School's out, OCD's in?

School ends this week, and CBC couldn't be more excited. Enumclaw has this great summer camp program where the kids get to go on field trips to a lot of fun places, play games, and swim each week. She loved it last year and is super excited to go this year. Even more fun is that she has a new best friend, Hayle, who has invited her to a water park to celebrate her birthday. And the amazing thing (at least to me!)--I REALLY like this kid! As in, she shows up to play, and I don't want to send her home 30 minutes later! She spent about 6 hours at our house one day and we all had a great time. There was no fighting, no crying, no whining, and they played outside almost the entire time. Other best part is that her parents are both police officers (mom is police chief!) so I don't have to worry about CBC when she's over at their house. Now if I could only figure out how to get them to move closer to us. . .

OCD has returned with a vengeance, though in a new form. For the last 2-3 months, CBC has been waking me up at least once every night because she misses me, and is sad she can't see me in the morning, and it goes on from there, culminating in her sleeping in our bed, and/or me sleeping on the floor. In the beginning, it was easier to be patient (and feel sad for her, too!), but I am losing it now. We've tried different tactics, but nothing worked. Her brain just gets control of these impulses and can't let them go, and now I'm fairly certain it's become a habit--that her body just wakes up by itself all night long. Anyway, last night I offered her a dollar (NOT a quarter :) ) for every night she sleeps in her bed the whole night. She told me a dollar wasn't much money (WHAT?! for sleeping?!) until I pointed out that there are ~180 nights before Christmas, which could mean $180 for the dog. That seemed to hit home. And may I say--she didn't wake me up at all last night. Cross your fingers!

THE DOG

I kept thinking I was forgetting something when I was writing last night. I forgot to update about the dog! If you're following this blog at all, you'll know that CBC wants a dog more than almost anything else. So Superman had until the weekend of April 24th to report back to CBC--and he said she could get a dog!! (BIG shocker--go Superman!!!) CBC has until Christmas to earn enough money to buy her own dog. We are paying her to do chores around the house, and can I just say that I should've been doing this for years?! Neither Superman nor myself did the allowance thing growing up, so this is kind of a test run, but it's working so well! I get help with the dishes and the laundry and cleaning and everything. Love it! Anyway, she also has to read a book picked out by Superman by Christmas, but if she follows through, we're going to get a dog. So exciting! Now if we could just find the right one. We need a hypo-allergenic dog since Superman is super allergic, and we really want a poodle mix--like the labradoodle or the goldendoodle. So far, I keep hearing they're $1,000 so I'm thinking that's not going to happen. I don't think CBC could ever do enough chores to earn that much money! If anyone has any leads on a poodle mix, please pass them on!!

Okay, a couple more funnies

This weekend we had a lot of fun together as a family and a few funny stories came out of it.

First of all, I have to admit that sometimes I forget how enjoyable it is to watch kids learn new things. Buddy has picked up on size differences, and is really doing his best to make sure we don't treat him like a baby. We had pizza yesterday for dinner, and Superman fixed Buddy's plate with a half-size piece. Upon seeing the pizza, Buddy got kind of agitated, wouldn't take it, and kept saying, "NO! BIG one." So Superman gave him a large piece, which satisfied him.

Then this morning, CBC called me from the car and asked me why I picked a job that makes me leave so early in the morning. Kind of threw me for a minute. Then she asked if she could take her Book of Mormon to school to show her friends, which made me feel like a successful mother for about 3 minutes. Then I began to worry that somehow I'd get a call from the principal regarding religious materials at school. Guess we'll see how it goes :)

But most importantly, CBC had "the talk" with Superman about what she needs to do so that she can get a dog. She gave him until Friday to decide, but then asked if she could have his decision right then :) We had to remind her that he had the whole week to think about it. She is so excited about being reponsible enough to have her own dog again! When asked why she needs a dog, she said she wants a friend that is always there for her, that she would like a toy that she can always play with (!), and that everyone else has one. We nixed the last one for a reason, so she then came up with that she would teach Buddy not to be afraid of dogs.

The joys of responsibility

Okay, I know I mentioned that CBC wants a dog. Really badly. Um, pretty much to die for. So it's kind of bad that after the puppy at Easter, she is now on Spring Break and spending time with friends who all seem to have dogs, too. She came home on Monday, crying her ever-loving eyes out about how "I want a dog," and "why can't I have a dog?" and "I just really want a dog." It went on until I couldn't take it any longer, so I suggested she talk to Superman about it and then try to prove to him she could be responsible. We talked about how responsibility means going to bed on time without a fight, and sleeping in her bed the whole night, and brushing her teeth without fussing, etc. And responsibility is working so awesomely! She is really trying to be responsible, including with her things and her little brother. I love it! My favorite is all the little reminders she gives me of how she is being responsible. If dad's not around, she makes sure to ask me to tell him how responsible she is. So now I guess we just need to start working on dad :)

Puppy Dog Tails

Everyone who knows us knows this, but CBC wants a dog more than pretty much anything else. (She's been pushing for a little sister lately; when asked if she would rather have a little sister or a dog, she thought about three seconds and then picked the dog!) So when a puppy was brought to our house for an Easter visit, she was pretty much in heaven. And when Superman allowed the puppy to inhabit CBC's room during its visit, it just got that much better.

A little history here--we actually have a dog. But it lives at Mormor and Morfar's house. We bought Sprinklers (CBC picked the name) when we lived in Arizona--she's a toy poodle and maybe the dumbest dog I've ever met. Plus, she's afraid of almost everything. So combine an over-enthusiastic CBC and a fearful Sprinklers and you get a lot of shaking and hiding from the dog, and a lot of dragging and pulling from the kid. So when we moved to an apartment in Washington, we asked Morfar and Mormor to keep the dog for us "until we moved into a house." Well, the dog still lives with them and we live in our house. (They are VERY patient and loving grandparents.) CBC misses Sprinklers something fierce, while Superman and I definitely don't. But I do love dogs, so we're working on Superman to see if we can find a labradoodle or a goldenoodle (sp?) that doesn't upset his allergies but has enough energy to keep up with CBC and not drive me crazy. This will be the perfect dog :)

Okay, back to the story. So she loved this puppy that came to play, and came running over to me crying about how she really wants a dog, and gave me an ultimatum--"you can either buy me a dog tomorrow or on my next birthday!" I told her to go ask Superman and see what he says since he's the hold out, which she did. She came running back out to me, still crying, and repeated the ultimatum. I asked her what Superman said. She said, "I can't remember what he said, but it was 'something something no'!" Just about fell over laughing--I'm pretty sure if "no" was included, his intention was definitely no :)

To explain the title of the post--Superman told me later that I needed to wash her sheets because they smelled like puppy. I thought they smelled like little boy, which reminded me of the nursery rhyme about little boys being made of "frogs and snails and puppy dog tails." To add to the funny--Buddy is pretty afraid of dogs, ever since one jumped our fallen fence and came running over to him, and CBC deserted him while running as fast as she could from the attacking monster. But even HE loved that puppy :)