a Jonah day

A blog post just to note, for the record, that it's not all sunshine and roses around here.

Liesl has been having a really tough time lately - frequent, huge, dramatic, lengthy tantrums about very small issues. At first we thought she just needed more sleep, but it's been a few weeks with no improvement, so now we get to say "developmental issues" and wave our hands at it. Today we had tantrums about breakfast and dinner, clothes and more clothes, playing on the swings, riding her bike, going to bed, getting in Sebastian's face, taking turns at cards... It has been really trying my patience. And I will admit that patience is not among my top 5 strengths. Sigh.

Sebastian has been sick this week - he felt feverish and had a headache and no appetite on Wednesday evening. He woke up in the middle of the night feeling shivery and cold and had an upset stomach on Thursday. (Neither Steve nor I got much sleep after the middle-of-the-night crisis.)  So he stayed home from school on Thursday and again today, reading books and drinking warm honey-water.  But, by mid-morning today I had the sense he could have gone to school - he had way too much energy for a kid who was "sick" - but it was fine, and nice to have his company for the day. 

But then, right before dinner, he was riding his bike around the neighborhood and came down the hill too fast. He tried to brake by using his pedals and then panicked when nothing happened - he concluded they were broken and forgot that he had graduated to hand brakes. So he careened down the hill and swerved into a driveway rather than pitching over the edge of the dead-end road. Thank goodness he had the sense to turn and crash into some steps, but he still managed to scrape his face, shoulder, and elbow, to bruise his leg and arm, and to bang up his new bike. He screamed and cried and yelled and sobbed for a solid hour. It was a disaster.

Sigh. Good thing tomorrow is another day, with no mistakes in it. Bonus points to any blog readers who can identify the book I've twice referenced in this post.