I showed my girls just how NOT to act. That’s it. I was teaching them a good strong lesson in How Not To Act In A Public Movie Theater When Things Don’t Go Your Way. I mean it’s not like I stomped around. Or spoke loudly. Or rudely. Or made a scene. Or pushed the door open so strongly and loudly it might have fallen off it’s hinges. No. Not me. I didn’t do any of that. Nope not me. Because that would be how NOT to act when you don’t get your way.

It’s not like I went to the theater at 1:00pm to buy tickets for Prince Caspian so they wouldn’t be sold out when we got there tonight. It’s not like my girls are disappointed that they didn’t get to see it.

I am ashamed at myself. I have apologized to my girls for showing them that side of my anger.

Seriously, we went to the theater this afternoon at 1:00 to get two tickets for the 3:00 showing and three tickets for the 7:00 so SmockDaddy and Goro could go this afternoon while I stayed home with everyone else and then I could take the older girls this evening while they stayed home. No sitter, no little ones are going to see it with the reviews I’ve heard of some scenes so this was our fix. Split up. We’ve done this before and it works fine. Usually.

We got there tonight and walked right in. We got there at 6:40, 20 minutes before show time. Twenty minutes. The place was packed. The made everyone get into different lanes for different items at the snack counter: one line for drinks, one line for popcorn, and one line for other (candy). I didn’t realize this was going on until we were almost to the counter and I asked for a peach Icee and Milk Duds for one of the girls and the girl told me no Icees just small drinks. I’m looking at her a bit puzzled staring at the Icee cups and the machine spinning nicely and asked her if they were not frozen yet (because they looked fine) and I wanted a medium drink and I saw plenty of cups. She said I could have a small cup and could go to the other line for popcorn. I said I wanted a Peach Icee, a medium Sprite, a Medium Dr. Pepper, a box of Milk Duds, and two boxes of Whoppers. AND I wasn’t going to stand in two different lines to get it all. She told me that all I got with my ticket was a small drink and a small popcorn. I made it clear that I had never been given anything from the counter for free with my ticket before, but I would gladly take whatever size if I was getting freebies tonight. She looked puzzled and asked what movie I was going to see. I told her I had tickets to see Caspian. She said then you have to have a small coke and popcorn. My girls looked at me shaking there heads no (not because they always get what they want, but every time any of us eats popcorn at this place we see it again, soon, so we don’t ever get popcorn there).

The conversation finally clicked with the guy behind the counter fixing the drinks and asked if we were with the church group. AHA! Nope. Not. That cleared it up. We got what we wanted. But not for free. Shoot.

So we head down the corridor and there is a line a mile long. It is now ten minutes until the movie starts. I ask the usher why we couldn’t go sit down yet, assuming maybe they were still cleaning. He said that everyone had to wait together for the church group to go in. I explained we were not with the church group. He said that I still had to wait, but over there (as he pointed to the end of the line separated by a black rope from the rather large church group). I asked why we couldn’t go in and sit down we were not with the church group. All he said was that the church group got to go in first. HUH?

We wait and we wait and we wait. The clock finally turns seven. The open two sets of doors pointing all the church group into one door and then when it fills up they send the overflow into the other theater. Once they get where they want to go, then Joe Q. Public finally gets a turn at finding a seat. guess what? There were none left. Seventeen of us did not have a seat and others were walking up with tickets as we all made a bit of a mob scene about how they not only handled it, but sold too many tickets. I watched as one large group of about nine were so disgusted that they just left. one couple decided to take the two last seats that were found even though they would be split up by about three rows. One couple decided to see something else. And a few other people opted to trade their tickets for the 9:20 showing. Prince Caspian is two and a half hours long. I wasn’t going to keep them out that long. I might would have given them the choice, but birdie has somewhere to be with her Girl Scout Troop tomorrow at eight in the morning and won’t be back until night. She wouldn’t make it - or enjoy it - either one, the movie or the field trip. Me? I demanded my money back. LOUDLY. I watched my middle daughter fight back the tears as she didn’t want anyone seeing her cry. I watched my oldest daughter’s face sink but sweetly asked if it would be showing next Friday night. I told her I hoped so.

We maybe go to two movies a year. Maybe. The last movie we went to see was last summer.

