I've got to stop taking so long...

Has it really been a month and 15 days since my last post? Before I had my second child people used to tell me (when I asked) that having 2 kids was NOT twice the work. What they forgot to add was that it's actually 15 times the work. But that may be because I leave my house at 7:30 every morning and arrive at work approximately 1 hour later and do the same thing at night - which leaves about 2 hours of the day for me. It's becoming a very big struggle for me personally to continue at that pace with a new baby that would like to see me more than that.

On to more upbeat topics.

So we have been dealing with the start of a new preschool year for Tiki and it's been quite interesting. They are on the light system at his school and every day when I'm driving to his school to pick him up I find myself repeating this silent prayer - let him be on green light, let him be on green light...Then I get there and actually have to take a big deep breath before walking in and hearing the verdict. Most days this year it's been poor little Teeks hanging his head and saying "Mommy, yellow light" or "Mommy, red light". I make a sad face and then have to ask "What happened" and the standard reply is "I just wasn't listening during ________ (insert any given activity)" And I say "Well, we are going to have to work on that, aren't we?" So imagine my suprise when on Wednesday I walked in and heard "Mommy, red light". I asked what had happened and was completely surprised to hear "I punched Coby in the stomach, that's why I'm on red light." I was like "Huh?" It turns out Coby was bothering him and would not stop as Tiki asked him to do. Huh? Did I accidentally teach him that? And when I say accidentally I mean - seriously, accidentally? I don't recall ever demonstrating that kind of response when someone is bothering me...but perhaps I have unknowingly punched a few folks in the stomach a few times and Teeks has just picked up on that...

I guess the dilemma here is where in the world to kids learn all of this stuff from? We don't watch punching stuff on TV and we don't have friends that punch so I'm just wondering where in the world my sweet bespectacled child picked this up from...

I'm currently struggling thorough "Raising Boys". And by struggling I mean I can't read it at night because it keeps me awake from all of the "OH MY GOSH - that's the explanation for that" moments I experience. I hate to chalk this up to being a boy, but I know that gender does play a big part in how kids (and adults) relate to one another, but I'm not sure the teachers of Pre-K III are going to accept that as an answer.

For now it will just remain one of the mysteries of childhood - sort of like why some kids bite at school and make their parents crazy while the *girls* in the class just do what they are told and never give their parents a moment of trouble (haha).