I'd be looking at my calendar and counting the days until your boy has to
legally take responsibility for himself and counting among my blessings that
the days were few.
It's frustrating to watch a person do the wrong thing but it is comforting
to know that there is a god and that he is at work in all of us.  We may not
know what his plan is for each individual but he has one and since we aren't
let in on the plan, it's easy to sit back and say, this isn't how I would
have this situation go and fret over it.  However, you believe in god, and
you are doing what you can from your end.  Let god take care of his end of
things.
Since we are sharing struggles over children, here is the one we are
currently experiencing.
She's 2 and a half and she has decided this week that it is test the parents
nerves fun time!
She has been waking, crying as if scared and calling for momma or daddy, at
wee hours of the morning.
We have been trading out going and checking on her and finally we gave up
keeping her in her bed and we just take her to the couch and finish out the
night.
In the last three days, she has started refusing to eat.
First, her tummy hurt when her cousin visited and we wanted them to pick up
toys.
After he left, we asked if her tummy still hurt and she said, it only hurt
because we wanted her to pick up toys.
But, she wouldn't eat supper last night and when bedtime came she wanted a
snack as usual and we told her that we had saved her a plate of food from
supper and that this would be her snack.  She refused to eat it and went to
bed without.
I told Terri that if it was a real problem, that she would most likely turn
down McDonalds, so we are trying that test today.
I think she is just pushing us though.
Last night, she refused to pick up toys again, so Terri told her that we
would throw them in the trash if she didn't pick them up.
Some went in the trash, then I got a new trash bag and put the rest in it
and stored it outside.
Terri is learning that playing mind games with a 2 year old is useless.  She
shot herself in the foot another time yesterday, when she was acting up.
Terri's mom had wanted to come get her for the evening, and we had gladly
agreed to the break.  Well, when she acted up, Terri gave her the ultimatum
of, if you don't stop whatever it was she was doing, then you can't go to
nanna's house.
Well, she didn't correct the behavior and I told Terri we had to follow
through with what she had threatened.
Isn't it entertaining to read about our struggles, in light of what you are
going through?
Anyway, hopefully, my wife is learning through this, to limit punishments to
those which only punish the baby and not us along with her.
hahahahahah
The rubberband has just been stretched a little too tight this week and we
are doing the best we can with it.
We will ride it out.
Count your blessings, that's what I do when I feel frustrated.
They always outnumber my current trials.

Matt