TGIF?

Some Fridays are easier than others. Yesterday was not one of those days. It wasn't a bad day, persay, but the kids were definitely in "challenge Mommy" mode. Collin's school day included crawling under a table rather than sitting in either of the places his teacher had designated, scratching another student, and getting into a full dust-up with yet another student. I think there may have been more, but it's all gotten tangled up in my head. I'm going to cling to the bright spot in all of that: He went back to his teacher and asked what you should do when you've hurt someone, and then he went and said he was sorry to the boy he scratched. He has never once initiated an apology in that sort of situation before yesterday, and I was delighted to hear about it. I'm not ignoring everything else - of course we're dealing with that. It can get exhausting, though, to be the one who always gets 'that' phone call - the one that says "Your son had a tough day today" and goes from there.

Collin's current tics have been there for a while now. He has a sort of peep or whine he makes a lot, including in the middle of a statement or even a word, and a complex facial tic that moves from one eye to the other and down to his mouth. They're the most noticeable combination he's ever had.

Willow wasn't quite as cantankerous, but she was determined to do everything her way, which, among other things, resulted in one of those shrieking tantrums when she learned she had to ride with Mommy instead of Daddy from the soccer game to the pizza parlor last night. You know the ones - I'm pretty sure just half a pitch higher and a couple decibels louder would have seen windows shattering.

On the bright side, I made my first soccer cake, and it didn't turn out too badly. I already have ideas on how to improve it. One of these days I really have to take a decorating class. (And I'm dreaming of having an oven that actually maintains a temperature - evenly, even! - all over and for as long as I ask it to.)