I am in my last week of school and I have a whole new perspective on the poor kiddos I teach. It is very hard to sit and listen to someone speak for much more than half an hour, so that translates to about 15 minutes for anyone under 12 years old. I have to get up and take a bathroom break just to reboot my brain (not that my brain is connected to any bathroom function...ha..ha..). So for all my bathroom frequent flyers, I "get" you now!!!
This past weekend I went to my brother's house and it added up to this: sun and sudden downpours + swimming in sun and sudden downpours + an AWESOME steak for dinner (and I mean cut with a butter knife, melt in your mouth awesome) + 2 wasp stings (Nolan - one under the toe and one on the leg. The poor baby screamed and he did a little stomping dance so I immediately thought ants on the feet, which I realized later made no sense to anyone here in the North because ants don't swarm and bite here. I guess that pleasure is only for desert dwellers....anyhow - I ran over and saw 2 wasps. He started saying "Owwiee" so I knew he got stung. He was such a trooper. Few tears and was up and playing about 10 minutes later.)+ got a major assignment done for school = a pretty good weekend - the stings.
As most of you know, we made the executive decision to find our 2 dogs a new home before leaving for Canada. Now that we are living the complicated life we had anticipated, I know it was the right thing to do and that it would have been virtually impossible to have done anything else. The hard thing is that Cameron has asked numerous times when we are going to bring the dogs. Now I had also made the executive decision (notice I am NOT an executive by trade....reasons for this perhaps)that it would be too much change to tell Cameron this from the get-go. So I told him "it will be a long time" or "I'm not sure. We'll see." Lies basically. But I selfishly (and wisely, I think) did not need to pry a 7 year old's fingers from the plane door headed for Canada while he screamed "I won't go without my dogs!!! You can't make me!!" Which is the little scenario I had in my head if I told him prior to leaving.
So anyhow, now that a few weeks had passed, I decided I needed to be clear with him the next time he asked. And he took awhile to ask.....until Sunday. So in a fumbling, unclear sort of way, I responded to Cameron's usual question of "When are we going to bring the dogs?" with something like...."Well, I don't know. It would be hard to bring them here.....they wouldn't do well in the snow.....Chewy is a chihuahua from Mexico and there isn't any snow in Mexico....They have lots of grass where they are (like we are short of grass here....my mom's backyard is a jungle comparatively)..." So after lots of "uhs..umm...well...", Cameron said, "So are the dogs not coming?". Well the tears began and Cameron very articulately expressed his feelings of sadness and anger and disappointment which he can do extraordinarily well for such a little guy. But then the anger took over and he began to blame me for ALL THE CHANGES!!! as he put it. He said it was my fault since Daddy never lived in Canada and wouldn't have known that Chewy wouldn't do well in snow.....besides, he wasn't here and he missed him. I made the decision to come here because it was my old home. He didn't mind the changes except now he does care since he can't have the dogs. He would never have come if he had known (see I was right about the plane scenario). So this went on for some time and I tried to reason out the situation without much luck. When I went into the living room where he was watching t.v. he would pick up a toy cowboy gun that "clicks" really loud when you pull the trigger. And as I put a dvd in, Cameron aimed the gun at my head from a distance and all I heard was"click...click...click...click...click...click...click",
you get the idea. So I left and cried my eyes out for a bit. Brett came out with tears in his eyes and asked if I was okay. It was all very dramatic. I told him I was fine and that Cameron had a right to be mad. In other words, it was understandable that he wanted my brains spilled onto the floor after putting 30 bullets in my head.....awwww...and this is my SWEET Cameron. But really,it is because he is so sweet and so sensitive that he was so angry and hurt and needed someone to blame.
My mom, seeing I wasn't making much progress with him (that's an understatement since at that point he was turning into a pycho murdering maniac.. just kidding.."click"...), she became super nana and pulled all kinds of tricks out her bag of nana tricks. She asked Cameron to go with her to walk her dog "Zoe" and Cameron obliged. They had a talk about how hard it would be on the dogs to travel here (I tried that too but just got shot for it). They talked about dogs getting car sick and Cameron thought Chewy would get car sick because he whined the whole time we had him in the car. And that she would need him to help her walk Zoe and feed her. Since he could whistle, maybe he could teach Zoe to come when he whistles. And Zoe isn't good with other dogs, so Nana couldn't have any more dogs at her house. They also talked about Cameron being a vet someday since he loved animals so much. And then they talked about saving a dog from the shelter once we have a place of our own...maybe a "snow dog".... So Cameron came back smiling and even gave me a kiss. When Brettan asked if we were definitely leaving the dogs, Cameron chimes in, "Yup, we're not bringing them". I think my eyes grew twice their normal size, I couldn't believe it. The very next day, no word of a lie, Cameron asked "So when do we get to rescue a dog?".
Wish me luck on my last 2 and half days of school. Then I really have to get the rest of my "stuff" done and hope some of the supply lists open up for some school boards nearby. And if that falls through, I may be the next best coffee master at Starbucks with a little luck ;)
I posted a couple pictures - one of Lacey in the hot tub (she loves hot tubs because her bones freeze in regular pools) with some of my brother's neighborhood kids and one of Brett mowing the lawn for Nana. He does this for $5 and is saving up for a new video game....surprise, surprise! And then I stuck one in there of Nolan because I just want to squeeze him and I know you do too:)I hope everyone is well - Miss you all!
Paula
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