Ben left yesterday morning on a business trip to Texas. He'll be back Thursday, so not too long of a trip.
But it has meant I have had no time off from kids at ALL since yesterday morning. Mosey just refuses, REFUSES to go to sleep by himself. Last night I took the boys on a nighttime drive to get Mosey to sleep, which he did, and I even got him to bed asleep, but later on after I got the big boys ready for bed, Joseph went into my room to get a drink of water from my tub (against my EXPLICIT instructions), and woke him up. He would not go back to sleep, so I just gave up and went to bed with him, dirty dishes, etc. downstairs notwithstanding.
Tonight was not much better. We had a bunch of errands to do in the afternoon, and the last was going to Sam's Club. It is about a 15 minute drive away, and Mosey fell asleep RIGHT before we got there. The thing with my boys is that if they fall asleep in the afternoon, even for a SECOND, they won't go to sleep at night. So I was pretty frustrated by that. And sure enough, Mosey will not go to sleep. He was up in my room for 45 minutes just screeching until I let him come down. So now he is up way too late which means he probably will fall asleep in the afternoon again tomorrow and we'll just be in a terrible sleep pattern again. AAAAAAHHHHHHH!
It hasn't been the easiest couple of days with my boys. I know they miss Ben when he is gone, so I'm trying to attribute some of their behavior to that, but really today I was just pretty mad at all of them. We had to do a bunch of errands which I know is not fun for them, but normally they are very well behaved when we are out. But it started out badly when I went to pick up the boys from school. Joseph saw me and started running down the sidewalk, and sort of stumbled on the concrete. The teacher out there directing the walkers/bike riders called out to him, "Slow it down," and Joseph did not react well. He just sped up even faster toward me, and when I called to him to stop running, he ran over to the fence and wouldn't look at me at all. As I've said before, Joseph just hates being told what to do by people he perceives as not having authority. So anyway, I immediately go to him and tell him that the teacher is the boss of the sidewalk, and he has to do what she says. Joseph gets this really grumpy face and voice and says, "NO, she's NOT!" So anyway, this began about a 20 minute ordeal we had there on the school sidewalk with Joseph being grumpy and me lecturing him about respecting teachers and obeying, etc. This element of Joseph really worries me. We've got to get it under control while he is still young. I'm not sure that me lecturing is really going to do it. As I've said before, he's totally fine as long as HE decides whoever it is has authority. But the trouble is, HE isn't the one who gets to decide!! And he'll save himself a LOT of trouble and grief if he is respectful of everyone, regardless of whether or not they actually have authority over him.
So anyway we finally got in the car to do errands. I had to drop off books at the library, pick up a couple of things at Home Depot (we're getting new countertops, so I had to pick up a new sink and faucet as well), go to Lowes (the check we wrote for the aforementioned new countertops was returned so I had to clear that up), go to our auto insurance agency to make a payment, and then go to Sam's Club. With each stop we made, the boys got more and more antsy and ill-behaved. By the time we got to the insurance agency, they were downright bad, knocking down chairs, wrestling, trying to break into the gumball machines, and just being very BAD. We *were* going to go to Blockbuster after that to let them pick out a movie, but after warning them a few times, we finally left the building and I told them they lost the privilege of going to Blockbuster. Joseph went into a frenzy and RAN down the sidewalk (right next to a very busy street), and wouldn't come back until I got into the van and was about to drive away. I was so mad!!!!!!!! It was dangerous and he is too old to act like that. So anyway, I endured lots of screams and cries, but stuck to my guns. They were (to their credit) much better boys at Sam's Club. Except for I already knew my evening was ruined because Mosey fell asleep.
