It's already Saturday! My goodness! Where does the time go?

I did my taxes this past week, with the help of my mother, and I'm a little shell-shocked. I won't say how much we're getting back, but I will say that it's more than I thought it would be. It's almost more than I claimed to have made on my taxes this past year! Now we get to pay off some bills...hooray...

So I've come to realize that I've slacked off a lot lately in the parenting arena. With the combination of our odd work hours, the stress of money problems of late (thank you, God, for tax refunds!), and everyone being sick for weeks now, I've kinda just been in survival mode, which is not my best. We have good days here and there, but most days I'm just trying to make it to bedtime! Unfortunately, TJ has figured this out. Undoubtedly, he thinks he's being shafted in the whole deal (which he is, in a way), and has decided he will just do as he pleases. Often lately when I tell him not to do something he'll say, "I can do that if I want to." Or, if I tell him what to do, he'll either ignore me or tell me no. So, I must, I MUST take control of this and fix the problem! I noticed a lot in the past few days that he will act up the most when I'm busy and unable to deal with him. Like, he'll start jumping on the couch (a big no-no) while I'm feeding Cole or on the phone, so that the best I can do is say "Stop it!" Or, like yesterday, he and Taryn were eating suckers, and he started beating his on the table. I told him to stop, and he kept doing it, despite me asking him several times to stop and threatening to throw it away. Again, I was feeding Cole at the time, and was sitting across the room. I finally got up and went to go take the sucker, and he vowed he would stop. I gave him another chance...and I swear, a minute later he started doing it again! While he did it, he gave me an evil little grin, as if to say, "I know you're not going to do anything, and I'm going to keep doing this as long as I want to." So, I took it and buried it deep in the trash can so he couldn't get to it. He really acted shocked, and had a fit, but within minutes was fine, which kinda surprised me. It made me realize I think he's really wanting some discipline, which I know I've been slacking off at, and he's willing to push me to get it. Hmmmmm....So, I've vowed that if it is at all in my power, I will immediately deal with him from now on. In other words, if I'm feeding Cole, he might just have to be put down for a minute so I can deal w/TJ. It's not like he will starve, just be really pissed at me! Of course, he can't do much yet, so that I can handle! Wish me luck, I need it! It's really tiring when your kid waits for you to sit down, finally, and decides to start acting up to see what you will do. I'm up for the challenge, though.

Anyway, I guess that's enough for now. I hope you're having a great day, and I'll see you soon.