My computer at home has been incapacitated for the last week from a virus, downloaded courtesy of my niece, Kaylie. However, I don't entirely blame her as I am sure that Katya or Allie would have downloaded it to, had they been on whatever website Kaylie was on. As a result, I have spent a very frustrating week trying to fix it and vowing that the girls are all banned from the computer! I am now at work and really need this "venting" post to maintain my sanity so I am apologizing in advance for anything negative I may say.
Last night Alex and I got to pull out our whistle and striped shirt (this is of course a metaphor but now that I think about it we really should get a whistle and striped shirt for this very purpose) to play referee with my niece and Kaylie. I don't get those two. One minute they seem to just love each other and the next minute there is nothing but hate. I was trying to get the story from Katya on what happened since the whole feud seemed to have started when they were at my sister's after school. Near as I can tell, Katya and Kaylie were rough-housing and Katya pushed Kaylie to which Kaylie responded by saying that she was no longer playing with Katya. I have a really hard time siding with either one of them, since I've seen how Katya normally treats people (not very nice) and I have seen Kaylie's behavior when she thinks no one is looking and I know that niether one of them are going to be getting an "Angel of the Year" award anytime soon. Then, Katya was complaining to Alex about Kaylie being at our house, to which Alex responded that we watch Kaylie for part of the week to help out his sister and she in turn helps us out by watching Katya and Tony on Mondays and Tuesdays. This was not a very convincing argument for Katya, as she hates going to Alex's sister Kim's house (which I don't quite understand) and never fails to ask us numerous times before going if she could just go home after school (and hang out by herself for 2 1/2 hours - yeah right!), calls me as soon as she gets out of school to ask again, and begs us on the way home from Kim's to "please, please, please" be able to go home after school. Alex's statement that Kaylie is coming to our house whether Katya likes it or not seemed to stop Katya's whining about that. Whew!
Next subject - the fact that Katya was even playing after school, since she had called me at about 1:30 from school to tell me that her stomach was hurting really bad. She had complained of it hurting the night before, although it doesn't seem be hurting inside like an upset stomach but more on the outside (like a cramp?). When she called, I was balancing between whether it was serious enough for her to really leave school, whether the school would let her go back to class even if I didn't think she should leave, and whether she was pretending to be sick just because she didn't want to be in school (since she had adamantly stated the night before that she didn't want to go to school the next day). In the end, after she responded affirmatively when I asked her if she was going to throw-up, I determined that she should probably not be there. So, I called my mom to see if she could go and get her for me and take her to my mom's house, to which my mom reminded me that Kaylie didn't have a house key and thus wouldn't be able to get into our house. So I left work, was about 5 minutes on the road, when my awesome sister, Cathy, called and offered to go and get Katya and then get Kaylie when school was out (thanks Cathy!). When I called Cathy a little bit later and asked her if Katya seemed sick, she was dubious as to whether Katya was sick (as was I) and we discussed the fact that we think her stomach ache is probably attributable to pre-pubescent cramps (although when I asked Katya about her stomach ache she said it happened after lunch, after she had been running around at recess. Are you kidding me?) I do actually need to find a website or book that will talk about puberty, anyway, since I don't think that Katya got anything like that in the orphanage.
Next subject - mean mommy. I asked Katya last night if she had done her reading. She responded yes, to which I didn't believe her (especially since when I asked her what book she had read she didn't seem to know...). My mom had been there in the morning when Katya and Kaylie were getting ready for school (as I had a half-day conference that started very early) so I asked Katya if she was really sure that she had done her reading - since I could call Grandma to verify this (although Katya didn't know that Grandma was at that moment on an airplane and I really couldn't actually have called her) - and that if she was lying to me I would take her cell phone away from her for the rest of the night. Katya decided that she really hadn't done her reading and stormed off to find a book. She did actually read for about 20 minutes, after which she went to find Alex and complain about how mean I was for making her read. Alex reminded Katya that he was the one that initially brought up the reading (although I am not quite sure this was the case - I remember being the one that did this) and that I was willing to read a book with Katya but she chose to instead storm off. That seemed to help a little as Katya got over it.
Next subject - Katya's cell phone. Yes, we finally broke down and got her a cell phone. We made Katya save up her money to buy it and she finally had the $22 she needed (when we made this deal, I didn't realize that cell phones were so cheap!) so we went and bought it on Wednesday. It did actually take Katya quite a while to get the $22, partly attributable to the fact that I am not very dilligent about paying out allowance and because Katya is such a pill about doing her chores, and the last $6 was really earned from the tooth fairy (I will have to blog about the tooth fairy later, becuase it is a pretty funny story). But she now has a cell phone with strict instructions that she is not to use it during school hours or after 9 pm. I suppose in the end that it may be a very effective tool to help control her behavior...
I guess that is the end of my ranting. I think it did actually make me feel better and now I got to get to work. Ugh!
Ahh....vent post feel so great!!
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