GL only checked out 4 DVDs today!

Sometimes he surprises me

GL likes to check out DVDs from the library. Stacks and stacks of DVDs. So many that even the most patient and understanding librarians, who accommodate him in every possible way, worry about him leaving enough DVDs for other kids to check out. He tends to check out the same titles over and over. Just going to the library and checking one out makes it new again. The thing is, the next day, everything he checked out the day before is old, and he needs new DVDs. Doesn't matter that he hasn't watched some of them. They're old, and he needs new.

I used to fight him on this, figuring that, since he was being unreasonable, nothing would satisfy him anyway. But I found that, once he's been to the library, he's content with his DVDs the rest of the day. It doesn't matter if we go first thing in the morning, those DVDs are still new until tomorrow. It doesn't matter if we go right before bedtime, those DVDs will be old as soon as he gets up in the morning. Like manna. Once I caught on, I decided, "Why not take him to the library every day? He'll be content (with his DVDs, at any rate) for the rest of the day, it's only two blocks away, and walking to the library is the only thing resembling exercise I can get him to do."

It was frustrating that he still insisted on checking out so many DVDs at a time, but at least he doesn't keep them out long. Our routine goes like this: We walk into the library, he throws his bag of DVDs on the return desk, yells, "Do we have anything in? Go check, and I'll look for new DVDs!" and runs, despite repeated reminders to walk, back to the children's DVDs. He snatches three or four of them, runs to the checkout desk, and yells, "Do we have anything in?" If we do, well and good. He might even wait in line until it is our turn to check out. If not, he yells, "Oh, man! That's terrible!" and runs back to the children's DVDs to select more titles. He usually comes back with as many as he can carry, and on more than one occasion, made multiple trips with as many as he could carry. I had to talk him down. And try to avoid a meltdown in the library.

Even if we have items waiting for us at the front desk, when it's our turn to check out, he keeps trying to snatch things from the librarian's hands before she can scan them. Once everything is scanned, he usually decides he needs more DVDs, or maybe some books, and runs back to get them. The long and short of it is that we never leave the library with fewer than 10 items, most of them DVDs, even though we visit every day.

Today, he followed his usual routine up to the point where we were checking out and he asked if we had anything in. There was a book for me. We checked out three DVDs and the book, he put them in a bag, and headed for the door! With only 3 DVDs! On the way home, I realized that he'd only checked out 3 DVDs the day before, too. (And about 12 books, but that's beside the point. Today he checked out 3 DVDs and nothing else!) I seem to remember a reasonable number of DVDs on Monday as well. (I forget how many other items.) So after several months of going to the library every day it's open, is he finally getting the idea that he doesn't have to stock up for an entire month? We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Help!

Parents all know the routine: allowing toddlers to "help" when all they are doing is making more work. Making bigger kids do chores, despite their whining, when it would be easier to just do it yourself, because they need to learn to work even when they don't feel like it. By age ten or so, most kids are capable of doing a simple chore or helping with a bigger one in a way that actually reduces your workload somewhat, even if they do complain about it.

Goldilocks has had trouble sleeping lately. Actually, he always has trouble sleeping. He takes medication to help him fall asleep at night, but he's still usually up around midnight. He usually goes to the couch, and sometimes goes back to sleep, but lately he wants to stay up, and he wants company. The other night, he was up at 3 a.m., screaming at his brother to get up and play with him. When he gets up in the night and can't or won't settle himself, Mama Bear usually gets up and tries to settle him. It's not fair, because she has to be up early for work, but she is a light sleeper. I may have trouble falling asleep, but once I'm out, it takes a lot to wake me. I keep telling her to get me up when he wakes her, so she can get some sleep, but she usually doesn't. It's a mom thing.

Monday night is a late night for us because of Civil Air Patrol, so I try to let Brother Bear sleep in Tuesday mornings. Otherwise we have two grumpy cubs. This morning Goldilocks was up at five, demanding attention. Mama woke me. I went and cuddled on the couch with him. He cuddled for a while, then went and played with his Leap Pad. He seemed content as long as I stayed in the room with him, so I dozed on the couch until six, when Mama had to get up and get ready for work. Then he started yelling for his brother.

We'd has two or three inches of snow overnight, so I decided to go out and shovel and take him with me, so he wouldn't wake his brother. He yelled and screamed the whole time, but he pushed the shovel up and down the middle of the sidewalk, scraping an irregular path. He didn't shovel the length or width of the sidewalk, or even clear all the snow from the strip he did shovel but, for the first time in nearly fourteen years, he shoveled snow from the sidewalk onto the lawn, instead of the other way around! When I came to the part he had shoveled, there was actually less snow! For the first time in his life, he did a chore in a way that actually saved me some work! His "help" actually helped!