ,too , now that Nicco is getting bigger and starting on solids.

Ri's mom popped in a few days ago to bring me a baby bike seat she found at a thrift store- (Rory is far too big for it, it is super cool tho , Lissy says Boo would LOVE it.) Ri's mom was on her way from nephew Jades school.. there is a ton of boring drama there.super fun stuff.I think they switched Jade's school.

Ri's freind stopped by to hang out and bring us frosties from wendy's the other night.. and brought with him MY freind . (Yes, I had to tease her about how it felt to eat the words " i don't date white guys"..only a little.)

I still haven't gotten into the swing of my other blog project on this laptop,and I need to :( .

Rory was going to bed at around midnight for at least a few short weeks-but I had still been going to bed way way late.
Aunt Flo came and tried to murder me with sleep deprivation and cramps-
last night Rory decided she stay up with me.. dressed as Snow White and driving me insane..


There's probably a ton more..but I am just procrastinating getting ready for thanksgiving.
.as if not getting ready will make it farther away.


Cross your fingers I can talk Rory into a wearing something other than her Sleeping Beauty costume..
PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE