11:40a - Was a relatively good Christmas morning, but got nutty after the kids opened their mom&dad and Santa presents. Nikko was supposed to get a vertical car racer (slanted planks w/cars to run down), and a Disney Cars Chick Hicks Truck. Ronin had a Cars backpack and a fire truck. Audrey had a baby doll and some Hello Kitty washcloths. Mayhem ensued when Nikko wanted Ronin's fire truck, then the Chick Hicks Truck, and back and forth. Ronin wasn't accommodating, either. It was probably 20 solid minutes of crying, fighting and wrestling between the two boys, plus Audrey got hit twice by the fire truck in mid-flight (but she didn't cry either time. She was too busy playing with Nikko's car racer). It was disheartening to witness and be the referee during the meltdowns, but what can you do? Nikko kept changing his mind between trucks. It finally took putting on The Wiggles to calm everyone down. Thank you, Greg Page!
Almost 12 hours later...
Kiddos are in bed, but Audrey's stuffy nose is disrupting a peaceful slumber. We got the kids in the car and shuffled over to the Penepacker's for the afternoon. Ronin fell asleep on the way, Audre had had a 20 minute nap at home, and that's all the sleep anyone else got until now. The kids behaved relatively well throughout the afternoon. They ate lunch, found some random toys to occupy their time, Nikko found some Barbie sunglasses and comfortably donned them to my surprise. He wore them for a long time, looking through the world through rose-colored shades. It was getting on 5pm when we finally had gifts distributed among the kids. Our corner was in chaos because Nikko was fixated on a Cars race track and Ronin wanted to keep on opening presents no matter whose presents they were. Audrey was getting cranky and antsy, and I was tired from lack of sleep and the air was feeling musty so my throat was getting scratchy. When we got home with more loot than we brought in, I was feeling so cranky myself that I wasn't handling the kids in a kind way. I tried to put together that racing track and was as impatient as the boys were to use it. I was irritable at dinner and so was Ronin. At bath time Ronin was screaming for his fire truck, which we wouldn't give him in the bathtub, but gave to him once he was free of the water. Bedtime was so late, 10:30p.
At home, after I put together the race track, I was watching Nikko go berserk near the couches. I tried to figure out why... Denis was surfing the TV using the On Demand feature from Comcast which has a bunch of menu options. I thought perhaps Nikko was angry that Denis was surfing instead of stopping on one channel, like the Wiggles programs that I usually pick for the kids. Maybe Nikko was expecting to watch the Wiggles and was getting frustrated because Denis didn't pick anything. Nikko ran to the remote control area (one of the speaker stands next to the TV) twice as if to get the remote himself and pick a channel. Instead, he was crashing and thrashing and whining in the background. Another thing that seemed to be bothering Nikko were the canned ceiling lights. Sometimes he flicks on the lights during the day, even if it's bright out, and it drives me crazy. But lately he's been turning them off and leaving us in the glow of the Christmas lights, which is nice but starts burning my eyeballs. Tonight he seemed to cover his ears and keep looking up, and when he turned off the lights this time it's almost as if I heard the buzzing of the lights suddenly stop. I wondered if he was sensitive to the buzzing noises coming from the light bulbs. But if so, then why would he want them ON during the day? And he has gone back to playing with the kitchen light switch by his chair. I've been saying, "Lights ON" and he doesn't like to hear that. I'll praise him for flicking it on, but he'll go back and turn them off again. It's getting frustrating again.
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