Weekend of Suckitude

A few weeks ago I was so worried about Nora, but she is doing much better now. I guess it pays to remember that everything is a phase! Suddenly she is much more cheerful now. I wonder if part of this is that Nora and Milo somehow know to take turns. Milo has been struggling lately, missing Jake all the time, crying a lot about Daddy, and crying every morning when I drop them off at school. So maybe the kids decided it's Milo's turn to be a little more needy and therefore Nora had to step up to the plate for a while.

Anyway, regardless of the reason, I have also recently become impressed with how mature Nora is getting in terms of her ability to reason and talk about things. For instance, our Saturday ritual is that Nora and I go grocery shopping together in the morning while Milo and Jake stay home together. Nora likes this, but yesterday I couldn't take her with me because she was sick. So she got upset over the fact that I was going to go to the store without her, understandably. So we went up to her room to look at some of her art projects for a while and talk about how she made them, and then I told her that I couldn't take her to the store with me because we're not allowed to go to the store when we're sick, but I would only be gone for an hour and then I would come back home and we would all have lunch together. And then she said, "Oh, okay Mommy! You can go to the store now!" And off I went, with no drama.

Definitely a turning point.

Today was mostly a nice day as I got a great deal of work done, felt productive, and then made a nice dinner to make up for the culinary disaster that was last night. Last night I made a hot and sour soup and cilantro noodles out of Cuisine. Why? Why, why, why? Cuisine can only do one thing, and that is fattening midwestern type carb explosion dishes. Cuisine cannot do Asian food. I don't even like Cuisine but my MiL insists on having it delivered to our house in perpetuity, and sometimes I get sucked in. The meal last night was so bad that I even ended up throwing it out, which I haven't done in years. Years and years.

I am trying not to be angry and overly annoyed at the horrible scourge that has entered our house in the form of ugly plastic battery powered fake "guitars" with absolutely mind-numbingly bad "music" in the form of (soft) jazz, (not) hip hop, and (80s) rock. I cannot, in all honesty, describe how awful these things are. They came for the kids' birthday from Jake's parents and we made the mistake of opening them. Why? Why, why, why? Jake lamented that they didn't come with a gun so we could shoot our heads off.

Just don't give these things to the kids, one might suggest. Which yes, is an option, unless said grandparents will be here for the children's birthday and insist on the craptastic explosion. Then what do we do? The kids aren't babies anymore, so it's no longer fair to give them stuff and then have it "disappear" a while later. They'd notice.

What do you do with parents who just don't care what you think, and do what they want anyway? (BTW this does not refer to my side of the family. Even I like plastic things sometimes, and my relatives do find neat and fun things for the kids that I enjoy. I'm talking about a different type and amount, and it's really hard to talk about this without sounding like a total asshole, and yes I know I'm failing completely). Our pleas for less battery powered plastic stuff that makes "music" falls on deaf ears. In fact, they give it to us too in the form of holiday decorations, and get offended if we don't have it prominently displayed. It doesn't leave you with a lot of options. Here is a conversation I had with my MiL before my last trip:

MiL: Do you want these plastic bowls for the kids from my house?

Me: Oh, no thank you. We don't have room, but they can just enjoy them when they're at your house.

MiL: But they like them so much!

Me: I know, so they'll enjoy it as a special treat every time they visit you!

Then I go on my trip, and come back, and the next morning after they have left, I open up my cupboard and find...those plastic bowls.

Repeat same story for cans of condensed milk, tinned salmon, heads of cabbage, jars of mayonaise (we don't even eat mayonaise), etc., etc., etc. They go down to Florida every winter and therefore feel the need to clean out their cupboards by putting the stuff in our house, despite our explicit protests that we don't want it and don't have room for it. There is nothing you can do with people who don't actually listen to you. You can talk, but there is really no point in actually conversing, or talking.

Of course, the kids adore these damn guitars.