TV's the Devil and other fun stuff.

My poor kids have been going CRAZY! I've been packing up the apartment, I'm stressed and not very patient and I'm pretty much a sucky mom right now. Not to mention poor Gus who's sick. And I don't know what's wrong with him which ensues more worry. He's been grabbing, clawing, pulling and tugging on his poor little tummy in pain periodically throughout the past three days. (I go to the doctor tomorrow, and I have been talking with the Nurse on call as well, for people who may be concerned) No fever, diarrhea nothing but his tummy hurting. Until about 3 hours ago when I gave him a glass of milk (not thinking, I know) he vomited and filled his diaper once. Then got a low grade fever and has been super lethargic since. I really hope it's just a stomach bug. But why the cramping tummy for THREE days with out any other symptoms??? Any thoughts, insights would be appreciated.

So when the kids woke up early (even though they went to bed late) I didn't want them to wake up Gus (who was lying by me in the living room) I let them watch cartoons. TERRIBLE, I KNOW! Because when my kids watch tv, movies, cartoons, whatever you want to call them, they turn into little monsters! They are angry, cranky, emotional, and crazy! Seriously the TV must be frying their brains. They don't get to watch it often and never for long periods of time. I know they are going to behave this way so it stinks because I really didn't want to get up yet (5:30am) and make a lot noise and wake the poor little guy who didn't sleep well last night, so I caved and let them, only to pay for it ALL DAY! (Okay that was an exaggeration to be truthful it wasn't all day. It was exactly one huge fit, approx. 1 hour long and a bizzillion mouthy comments from Kailyn and about 7 mouthy comments and three meltdowns from Wyatt. Ending with a not so patient mommy, kicking herself for not just holding the sick baby while she made breakfast.

So I came up with a game to play to keep them from hitting, pushing, teasing and kicking each other and to get them off of all the boxes, furniture and everything else I was trying to pack up/move. Gus and I hid these squeaky dwarves I've had since I was little and they each took turns following directions to find them. Good practice since a certain someone, Wyatt, is going to public school in a week! Example: Go find the dwarf behind a blue thing (Thomas storage box), go find a dwarf inside a brown thing (baby doll cradle), go find the dwarf underneath a big brown square (our kitchen table). They loved the game (even though they TRIED to fight about it) and we played it like 7 times before it was time for dinner. It set a great mood, I finally relaxed a bit and actually got to play with the kids without half playing (you know where, you've got a toy in your hand making voices for it while you're other hand/elbow/leg/knee is trying to tape up boxes) and we were all nice at dinner time.