CODENAME MASON

When I tell you that one of our children is a firecracker I really mean it. He is such a pistol and this week has been a week for him to learn some hard lessons. Let's start out with some positive reinforcement for all of the boys.

The boys all had great reports from their teachers during the conferences. None of them had anything negative to say. All of our boys are very bright and outgoing and fun and good friends and happy and on and on. How happy that makes both Gary and me especially with everything they have been through and continue to go through.

So, back to our firecracker. I really want to tell you which one of our kids I am talking about but I can't. I will let you all guess and try to figure it out and we will refer to him as "Mason" to protect his identity.

Where do I start. Let's start with something super funny and then we will go from there.

I was in the bathtub tonight and Mason told me that he needed to come in and go to the bathroom. So, with the curtains drawn I listened to Mason as he lifted the toilet seat and exclaimed, "A Mans gotta do what a mans gotta do." I swear I have no idea where he learns this stuff. We have never heard the other boys say that.

Now we will discuss the not-so-funny stuff. Remember when I told you about one of our kids giving the bird? Well, Mason said a nice four-letter word and I can tell you that it was not BIRD! He was holding his tongue and repeatedly saying "firetruck" and when you do that it does not sound like TRUCK. BTW - he was not alone in his room doing this. He had a captive audience!

Oh, and there's more. Mason was playing at the *#&$^'s house today and he jokingly told one of the 12 year-old neighbor girls something EXTREMELY INNAPROPRIATE about her chest area. VERY VERY VERY INNAPROPRIATE!!!!!#^$%#&@*!(#&^$*^$*^%$* What the heck? The only thing I can think of is that one of our other boys made reference to something regarding the chest area (was not inappropriate) and Mason took that and ran with it and put it into a whole new and thrilling context!! I am sure he got a huge laugh at the time and laughed until he saw me and faced my wrath!

For those of you who do not know our Mason really well he most definitely has a funny and wonderful sense of humor. He loves to make people laugh and evidently we need to help him to understand what is appropriate and what is not - as far as trying to be a comic! Both Gary and I have zero tolerence for that type of behavior. Mason is so busted and he sat in his room tonight and wrote letters to all of the involved parties apologizing for the inappropriateness of his behavior.

Poor kid. It does stink being a kid sometimes and wanting everyone to like you and trying to fit in and make kids laugh and all the other akward things kids do for attention. He has a whole lot to learn and I guess I am glad we are going through this now and not later in life or at school with some random kid! This is why we are parents. It is up to us to reinforce positive behavior and to make certain that our kids understand the difference between right and wrong behavior. There are always consequences for our behavior - good or bad - and those are some of the toughest lessons we learn and probably still learn as adults - experiencing the bad consequences. I hate it when our kids are in trouble. It is so much nicer when they do everything right and life is smooth dangit!

Mason told me this weekend that one of the kids at school is bullying him and calling him names. He had problems with this same kid last year in Mrs. $&*#(@'s class and I will be visiting the school all week to monitor things and to see what is really going on. Kids can be mean and we want to help our kids learn how to deal with meanies and not to swallow their self respect and take crap from other kids - in the nicest of ways of course!

Gary went to Home Depot today with Chuck and got all the things to fix our 3 toilets. He actually got out of the car and wheeled himself around the store with Chuck's help. He was so whipped when he returned home but it was good for him to go on an outing!

I am going to post the link for the Birthday Party for Gary. When I figure it out I will blog it.

Happy Parenting To All,

L