January 14, 2004 - 11:16 a.m.

Get Me Out Of Here!

As of 10:30 this morning (the last time I was outside), the temperature had only reached a single degree - that's without the wind chill! And it's windy enough that the door to the outside actually blew open a few minutes ago. Brrr!!!

Luckily for me, I have the thought of my trip to San Diego to sustain me through the cold snap. The family I work for is going to Floriday, specifically to an island called Captiva, for the February school vacation. Last night I booked my own trip to San Diego while they are gone. I am very much looking forward to some time at the beach as well as visits to both Sea World and the world famous San Diego Zoo. After all my time playing Zoo Tycoon, I may be a harsh critic. :)

My other reason for wanting an escape is that my once easy job is getting stressful. I think we need to rename B "Mr Moody". At the risk of making light of serious mental health disorders, some days he could out-mood-swing someone with Bipolar Disorder. He gets angry at the littlest things, such as the fact that I gave his sister her chocolate milk first. This morning, I made the mistake of finishing my conversation with one of the girls when he wanted to show me his Spiderman lunch box, so he threw it across the room. One minute he's content, but if someone looks at him the wrong way or he drops his pencil he gets furious and starts yelling and stalking around. With harsh consequences in place if he gets physically violent, we've mostly managed to curb that impulse, but it's no fun living with a kid who is angry so much of the time. And lately he's been difficult to snap out of those moods, though I managed to do so this morning quite successfully.

We don't have a good explanation for this phase, though I suspect it's due to his growing realization and resentment of what it means to be the youngest. The girls can ski, skate, draw, write, and read better than he can, and he seems to have trouble dealing with that no matter how much we remind him that they couldn't do those things when they were his age either. Hopefully with plenty of love, attention, and encouragement this phase will pass as all the others have. In the meantime, living with him is like walking through a mine field, which is mentally and emotionally draining. I think his parents and I are all feeling grateful that we have each other to hand him off to, so we can get a break before we get violent ourselves!

today's project: skating and gymnastics

musing about: where to stay in sunny California

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