I didn’t really stomp around. Although I did speak loudly and a bit sternly, but not rudely. I did forcefully push the exit door open to leave, but I didn’t break it off it’s hinges. Although I think I could have. I got to the car and then threw my hissy fit like a spoiled brat. I cried. I cursed this small town life and this small town and its nothingness. Not the four-letter word curse, just a curse of living here and how much I don’t like it. And how much I really needed to get out tonight. I was looking forward to the escape of the movie more than the movie itself. I love my children. I love my husband. I just sometimes need to get a bit of time away from the constant touching and needing and talking and needing to pay attention and the questions and needing to answer and and and. That’s just the way I am. My brain gets deep fried and I begin to fall apart and I need the break. I’ve learned my cues - it’s taken a lifetime to figure some of it out, but I know now. I am a better person when I have some time. Sad thing is, there is nothing else here to do instead.

Well, I could go walk around Waldemart, but eww. So instead I came home, threw my purse down in my office, and pouted. With a big fat bottom lip. Then I decided I would blog about my terrible actions and how I taught showed my daughters how NOT to act.

Then I decided to go through the pictures that some of you have sent to go along with your ideas. Yes, some of those ideas were new, some not. But that does not matter. What matters is that you participated and shared and I hope had fun doing so. I can’t wait to get the winning post up with all the goodness and glory you sent in.

p.s.
my spell checker does like like the words hissy or Icee.

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Yesterday I found myself really glad that he is still nursing. He usually only nurses at night before bed, most mornings when we first wake up and sometimes in the middle of the night. That one - I’d like to do away with, but we are not yet ready to do what I think it may take to give up that middle of the night cuddle. Yes, he still often sleeps in our bed. Back to yesterday.

While playing a game of patty-cake that went terrible wrong Bairno fell over (might have been pushed a bit too hard, but either way it was accidental) and there was a very loud double thud sound. He was in the den/family room with SmockDaddy and some siblings and I was at the other end of the house and I heard this double thud, but also heard SmockDaddy’s quick response. But that fatherly response was followed quickly with a bit of a scream (more of a very loud voice), “OHMYGOSHWHATHAPPENED?”
While the double bump thump sound didn’t get me up immediately, that did.

I knew it was worse than just a bump on the head. But then I go into Triple M gear (that’s short for Major Mom Mode) and realize that I have not yet heard anyone scream or cry. Still not knowing who exactly got hurt.

DING! DING! DING! This is bad! Move it! Put it in GEAR! NOW!

By the time I get into the kitchen SmockDaddy has Bairno on the kitchen counter leaning in to the sink and there is one red paper towel next to them and Moggie is getting a washcloth wet and cold. I see that he is taken care of and while I want to rip him from his father’s arms I fight it with everything I have so I can go talk to the other two (6 and 4) to see if they can tell me what has happened. Cowboy (4) is white as a ghost and at first I think he is hurt too, then I realize he is scared. So I take another peak at Bairno to make sure things were under control and no call to 9-1-1 is needed, or a trip to the ER for stitches. (Because we don’t ever go to the ER or anything.) I reassure CowBoy that everything is OK after SmockDaddy tells me its his lip, but it won’t stop. I gave CowBoy a hug then tell him to go play in his room while we take care of the baby. I see Princerella on her bed looking really confused and scared herself. I do what I can to get her to tell me what happened.

With Princerella’s language skills getting misfired when she is upset it is extremely important to talk very calmly to her not to upset her anymore than she may already be. Stress and struggle and fear cause her neurologically unable to process the words that want to come out of her mouth properly. She understands what is said to her and asked of her, but she has trouble getting out the response and then she gets upset about that and the cycle goes on.

I finally get it out of her that they were playing patty-cake and he fell. I don’t know the whole story, but I needed to get to him - I couldn’t hold back any longer and he was calling me. By this time SmockDaddy was sitting near the table with him still wiping the blood off his mouth. I reached out for my baby and seriously thought that as is his usual I-have-mommy-now response he would settle down fairly quickly. No such luck. I couldn’t get his face off my shoulder to look at him and make another assessment though. My heart was aching and I knew I needed to get him to calm down. It seemed like every heartbeat was squirting a bit of blood (and it probably was). I could feel his little heartbeat against my chest and it was fast, too fast. He was hurting and scared.

