It's Just a Phase

It seems like we are going through those phases a lot lately with all three of the boys. Brayden has been doing a wonderful job at getting himself up and in the shower in the mornings on time! And he even has a pleasant attitude in the mornings! I know that is just a phase because before we know it he will be a teenager and I will have to tell him what my mom always told me. "You may be taller than me, but I can still stand on a chair and slap your face!" Wow....I can't tell you how many times I heard that as a teenager.

Blaine is definitely in a phase. And he needs to get himself out of it real quick! He stays in trouble at home, back talks, tells me what he is not going to do or is going to do and has spent several hours this week waiting on Stephen to get home to spank him. And that is after I have already spanked him. He is the type of child you can beat black and blue and it won't phase him. We tell him something he needs to do. Something as simple as "get out your homework and get started" or "please pick up your shoes out of the middle of the floor and put them away". It turns into a whine fest with all the crying and complaining. That's when he gets sent to the bathroom because I don't want to hear it. And let me explain the bathroom. I have always used the bathroom instead of sending my kids to their rooms (except for Bryson). How many times have you sent your kids to their room and then they forget they are in trouble and start playing, and you forget they are in trouble and you think to yourself, "Wow...he is really playing well by himself today." Okay, so maybe it's just me. But that is why I use the bathroom. There is nothing fun in there to do! Bryson gets to sit in his bed for a few minutes when he gets in trouble. Oh, does he hate that! I can hear him hollering from the kitchen, "I be nice now mommy!"

Bryson's phase now is stuttering. I noticed it starting last Friday. It steadily got worse over the week. Tuesday my mom had eye surgery so me and Stephen took turns going to work that day so neither one of us had to miss. Stephen said he kept asking, "Wh wh wh where's my mommy?" He gets stuck on "I" too. "I I I I I wanna go outside." One day this week I was laying out his clothes to get him dressed and he said, "Wh wh wh where we...wh wh wh where we....wh wh wh were we.....golly man! (interject huff and eye rolling here.) Where we goin'!" I asked him if he was getting frustrated and he told me he was. I reminded him to slow down and then reminded him not to say "golly". My mom told me yesterday that he asked her, "Mawmaw? Why do I say wh wh wh wh?" Mawmaw told him Brayden and Blaine did that too, and he just needed to take a breathe and slow down. He seemed to do better last night.

So are any of your kids in a phase? Are they good phases or are you hoping that they get out of it quickly?

Sara