Dear Roger: Never-Ending Weirdness

I am outnumbered and trying to keep up with all the chaos that 4 kids can inflict,is exhausting. On top of keeping a job that helps to pay a few of the bills, I am also dealing with endless meetings regarding Stickys schooling and his special needs, trying to get my other kids into the doctor for check ups and flu shots as well as making sure I keep everything straight and the house in order. Its not easy to keep the house clean. I am constantly picking up after someone, washing dishes or de-furring the bathroom, or worse! When I was getting the boys ready for their shower last night, I took the opportunity to clean the bathroom. I found pee on the back of the commode! How the hell does that happen?! Do they just stand there, hands on hips and let it flail about like an errant sprinkler? I was disgusted and disturbed. They were both potty trained and clean when I left AZ, but now it seems that they have forgotten how to do everything. I asked my oldest son to re-educate them on proper bathroom procedure, but there are days I wonder if he is even capable of it? He shaved himself again!I cleaned up enough hair to stuff a pillow for a cat. He tried to deny shaving himself, but I offered to being him the evidence and he quickly dropped his protests of innocence.

Eldest son has been a bit odd lately. He got the cowboy boots he had wanted for so long and hes been wearing them quite a bit. He likes the fact that they make him taller even though he is rapidly approaching the 6ft mark and doesn't need any help looking tall and imposing, but I don't think he appreciates his sister ripping on him so much about imitating her Jackson. I had to laugh because yeah, it really does seem like that his what is afoot, especially when he is wearing the boots with skinny jeans and a white v-neck t-shirt with his worn out brown leather belt. I just shake my head and keep my thoughts mostly to myself. There are worse people the boy could choose to imitate, and hes at least not wearing his pants hanging too far off his ass anymore and he is taking pride in his appearance. He is getting really good at the guitar,and he spends hours practicing and learning new techniques. I have heard him singing to his girlfriend again and that is pretty cute. I only hope he takes his schooling more seriously this year and pulls his grades up. Having his sister telling him that if he keeps messing up, she will soon be in the same grade as him, did seem to help motivate him a little, but he is more interested in his guitar and becoming a musician.

My daughter is dealing with all the changes the best out of all of us. She has had to put up with monkey theft and attempted stuffing of her Jackson down the pants of both little boys, but her horrified shriek and comment that since they weren't very clean and it wouldn't be 'Sanitary" helped to stop that attempt, along with the fact she tackled and threaten to pound the dust out of the offender. She has harassed her brother, Stubby in to finally picking up a book and getting serious about reading it. She rubbed his nose in the fact she is now on chapter 10 of the first Harry Potter book,and she even took to reading it aloud for him and his brother since she thought he couldn't read it. Her condescending tone fired him up and he finally got started on it. Not having free run of tv or video games has really helped to get them motivated to do other more positive things like reading or drawing and one very, very heated game of Scrabble. Stubby is a bit of a sore loser, especially when the winner is his gloating, sarcastic, baby sister. She has been a big help and good sister to her brother Sticky, she teaches little classes to him daily,and she has been getting him to count and use his words like he is supposed to , the only downside of her playing with him so much is the fact she dresses him up in dresses and last night she took a pink marker and gave him eye shadow. I would really prefer my boys wait until I am dead and gone before they begin cross-dressing, much like I would prefer to be be gone before she starts dating since I already have a strong feeling I am not going to be happy with her choices.

A good scrubbing got most of the eye shadow off, but there is still a faint tint to his eyelids and an admonishment to her that her brother has enough weird habits without adding wearing makeup to them, seemed to put a stop to that for the evening.

Having all the kids is exhausting and getting them back into the routine that I had them in previously, is going to take time and effort, but they are already doing better and they seem to cope better knowing what is expected and that I have rules just like we had a year ago. There have been lots of hugs, a few tears, and even a few fights that I have had to break up and then sentence people to time out and a lecture from me about the importance of family and working together in times of difficulty, but they seem to be getting it.