OUT OF CONTROL

I feel like this accurately describes my older two children right now. They are seriously out of control. I could bore you with stories of how they poo in their underwear/pull-up and then take it off, touch it and then spread it all over every surface of the house they can find. Or how while I am unloading the car they come in, start the washer and throw clothes, potpourri and our dustbuster into about a foot of water. Or how while I am talking to the neighbor and the kids are strapped in the car one of them reaches over and beats up Max causing him to have a black eye and bruised forehead. Or how every time I turn around all of my Christmas ornaments and decorations are on the floor including my Willow Tree shepherd that is now missing a hand and can't hold his staff up. BUT, I won't bore you with those details. Instead I will share one story in particular with you to help make my point.

I took the kids to the doctor's last week to get their flu shots. I was a little apprehensive about taking all 3 of them without any help, but I've done it before and they did pretty well. Everything was going fine until they called us back to our room. As soon as we got in there the boys were just bouncing off of the walls. The doctor came in and the entire time I was talking to her I was wrestling with Jake who was pulling all of the paper covering off of the table, pulling on the blinds, etc. Jake and Nathan got their flu mists first and then they did Max's shot. While I was putting on Max's pants after the shot the boys darted out of the room and down the hall towards the waiting room. I hurried out of there to follow them, but wasn't too concerned since they always stop to play in the waiting room on our way out and I can never get them to leave.

So I made it to the waiting room and realized that they weren't there. Everyone was looking at me and asked if the two boys that went running through there were mine. They then proceeded to tell me that they ran out the office doors, out the main doors and are now running around the parking lot. Frantic I went out there and sure enough they were running around on opposite sides of the parking lot. So I ditched the stroller and while holding Max with one arm I yelled at Nathan to get over here and I went after Jake. By some small miracle Nathan actually came over to me and followed me while I tried to catch Jake. The entire time Jake was laughing and thinking this is the funnest game.

I finally cornered Jake, grabbed his hand and dragged him (since he wouldn't walk) with my surgery hand all the way back to the car. When we got there I realized that my keys were with the stroller that was still by the door. So I let go of Jake and went running over there to get it. Sure enough in those 5 seconds Jake took off running again. I cornered him again, dragged him back to the car and tried to get all three of them in their carseats. Jake beat me up while I buckled him in and that was pretty much the final straw. I got in the car, drove by all of the people who were staring at me during this whole event and did nothing to help me, and cried hysterically all the way home.

I know that it is a challenge to have a child with special needs, but sometimes it just seems more than I can handle. The sad thing is that it's not just Jake. Nathan has a serious attitude right now and doesn't listen to a word we say. We've tried every discipline trick out there and nothing seems to be getting through. People say that boys get easier as they get older and seriously right now that is the only thing that is getting me through. These boys are a challenge.

On a brighter note, we have been doing a lot of fun Christmas activities that I need to blog about. So stay tuned...