Monster to Mush

Mornings around here are NOT pretty. Usually one of us is grumpy, the other is defiant, and the other is so full of energy that the rest of us grumble. Yeah, we pretty much play the same three roles over and over every day.

I'm the grump....mornings have NEVER been my cup of tea. I've always been a night owl.

Cameron is the defiant one. I have to beg and plead and yell to get him to do ANYTHING! Usually it ends up with us fighting....that's never pretty.

Then there's Jake. Happy-go-lucky, Jake. He's pretty happy in the mornings just as long as he's got something to drink, something to eat, something to play with and something on TV to watch. He's not hard to please, but he's pretty demanding about it, every single day.

This morning Cam was especially grumpy. Jake was kind enough to wake his big brother up by banging on the wall. Nice, right? So Cameron started out yelling at Jake....NOT a good way to start the day.

Then when he came out of the bathroom, he informed Jake that he was going to take the toy Jake was playing with for show and tell. I told Cameron that he was not allowed to just take toys away from his brother just because he wanted. This caused a mini-tantrum.

When he came down, he was still being ornery about the whole toy situation, and instead of getting his shoes and socks on, he looked through the toy box to find a toy to take for show and tell. This is NOT cool with me. I don't care if he takes a toy, but he should at least have his other priorities in order. I told him to stop looking for a toy and get his socks and shoes on....this is when the fighting began. He threw a toy at Jacob (which caused mommy to see red) and then he sat on his favorite chair, folded his arms and said, "I DON'T WANT TO!"

Something you should know about me....I do NOT like to lose a fight, especially to a defiant child. I know it's something I should learn to let go, but I would like for him to obey his parents....just weird that way, I guess.

After much yelling and screaming, I lost it. I didn't beat him to death (although I was very tempted...) but I shook him and yelled....a lot. So I finally got ahold of my thoughts and sent Cameron to time-out before I REALLY lost it and hurt him, then I sat down and tried SO hard to calm myself down. It's hard to do that when you hear, "I HATE you, MOMMY!! I hate YOU too, Jake!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!"

Finally, after 10 minutes of calming and cooling, we both were fine. Cameron was punished by not being able to take ANYTHING for show and tell. He was okay with it, in fact, he told me that he loved me.

He turned from this horrid monster into my child, my pile of mush.

What happened?? Let me tell you, it's a little thing called a pill. I don't know why he can't be kind without it, but it seems he just can't.

I'm very glad that we have this modern medicine, but I'm ready for a continuous drip. I want my child back.