I was generally in a bad mood anyway, though, because I think customer service is just HORRIBLE down here in South Florida. Maybe it's bad everywhere, but I've noticed it especially here. At Home Depot, none of the regular checkout stands were open, just the self-service stands, which I HATE. Something always goes wrong. Most of the time I have something oversized or something that has to be measured so I can't use those checkouts anyway, and the times I do, one of the boys touches where you put the merchandise and messes up the scale, or it doesn't sense what I DID put in, and inevitably I have to sit there and WAIT for the cashier to come and fix it anyway. I HATE THOSE THINGS. So today, as usual, none of the regular checkouts were open, and again as usual, my self-service checkout thing messed up, and when the cashier finally comes over to me, I told her as nicely as I can (and I am exceptionally polite in public, really I am), that it would be nice if there were at least one regular checkout open for people like me with large items and small children that really can't use the self-service checkouts. Well, she just gets this attitude and says, "Ma'am," (by the way, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE being called ma'am-- I think this originally started out as a term of respect but these days you ONLY ever here it when someone is going to talk down to you), "we can only have as many checkout stands open as we have cashiers." Ok, now that I write that down, it doesn't sound so bad, but believe me, the tone of voice and expression on her face was everything. I said to her, "I realize that, but for me at least it would be a lot better if the one cashier were manning a regular checkout stand instead of this self-service one." But before I could even finish my sentence, she was interrupting me saying the same thing. UGH. Ok, this drives me crazy on several levels. First, it is HOME DEPOT for heaven's sake, not some corner hardware shop. THERE SHOULD BE MORE THAN ONE CASHIER!! Second, it's not like any of the other employees of this particular Home Depot were doing anything useful (I can never find anyone to help me when I need help), CALL ANOTHER EMPLOYEE TO BE A CASHIER. Third, please, can you PLEASE just be sympathetic and polite once in a while?? How about saying, "I'm so sorry this isn't working for you, I can see how frustrating it is with your children right there and your large items. I wish I could open another checkout stand, but the rules are if there is only one cashier, she has to man the self-service checkouts. I will call and see if we can get another cashier over here right away. So sorry for the trouble." Ok, so even if this was completely MADE UP, it would have appeased me and made me feel much better. Even if she didn't call another cashier, and those WEREN'T the rules, she could have had me leaving the store with a smile on my face instead of me just churning with frustration and wishing I could just chew somebody out. Seriously, how can you be so stupid as to not realize that just being kind and sympathetic will deflect 99% of rude or angry customers??
Ok, rant over. Well, almost over.
At Lowe's, there I am again standing WAITING for a customer service person to help me. One is there, on the phone, another is there too, but apparently not helping actual customers. Finally the one on the phone looks up and says, "Can I help you?" As if I want to launch into my whole explanation of what happened and what I need when she's on the phone. I said, "Well, I can see you're on the phone, I'll just wait till you're done." She gives me a weird look and then tells the other guy back there (not helping anyone apparently) to help me, so I tell him what's going on, and he says, before I barely even finish telling him the situation, "Oh, you need to talk to the salesman who sold you the countertops." So I stand there (the boys going nuts and wrestling and sliding all over the filthy Lowe's floors) and wait until they page the salesman and he comes over. I tell him what's going on and he gives me a weird look and says, "Well, I have nothing to do with that, you need to talk to a manager." At that moment, some manager (I guess) breezes past and the saleman says to me, "We need you over here!" but he's off somewhere else I guess and the salesman says, "He'll be right back to help you," and he leaves. Hmm. Are you sure he's on his way back?? So I wait a while longer, but he doesn't come back. Finally I get the attention of the same guy, who's still apparently not helping customers, and tell him I need to talk to a manager. So he pages someone and again I stand there and wait (while my boys are going even more nuts, now pulling out books from the "how to" book shelves and I'm fighting the urge to spank all of them and order them to sit on the floor and not even blink). Finally some kid comes by (a manager? Are you sure?) and I explain AGAIN (3rd time now) what is going on, and he says, "Oh, sorry I can't help you, you need an administrative manager for that," so he pages that guy, and I'm STILL WAITING THERE AND MY KIDS ARE STILL GOING CRAZY! Finally THAT guy comes over and I explain AGAIN what is going on (4th time), and he seems to at least be the one with the authority to actually help me. So he starts searching for the order. Can't find it with my drivers license, or Ben's name, or our phone number. Finally I find the carbon copy check and he eventually finds the order with that. But the returned check apparently hasn't shown up on their system yet, so he spends another several minutes trying to puzzle out what to do, and finally pages and calls over ANOTHER manager and they consult for a while and FINALLY they set up some sort of temporary account where I make a repayment and supposedly when the returned check clears on their system, the credit on this account will automatically roll over and pay the balance. We shall see.
So anyway, I left that store pretty frustrated and my boys even more bored and frustrated, and I'm not at all convinced the matter is fully taken care of. We shall see.
So I guess it is no wonder that the boys were so bad at our next stop.
But I'm going to try hard to make tomorrow a better day. No errands, and I'm going to just be as nice as I can be.
And Mosey has finally fallen asleep on the floor next to me, so that is good too. I don't really mind him being up with me (except that it messes up his sleep schedule), but for the fact that he insists on sitting on my lap, and then thinks it is really funny to slam the keyboard drawer shut with his feet as I'm trying to type or do other work. Not funny. So I tell him he can sit on a chair next to me, but can't sit on my lap, which works for about 30 seconds before he is climbing on my lap again. And then I'm frustrated because I can't get anything done, and I'm also feeling pretty crappy for kicking my own little son off his mommy's lap. Bad mommy.
So basically I just want Ben to come home so I can maybe get a FEW short minutes of time to myself each day, even if it is only to write a too-long email about how hard my day was.
Waahh, waahh, waahh. Whine fest over, and now it is time to go to sleep!!
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. here is a picture from a newborn session I did a couple weeks ago. I'm trying to teach myself to do more artsy type blend pieces. I'm not sure this one is entirely working, but it's sort of interesting I guess.
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