Question of the day:

Is a skunk as fast as a chinchilla? I don't know, and I really don't care to know. So I lied and told Tanner no, I definitely knew the answer was no.

I may have had the energy to do some research and find out if he and Tayler weren't constantly stretching me to the end of my mothering abilities. Most recently, we have two incidents. First, he's punching girls. Not really girls, but girl. I'm trying to feel worse about it than I do, but I don't. The girl is a neighbor girl who is about his age. If he was just unprovoked attacking her and punching, I'd feel bad. And it's not that I'm not punishing him for it. I just don't want to. Every time she is around, she tries to kiss Tanner. He doesn't like it (or her for that matter) so he tries to get away. The first time he didn't get away, I got a knock at my door and there she stood, crying. "Tanner punched me in the nose!" "She was trying to kiss me!" yells Tanner from our front yard. I really can't blame him. She's a little annoying to put it gently, and it's hard to be upset when he's just defending his virtue, for heaven's sake. So I sat them both down and explained that touching of any kind, whether a kiss or a punch, is not OK unless it is priorly approved by the recipient.

This same incident replayed itself on nearly a daily basis for a couple of weeks, and Tanner has had some pretty severe punishments that I don't think he really deserves. I realize hitting is inappropriate, and especially him hitting a girl. But he has never once instigated it. He has never once gone to her house and hit her. She shows up in our yard, tries to kiss him, and gets punched in the nose/stomach/arm/leg/etc. I refuse to tell Tanner that a kiss is OK if he doesn't want it. So he spent one week of having to come inside if she showed up in our front yard. Then after that week, he was given rules. No hitting, first and foremost. No teasing, second. And finally, run to a mom if she's trying to kiss him. It seems to be working. Still, I really just want to let him beat on her if she's going to keep acting the way she does. Does that make me a bad mom? Hopefully the visits from her parents are done.

Next is the problem of his wardrobe. I promise I do laundry. I also promise Tanner has more than one shirt. You wouldn't know it, though. Tayler gave Tanner an Indiana Jones t-shirt for his birthday.

He put it on that night, slept in it, wore it the next day, slept in it, wore it the next day, and slept in it once again. By the 4th day, his Grandpa got a little concerned and decided to help solve the problem with a couple new Indiana Jones shirts.

I convinced Tanner that we should exchange one for something other than Indiana Jones, just for some variety. So for a couple of days, he wore the new Indiana Jones shirt, same routine - never removing it. Then he decided to wear both at the same time.

So that day we went to exchange the other shirt. I talked him into a Kung Fu Panda shirt, thinking my problems would be solved with a little shirt rotation. Wrong. He put on the new shirt, slept in it, wore it the next day, slept in it, wore it the next day, and so on. I guess it's just clothing. He's already on notice that when school starts, I will be choosing his clothing for the day. So until then, please ignore the stench. I'm trying. And don't even get me started on Tayler..........