Full Moon

If my Facebook friends are any indication, there really IS something to the whole, "a full moon makes everybody lose their minds," thing.

Claire had a really hard day.  It started at the park (yes, MEAN Mommy took them to the park!  With our friends M&M!  And I stopped to get the neighbor kids, N&S, too, to give their pregnant mom a break.  Gosh, I'm mean...)  I wouldn't put her in the baby swing, because she's almost five, for God's sake, and she lost. her. mind.

She cried so long and so loud that a little old lady stopped and asked her if she was lost.  I was literally 6 feet away, pushing Jack on the swing and selectively ignoring her temper tantrum.

To that I said, "You're scaring strangers now, Claire, you really have to knock it off."

The compassion drips from me.  I'm like Mother Teresa.

And, for the annals of Great Moments in Parenting, this was the second time in as many days that a stranger had approached my kids because they looked lost and/or abandoned.  I was letting Jack cruise around the playground at the school yesterday when we dropped MG off for Daisies (I honestly don't know how they can stand me, I am so horrible and rotten... taking them to playgrounds, on the way to fun activities?  How do they put up with it??)  Anyway, he was like 12 feet away, it's not like there were any cars around, or like he moves fast.  I was staying close to the dog so she wouldn't jump on any of the kids coming out of the school, and this little boy asked Jack if he was lost.  It was kind of sweet, if you ignore the part where I'm apparently so neglectful that it's obvious to 3rd graders...

Biscuit* has been charged as an accessory.
He was also sent to bed early.

ANYWAY, so we came home, and they went outside to play with their little neighbor friends, and I made Koolaid for everyone and let them finish half a bag of pretzels between the four of them (mean, mean, meanie mean meanyhead).  Mary Grace told Claire that she didn't want to do something, it's still not clear what, and Claire bashed her upside the head with Biscuit the stuffed cat.  He's one of those really large Beanie Babies, not just stuffing, so he packs a wallop.

Mary Grace started screaming, then Claire started screaming, and then I sent Claire to her room, where she proceeded to scream and cry for two hours.  Basically she cried constantly from 2:30 until 5:30.

I managed to stay calm and ignore her and speak clearly and calmly to her, until she peed her pants, just moments before BJ walked in, and I just couldn't take it anymore.

I won't go into great detail, but I got very loud and nasty (mainly with BJ, who had the great misfortune to come home in a calm, rational, good mood and therefore immediately became the enemy).  I summarily cleaned her up, made her a peanut butter sandwich, and sent her to bed without a hug or a kiss at 6 pm.

Oh, stop it.  A few minutes later when I had calmed down I went upstairs and we talked about why her behavior was unacceptable, and how when she behaves like that (especially when I'm trying my best to make a nice day for her and she's being an ungrateful little.....) it hurts my feelings and makes me angry, and blah blah blah and I read her a book and held her until she fell asleep at 6:30 (see?  She really did need a nap).

Does the full moon affect you or your kids?  Did you have a bad day today too?  Commiserate in the comments.



* Our Biscuit is more gray than orange, after having been literally dragged all over for the last couple of years.  He also has a scar on his back where I had to stitch him up after Penny got a hold of him about 6 months ago.  In other words, we'd better not lose that little bastard because he's identifiable, and I wouldn't be able to pass off some new Biscuit that I bought on Ebay as the real Biscuit in a million years.