Gravy . . .

This weekend was a difficult one. Dustin is testing the boundaries. He is visibly anxious about vacation and is quite irritable. I tried my best to keep him busy on Saturday so that he could be distracted. Yesterday I began to get some things around for the packing so the anxiety amped up a bit. Robert was terribly kind and let me nap the afternoon away. I really needed that! The littles did a good job of keeping themselves busy so that the house was a bit calmer on Sunday.

I am certain we will see more anxiety today. I am going to start laying out clothing tonight. I hope to get his pills in him a little earlier than usual so he will go to sleep earlier.

At school they are doing a unit on taking care of children. He is convinced he will get a job babysitting in the near future. Lord help us all! They have made babies out of sacks of flour which he and his partner named "Oil". Swear. to. goodness. When I asked him about it he said it was named after the baby in Popeye. It took me a while to realize he meant Olive Oil and then I reminded him the baby was named "SweePea". He said, "oh, yeah." Robert and I have been quietly referring to the baby as "Gravy" (get it, oil and flour make gravy?!) It cracks me up, and sometimes laughter is by far the best medicine.

Anyway, this obsessions with babysitting is killing me! I love that they are teaching the kids skills, but there has to be some sort of tempering the learning with realistic expectations of what these kids are going to be able to handle. Dustin will NEVER be able to take care of a baby. It nearly makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. I cannot even leave him unsupervised with his 7 & 8 year old siblings! I understand the principle, but when a child like mine gets an idea in their head, it is difficult to get them past it! I immediately become the bad guy because I won't let him babysit and earn money taking care of kids. He gets angry and shouts at me when I tell him that is just not going to happen anytime soon (likely never). It just make me weary.