Thursday, November 09, 2006

Politicians and diapers…they are similar?

I don’t know if I’d go that far but I do think that politicians are a scheisty bunch. I’ve always considered myself an independent voter but in this election all I wanted to do was vote for the opposite of Republican. I think that was the sentiment around the country. And I don’t really think it’s a very good way to choose our elected officials.

On to other news. Jack has been a little turkey. He recently started hitting his teachers at school. He’s always hit me but I didn’t really notice how bad of a problem it was. Now, you’ll all gasp at that but truly, he’s two and when he hits me it’s not really a big deal as far as pain and injury. I realize that the behavior is the issue but I guess I thought it would go away. I know better now and I have changed responses to it. I have also started not allowing him to scream at me or throw temper tantrums. He’s allowed to be angry, and I tell him that, but he may not hit anyone or throw anything or scream at me at the top of his lungs. We are working on expressing “our” anger appropriately. If anyone has any suggestions on appropriate ways to show anger I would be open to hearing them. I don’t want him to bottle it all up but I also don’t want him to think it’s ok to destroy things and hurt people when he’s mad.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to me that he seems much happier and more content since he’s started learning the boundaries in regards to this stuff. I know that kids really need and want boundaries but I always felt that I was being mean. I don’t have to raise my voice anymore because he knows that I mean business. We got a call a week ago Wednesday that we needed to come in for a conference. I started toughening up immediately and I would have to say he’s only hit me probably 4 times since then. He went from Thursday until yesterday without hitting and then he backslid a little and hit me while I was putting him in the car. We worked that out really quickly and he apologized. Then he got angry at me at home and started screaming at me. I told him to go sit on his bed for a time out and you know he actually did it? He’s also being a “big boy helper” at school and he’s not throwing a fit when I change his diaper anymore.

I always thought that my DH was too tough, well there’s a first… I was wrong!

Meanwhile, we had a big storm and LOTS of flooding over this past weekend and Monday and Tuesday. It was crazy. I work for the sewer department of a municipality and I fielded calls from citizens for two days. All of our people (engineers, supervisors, EVERYONE) were out clearing storm drains and responding to calls. The only ones left were people answering phones and supporting the crews with information and mapping were left at the plant. I had a guy call in and tell me that we don’t do anything but sit around eating donuts, reading the paper and scratching our asses. I am always amused by irate people, they say the funniest things. I mentioned this in one of our debriefing meetings and someone said I should have asked him what he would have us do when our asses itch. Funny. So now it’s calmed down and the rivers are starting to go back to a normal level but apparently there’s another storm headed our way tomorrow or Saturday. I’m supposed to be off tomorrow for Veteran’s day (my DH who is a veteran has to work) but I may come in if I can find someone to watch Jack (daycare’s closed) and only if they really need me to answer calls. Anyhow, I better get going. I just wanted to check in.

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