I took him to my bed and asked him if he wanted to nurse. I have not made a habit out of comforting with the boob for just any old thing. Yes, the boob is a good comfort at times, but not for a scraped knee or anger for not getting his way. This was a job for SuperBoob! He wouldn’t let me look in his mouth and his lip did not seem to be swollen or busted. I was at a loss from whence the bleeding came. Even as he nursed drops of blood were oozing out. (sorry for the graphics) But he was calming down, mostly. I knew that nursing might be hurting, but he didn’t want anything else. And as he nursed he put his sweet little arm around my neck as far as he could reach it and wouldn’t let go. Oh how I was aching for him.

Finally, he looked up at me and gave me a very weak grin and it was then that I saw it. A large gaping hole in his tongue and just inside his bottom lip. I cringed all over. My baby had bitten all the way through his tongue into his bottom lip. The hole is much more obvious today and it’s yogurt and mashed potatoes for meals and more frequent nursing today as just about everything seems to hurt. Other than that he is not much worse for the wear.

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We have a new favorite toy in our house. Every child in my house (including me) loves these new fangled connecting things!

They are colorful. They are flexible. They are shaped like a hexagon. They can be connected to make 2D toys.
Like aliens

or turned into crowns and connected in the back

They can be connected to make 3D toys.
Like Dragonflies

They are Puzzibits!

While the box they come in is a great way for storing them, our large Organizer bag is doing great with the hundreds of pieces we have so far. We even store some of the toys we’ve made in the bag too. So far we have collected two small 150 piece sets, two medium 300 piece set.

They interconnect in a weave fashion, over and under, making all kinds of neat-o, nifty things to play with.

Seriously, any toy that everyone of my children can enjoy playing with together, you know, all at the same time for hours is a great toy. In all honesty, Bairno just enjoys holding them and playing with the creations his sisters make for him. And while CowBoy does struggle a bit with connecting them in more than a straight line, he is doing quite well with learning how. As a matter of fact, while I am typing this he is playing with them and just showed me that not only has he mastered connecting them in shapes, but has followed the pattern in the included pattern book for part of a bug wing. Bugs! The boxes the Puzzibits come in say for ages 6+. I originally bought some for our six year old, Princerella, to have around and use for some of her Occupational Therapy. She is doing really well with learning how, they are just still a bit hard for her weak dexterity. Now, they children can’t get enough of playing with these neat toys.

It gets real hot here in the south in the summer. It gets up over a hundred degrees. It gets up to 110 degrees on the hottest days. Internet, I do not go out in heat like that. Call me a wuss if you will, but I don’t. I also don’t make my children go out in that heat either. Some time in the sun is good. Some time in the water in the sun is good, but not in that heat. Not in the south. Not with the humidity that we have that gets added to that heat. It ain’t no dry heat around here, Baby.

When I bought these I was thinking about (read: making a list of summer time toys) that we can play with inside that is outside our regular play and toy box ideas. I’m, shall we say, collecting things for us to do during those worst part of the day heat hours. Which is usually around noon to three in the afternoon. There will be Netflix for rainy days as well.

I need a little help with my summer time list of fun indoor (but not limited to indoor) things we can do. But I would never ask for help without offering something in return. I have a little contest/drawing in mind.

Here are the rules:

• The contest begins Monday morning as soon as this posts and ends Friday evening at 5:00pm.
• You must leave me a comment on this post telling me your favorite summer time indoor fun thing to do, game, toy, et cetera.
• One entry per person, but you can leave multiple suggestions or ideas.
• It must not be expensive (read: free to $15.00 tops for all of us to do; we are a family of eight remember.
• Take a picture of your family/children playing the game, or with the toy, or something symbolic of that favorite thing and send it to me in an email (smocklady [ at ] thesmocklady [ dot ] com) to add to my (you can hide or disguise your faces) flickr set for us all to do. I am going to put the winner’s picture up on the blog so everyone can learn something new to do too.
• If you have a blog or flickr account please consider posting about the contest with a link back here. Maybe even do your own little post about your favorite low-cost summer time game or activity and link back here to share the contest love with all your readers.
• The winner will be chosen via a random drawing and be announced next Monday, May 19th.

What will you win?

Your very own set of Puzzibits! Woot! I have here in my hot little hands (Okay, high up on the bookshelf because my darlings are dying to go on a safari) one brand new 450 piece set of Puzzibits. Safari edition.

p.s.
this is not a paid review or advertisement - we just love them and want you to love them too! I’ve added many of the Puzzibit products to our aStore. Purchasing items through our link will help promote more, bigger, and better contests and giveaways. That’s how I paid for this one (and a some school books) - through ads and associate payouts.

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