Worst parents?

GRANDPARENT WARNING! CONTENT MAY BE DISTURBING...
John and I felt like the worst parents in the world last night because we sent Hunter to bed with no dinner. If grandparents are still reading you can rest assured that he woke up this morning none for the worse for having missed one meal. We had served dinner and upon seeing it he had said, "yuck!" This had become a nasty habit of his over the last week or so and it was really getting on our last nerve. When you spend an hour or two making dinner for your family a comment like that is the last thing you want to hear. We had warned him on a previous night that the next time he had made such a rude comment his dinner would be taken from him. As much as I hated doing it we had to follow through. I know he was testing us because he had said it with a softer voice and looked right at us to see if we would actually do it. After I took his dinner away he kept saying he was hungry with big tears welling up in his eyes. It was killing me to stick with our decision but I knew that I would be doing him such a disservice by backing down. He needs to know that we love him so much that we are willing to stand by and watch him suffer the consequences of his poor decision to disrespect us. It's never easy to watch your child suffer but we want him to grow up to be a man who respects not only us as his parents but authority figures in general. What kind of life would he lead without having this virtue? Would he be a good student? A law-abiding citizen? Caving in and giving back his dinner just because he's crying would teach him that disrespect is allowable as long as you show remorse afterwards. That's not true! Cuss at a cop that pulls you over and then say you're sorry and see how far that gets you!

After realizing we weren't kidding around his tears turned to anger and he started lashing out at John. We ended up not only sending him to bed with no supper but without a bath, stories, even without brushing his teeth (eek!), which he was especially concerned about. We thought that was pretty cute. He went to bed in his street clothes at 6:15 p.m. We were fully prepared for him to be starting his day around 4 a.m. considering his normal bedtime is at 8:30 p.m. but he slept until 8 a.m. this morning! Boy was he ever bright-eyed and bushy-tailed too! He made no mention of the happenings of the previous night nor of being starved for lack of food. This made me so relieved and happy for him that he learned a valuable lesson and only had to pay the price of one measly dinner for it. Needless to say at dinner time tonight he said, "Yum! This is so delicious!" I kid you not.

On another note Tyler and Brody are now smiling back at us (as of about a week ago), which is so much fun! They are still only sleeping about every three hours, waking from hunger. Their gasiness has gotten a lot better. It's still there but they are coping with it so much better. They are happiest when against a warm body (doesn't matter who so c'mon over!) and (this is key) moving around. Cuddling on the couch doesn't usually cut it. We're getting our exercise anyway!

I am back at school teaching as of this week. I welcome the change of pace but I worry about all the work that lies ahead. As you know, teaching isn't a profession where you can leave your job and be done until the next day. There is so much work that needs to be done outside of the classroom with lesson planning, assessments, grading, contact with parents, etc. That's the part that worries me. I'm not sure how I'll find the time to add anything more to my plate with the schedule that I keep at the moment. I am praying for the babies to start going longer between feedings and sleeping more at night. That will make such a difference!

Hunter started preschool this week as well. He seems to be excited to be in the 4K classroom because he has mentioned to me on more than one occasion that he doesn't want to be in the 3K room. I look at the 3K students and can't believe how little they are. Hunter was like them only a year ago? It's crazy how fast he is growing up.

Here's a random thought that popped into my head just now that I'd like to document for a future laugh...Hunter makes me smile because he says "blog" when he means "block" so when we are riding our bikes he'll say, "Are we gonna go like five more blogs?" Even when I correct him and say, "five more blocks?" he'll say, "no Mom, it's bloGs!" (emphasizing the G). I've stopped correcting him and just smile.

I know this post is getting pretty long but I have to also mention that John and I cannot believe this but Hunter is actually reading now. Not only did he start reading words a few months ago he is now reading sentences. They are simple ones, no doubt about it, but he is FOUR years old. We are blown away. We haven't sat down and taught him this skill. I wouldn't really even know how. Other than reading to him several times a day and demonstrating our own love for reading we have done nothing. We attribute this amazing feat to "The Electric Company." It's bizarre, I know, but this PBS program is seriously teaching him how to read. He started watching it about six months ago and fell in love with it's quirky songs and characters. I have to admit it is fun to watch on occasion. Soon after he was sounding out words! Then today when I got home from work John informed me that while on the Super Why! website (pbskids.org) he demonstrated how he could read entire sentences. AMAZING! That's my proud parent moment to balance out the guilt I'm still internalizing for making him feel so horrible last night. This blog has helped me work it out in my head a little more to ease my guilt though. Thanks for reading!