Time to throw the manual out

Is it over yet? Will I wake up one day and my kids will automatically listen to me and be polite to me and to each other? Does it take me saying, "No" or "Be gentle" or "Those are unkind words" or "Did you hear me?" or "I said, NOW!" 158 times a day to get through their heads.




I've heard that some children just become conditioned to these words or they know they can get away with it three times, but the fourth time they better listen. (or whatever the number is)





Its so hard not to yell and get in their face at times. Not talking about the babies here. I'm talking about a five year old.



As Scott and I took the kids walking around our circle today the neighbor stopped me who lives right behind us and as we were talking she said, "Oh yeah, I heard a lot of yelling today. Jacob must have been having fun." And I fessed up and said, "That was probably me yelling at him." Great. Now the neighbors can hear.





I never wanted to be a yeller. But with the noise of four children and especially when they are running away from you, you need to be heard, so the voice gets a little louder.



Brooke usually wears hair clips. But on this day when someone other than me put it in, it looked like this. Its Pebbles, reincarnated.

Below, Scott, his dad and Jacob went fishing to Lake Michigan Saturday night. Jacob fell asleep half way home and I couldn't resist taking pictures of him. These will be shown to all his girly friends in high school.

The other reason why Jacob is getting under my skin lately is because he's being stubborn about whatever he eats. For the last year or so he has eaten just about everything that we eat. Now, he doesn't like it, its yuk, etc... and its really really getting me mad. I've tried making him eat a certain amount of bites, I've tried saving his plate for later, I've tried starving him between meals. And I'm getting frustrated because I don't want his behavior to rub off on the babies. They eat almost anything and I want to keep it that way.

This has always been a control issue for Jacob. He knows hes got us by choosing to eat or not to eat. And I'm not giving in. He doesn't understand he got his stubbornness from someone. And I've got a lot more stubbornness in me. Any suggestions would be welcome as he only wants to eat hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, toast, waffles and pancakes. And some assorted fruit.