Velcro Man Extreme

Atz came over with her youngests, Sabrina and Alicia, while I went to the dentist. According to her, they didn't seem to mind that I was gone. Perhaps the girls kept them occupied. When I came back, however, Nikko was very clingy to me the rest of the day. I'm sure that's justifiably so, but I was admittedly annoyed. Everyone was going outside and I had to straighten up before joining them with Audrey, but Nikko refused to go unless I went outside with him. I told him he'd have to wait until I was ready because I had to clean up the mess he made from the ice cream sammy he ate, but he cranked on his whining and no explanation would placate him. It frustrated me because I know he loves to go outside and I kept encouraging him to just go, but he was Velcro Man Extreme and I could hear myself barking louder at him to go outside, get off me, go away! I feel bad about it now, in hindsight. That anxious bubble is coming back, but this time it's Audrey that's causing my anxiety, not Ronin. She's starting to demand my attention more, be picked up more and just have me hold her more. Ronin sits right next to her whining as well. And there's Nikko. If he is fine, he'll be quiet, but if he wants something and they're all going at it, my anxiety is flying sky high. Sometimes when he's silent and the other two are going at it, I can see Nikko covering his ears as if the noise is too much for him, too.

After playing outside in the afternoon, we headed to Mom's house to greet them back from the Philippines. One of our neighbors, Mrs. Jaffee, was watering a bush by her front door. Nikko saw the stream of water and headed toward her, but I stopped him. Last year when she had a sprinkler out, he made a beeline for that and got a nice shower. Mom got them some Ferrari cars and Thomas shirts. Ronin liked the cars, especially because they made sounds if you revved them up. Nikko didn't show interest in the cars. Instead, he liked one of the plants in the sunroom that had red petals and a yellow stamen. We got home around 8:15p and the boys weren't as rambunctious as they usually are at night before bath time. I wonder if they were tired from the day's activities. I would like to hit the reset button on how I talked to Nikko today. I don't like talking to him as if I think he's an annoyance. He's such a sweet kid who just can't seem to express what he wants to say or sort his emotions.