Today I am grateful...

that Oldest Son is happy with his new school.  Last night he said that he thinks it is going to be much better for him.  Since that was a major motivation for us moving to the particular (very expensive) neighborhood that we are in, I am very happy to hear that from him.

Tuesday I was grateful...

to have a strong, capable partner who is able and willing to take on tasks with the boys so that I can travel for work.

Tuesday morning I took an early flight to San Jose for a day of meetings in our office there.  I had to leave before Middle Son's bus came to the houses.  In fact, I had to leave before Middle gets up.  My Beloved Wife got Middle up and ready for the bus.  Then when the bus drove off without him (apparently they won't honk if we don't come out--Tuesday was his 4th day riding the bus and we haven't figured out all the rules yet) so took him to school.

More on Arguing

I told Mother-of-my-Children what Youngest Son said about arguing all the time with Oldest Son when they are at her house.  She confirmed that they argue a great deal.  She said that Oldest frequently answers "no" when Youngest asks her if he can do something.  She thinks he is trying to be the man of the house.

That seems plausible to me.  My Beloved Wife and I were talking about this the other night.  Oldest would not try to take a pseudo-parental role in our house because A) we have clear structure and rules at our house, B) I am there to be the man of the house, and C) he knows that I would smack him down hard if he tried act like one of the parents instead of one of the kids.

Based on what happened when we were married and my observations now, MomC does not maintain clear structure and rules.  So there is a vacuum that Oldest is trying to fill.

Arguing

According to our Parenting Plan, all three boys are supposed to go back to MomC's on Sunday evening.  The past Sunday Oldest Son stayed at our house so that he could work on homework.  The semester ends this week and he is perilously close to failing biology and geometry.

Youngest Son asked me after dinner who was going back to mom's.  I told him that he and Middle Son were going, and Oldest was not.  He said he was glad that Oldest was staying because at mom's house "we argue all the time."

Which is very interesting to me.  They rarely argue at my house.

Today I am grateful...

that last night My Beloved Wife and I were able to have a productive conversation about an issue we have been struggling with.

Shower

Last night I was giving Middle Son a shower.  He loves to play in the water, and loves to rub shampoo on his head.  He does not love being scrubbed, and he especially does not love having the shampoo rinsed off his head.

I typically have to reach into the shower and scrub his head, and then we have a struggle to rinse him off.  I also have to point to arms, legs, stomach, etc. and tell him to scrub himself with a loofah.

In the last two weeks he has started reaching out of the shower and rubbing my head the way I rub his.  He seems to be playing.  He smiles and giggles.

Last night after he rubbed my head I laughed and then made a rubbing motion on my own head.  To my surprise Middle did the same.  Then I rubbed my neck and he scrubbed his neck with the loofah.  He imitated me through several gestures, scrubbing at his arms, chest, and neck.  It was almost like we were playing Simon Says.

I've never seem him imitate like that.  It was exciting.

Today I am grateful...

that we have the financial resources to deal with the fact that two of the three cars in the family broke down last week.  Older Step-Daughter's 97 Ford Escort died in an intersection on her way to work, and My Beloved Wife's car wouldn't start that same morning (after having had electrical work done on it a few days earlier).  Beloved's car turned out to be a simple fix, but Older's car is going to have to be replaced.

If we did not have the financial depth to repair and replace vehicles, this could have been a catastrophic problem.  Because we do, it is just an annoyance.