Never A Dull Moment

We've had our round of ups and downs this week - emotionally and behaviorally. Some days Holland has coped better than I had expected and other days, I just wanted to turn and run. Yesterday after our homeschool co-op, I had offered for my nephew to come over while my sister went to one of her jobs. Holland was so excited - he had all these plans. They ended up playing well together - if you discount all the yelling by Egypt because she was left out. After about an hour we had to leave to pick up Romania from the bus stop. Holland even had a plan for that. He wanted his cousin to duck down in the back seat and jump up and scare Romania. I didn't really like that plan. Usually when he gets home from school, Romania is so tired that he just wants to sit on the couch and watch TV. I didn't think he'd react well to being scared from behind.

Turned out that when the bus arrived, the two boys were by a tree behind the bus and my nephew just walked up to Romania and said "hi". I was relieved there were no scare tactics involved. The boys played well together but then when my sister called to say she would pick him up in a few minutes, Holland fell apart. It was like he hadn't been playing for the last two hours. It's all that emotional up and down that is drowning me.

This morning we had another little snafu. A few days ago I went to Target to get a few things for the kid's easter baskets. I found two little Lego sets for the boys that Holland ending up finding. It's probably that I need to get better at hiding. But because he's 10, I don't work that hard at burying stuff, just covered up out of the way. He kept asking what they were for and finally after failing at being vague and him accepting it, I just said they were for Easter and to drop it. Well, this morning I am sitting at the sewing machine trying to work on Egypt's dress and he's at the top of the stairs and says, "Mom, I need to tell you something." I knew right away that he had done something that would need forgiveness. He told me he couldn't help himself and that he and Romania opened the Lego sets. I was so angry. Not only had he been defiant about the Legos, he had coerced his brother into his tangled web. He kept saying at least he told me. And yes, I'm thankful that he's remorseful. But come Sunday, the only person opening an Easter basket will be Egypt.