June 20 The ups and downs ...

Tuesday:  I picked up three little grands today and brought them over to my house. Our day started out really good--upbeat and positive and happy. So I'll just center on those happy things to post right here.

Mr. Cal ... this is his face when things are not quite to his pleasing. You see, I had a new set of tracks with a speedy light-up car that races around--up and down and side-ways even ... but Cal thought he ought to be in charge of every twist and turn of the track--which would have worked had he been the only child here today--but he wasn't; so Aidan was fooling with the track and Cal was super frustrated with him.

After we ate our lunch, we played outside for a little while with all of the water toys, hoses, and whatever else we could find to get wet. Kids are good at this kind of thing.

They get a lot of joy out of washing my car, especially since I let them use the hose in the process. I have two scrubbers on poles--so while two are scrubbing, one can be spraying.

I think Erin enjoys the tiny pool more than the boys do. Last year, she would "swim" in it, but she has grown a lot this year and no longer finds the pool big enough to swim in.

These boys really went at my car with those brushes!

Erin was very good with the hose. She only squirted me a FEW times, most of them were accidental.

I love to laugh and play with the kids. It's so refreshing.

After we were finished with the water toys, we came back inside to play. I have to keep all three kiddos together--either INSIDE or OUTSIDE--because they are too young yet to know safety rules about roads; and even thought this "park" is full of mostly super old people, it is still scary to think about these littles ones playing in the road. Aidan was very pleased to sketch animals from my Ed Emberly book. Aidan is a very able artist!

Dear Erin enjoyed some new stamps I had gotten (over at the John Ball Zoo gift shop) ...

All and all, it was a very good afternoon here at my house, and I am thankful for that. Brendan was at a "camp" with his friend Joanna for this week--so I didn't get to see very much of him.

The DOWN part of the day came while driving back to their house at about 4:00 pm. It's difficult to cram all three children into the backseat of my car--it WAS designed to hold THREE children, but it's a tight fit. Mr. Cal does NOT like tight fits. He will not allow ANYTHING or ANYONE to touch him while he is in his carseat. Aidan finds this ridiculous (naturally) and provokes his little brother constantly by touching him or his car seat and basically NOT making things any easier. Cal screams super loud, "NO! "NO!!!" as I am driving and trying to keep us safe. I don't take the highway with these guys in my car anymore. I can't drive 70mph with children screaming in the back seat of my car--I can't drive SAFELY, I should more correctly state. I find it unnerving and overwhelming to have screaming children in my car! Anyway, I have to just work this out and try to figure out what sets Cal off, as well as attempt to have Aidan obey me when I ask him to keep his hands and body to himself instead of provoking Cal. It's not a very big deal, really. It's just that I NEED Cal to stop screaming. I need Aidan to listen and obey. I even showed him all of the places he could put his hands and his feet that were not in Cal's space; but Aidan insisted that he be allowed to put his arms and legs all over Cal. Anyway, I ended up NOT being very nice (after the second time I pulled over to try to get the screaming to stop). We did finally make it to their house, though. All three kids fell asleep in the car. Aidan woke up once we drove into their driveway and didn't want anything to do with anyone once he was home. I am befuddled as to how to better "handle" this and so I am asking (begging) the Lord to help me figure out what to do. The end.