Follow Through Friday

Today after work/”college” was HORRIBLE!  I picked Autumn up and as we were walking out to the car, she started being really whiny and kept wanting me to hold her pillow and blanket for her.  I told her no, and that she needed to be responsible for her own things.  When we got to Papa & Mimi’s house, the same scene played out.  She wanted me to carry her stuff and I told her no b/c my arms were already full of stuff.  So, she went into full melt down mode.  She was kicking and screaming and threatening to not be my friend (LOL).  I was calm and told her she had a choice…she could either stop acting like that or we could go home.  I knew she didn’t want to go home b/c Lexie & her family had come up for the weekend and Autumn was so excited to play w/ Andrew.  But, I’ve learned that you can’t threaten what you won’t follow through on.

I counted to 3 and she kept carrying on and was being AWFUL.  She yelled at me to stop counting and came over and scratched my arm.  That was the last straw, so I picked her up, put her in the car, locked the doors and started backing down the driveway.  She got REALLY mad at that point and reached over and grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled it out.  It took everything in me not to turn around and retaliate.  But to my own shock and surprise, I remained calm and told her sternly to sit down and put on her seat belt.  I called Mom and told her we would not be coming in to play b/c we had to go home.  She was disappointed but completely understood.  I took Autumn home, told her to go in her room and calm down, and when she was ready to be civil we could talk.  In the meantime, I put on The Help b/c I needed to calm down as well. 

Autumn finally came out about 20 minutes later and we sat on the couch together and talked about what had happened.  I told her that I knew she was tired, and that it was my own fault b/c she had been up way too late last night at Liz’s party.  But, I also explained to her that being tired didn’t give her the right to act out like that.  It was a good talk and we both cried and hugged and apologized.  She sat and watched the movie w/ me for a little bit while we snuggled.

I asked Autumn if she could be nice and behave so we could go back over to Papa & Mimi’s.  She promised she would be on her best behavior, so we went back over.  It was perfect timing, b/c Drew & Jon had just gotten back from seeing The Avengers.  We had some Chinese food for dinner and then went swimming.  Poor Jackson had the chicken pox last week and has scabs and scars all over his body.  But he’s so stinkin’ cute and loved getting in the pool.  We kept saying, “Aaaaahhh!  A naked baby!”  He thought that was funny.

Autumn & Andrew crack me up.  They are such good friends, yet they are so different in so many ways.  One of those ways is that Autumn is so brown and Andrew is so white.  I’m glad they have each other and that Autumn decided to be good so they could play and have fun together.

I thought this was such a good picture of Jon & Jackson.  I sat on a pool noodle in the deep end and had the kids jump off the board to me and then they would swim to the side.  Andrew was really hesitant at first but was soon back up to speed in no time.  I hope they kids got really worn out so they will sleep good tonight.  I had to leave and go home b/c I have to be up at 5:00 am tomorrow.  Autumn wasn’t even sad to see me go b/c she knew that she was going to have fun sleeping over at Papa & Mimi’s house.