So here it is, the eve of the dreaded home visit. And how are things going? Over the course of the last two weeks Zoe has regressed in her behavior from being a delightful child to being a screaming banshee, and sometimes a hitting and kicking banshee (both at home and in school). The goals for the cleanliness of our home have devolved from everything being clean and neat to please God let me figure out where the cat peed so that at least it won't smell. And the weekend plans have gone from a relaxing but productive weekend at home to 1. lunch with my mom on Saturday in her hometown an hour away, 2. Caly going with my mom sometime on Saturday to her cousin's dance recital in her cousin's hometown two hours away but in the opposite direction, and 3. Zoe and Quinn having their gymnastics recital in our hometown Saturday at 3 pm.
How this all came to be is a mystery to me. But here's how we're dealing with it.
I'm going to place the blame for Zoe's behavior squarely on her teacher's shoulders in the hopes that she'll be so stunned to be blamed that she won't notice the state of our home. And I'm going to see if my mom wants to meet me for lunch here and pick Caly up when she does. If the recitals are both at the same time, it should work out. If not, then I'll blame the mix up on Zoe's teacher as well. (If you haven't tried blaming an innocent scapegoat, I highly recommend it. It's very handy.)
In reality I'm going to stay up tonight to clean the living room anyway. I spent the last two days getting most of the rest of the house back into the range of just being messy and cluttered rather than being something you call child protective services over. And unless Zoe wants to take her teacher on a tour of the house, all she'll see is the living room and the yard and porch. I'm cleaning the living room tonight once I know for sure everyone else in the house is asleep. The outside will just have to be what it is. The yard needs mowed (but can't be because there're still too many sticks from the ice storm scattered everywhere). But the big branches are gone and it looks like a lot better. And there are plastic boxes from the basement on our porch (from where we're putting our winter clothes away and bringing our summer clothes out). But they're stacked neatly and it's easy to explain. Unfortunately, the key feature of the yard right now is Zoe's plastic toy house laying on it's side by the swing set. A storm blew through last week and the wind gusts knocked it over there. I was going to move it back but then Zoe discovered that she could swing in and out of the bottom of the house and Quinn discovered that he could crawl through the window. So they don't want it right side up. And since they're playing in it now more than they ever have I'm just leaving it until the novelty wears off. And if her teacher isn't impressed with how cool it is to swing in and out of the bottom of a toy house, then nothing I do will impress her anyway and there's no point in trying.
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4 comments:
That sounds pretty hectic! Good luck with that. Let me know how the scapegoat thing turns out.
LOL @ blaming the teacher. Good luck, I am sure it will be fine. I married a read neck and a collector. I have banned his junk to a section behind the the pine trees out back.... I hope no one ever walks out there. The rest of the yard is littered in kid toys.
I love the image of swinging in and out of the plastic house.
It's that whole "give a kid a toy in a nice big box, and he'll play with the box, not the toy" thing. :)
Oh yes. The toy house we have was a gift from a friend who's grandson had outgrown it. I would never had paid for one because my kids would rather play in a cardboard box. And you can color the box, too!
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