Lake Fun!

Today hit 90+ degrees, so when Rhenda suggested the lake, we were more than happy to oblige and head out there. The kids had a blast, despite Harry having a MAJOR meltdown when we left. I seriously debated just leaving him there. I'd write my phone number in ink on his leg or something where it would take someone an hour or two to find, but where they would eventually find it and be able to return him. Just not right away.

He has had the worst week of his short little life this past week. He's outright defiant, he bit me, he pushed Emma down on our patio this morning and kicked her in the face. For those of you who know him well, this is out of character. Yes, obviously, we have our standard 3-year old meltdowns, and he's a challenging child in his own way, but rarely is he defiant and never is he purposefully violent. I'm completely at my wit's end right now. I wish I could say that this is a reaction to my dad leaving after spending 6 weeks with him, but he started this even before he left, its just culminating. I've asked if his ears hurt, if his tummy hurts, anything to put the blame elsewhere than him just being awful. Jay and I have tried every discipline and parenting technique we know of, including spanking, which I hate doing, but works well on our 3 year old boy. Usually, I should say. He spent a total of 20 minutes outside of his room yesterday, thinking that if I just left him alone to "make good decisions" (a parenting technique that works VERY well with him right now), he would be able to come out and we could talk about it. He really does well with talking it out after a time out; however, we did this about 5 times yesterday and he'd walk away from me (sometimes while I was still talking!) and do something else horribly naughty. It got to the point that I just let him play by himself in his room until Jay came home with fresh attitude and patience.

I'm praying that this is just a phase. We never really went through the "terrible two's" with him, we started discipline very early with both kids and while they definitely went through a "testing" phase btw 18 months and 2 years, by the time they started making their own choices, they knew which was the good decision. Not to say that we don't have our outrageous battles, but they tend to be pretty far between. Emma is just coming out of the testing stage (I HOPE!), and her behaviour has improved dramatically in the last 3 weeks. I'm loving it, she's my sweet little dumpling again. :)

Ugh.. anyways, we headed to the lake today. We had a great time whilst there, which helped me get through the rest of the day...

playing in the pool in the backyard...

little pretty girl!

Emma being stylish.. and two girls picking wedgies?? :(

Check out those french braids!! She kept saying " I pwetty, I pwetty!"

He got some air!