So last night we were hanging out after the kid's spring performance at the school. Me, my husband, his two brothers, and their mom. My 5 year old was still up and wandering around. My husband had just gotten out of the shower and was talking to his brothers, in his boxer shorts. The youngest is looking at him with a raised eyebrow, which starts this conversation:

"grandma used to change my diapers" and D looks at him wide eyed,

so I say, "yeah she changed all of these guys diapers once"

Look of shock on the little guys face.

His uncle says, "someday you're gonna grow up and change little boy diapers or little girl diapers"

D then turns to me and says "Mom, I want a gas mask for Christmas"

One of those days...

Today was going to be one of those days. I knew it when we got up this morning. Some days are pretty normal and some days are not. Today was not, or was, depending on how you define normal. Today also confirmed some suspicions I've had about my youngest child. It started out with me asking him to get ready for the day. I told him he needed to get his pants on. He searched in his room and couldn't find any, but I was able to dig out a pair in the basket of clothes that still needs to be folded. I handed them to him, and he stuck out his leg and draped them across it. Technically they were "on" him, and these are the antics that are starting to convince me that I have one of those "Spirited", "difficult", highly intelligent children. I asked him if today was going to be a good day or a bad day and he said "good!", giggled, and proceeded to get dressed. A minor meltdown occurred when he couldn't get the pants snapped, but that was soon taken care of.

Our day proceeded with me going to work, and the kids getting to go to Grandma's house after school, which is a highlight of their week. After work, as we were getting dinner ready, Grandma brought the boys over with a warning that they had each had a pudding cup. Eh, no big deal I thought, they usually handle pudding pretty well. As the evening progressed though, I became more and more convinced that my youngest had something a bit stronger than sugar. His activity level reminded me of a busy, busy little bee. This energy is different from his older brother, who will absentmindedly spin five or six times before moving onto something else. The youngest however was flitting from this room to that, from this activity to that, trying to hold still on a chair and shaking his head from side to side with such speed. One of the privileges the children have is that on the weekend as long as chores are done and the school week has gone well, they get to play computer games. He patiently waited his turn, but no sooner had he logged in and began his game, than he was distracted by a lego that my husband was holding.

He launched himself at and onto people, tried to start a fist fight with his stepfather and his uncle, and his brothers. In an effort to distract and perhaps calm, I asked if he wanted to do an activity out of his preschool/K phonics book. That got his attention and he chose the page he wanted to do, and then calmly finished it, after receiving instructions from and suggestions that he get the crayon box. After he was finished and we were winding down for the night, we asked him to put the crayon box away. He tripped while carrying it and crayons went flying everywhere. This started to spark a meltdown on his part about having to pick them all up. However, with some encouragement and the reminder that he is capable of this, he was able to get them picked up. It was one of those days.

I've long given up on having him on any sort of schedule, as far as sleeping, eating, etc. His energy levels sometimes seem astronomical. Once in awhile, I'll send him to bed, and then hours later, after I've gotten up in the middle of the night for any number of reasons, I'll find him wide awake sitting in his room, playing intently with his Legos. He can play for hours with those Legos, he has always been good at self entertainment.

He is a highly active, highly perceptive, highly sensitive child. I went to observe his classroom the other day, and what I noticed about him, is that he notices everything. Every movement is a distraction, he is so wrapped up in what is going on around him, that he doesn't seem to have time to do what is required of him.

He has always been an extremely independent child and I knew he would be a challenge when, at the age of one, having learned to walk, I turned my back on him to complete a chore, and he was across the street, playing in the neighbors garden. He will make his mind up about something, and that's it. He is an absolute delight on those good days, when the little things don't get to him. He can tell you all sorts of stories. He's funny and charming. He can talk your ear off if you let him. On the other days however, watch out, any little thing will spark a melt down. He also loves to push people's buttons, and once he figures out how to get someone riled up, he'll do it, just for kicks.

A new year, a new outrage

We are two weeks into the new year, the year the Mayan calendar ends, the year elections are held, and importantly the year that an extremely dangerous piece of legislation is looking like it will pass. Its hard to put into words how outraged I am over this. I start thinking about what this will mean for websites that I frequent, and I get angry. If you haven't heard of this legislation here is a link to it:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:  

What I am given to understand from reading this bill is that, say you, my reader, linked something in a comment on my blog, say the link was to something that was copyrighted, or, perhaps someone just *thinks* its copyrighted. Well, guess what, MY site would go down for investigation. Because someone else linked to it in a comment. Or, say I post a picture of my kids, and one of them is wearing a shirt with a copyrighted logo on it, that would be a felony. Now, go look at your photos that you have posted to Facebook or on your blog. Look closely at those pictures. Is someone wearing something with a corporate logo on it? Felony. Is there anything in the background that is under copyright? Felony. Do you have embedded home video on your blog? Is there music playing in the background, say from the TV, is it a song that was written by an artist that is still alive or has died less than seventy years ago? Felony. 

Are you scared yet?

This is a doorway to information censorship and any sort of censorship is an affront to one of the great tenets of this country, The freedom of speech. I realize that right now the bill is only targeting offshore sites, but considering the WWW is a global entity, how long before it becomes U.S. sites that are targeted? And how many sites do you visit regularly that are located on different parts of the globe? Do you read blogs from Europe, Asia, Australia? If a corporation decided that that blog *may* have copyrighted content, and it got taken down, would you be outraged? Then let's stop this before it starts, call your congressman, your senators, sign a petition.

Freedom isn't free, but information should be.